Criticism of the recent Australia Day celebrations ranged from Party Political ravings, strange personal wanderings or a small amount of reasonable comment.
Putting aside the pointless bits and pieces there was a small percentage of acceptable thought on how our country has moved since it was first created.
There is no doubt that over the past 25 years we have been led away from being a very unique country and people, our appearance, dress and our slang made us recognisable as Australians in most advanced countries around the world, to what now would have to be seen as an offshoot of the United States.
It has to be understood that while we need to have the US as a friend and ally, the USA is not a good model to base our country or our lifestyle on.
The United States is not, as it often claims, a democracy governed by the will of the people, it is in fact controlled by a small percentage of very wealthy people and large businesses whose only interest is the power their immense riches endow them with.
Australia is fast heading towards the same style of society, we see and hear daily of very wealthy Australians buying control of businesses that give them the opportunity to brainwash Australian people with their political and business preferences and to threaten all of us with loss of jobs unless they get their way.
Our print media, once known as newspapers, have become party political propaganda sheets with trivial gossip exaggerated to suit the papers’ owners’ thoughts on how the country should be governed.
Workers in the US have for decades been led to believe that being in debt is not a bad thing, many of these working people at all levels have been going through their entire lives with serious debt worries. They earn enough to pay their tax and maintain a reasonable lifestyle, but if they hit a bad patch all of their assets are gone.
The business community in Australia saw how this worked, so they introduced credit cards and considerable ease to obtain loans from banks and loan sharks, they also noted that having workers deep in debt gave them, the employers, another means to control their employees.
We know from reliable sources that approx 25 per cent of US citizens are living on or below the poverty line, while roughly two per cent live in luxury.
If we put Abbott and his buddies in control of our country again we will only have ourselves to blame for the lifestyle that will follow.
G.H.Gilmour
Stanthorpe
