Be thankful what the govt does for you without all the constant complaining.

[Red Steele]

you are the biggest whiner on here, pal.

Quit worrying about how disadvantaged you are,  and go out and make some real money, and quit whining about the hands that feed you.

[kraft-t]

Yeah it does. It says I see thiongs as they are and you see things in a negative way. You say government is bad and takes your freedoms when in fact they have nbot taken any of your freedoms and certainly not in the last to years. You're either paranoid or dishones and possibly both.

[kraft-t]

If you pay nearly $18k in property tax you must own quite a bit pof real estate. If it is farm land I would say you are a bit short on the income tax side . I pay more income tax with fewer acres. I suspect I pay more sales tax and I don't pay any payroll taxes. However, I would consider the payroll tax as part of the employees compensation. I assume he earns it.

I'm way under you on  direct payments. Fuel taxes, I don't know. I hire trucking and faming done so I imagine I am paying something indirectly. I put so few miles pon my car and pickup that i doiut the road use tax is a significant amount.

[Canuck_2]

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@BA Deere wrote:

Hey Gough, our two countries can`t be compared in crime because of differences in population.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_in_Australia_by_population        see your Bathurst, number 38 is about the size of our Mason City, Iowa, and I live in the sticks.  Also Minneapolis/St Paul less than a couple hours away would be like number 7 or 8 on that list. Australia is rural, it`s a fact rural areas have less crime, so what might work down-under won`t work here. Gun control would increase crime here, good people like me wouldn`t have a gun, the bad guys would have no impediment to getting a gun because we can`t keep illegal drugs away from anyone, illegal guns would be no different. What you 911 dialing Gunphobes need to realize is, what if you came home, door busted in and a strange pickup on the lawn and screams coming from a broken upstairs window. Yes, yes by all means call the cops, here`s your choice sit outside listening to your family cry for a half hour? Or go to the shed and get your Glock and take care of business? At that point my live wouldn`t be worth a plug nickel anyway, so I would chose the latter.  

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BA, you should not assume crime is greater in urban areas.

Canada: Higher Crime Rates Outside Cities

Crime is not necessarily a big-city phenomenon in Canada, according toStatistics Canada. Small urban areas have higher crime rates than large metropolitan areas, while homicide rates are highest in rural areas.

The crime rate in small urban areas is 43% higher than in metropolitan areas and 58% higher than in rural areas.

When broken down into types of offences, rates of violent crime, property crime and break-ins are all highest in small urban areas.

http://www.livingin-canada.com/news/higher-crime-rates-outside-canadas-cities/

NOt sure the comparison can not be made because of population, I think any difference has more to do with culture.

BTW how often does someone come home to a scenario like you describe?

Now if you go into that house with your 'Glock' how many 'bad guys' will get shot and how many 'good guys'?

Even your trained military has thousands killed as 'collateral damage'.

[dagwud]

Gough, did you know that Martin Bryant, the man that carried out the horrific massacre at Port Arthur aquired the two guns used illegally?

In doing a Google search it seems there are several that have come to the conclusion that your country's tougher gun laws have had liittle effect.

Australia's Gun Laws: Little Effect   - Time magazine

But these changes have done nothing to reduce gun-related deaths, according to Samara McPhedran, a University of Sydney academic and coauthor of a soon-to-be-published paper that reviews a selection of previous studies on the effects of the 1996 legislation. The conclusions of these studies were "all over the place," says McPhedran. But by pulling back and looking purely at the statistics, the answer "is there in black and white," she says. "The hypothesis that the removal of a large number of firearms owned by civilians [would lead to fewer gun-related deaths] is not borne out by the evidence."

[hobbyfarm2145365]

BA don't depend on me had my fill of them 41 yrs ago,  They have worth being the hands of the public  there is enough weapon available for self protection  we don't need  these type weapon whose only purpose is to kill humans floating around in public domain.   

[BA Deere]

Well Canuck, you could choose to listen to your family cry for the 1/2 hour before the cops got there to possibly really bungle things up. Seriously Canuck, I couldn`t live with myself choosing that option, a 1/2 hour is a long time. You say in Canada there`s more crime in rural areas, I don`t disagree. However "here" the crime is in the urban areas and bleeds into the country. "Home invasions" are not uncommon, a presumed wealthy family is invaded, held at gun point, the wife is sent to the bank to withdraw the maximum amount, daughters are very unlucky in this situation. Long story, short the whole family ends up dead with the womenfolk dying last. To answer your post about not wanting to live in Arizona, I disagree. The people in the crowd acted very bravely. If that is the "wild west" no one pulled out their gun. That crowd was "sucker punched" but reacted very well, they tackled the perpetrator, stopping further loss of life. I would be proud to live in their town.

[hobbyfarm2145365]

Is that the best you can do  Were you not just whining about all thos taxes you pay.   The only you come up with is disadvantaged crap and qu t whining about the hands that  feed you.  

[Red Steele]

I was responding to your constant bleating about government subsidies to farmers..like the bleating of a goat. You should just go borrow a few million, get into farming, and see for yourself how easy it all is.

I am not stopping you or standing in your way.

[Red Steele]

I am doing my patriotic duty of trying to stimulate the economy by buying things. You, on the other hand, pay some poor sap $100 per acre to custom farm your land, and let him stimulate the economy. I get the satisfaction of knowing I am doing my part, and the pleasure of owning shiny tractors. You get to pay more taxes.

It all balances out.

Or are you including social security taxes, too?

Aren't those an "investment" into our future retirement account?