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Drug Subsidies Taken Away From Pensionsers

The Australian government is in Goo Goo land with its health service. Cutting funds while spending on the odd "party belief" thing seems to be the order of the day. It is taking tens of billions out, then spending a billion on a stupid, fruitless idea. Don't I love it when I make you stupid old foggies pay?  Ah, ah, ah! It says it will end hepatitis C in Australia by spending on specific target drugs - over five years! Nothing is eradicated in just five years. It takes decades to half a century to stop a prevalent disease, and it will still come back occasionally. The government is following a policy of robbing Peter to pay Paul by subsidizing high end expensive drugs while taking many basics off the PBS scheme that pensioners rely on. Members of this government simply don't care as long their misguided belief that the market will solve all is promulgated when they lash out here and there with unfathomable foot in mouth decisions. ◆   Politics by Ty Buchanan  ...

Keeping Australia's Car Industry Afloat Is Not Economically Rational

There are calls from many quarters for keeping Australia's car industry alive. I am not so sure that a country needs its own motor industry anymore. Times have changed. No vehicle is made entirely in one country today. The days of getting prestige from it are long gone. Propping up a floundering car sector is against all practical economic and social theory. It doesn't make sense to spend taxpayers money in such a wasteful way. Holden and Ford continue to take handouts while still not making any profit. Ford has already gone. The days for Holden are numbered. Holden was never a truly Australian car. It was an old General Motors design left in a drawer collecting dust until it was thrown on the table at a meeting in Australia. Australia has never been a manufacturing country. It is not like Britain which has very in the way of natural resources so must generate income somehow from industry. Large businesses have only been in the primary sector. Exporting wh...