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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 14th, 2023

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  • I’m back to complain about Australians looking at Medicare through rose tinted glasses, when it still has a lot left to be desired.

    PBS is one of the better parts of Medicare, however, there is very often a gap fee, even for PBS medication, unless you qualify for a health care card. Which is great because we’re taking care of people who can’t afford it, and the gap fee is still mostly fine, in most cases.

    I mean, look at the sign, has an Asterix right there.

    However, the rest of Medicare is more and more resembling a two-tiered system where you get to skip the queue if you have the means to pay, and you get a tax break to do so 👍 and of course, can’t forget our luxury bones which still aren’t covered.

    Please do not vote for the LNP, I beg you.

    Medicare is not that great compared to what we could afford as one of the richest countries per capita in the world. Only in comparison to the shitshow in the US.




  • Eh, I heard from someone who works in Australia, processing asylum claims from Chinese nationals, that, many, many claims are rejected (not sure about other countries, and this is 2nd hand info, from years ago).

    Basically, while it can be argued certain, and notable numbers of Chinese citizens are being persecuted, saying every Chinese citizen is being persecuted is a bit of a stretch. Even if various freedoms are not granted in China.

    The average Zhang, Wang, Li and Zhao can go about their lives with some differences to here in the west, but it’s not as extreme as people portray on the internet. Most people live their lives in much the same way as they do elsewhere in the world.

    Things don’t have to be extreme in order to still be criticisable, in my opinion. Just like things aren’t complete shit in the US, but there’s a lot to criticise.

    In summation, no, most Chinese immigrants wouldn’t qualify as asylum seekers fleeing political persecution.

    Inb4 the tankies and “China Bad” idiots: reality is nuanced, deal with it.




  • I feel like I remember hearing when AfD was getting less than the 5% (or whatever it is) minimum to be granted proportional seats. I knew they had grown in popularity, but they’re at 19% now. 19???!

    They should have already banned them.

    Meine Oma war 11 am Kriegsende, und hat mir natürlich viel von dir Geschichte persönlich erzählt.

    For fucking shame. Honestly.

    Makes me quite sad :( as an German Australian. And and as any human who’s been to school in the last 40 years.

    When will humanity learn that capitalism is the problem, not the foreigners…?







  • This is a solved problem in Australia. You put the parties next to the candidates names to assist where people don’t want to learn about the individual candidates in their location, and people hand out “how to vote” cards at the polling places for how their party prefers the others parties.

    People who don’t have their own opinion on anything but their first choice use that as a cheat sheet.

    There are solutions for the lazy and disengaged.







  • I completely seriously, put forth that it’s the soul-crushing, rampant late-stage capitalism, with poor worker protections, much more than the lack of political freedom, is what is driving the low birth rates. (Now, obviously different story during one child policy).

    I just think people are way to quick to overlook the economics, which is currently happening almost everywhere (the stupid house prices, real wages not keeping up with price inflation, the wealth gap between the richest and poorest of a nation getting larger, etc)

    If China became a mutli-party representative democracy overnight, you can bet your ass no one is going to be having any more children than they are right now.

    If you were to ask the average Chinese person if they support their government, the answer would be yes, despite what some people outside China would like to believe. (On average, of course there are still a notable number who aren’t happy at all with the government).