On Sat, 18 Dec 2004 03:39:25 UTC, (Badwater
Bill) wrote:

snip

Australia was one of the most undeveloped and wealthy lands I've ever
seen. It's a treasure trove of minerals, from Uranium (the Beverly
Mine at Arkaroola), to Silver, Gold and Opals at Coober Pedy. Your
government is half way between a democracy and a dictatorship however.
I found that the British left quite a bit of pomp in the government
officials I dealt with to get an Australian pilot's license. It was
suppose to be a rubber stamp, but it wasn't. They wanted me to walk
through their maze, which I had to do. I guess I'd call the
government a socialistic government

! This is John Howard's government you're talking about. I know they
call themselves 'the Liberal Party' which would be confusing to most
Americans, but they aren't (mostly) Liberals, and Howard in particular
is a very Conservative Conservative. I know you probably ran across
some tings which are leftovers from previous governments eg our
Medicare system, but Howard is out to obliterate those things. (And
they weren't 'socialist' anyway, just a different mix of
government/business to the US)

with a strong "Green" movement
that stops all mining exploration or any exploitation of the vast
minerals and other forms of wealth there.

No, that's not true either, their is plenty of exploration and
exploitation going on, but the Greens are very good at getting media
coverage and the anti-greens love to claim they are stopping all
progress, so it might look like they are i control. They aren't, and
Howard and his government are definitely not Green.

One thing I really noticed is that nobody complained about the high
taxes. All the civilians I met sort of didn't care that they were
paying about 40% in income tax and another 10% imbedded in everything
they bought as a federal sales tax. That tax too is sort of incidious
because it's imbedded in the price of the item you buy. It's not
added on so you see it as an additional charge to something you
purchase.

The top personal tax rate is lower than 40% and you only pay it on the
part of your income above a certain threshold, so no-one is paying
40%. Yes we pay GST, but previously we paid sales taxes which it
replaced so the result is about the same. On the up side we don't pay
state taxes like the US seem to do. If you find a study comparing
international tax rates - where all taxes, levies, stamp duties etc
are included, you'll find that Australia is in the lower part of total
tax range, probably (though I am going from memory here) lower than
what some parts of the US pay.


With the fuel costs, and general items one needs to live, I sort of
figured your taxes are about 60% total of what you earn. I was
complaining about CASA when I got back here to my buddies at the FAA
and they said that at one time there were 1400 CASA employees and only
700 airplanes in all of Australia. Interesting.

Can't prove or disprove that, but it doesn't sound right, especially
the second figure..

Australia was a magnificent sight to see in the springtime (Sept).
But when we landed anywhere in the interior the flies were everywhere.
They crawled up my nose, in my eyes, ears, everywhere. I had a hard
time fueling the airplane without stopping. When we'd fly into an
airport, we'd break a branch off a tree as a swishing stick to keep
the flies at bay. In Coober Pedy, the opal capital of the planet, I
asked the hotel owner who picked us up from the airport if the flies
were always like this and his response was , "No...they haven't
started yet since it's early spring."

Didn't he explain to you why you saw so few choppers? We train the
bigger flies instead.

There are many things that have a profound place in my memory of this
trip, from the great wealth of that nation to the kindness of the
people. One of the biggest memories too is that there is absolutely
nothing in the interior of Australia, no rivers, no agriculture, no
roads, no people.

Now I know you are hyperbolising, as you amend this a few lines down
.... There's plenty there, you just didn't see it

here are only a few aboriginal people near the
four of five towns that exist in the interior.

4 or 5 .... oh Billy!

There are litterally
millions of square miles of desert.
Did anyone tell you there is/was a cattle station in the Northern
territory that's bigger than Texas?

But the desert is pretty. It's
all got plant life on it. It's no sand dunes. The plants are all
different than the ones we have here too. Although hard to see from
the air, we spent a lot of time at each place, just browsing around
and walking in the desert, enjoying the strange and unusual plants.

I'm glad you enjoyed it, come again, soon.

Chris