your random thougt, post it

[igrindtwinkies]

Ya it fucking rekt my sleep schedule but was totally worth it.

[UrMomSkatesMongo]

im moving to australia

[StarcraftLedZeppelin]

im moving to australia

why do you hate yourself so much?

[UrMomSkatesMongo]

poor socioeconomic factors of childhood

[drowning_fish]

what's so bad about australia? besides expensive and gnarly animals

[UrMomSkatesMongo]

- 2.5x holiday pay
- apparently 6 months paid vacation every year
- there are more australians traveling the world at any given time than there are australians in australia

[igrindtwinkies]

expensive cigs.

[Stookie]

- 2.5x holiday pay
- apparently 6 months paid vacation every year
- there are more australians traveling the world at any given time than there are australians in australia

hell ya

I mean I could easily drink a six pack with y'all and explain the intricate differences from an armchair expert POV. Just briefly I feel like having a koala as our most iconic animal is probably emblematic as a whole of our country

[drowning_fish]

hell ya

I mean I could easily drink a six pack with y'all and explain the intricate differences from an armchair expert POV. Just briefly I feel like having a koala as our most iconic animal is probably emblematic as a whole of our country

do it. in THE GLORY DAYS people would write entire essays haha

[Stookie]

I won't go that far haha but...

The favourable work conditions and weather conditions in a lot of the country means it can sometimes feel like we're devoid of any culture or personality or vibrance. 'Work to live' is taken way too far, but I'm not saying 'live to work' is at all preferable. This is true the warmer it gets the further north you go. You can easily not spend time cultivating a personality and instead just go fishing or head to the beach or whatever. Australians, very broadly speaking, are quite extrinsic and outgoing people but tend to not spend time working on the 'self'. I've heard it's similar in LA where the endless sunshine can actually cause people to become a bit fucked up.

Until now we've been able to coast along, and if we liken ourselves to a koala, we're doped up on gum leaves. A resources boom allowed us to do this. We had one of the highest GDP PPP per capita ratios in the world, and strong wage growth, but it's been sliding the past few years. There's three main prongs to the Australian economy - digging shit out of the ground, international students (big cash cows), and property speculation. The central bank seems intent on 'printing money' and cutting the cash rate to stimulate things along, but hugging a chemo patient is hardly going to help. COVID has forced us to actually wake up from our gum leaf comatose state and figure out how to get ourselves out of this mess.

Our politicians proudly boasted nearly 30 years of no technical recession. That's true, but most other 'wellness' parameters have been sliding since the GFC, and up until COVID, we had one of the biggest bubble economies in the world. Now we've just thrown in excess of $200 billion ($500 billion if you count quantitative easing too) at the COVID problem, without really considering the how or why, or the long term effects. As a patriot, but not a nationalist, I generally an pessimistic about the next twenty years here. I have looked at getting out, say to Canada, but things don't look that great there either.

I'll leave you with a quote from 'The Lucky Country', a 1984 book by Donald Horne

Australia is a lucky country run mainly by second rate people who share its luck. It lives on other people's ideas, and, although its ordinary people are adaptable, most of its leaders (in all fields) so lack curiosity about the events that surround them that they are often taken by surprise.

It obviously wasn't written in the context of today, but it's scarily accurate.

EDIT: I read a rarely good comment on Reddit the other day. That went something like...

The (modern) United States was founded off the back of pioneers and those heading west to seek new riches. As a result they had to arm themselves with a weapon for safety from animals and other groups, which is why you can consider the gun a symbol of America today.

Australia was founded as a penal colony, whose prisoners when granted release were given a plot of land and a modest house, which is why we're so property obsessed as a two-bit economy today, with the modest house perhaps an emblem of Australia.

[Yes.]

^ i agree, i know a lot of australians who listen to modest mouse and consider it to be the emblem of their country.

[Stookie]

tame impala br0

[Milo]

Yo, Lonerism and Innerspeaker are two of my favorite albums but Tame has not been great since then.

[igrindtwinkies]

Are you saying our terrible weather gives me personality?

[UrMomSkatesMongo]

what's more prevalent, weather madness or ciggy butt brain?

[Stookie]

Hard to say re weather madness, it's kinda like 'if everyone has herpes, no one has herpes'

Ciggy butt brain is VERY prevalent at skate parks and train stations

Are you saying our terrible weather gives me personality?

... maybe. Because it forces you to be more introspective rather than passing off 'going to the beach' as a personality trait

[Fudopi]

idk. i feel like everybody has some superficial thing they pass off as a personality trait to some people. like there's definitely people who get all weird about being a blue collar 'murican and shit and that's their whole personality.

[igrindtwinkies]

idk. i feel like everybody has some superficial thing they pass off as a personality trait to some people. like there's definitely people who get all weird about being a blue collar 'murican and shit and that's their whole personality.

This is a very true point.

[Stookie]

idk. i feel like everybody has some superficial thing they pass off as a personality trait to some people. like there's definitely people who get all weird about being a blue collar 'murican and shit and that's their whole personality.

lmao so true

[Trollskater]

Australia sounds good until you remember It's the closest to living in a fascist regime of all the places in the world

[Stookie]

I mean... I wouldn't go that far. Nanny state? For sure. Sliding in the wrong direction? Yes. But fascist, no.

And you're from wherever so I'm unsure whether to take your comment as sarcastic or not

[StarcraftLedZeppelin]

I'm unsure whether to take your comment as sarcastic or not

[igrindtwinkies]

I assumed he lived there based on a bold statement like that. I take it I'm wrong though.

[UrMomSkatesMongo]

croatia is basically australia

[igrindtwinkies]

Freak weather here, was close to 60 today. Skated for a few hours outside today and it felt incredible. I missed the sun.