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.

I care ..... it is a bloody rip off compared to the US and Europe ! That is
the price we pay for the social wellfare system we run ...

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.

Not true .... I don't know exactly how many airplanes we have here at the
moment but my guess is that it is approx 15000 + all the ultralights and
homebuilts that don't carry a state VH registration number.