Debate Politics Forums - Blogs - spud_meister http://www.debatepolitics.com/blogs/spud_meister/ Non-biased and non-partisan political forums. Debate topics may include breaking news today, media bias, abortion, warfare, conspiracy theories, economics, climate change and health care discussion. en Sun, 26 May 2013 01:12:38 GMT vBulletin 60 http://images.debatepolitics.com/misc/rss.jpg Debate Politics Forums - Blogs - spud_meister http://www.debatepolitics.com/blogs/spud_meister/ <![CDATA[Why it's hard to stop being poor.]]> http://www.debatepolitics.com/blogs/spud_meister/449-why-its-hard-stop-being-poor.html Wed, 26 Oct 2011 11:22:03 GMT For the answer to the entitled proposition, I'll turn to the master of economic theory, Terry Pratchett, and one of his characters, Samuel Vimes, in what is termed "Sam Vimes Theory of Economic Injustice". Which reads as thus:

Samuel Vimes earned thirty-eight dollars a month as a Captain of the Watch, plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots, the sort that would last years and years, cost fifty dollars. This was beyond his pocket and the most he could hope for was an affordable pair of boots costing ten dollars, which might with luck last a year or so before he would need to resort to makeshift cardboard insoles so as to prolong the moment of shelling out another ten dollars.

Therefore over a period of ten years, he might have paid out a hundred dollars on boots, twice as much as the man who could afford fifty dollars up front ten years before. And he would still have wet feet.
Simply put, it is more expensive to be poor than it is rich.

With the way good are manufactured, cheap goods are not designed to last, and need replacing far more often than expensive goods, which leads to an inherent inequality in the expenses of the poor as compared to those of the middle class, which is why it is far easier to become rich when starting from the middle class, than it is to become middle class, starting from being poor.

This, of course, is merely one factor, but it certainly does play a role. ]]> spud_meister http://www.debatepolitics.com/blogs/spud_meister/449-why-its-hard-stop-being-poor.html Feminist portrayal of men. http://www.debatepolitics.com/blogs/spud_meister/315-feminist-portrayal-men.html Mon, 23 May 2011 12:49:31 GMT I was watching a TV show, and on it they had a feminist (feminazi maybe being a better term for her, she was stupid, goes by the name of Gail Dines if anyone's interested) and she was advancing the position that consumption of pornography by men leads to rape, and hence pornography=bad, however, at the same time she also said that women dressing skimpily doesn't lead to rape, now, to make my position clear, I don't think either of them lead to rape, but the problem I have with her first statement is that it perpetuates the stereotype that men have no self control, that when we watch porn and then see a woman, a bestial part of our brain somehow switches into gear and we lose self control, which is completely bull****, firstly because us blokes do have self control, and secondly it's used in such a way that she's mitigating the role of the man when it comes to rape, that somehow it's an outside influence that causes rape, and the man is only partially at fault, which, again, is complete bull****, it is entirely the choice of the man to commit rape, he is in full control of his own decisions and there is no mitigating factor from watching porn, but then she contradicts herself by saying women's dress has nothing to do with it, surely if watching porn is a factor, then women conforming to the standards of dress often seen in porn (before the clothes come off) must also play a role. I'll also add she had some rather stupid opinions about Israel, but she was intellectually out-gunned by Howard Jacobson, a brilliant Pommy author. ]]> spud_meister http://www.debatepolitics.com/blogs/spud_meister/315-feminist-portrayal-men.html Democracy and Republicanism http://www.debatepolitics.com/blogs/spud_meister/258-democracy-and-republicanism.html Sat, 26 Mar 2011 12:08:20 GMT I see often on this site of the terms democracy and republic being misused, and being presented as contradictory systems of governance, but they're not, what the people who misuse them are referring to is direct democracy and a constitutional republic, the first being a system where governance is decided by direct vote, the latter a system where the government powers are limited and people are represented by elected officials, put succinctly by John Adams as "a government of laws, and not of men". However the terms, correctly used, are not this contradictory dichotomy, a democracy is still a democracy regardless if it's direct or representational, it is a system where people's votes decide the course of government, as opposed to an autocratic system. A republic is any state not governed by a monarch, completely independent of whether it's democratic or not, China is a republic, Iran is a republic, Cuba is a republic, and they're not exactly shining samples of represented peoples; Australia, Great Britain, Canada and New Zealand are not republics, though they all are representative democracies, they all have Queen Elizabeth as their head of state. So before you go claiming that America is a republic, not a democracy, just remember IT'S BLOODY WELL BOTH, a representative democracy and a constitutional republic. ]]> spud_meister http://www.debatepolitics.com/blogs/spud_meister/258-democracy-and-republicanism.html I miss Ruddy. :( http://www.debatepolitics.com/blogs/spud_meister/245-miss-ruddy.html Thu, 17 Mar 2011 00:44:31 GMT For most of you, it's about Australian politics, so don't read it, you'll only get bored.

