On 30 Mar 2002, Craig Hughes wrote:
> On Fri, 2002-03-29 at 22:29, Duncan Findlay wrote:
>> On Sat, Mar 30, 2002 at 01:38:24AM +0100, Tony L. Svanstrom wrote:
>> > On Fri, 29 Mar 2002 the voices made Rick Macdougall write:
>> > > From: "Craig Hughes" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> > > >
>> > > > Ok, any socialist country will do.
[...]
>> Being somewhat socialist isn't that bad. Let's just not confuse
>> socialist and communist.
>
> I meant socialist in the same way the Economist means socialist, not
> in the way Ronald Reagan means socialist. I did grow up in the UK, so
> I do know the difference. Communism is no fun, you still have to work.
> Socialism is where you get mandated 32-hour work weeks and minimum 6
> weeks vacation and stuff. That's what I want. Except minus the 75% tax
> rate.
Australia was, for quite a few decades, skirting the edge of being
labeled socialist and, thus, being subjected to the same sort of
sanctions as Cuba and Russia by the US and co.
At the time tax rates were somewhat lower than today, running in at
around 35 to 40 percent real rate for people in higher income brackets.
Of course, that all started to fade a couple of decades ago as we got a
series of governments that /really/ wanted that US governments and
corporate approval and, as a result, dismantled most of the social
programs and have worked hard at rendering our social system down to the
level of the US.[1]
Of course, they didn't drop the tax rate during this. They just used the
money to make things even nicer for the large corporations. :/
So, I /would/ have recommended Australia. Maybe New Zealand, which has
made some of the mistakes Australian government have followed in, but
did so long enough ago to start recovering. :)
Daniel
Footnotes:
[1] That is to say, /no/ public (governmental) support for *anything*,
coupled with a strong blame-the-victim mentality WRT health care
and unemployment.
--
Artists are people driven by a conflict between the desire to
communicate and the even stronger desire to hide.
-- D. W. Winnicott
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