Question for Digger

[sn-e3]

To my digger friends from down under. My question is what is the cost of living like down there.? Like the cost of Gas, beer, milk, beef. and the like and how about health care? you car linsence seems vere high, do you guys make alot of money? or is your uncle Digger greedy just like our uncle Sam, TAX TAX TAX

[DeadlyDaring]

Petrol now $1.43 lt and going up
Milk now $2.17 lt and going up

Beer now $5.50 pint and going up
A case of beer between $34.00 to $45.00 and going up
Beef now beteen $9.00 a kilo to $25.00 kilo and going up

Two types of health care
Medicare is for everyone but you pay a percentage from the amout you earn each year when doing your personnal tax statements (2.3%) the more you earn the more you pay

Private health for married couple with or without kids, is around $950.00 a quarter then less Fed rebate, which is a couple of hundred dollars

you dont have to pay for private health if you dont want to. All that means is you go on the waiting lists plus if you earn over $50,000.000 a year you go to another bracket in paying for Medicare

Minimum Wages for low income earners isaround $550.00 for a 38hr week

We have Federal Taxes, GST, State Taxes and Council Taxes and we are the heaviest Taxed country in the worldas per head of population. We have a Senate, Federal members of Parliment, State members of Parliment and also coucil members which are all on pay rolls. Our prime minister earns around $280,000.00 plus ALL the fringe benefits as so does all other polititions

We are over governed. we have a lot more members in Parliment than does England (who has a pop of 66Mill, Aust 21mill)

our dollar is around .93cents per US$
our interest rate for housing varies from 7.25% 8.95% or more

top ten Credit cards range from 8.89% to 18.75%


Now do you want to live in Australia??? at the way things are going you just may have to bring your own WATER... ADELAIDE has just completed 15 days in a row with temps over 35* (100F) and ten days in a row with temps over 38* (110F) last Thurs & Friday was 46.8 (140F) in the sun (in metro area) Our last train fall was 3.0mm in the beginning of Feb 2008 and 20.6mm for Jan... BTL things are looking very bad for South Australia.

Australia is the dryest continent on the planet and South Australia is the dryest State in the driest continent

Now for an ice cold beer... I need one now

[sn-e3]

thank you for your responce. I see some things are cheaper but the price of your beer really sucks.

[82Rigger]

Digger,

Mate, for that price, I hope that's GOOD beer!

Is that FOSTER'S?

[DeadlyDaring]

The best beer is made in Sth Austraia and is the oldest brewry in Australia and is still family controlled

COOPERS
http://www.coopers.com.au/
www.smh.com.au/.../2005/09/05/1125772464860.html

[82Rigger]

Digger,

I'll take that as a recommendation, and give it a try if available here!

[DeadlyDaring]

Coopers Australia sells a lot of their product in the states
But I think COOPERS Pale Ale is the BIGGER seller

[uffah!!]

You know that someones grass is always greener!!!!

[82Rigger]

uffah,

There are a FEW things in Australia that I wouldn't care to try.

For instance, their box jellyfish and their Eastern Brown Snake.

[DeadlyDaring]

Australia
Number one in rank is the Fierce Snake, who hardly ever gets his reputation challenged because he is so hard to stumble across in the arid corners of Queensland. Next on the list is the Mulga Snake who makes up for having lower potency venom by producing a larger volume than any other Australian species, and then injects it through very long, very efficient fangs. The Eastern Tiger Snake’s venom is third in toxicity but the snake has tiny fangs. It makes up for these deficiencies by having a really nasty temper. The Taipan ranks about fourth in the toxicity rankings, but its sheer aggression, long fangs and multiple strikes make it the most feared snake on the continent.

The male Sydney Funnel-Web Spider is the world's most deadly spider. Both the male and female Sydney Funnel-Web Spider carry atraxotoxin, the world's most dangerous toxin to humans as produced in the animal kingdom.

The male Sydney Funnel-Web Spider is six times more toxic than the female, and it is he whom is most often encountered by humans, during their intrepid search for a female to reproduce.

The Box jellyfish (Chironex fleckeri) , and used to be known as the Sea wasp is the most dangerous jellyfish in the world followed by the blue ringed octopus (which is very pretty).