Is Australia a good place?

Snowy made this comment on one of my blog posts and I've given considerable thought to a reply, all of 30 seconds.

"Many of the loveliest English and American Christmas songs contain references to snow, so I'm wondering if they get played much where you are. Like Kylie, I choose the photo of your own little tree as my favorite. Much of what I know of scenes in Australia come from photos on your blog and others, and they always portray a country that is cleaner and more prosperous than America. I don't know if you've even been here, but is that true do you think, or are the photos I see only taken in the prettier areas?

Random thoughts and writing spilled out.

Yes, we do have Christmas songs that mention snow. From English books in my young years, swans were white, but they are black in Australia. I was surprised to learn this when I was in my teens. We take our Christmas traditions from England, and in temps of 40/105 we will still cook a hot roast meal for Christmas. Well, maybe not so much nowadays, which is strange as we now have aircon and did not back in the days of the oven roasting away. 

Australia more or less has the English parliamentary system. While Britain does not exercise power over Australia, it potentially can. If King Charles III tells us to jump, we must. But Kingy Charlie knows that if he did, we would quickly become a republic.

In 2014 we toured Canada from the west coast to Toronto and then flew to New York and spent a week there. I didn't care for NY much but we did see many of the great tourist sites. It is an amazing city, but not the real America. Trump type supporters were not evident in NYC, long before he became President. NYC is a great multicultural city with a dependence on public transport, walking and acceptance. No massive parking lots in NYC. 

Australian, clean, green and lovely. It is for some, but not all. There is poverty in spite of our quite good social security for all and theoretical free medical care. 

A drunk drug addict lying passed out in a gutter will be picked up an ambulance, taken to hospital, treated and here is a difference. His free public hospital treatment was good but he is then referred on to other services at no cost. As I understand his life will be saved in the US at no cost to him, but there is not ongoing public medical care or treatment.  At times here there is a long wait for public health treatment but if it an urgent problem, you will get the best of care by highly qualified specialist doctors at no cost. 

Our private medical care system is terrific, if you can afford it. Even with private health insurance, still you will be so much out of pocket.  

Because of our social security system and health care, there isn't terrible poverty that can be seen in America. Nevertheless we do have people living in poverty here, and homeless people, some by choice, some not. 

We are constantly urged to be philanthropic but we see care for the less fortunate as a government matter and we pay taxes to ensure that the system is maintained.

To actually answer your question Snowy, I live in a very nice part of a greater city of 5 million, but most of greater Melbourne is clean with everyone putting rubbish in the right bins and not dropping rubbish on the street. It is quite a social crime to drop litter and to not pick up after your dog. 

Just a memory, thirty years ago I was at the corner of Brighton Road and Chapel Street and a woman threw rubbish out her car window from the passenger seat. I picked up an aluminium can and I think a cigarette packet and handed them back to her through the car window and I think I said something like, You must have accidently dropped these. She thanked me for returning her rubbish. I've never seen such a disposal of rubbish since.

I hate tipping, although I do it at times here when someone goes beyond the normal expectation, as long as they are not cloying as we experienced in New York, that is being nice with the hope of good tip. When a waitress leans over you to serve you your meal with three quarters of her tits exposed an inch from your face, well, not great. Wait staff here would be paid about AU$24 an hour. Not a fortune but nearly an adequate wage. The pay may seem high here, but costs are high too. 

I disliked in the US that the price on products to buy were not what you were charged at payment at the register. This tax, that tax and the default voluntary environmental tax in New York State, bah. Some here press for small government but most recognise there are good reasons for our government to look after the environment, the health of its citizens, and their living standard. 

It is hard to judge on prosperity. Our wage levels sound comparatively high, but our cost of living is high.

We are a bit like Britain in our traditions, socially perhaps a bit like Canada and and we take in a lot of US culture. We take both the best and worst from these countries. But with extraordinary immigration levels, our traditions are changing. 

I can't get past guns in the US. Here you could be a weird statistic as a normal law abiding citizen and be shot by a gun. Criminals here do seem to have access to guns, but normal people don't. I lost a US blog friend by asking her if she could really shoot a person if that person invaded her property. That she and her husband had guns for self defence at home surprised me. The numbers of mass shootings in the US is beyond the pale, and so common they barely make the world news. A mass shooting in Prague certainly made the world news. Do Americans have any idea where Prague is located on a world map?

To summarise, we have heaps of problems in Australia, and we have gritty areas but nothing like that in America. Today I walked along a narrow city lane created because of a building project and it stank of stale urine and had horrible graffiti on hoardings. 

The vicious division present now in the US is hard to comprehend. No matter who the Democrat leader is for your next election, I hope the US rejects all things Trumpian and far right ultra conservative bible bashing hypocritical bastards, women included. 

MAGA has had the opposite effect to what was intended by its name. The world sees it as a backward step.

I am not sure if I really answered your question Snowy, but they are my thoughts. Australia is an ok place but does have its own issues.  My best wishes to you and Peggy, along with your cats.