But I miss Kevin Rudd as our PM, he ****ed up big time with his 'Super Profits Tax', and that was what got him deposed by that Welsh chick, but before that, he was a pretty good PM, he kept us out of recession when most of the western world was getting buggered, and he had plans to liberalise gun laws, he got us out of Iraq, and kept us in Afghanistan, but what's made me miss him now is how well he's doing as the Foreign Minister (kinda ironic when you think about it), and more importantly, his support for the NFZ over Libya, even disagreeing with Gillard, it's one of the things that got him ousted in the first place, but he makes impulsive decisions, but they seem to be ones that I agree with. He made some decisions I didn't like, but, in hindsight, and comparison to Gillard, he seems to be the better of the two. ]]> spud_meister http://www.debatepolitics.com/blogs/spud_meister/245-miss-ruddy.html Current affairs programs. http://www.debatepolitics.com/blogs/spud_meister/196-current-affairs-programs.html Tue, 15 Feb 2011 11:00:33 GMT Here we get these brilliant current affairs programs, which seem to revolve around some variation of the "hard working, lower/middle class family getting ripped off/hard done by etc." by any other thing. And in an ad for one of them I saw an absolute brilliant piece of programming, it went something like this "Supermarkets have found a new way to rip off hard working customers, through a policy of no refund without a receipt, and it's the crooks that are profiting", when the deep voiced voice-over man said that last part, they showed a picture of a guy in a balaclava taking a discarded receipt out of an empty shopping trolley, as though people regularly visit the shopping centre in disguise to take paper out of discarded trolley's, but that's not the stupid bit, I'll give you a bit to figure it out, 5 ellipses should do.....Have you figured it out yet? No, well I better explain it, if the crooks are profiting off of stealing people receipts, and doing god knows what with them, as you generally need an item to return too. But imagine if they got rid of having to provide proof that you bought an item, I'm sure the crooks would completely overlook that opportunity. :roll:

That's my rant for today. ]]> spud_meister http://www.debatepolitics.com/blogs/spud_meister/196-current-affairs-programs.html The lovely weather. http://www.debatepolitics.com/blogs/spud_meister/186-lovely-weather.html Fri, 04 Feb 2011 12:41:49 GMT I love my country, it has such a wonderful climate, last week was a string of days close to 40 degrees Celsius, today, the day I had to drive to a party an hour away, there was one of the most severe thunderstorms I've seen, it was raining hard enough the the wipers on my car did nothing, when I got home I found my backyard flooded under about 3cm of water, but we can't forget Queensland, they had floods over an area bigger than most European countries, and then they got a cyclone, bigger than most European countries. So yeah, **** the weather. :) ]]> spud_meister http://www.debatepolitics.com/blogs/spud_meister/186-lovely-weather.html Hysterical, wait, no, Historical Rant. http://www.debatepolitics.com/blogs/spud_meister/144-hysterical-wait-no-historical-rant.html Tue, 04 Jan 2011 15:33:07 GMT The reason I'm writing this blog is twofold, firstly, 'cause it's 2am and I can't sleep, secondly 'cause I'm watching a movie about John Curtin, and his time as PM during WW2, and it's got me thinking about the Australian dependence on America defence-wise. This has nothing to do with anti-Americanism, most of you are good people, so, if you're stupid enough to read the rest, don't take it as that, as it isn't.

