It's all going down the plughole

[pmccarthy]

After a couple of weeks of travelling and now back home, I am greatly alarmed by the state of our country. Long, long waiting list for medical help. No meat in shops because of the shortage of butchers, not of animals. Empty supermarket shelves. Rude or absent shop assistants. And so on. It is unprecedented in my lifetime, but perhaps my grandparents would feel at home.

[nomadpete]

What area did you find this?

I'm in SE Qld at the moment and food supply is good.

But medical/hospital is as poor as everywhere else.

[spacesailor]

My niece has been invited to come to Sydney,  as her dr has a four week waiting time, ( appointment  ). 

My wife will ' hopefully ' take her to see our dr, as the niece is in bad painful  back problem. 

" Kempsey " NSW.

spacesailor

 

 

[pmccarthy]

My experience was across Victoria and South Australia, as far west as Streaky Bay. Saw some lovely places. But lunch for two, two coffees and two toasted sandwiches, was everywhere $30-40 or more, sometimes $50.

[Jerry_Atrick]

Are you trying to put me off returning?? Actually, to be honest, I would say a lot of the western world is going that way. Aus has been known to be on the more expensive side, but service has generally been good. Over here, it has been known to be on the cheap side, but service (by the locals) has been poor. Since the Eastern Europeans have gone back, service is atrocious.. and the prices are going up. Although these are definitely first world problems, the deterioration of our health service (in both countries) is worrying - are we becoming the US? Maybe I will move to NZ.

[facthunter]

The Land of the "Wrong White Crowd?. Raw and tough. No place for the fainthearted.  Here? Easier and the new government is a lot more different than many give it credit for.  Nev

[onetrack]

Inflation and a serious labour shortage certainly are problems, Australia-wide. But I believe many businesses are rorting the public, blaming "increasing costs". Yes, costs have gone up, but business profitability has soared, too.

We can still find a good steak sandwich and chips feed for under $20 in Perth - but a lot are charging $24 and some are up to $28. You just need to shop around. We used to use the Entertainment Card, paid $65 annually to get 25% off food in hundreds of eateries - but unfortunately, the pandemic killed the Entertainment Card model.

The EC is still going, but it's on a much smaller scale, and only a few eateries are now offering discounts - mostly Indian restaurants, which I steer clear of, due to dodgy cleanliness, and even dodgier food quality.

Heading into the rural regions provides a real hit and miss experience, but the occasional country pub still produces a good feed at a reasonable price.

[facthunter]

Your average retiree on a pension can't really consider eating out and you'll get better health outcomes if you cook it at home, batter free and not over cooked. Mum needs a break if the others can cook OK that can be arranged.  Some reasonable meals can be had at little more than you could do it for yourself and excellent  say THAI when done as well as it can be..  Many restaurants are just too noisy with Australians  in it and there's no dunny like your own dunny.  Nev

[Yenn]

Food is not really expensive in Aus, but go to a restaurant and you will pay big money for poor quality.

Fish and chips is usually good and so is a meal at a pub, sailing or bowls club. As far as coffee goes it is not to quench your thirst but to enable you to sit and be observed as part of the latte set. Good for city dwellers.

[red750]

I don't eat out. Years since I went to a restaurant.

[willedoo]

1 hour ago, red750 said:

I don't eat out. Years since I went to a restaurant.

Breakfast on the verandah is about as close as I get to eating out.

[Jerry_Atrick]

You know it's all going to pot when this happens: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-19/death-of-a-country-footy-and-netball-club-in-quambatook-/101335158

 

[facthunter]

Mt ISA no longer has an RSL club, either.  Nev

[onetrack]

I trust they understand the Quambatook Tractor Pull is also going to go the same way as the Quambatook Football Club!

 

Electric tractors are going to take over, and no-one will go to see an Electric Tractor Pull!! 

[Jerry_Atrick]

So, with all these people moving to rural areas, there are still negative impacts.. Although, to be fair, Quambatook has a population of only a couple of hundred.

 

Driving home fro mLondon last night, which is about 3hrs depending on how fast I can go, I was listening to a talkback show about this subject, but of course referring to Britain. There were many who were very pessimistic - and with good reason about this country, too. And, all much the same problems - corrupt government (though Aus is less corrupt, now), press manipulating the masses, poor essential and public services (including health, except it can take 2weeks to see a GP hee in the citites, let alone rural areas), concentration of profits at the expenses of salaries, Brexit (OK, this doesn't impact Aussies), and a plethroa of other issues.

 

However, what I liked were that there were some callers who could still find a lot to be proud of both now, and historically, and looked forward to the future, providing that perople get on with fixing things. Aussies have voiced they want this by emphatically handling those that facilitate the degradation of society a thumping defeat. The incuments know they have to perform, or they will he handed a thumping defeat. Over here, the Labour Party are in a similar position - not far ahead as their leader lacks that real gumption and inspiration. However, there are no TEAL independents, and the Greens here are still stuck in a place wanting us to abandon a modern lifestyle and sing Kumbuyah all day. And, of course, it is first past the post (of which, note, the LNP would probably still be in if that were the case in Aus).

