Well, the Prince of The Far South is sad right here, friends, not only them Neo-Sowetos coming to a town hear you, but we got this argument right here, friends, over an entitlement not really being an entitlement.

I have to struggle with English at times - well The Duke of Brisbane does anyway - but it seems to me that word just says it all, and an entitlement is just what it says - an entitlement.  So to have an entitlement mentality is simply to note and understand what you are entitled to.  Ain't no problem there.

Friends, I get this powerful feeling Big Toe has stuffed up there in his choice of words, not something new from the Toe Biter and his fat friends in their glass palaces up there in Canberra Town.

I'd describe them as toejam.,..  yecchh

Emma wrote on Jun 15^th, 2014 at 8:13pm:



In sensible societies, say china, it is an honour to look after ones ageing parents. So sad that western societies see it as something that the state must compensate the career for,
The only duty some people increasingly feel is the duty to their own creature comforts.
You only get back from life what you put in.
I suppose its a lot more exciting going on some protest rally than staying home and spoon feeding your elderly mum.
I suppose some even fool themselves that putting their elderly relatives in care is not abrogating their duty.
They don't fool me though.
So go to your protest rally and get all worked up,
Personally, I think it would be more rewarding to go deliver meals on wheels for a day.
This is a task most often done by good Christians,
And I bet those angry socialist rent a crowd mob hate the Christians as much as they hate everything else.

I repeat ..  in terms you may understand...

many of us are,  or have, cared for our elderly family.

How dare you insult these people.

Lower than a snakes belly... that describes YOU.

Do we really want to digress to the standards of rural China?

I thought the idea was to progress, not to go back to the days before we had social welfare. The goal should be to look at the countries that have great social welfare programs and learn from them, not compare ourselves to developing countries that are yet to get any social welfare reforms.

We don't want to brag that we are better than Papua New Guinea.

Do you want to put your hand up and accept the responsibility for all the problems that come with the loss of safety nets for the disadvantaged?
Do you want to live in a fortress for your own safety? Do you want to worry about your kid getting knifed on the way to school for their lunch money?

Poor, hungry and desperate people will get food, one way or another.

The present system of social welfare is insufficient in many areas (the dole and student support) we need to up the ante or pay the consequences.

We have a choice, either have a good level of social welfare across the board or look forward to living in a Soweto type country.

I know what I'd choose.

aquascoot wrote on Jun 16^th, 2014 at 6:58am:



There is some merit in what you say - the costs of welfare are blown out by the costs of running it, and not all that money goes to those at the sharp end.

However, you need to seek the balance point between costs of running and payments - and your concept of too many fat cats on a career path - the kind of people blatantly encouraged by your government and management generally (see Andrei) as some sort of 'entitlement' (as opposed to Entitlement to Social Security, for example) - tend to kick the balance towards costs rather than actual useful expenditure.

Remember that these people often fall into the Andrei class of having too much discretionary income and too much perks for free, and that their cost effectiveness is virtually nil in the real world, and they lead to Black Holes through the off-shoring and holidaying overseas and buying them big gas guzzlers for fun.

I agree - send every Social Security Entitlee a cheque for $50k each year.  I'm sure they'd be happy with that.

I feel the time is almost germane for me to publish for yez the first part of my partial auto-bio.... it's about 'management' in this day and age and is a fine metaphor for the current death of business and government through an inability to manage in any real sense.

ADDS:-  Oh - I posted figures before about a job cretion program for the poor in NYC - the cost of running it soaked up nearly 90% of the cash allocated.

One argument is that this means employment for some - but it is overborne by the very real issue of over-management and over-entitlement of such as 'ceos' and 'board members', and the kind of fat cats you describe.

For the sake of the living Christ - we have a 'submarine' company with a ceo and board.... now YTH do we even need that, and why do we need them at all?   

(answer:  to provide jobs for the cronies of politicians with a nice little earner so they don't 'suffer' from being voted out by a hostile public).

Footnote:-  anyone else notice that the ceo (small letters intended) of Australia Post held a spot at Citibank - same as Bob Carr's little number on the side...

I believe there was a discussion of nepotism - well - we may be talking about an 'extended' family here - friends are, after all, the family you would choose if you could choose your family...... let us then start from that simple proposition and move forward with our discussion of nepotism.... on that basis......

Read 'The Road To Hell' by Michael Marin... it's about relief workers in the Third World and the over-focus of many in the highly organised relief NGOs and the UN etc on their 'career path' rather than the work they are doing.  Also these guys run around in Billy Jack's Neo-Soweto gas guzzling Range Rovers etc while the locals hoof it daily, and live in comfort with air con etc while those they are sent to help go hungry and often die of preventable illness.

Now I'm not saying these workers should live like the locals (same as Australians should not be brought down to the living levels of Asians generally to attain a 'level playing field' - see another strand), but it seems that too many are 'strap-hangers' and only getting their 'combat badge' as a surefire way of getting  their promotion etc.

Same with many of those under discussion here.  It's all about getting ahead in the artificial environment of the public service, not about providing the service.