Prior to WW2, we depended upon Britain as our sole protector, as a nation with a (relatively) small population, and a large, empty landmass, the fear of invasion and subjugation by a foreign power was one of the major driving factors behind Australia's foreign policy (and domestic policy too), and come WW2, lo and behold, there was a nation with a powerful navy a lot closer than any of our allies, and to add to the fear, they had dark skin, which led an element of racism and xenophobia to the propaganda. We began to closely ally ourselves with America as a direct result of the few actions the British took to help secure out borders, they sent a mere two destroyers to secure our giant coastline, and these were sunk by the Japanese, and this was the main catalyst for the shift in allegiance, and America proved to be more capable than the British at providing for our defence. At the end of WW2, this led to the signing of the ANZUS treaty, which was originally for the Pacific area, but was extended to the Middle East in recent times, the NZ part of the treaty more or less dropped it's ties with the US part over a nuclear boat. However, I believe that the AN-US(:lol:) part of the treaty has lived past it's usefulness, as a nation with large deposits of natural resources, and a strategic position in the Asia-Pacific region, I believe that Australia should take it's defence into it's own hands, we should strive for self reliance, and cement defence relationships with countries that are a bit closer, keep our ties with NZ, and forge stronger bonds with Japan, they are a strong trading partner, and an important ally, but most importantly we should seek to be as independent as possible.

If you really had the patience to read through my semi-coherent rant, congrats on your mental fortitude, or insanity. ]]> spud_meister http://www.debatepolitics.com/blogs/spud_meister/144-hysterical-wait-no-historical-rant.html The New Enviromentalism http://www.debatepolitics.com/blogs/spud_meister/44-new-enviromentalism.html Wed, 18 Aug 2010 15:00:24 GMT Yay, my first blog here, now onto the topic, it seems to me that the environmentalist movement has been taken over by the global warming crap, and you have people like Al Gore only making it worst, as some may or may not know, i am a rabid environmentalist, i love the bush in my country, I love... Yay, my first blog here, now onto the topic, it seems to me that the environmentalist movement has been taken over by the global warming crap, and you have people like Al Gore only making it worst, as some may or may not know, i am a rabid environmentalist, i love the bush in my country, I love being able to drive for only 20 minutes and be in some beautiful eucalyptus forest, watching the Kangaroos, Possums and Sugar Gliders as the sun sets, hearing the raucous calling of the Cockatoos, the warbling cry of the Magpie and the various sounds of the Wattle Birds, to smell that unique Australian smell of dust and eucalyptus, but this is being slowly encroached, a few years ago, most of the drive would have been past farmland, I'd beep the horn and see the Sheep run, just for lulz, but now suburbia is creeping out, further and further, pollution is increasing, old growth forests are being cut down, habitats that have been unchanged for tens of thousands of years are being chopped up, dug over and built upon, normally, there'd be an outcry, someone would try and prevent it, but this has all being shoved aside over this bloody global warming, no-one in any position of importance cares about the wildlife and forests, to paraphrase Treebeard "they have a mind of metal and wheels" and add to that carbon, our ex-environment minister, a man I had great respect for, before he ****ed up, always was going on about carbon; taxes, emissions, without consideration of any other environmental issues, whilst it may be important, it may or may not be caused by man, the sheer fact that everything else is playing second fiddle to it really pisses me off. ]]> spud_meister http://www.debatepolitics.com/blogs/spud_meister/44-new-enviromentalism.html