When we express, via the government, our indignation at the way our good Aussie cattle are treated in a few Indonesian abattoirs, the bill is fairly widely spread. Of course the big businesses who should have been keeping a better eye on these things will pay a price, but they'll survive. The wealthy cattle growers, whose exploitation of their animals is also to blame, will also pay a price, but they will also probably survive. But it's all the hangers-on of this evil industry that will pay the immediate price – the drivers, the stockmen, the outback communities.
Some interesting bills will be presented to Gen Y under the 40 year rule. The NBN for example. And solar panels. They will start to cause problems in 25 years or so, when the warranty expires, and I doubt that the government will be over-generous in subsidising their replacement. Heaven only knows what effect that will have on our energy supplies!
Eventually, as every user of a credit card comes to understand, your credit limit is reached, and your supply of easy money runs out. This is exactly what is happening in Greece and a few other EU countries, and we can see how reluctant people who have come to rely on the government to look after them are when it comes to paying the bill. Luckily we in Australia have the mining industry and China to prolong our credit binge.
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Being a Builder may mean being old and boring, and I do try not to be too critical of those younger and wiser than me.
But I've been watching a bit of TV lately, and I've been reminded that JFK said "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." That's certainly not a fashionable statement today.
And back in Edwardian times, I'm reminded by another show, there was a sense of noblesse oblige that seems to have disappeared, and sometimes I think that we've thrown the baby out with the bathwater.
To end on a really boring note: A long time ago, in my school days, I recall being taught that I had obligations to society, and I don't remember too much talk about rights. I'm still a bit confused when people insist that their rights impose an obligation on me.
There's a price for everything, and the piper must be paid – sooner or later. I'm reluctant to go along with people who don't realise that the price might be our freedom and the hard won prosperity of our nation. Everything that is the legacy of Builders of whatever age and generation.
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