Thread: Firearms ban in Western aussie

Originally Posted by Ross Nolan

Some thing that has always stuck with me was a job I was involved with at Sanitarium years and years ago. It was building a machine to put cards into cereal boxes. The machine replaced a lady who used to sit on the line with a bunch of boxes holding different cards in front of her, and she would put one in each box of cereal as it went past.

She was a lovely person, but I very much doubt that she learned to write computer code when her job disappeared. We have lost thousands of those jobs. We used to build TV's here - now we buy them from China or Vietnam using money borrowed from overseas, and those jobs have gone also.

Anyone bought a NZ made or assembled car lately?

I know that there were inefficiencies in local protected manufacture - I was there. I also know that the thousands and thousands of people in those industries were getting more than a pay check out of them. Intangibles like pride, stability, self reliance, trade skills. Old fashioned stuff.

We didn't just throw the baby out with the bathwater, we hired a foreign contractor to do it and wondered where our middle class went afterwards.

On the other hand, Sir Steven and the Warehouse thank you for your contribution - maybe he could sponsor @mikee to take a day for Morris dancing.

I was listening to discussion on radio about our education system...the ywent on about the bell curve etc and how grades were decided.... PART of the idea behind having a standard to pass,it the bottom 10-15-20% WONT PASS ,therefore they are available to do the mundaine lower skilled/lower mindpower needed jobs (and that isnt meant to sound as patronising as it reads) if everyone was educated up to the highest degree,it would be hard to find someone to ride the rubbish truck and collect the waste,who wants to get up at 3AM to pull tits when could sleep in till nine the nwork behind computer at home....sort of thinking.
we have pretty much always had enough employment oppertunities IF you willing to do hard graft,get your hands dirty
as for institutional unemployment for want of better term, for last 20 years or more,becoming a solo mum has been seen in some places as a carreer option with salery attractive enough if you play the system right...it has some shit longterm/moral/social concequences but it has been an option
growing hooch..ccoking meth..selling same...being mule and carting same have also been regularly discussed as viable option to keep roof over head and food on table. Ive overheard many of those discussions over the years...in fact heard meth cooking discussed in smokoroom just the other night from two fellas on $1300 a week in hand salery!!!!!!
for as long as these other options are seen as an easy way,with little or low chance of serious /dire repercussions if it goes wrong,the young folks will continue to explore them as life pathway
if the alternative is shone in better light (now I cant but help draw similarity to another very old book that mentions the narrow path here) MAYBE just MAYBE we can get ahead of the issues..but boy have we taken this thread a LOOONG way from origonal post.