It’s been a long time since I have written a meaningful blog on here. So today is the day that I get back to it.

Currently, I am reading Quarterly Essays #27: Reaction Time: Climate Change and the Nuclear Option, a quarterly publication on various political, social and environmental issue –stuff that concerns us all. Here is an interesting excerpt:

“Fifty years ago, Australia was one of the most equal societies in the World. Today, we are one of the most unequal of all the industrialised nations. Again, the mineral export industries are influential. The industry is capital-intensive and commodity prices have been driven up by demand in China, so mining companies can afford to pay very high wages compared with manufacturing or services. In cities like Perth, the high incomes of mining workers on fly-in fly-out contracts are driving house prices to levels that put the Australian dream beyond the reach of more and more young families. While the good times of the mining boom roll on, we should be using the revenue to invest in a cohesive social future, rather than allowing the windfall gains to widen inequality”

This particular section of the publication focuses on the use of public money to fund things like tax-cuts. Tax-cuts seem great, but really, are they? If we have more discretionary income it leads to increase spending which leads to inflation. As the author, Ian Lowe points out, the resource boom has lead to extravagant lifestyles and spending behaviour for many, at the expense of other people; resource consumption; and pollution. The divide of rich and poor is increasing.

Something I find interesting is the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund. When Alberta stumbled upon coal and gas (I think it was?) they set up this fund, simply, for when these resources run out. What does Australian Federal Government do with proceeds of the resource boom? It promotes effluence!

Sure, Australia is a lucky nation but we do over indulge. I agree with Lowe in that we need to live simpler: smaller homes, smaller cars, energy-efficiency. Rather than finding better ways to produce more energy; we should find better ways of using less.

Anyways, those are my views at the moment. I shall move on to something a little lighter: cool links…

Angie’s List:- members submit more than 15,000 reports each month about the companies they’ve hired. They describe their project (including the cost), and grade the company’s response time, prices and quality of work - good or bad. In reading the reviews, you’ll know if a crew was conscious of children and pets, cleaned up after themselves, or just totally botched the job.

Quarterly Essays:- Quarterly Essay 27 Reaction Time by Ian Lowe was one of the bestselling books at the 2007 Brisbane Writers Festival. (The publication I talked about above).

In Rainbows:- You’d have to be living under a rock or in a town that is out of reach of the media to not know the circumstances under which Radiohead released their new album. They’re free of record labels and went it alone by releasing In Rainbows as a download through their website. But that’s not all, the buyer names the price. Any price, every price is a winner.

By the way, the album is a ripper. I have been a fan of theirs for years and it’s in their top three for me. Amnesiac, Kid A, In Rainbows –that’s my ranking.

Over and out.

PJGO