...from the size of the bugs that fly throw my window.
Of my new place, beacuse there's no flyscreens yet.
I thought I’d throw a couple of thoughts out there, just to let you know I’m still alive. Optus isn’t going to hook up our intertubes until next week, so I’ll put some photos up then.
First, I’ve just read an article in which some uni or another has predicted that up to 80% of Australians will be obese or overweight by 2020 (the year, not the crap cricket). A sobering statistic, I thought…at first.
It occurs to me, though, that unless I change my lifestyle significantly, I could reasonably hope to be in the minority. That could be a bad thing – minorities not historically getting a good run in this country – but I guess at least they might start making plane seats bigger in response to market demand.
And, given the new house purchase, 2020 is getting close to the time I could probably afford overseas travel. The seats should be as big as a double bed by then, I reckon.
Then again, that’s well past the peak oil prediction of 2011, so society will have collapsed according to some.
Which will mean everyone will be skinny as things return to the dark ages.
And plane seats will probably get smaller.
Which brings me to – would it be better if Labor lost the election? A few people reckon the world is overdue for a recession , and if even the smallest of the oil shortage predictions, or the climate change predictions, are realised, there’s going to be a downturn.
In a philosophical sense that’s not completely a bad thing – something’s gotta give; infinite growth is a stupid and unrealistic concept. However, while I don’t actually think that the punters in Australia are stupid, I do think they’re generally pretty selfish and insular, so they don’t know (or perhaps even care) about how the economy actually works – I think they’ll blame whoever’s at the wheel.
If that’s Labor, could we see a Whitlam style backlash at the end of what could-have-been a good government? If Howard won, and Costello took over, and economy went bung, they would have even less credibility left, keeping in mind that about the only area they are consistently ahead in the polls in is economic management. Perhaps if Labor threw it away, and could hold out for another three years, they would be assured of a decade in power after that.
Then again, could we handle another three years of neo-conservative bullshit?
At least there’s a positive if Labor were to lose.
But then, I suppose for them to win in 2011, by my theory, the economy would have to go to shit, which wouldn’t be good for anyone.
Arrrrr, ‘tis a right quandary aye foind m’self in.
Chao, por hoy.
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2 comments:
I tend to think that it is precisely because things may go badly that Labor gets in: stagflation under Fraser, Menzies' credit squeeze (where we came close), and we stayed in when the recession came. Perhaps it's because people look more to the important things like health and services, looking out for the "battlers" ... probably it's because people recognise something must be "done" (I can't think of a single thing beyond the GST which Howard will be remembered by. I read a line about gun control being his legacy ... big whoop). On the whole, people with money love a good downturn; if they have half a brain they come away with more than the people on the bottom.
Makes me want to go plunderin' on the high seas.
I agree SNF. I remember in about Grade 9, when we first looked at the governments since Federation, being struck by the fact that, every time there was trouble (Depression, World Wars), Labor was voted in to see the country through it. I formed a theory then about this and nothing in the several decades since has happened to make me change it.
Nabla I think the idea of very large seats in planes is big big wishful thinking. Even if you're paying so much you think you deserve them. (You can tell the sort of day I had at work can't you).
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