 

Wo, yes, while society is changing and becoming more neo-liberal (even those that disparage them are), Australia has a lot it can be proud of and has a government that is, at the moment, until strong vested interest start pulling at them, want to fix things up. A lot to look forward to.

 

 

[facthunter]

Brexit DOES affect Us. FARAGE is coming here to do speeches later this month.  Here we say it's going down the "Gurgler". Nev

Edited August 19, 2022 by facthunter

[nomadpete]

Well. On the negative side, the plughole that I see is the failure of our leaders (government) implementing genuine risk management process for all our essential services. Industry is forced to do risk management, but I don't even see lip service to managing risk related to essentials such as...

Food security

Energy security

Water security

Internet security

 

 

Risk = probability of event vs severity of outcomes.

Best risk management process removes the risk, or removes the consequences.

 

eg1:-  Once in 500 year drought?

Probability is low but consequence is death of half our population. Therefore this risk warrants a plan to mitigate the risk. At present we have pollies just hoping it doesn't happen on their watch.

 

eg2:- Food security, major grain crops fail two seasons in a row.

Risk low, consequences high. Even a lot of meat would be scarce. Can we source from other countries if they have the same failure? What stockpile have we got? Look at the outcry when lettuce got too expensive in some places.

Etc, etc.

Edited August 19, 2022 by nomadpete

[Jerry_Atrick]

3 hours ago, facthunter said:

Brexit DOES affect Us. FARAGE is coming here to do speeches later this month.  Here we say it's going down the "Gurgler". Nev

He has already lost a lot of favour here amongst his "loyal" base. What is he going to talk about?? Wexit, Qexit, Vexit? Vexatious more like it.

[old man emu]

11 hours ago, nomadpete said:

Best risk management process removes the risk, or removes the consequences.

If you begin with the acceptance of the fact that every action you take will affect something else, then you are at the very beginning of Risk Management. The next thing is to accept that Murphy's Law always applies, with results varying in degree from trivial to catastrophic. Then you can deal with any risk from complete elimination to maximum mitigation. The COVID pandemic provides a good case study.

 

We know that we cannot eliminate the virus from the environment. We used lock-down to prevent its spread. That's a high level response. We used vaccination - a lesser level response. Finally, we used masking, probably the second to lowest level response. There there were those who used who did nothing - a valid response in the area of risk management, but to most of us, pretty stupid. After applying these measures, the next step was to monitor their effectiveness. That monitoring took into account the medical effect as well as the economic and social effects. In any risk management system, those last two effects have equal legitimacy with the effect that the system tries to make the best of. 

[facthunter]

Who knows what he will talk about. I've NEVER had any time for him. He lights fires but never around to follow through with the hard details. Anyhow correction to my advised time It's NEXT month. Sorry for the error.  I hope it's a FLOP.   Nev

[old man emu]

Farage: He lights fires

Scomo: He doesn't hold hoses.

 

Introducing Scomo/Farage - Arson Incorporated. 

[facthunter]

May they have RDS in common. Relevance Deprivation Syndrome. Sco Mo doesn't hold A hose M8. ( I don't even want to think about HIM. )  Nev

[nomadpete]

11 hours ago, old man emu said:

If you begin with the acceptance of the fact that every action you take will affect something else, then you are at the very beginning of Risk Management. The next thing is to accept that Murphy's Law always applies, with results varying in degree from trivial to catastrophic. Then you can deal with any risk from complete elimination to maximum mitigation. The COVID pandemic provides a good case study.

 

We know that we cannot eliminate the virus from the environment. We used lock-down to prevent its spread. That's a high level response. We used vaccination - a lesser level response. Finally, we used masking, probably the second to lowest level response. There there were those who used who did nothing - a valid response in the area of risk management, but to most of us, pretty stupid. After applying these measures, the next step was to monitor their effectiveness. That monitoring took into account the medical effect as well as the economic and social effects. In any risk management system, those last two effects have equal legitimacy with the effect that the system tries to make the best of. 

OME, masks (aka PPE) is, in  risk management parlance, the lowest (last) level of risk management.

 

In the covid example, elimination ( the highest risk management) of the risk was unobtainable.

 

Murphy's law is controlled by true risk management.

[Jerry_Atrick]

These people have a different (and largely positive) perspective:

 

[facthunter]

Back to risk management, only gamble when you can afford to lose..

   Don't come to Australia. There's no accommodation which means we are FULL.  Also there's not much to see and each place is a long way off. The outback is so bad no one lives there and they ALL live in a few cities instead. That must be to escape the dangerous critters this place abounds with. To cope with this and the stress of crowded cities they resort to DRINKING a lot and that makes them make no sense at all and sometimes Nasty if you smile too much or sound like a toff. Just remember we descended from FELONS. (The LUCKY  ones) and the free settlers are so inferior and actually have no legitimate reason to be here at all. This place is SO bad we used to Have to Pay 10 quid per Pom but that's finished now. . Some of the ones we got weren't up to scratch.  Nev