What do you say?

[logansrogue]

I'm so sick of my Dad trashing the Labor party. Unfortunately I am a dunce when it comes to economics, so I don't know what to really say. He keeps saying how great Malcolm Turnbull is. I've heard Malcolm is for gay marriage, and that affected me so I remembered. I don't know anything else about him really, other than I remember reading he'd done some dodgy stuff in the past.

Please, if you get what's going on with the economy, could you make it easy and explain it to me? Not that we've had a crash - I get that. How Labor is handling it, and what the errors with their handling might be. I'm sick of not having anything to say when my Dad gets stuck in. He thinks I'm a stupid left-wing moron.

Comments

[likebunnies.livejournal.com]

He thinks I'm a stupid left-wing moron.

My dad thinks the same thing about me. You know what? I don't care anymore! It's not like he's gone off and made millions of dollars with his economic beliefs. I have fought with him for years and it's not worth it. So I say be what you want to be!

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

Well, the nutty thing is that my Dad is currently living off of government benefits. I said to him, "You know, you'd actually BENEFIT from a more left-wing system."

[http://users.livejournal.com/lothar_/]

Wow. Just...wow.

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

What? I'm not saying that we should be a communist nation or anything. Jeez.

[strangedave.livejournal.com]

As far as I can tell, the ALP haven't done anything particularly wrong (well, actually, I was a bit sceptical about the increased first time home buyer grants, but I've been pretty sceptical about the home buyer grants generally). Their budget was a pretty straightforward one with a pretty big surplus, a conservative one, from an economic point of view not too diferent to what Costello would have produced (they spend the money on different things in different ways, but that isn't so much about economics as just politics).. Economy takes a weird unpredictable dive, put some cash back in to bouy it up a bit, and surplus gets a bit smaller.

But here is the important bit. They haven't done anything that Turnbull actually disagrees with, and their major actions have been things he said he agree with (the economic stimulus stuff), and their major problems beyond his control.. He hasn't actually made any coherent ent criticism of their policies, just vaguely talked them down for small things. And Turnbull has been criticised back for much the same sort of thing. For someone with a finance background he has been pretty useless. A

Seriously, the big 'Turnbull vs the ALP on the economy' news story of the week has been that during a press conference Swan hesitated for a few seconds, and then had to look up a number about inflation, and Turnbull criticised that as indicating not being fully on top of things. Its stupid petty point scoring, and if that is all he can come up with, Turnbull has nothing to say.

And of course Turnbull has said he is in favour of gay marriage. He represents the gayest seat in the country (his electorate includes Darlinghurst ie Oxford St etc.

[ausizoro.livejournal.com]

lol, politics, poli from poly meaning many, and tics meaning blood sucking parasites hence Politics = many blood sucking parasites. :D



technically wrong but it's funny anyway

[http://users.livejournal.com/lothar_/]

No, I'm just shocked that your dad is on the dole and he's complaining about Labour and you being on the left. Sorry that wasn't clear.

EDIT: I want to take this opportunity to reiterate my hatred of the Internet's inability to fully convey human language and meaning. Thank you.

[nicoli-dominn.livejournal.com]

I don't know what the Labor party is either...but I'm guessing it has something to do with labor unions, which might make it easier if you want to research it?

[http://users.livejournal.com/lothar_/]

Labour parties in the Anglophone world and elsewhere have traditionally been center-left parties that were born out of the struggles of the late 19th and early 20th century labor movements. Their traditional demands are for worker's rights to adequate compensation, safety, and limited working shifts, but over the years these parties have been informed by other movements for equality. This has expanded the programme of many Labour parties to include rights for women, racial and ethnic minorities, and GLBT persons.

In Australia, the Labour party's high-water mark was in the postwar era when guaranteed full employment became state policy. This was in effect until 1975 with the rise of neoliberal globalization and the decline of Fordism as an industrial policy in the developed world. Labour parties in the 1980s suffered many electoral defeats with the weakening of organized labour, but enjoyed a resurgence in the 1990s by disconnecting themselves with labour unions and relying more on the support of white-collar professionals, ethnic minorities, and lower-tier clerical and retail workers in the service industries.

[nicoli-dominn.livejournal.com]

Ah...so I guess it's very similar to what many of the Democrats are supposed to stand for in the US. Thanks for informing me. (And us, I suppose.) :-)

Liberal party voodoo economics!

[rodcub.livejournal.com]

Firstly, Malcolm Turnbull does not support GLBTI marriage rights.

Secondly, the outgoing Liberal Party was responsible for the growth of middle-class welfare slacker syndrome in this country. Everyone expects a fucking handout from breeding to buying a home to having health insurance to... [insert latest vote-winning pork-barrel expense here].

Conservative economics doesn't support such middle-class largesse. Heck, even left-wing economics doesn't support such tax-and-spend largesse directed solely for political vote-winning.

And how could we forget the National Party's happy pork-spending of the Regional Partnerships Program which was pretty much akin to the same sort of decision-making logic as the Ros Kelly whiteboard sports funding of the '90s!

Here's a link!:
http://www.barnabyjoyce.com.au/news/default.asp?action=article&ID=155
http://www.regionalpartnerships.gov.au/partnerships/index.aspx


Howard and Costello were TERRIBLE economic managers. They missed the mining boom and infrastructure development.

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

OH Okay. LOL! Phew! Thanks. LOL! Yeah, I don't get it either. He's not on the dole, he's retired, so he's on the senior's pension.

[http://users.livejournal.com/lothar_/]

Similar to some degree, except that Labour parties were or are vocal about wanting to build a socialist society, and they tend to be members of the Socialist International. The Dems OTOH stay away from s-word as much as humanly possible and are much more enmeshed in corporate capitalism than Labour parties on average. But that's a consequence of being the "left" party of the hypercapitalist United States.

[sir-devans.livejournal.com]

I want to take this opportunity to reiterate my hatred of the Internet's inability to fully convey human language and meaning. Thank you.
Amen. That's landed me in hot water with this one more than once. :P

[windtear.livejournal.com]

Actually, it's a very conservative budget this year, with a reasonable surplus. As strangedave said, it's actually not that different from the Liberal Party's budget; my now ex-boss (I have left the paraplanner job, yay! And am now temping in a Government office, triple yay! What with a) the nice coworkers, b) being able to take advantage of the internal application system to find another job in the system, and c) getting really good references) was a strong Liberal supporter (he said once as a joke that he wouldn't have hired me if he'd known I voted Green, but I believe him) and even he couldn't criticise it except in minor details.

[hotclaws.livejournal.com]

Wikipedia is a pretty fair source for up to date political news.