[thechat] What?? WHAT?????

Lachlan Cannon luminosity at members.evolt.org
Fri Jun 28 06:27:00 CDT 2002


\isaac\ said:
> Australia is spending $300m on the new F-35 development. A fighter
> plane that, by the time it\'s finished, we might not even choose to
> buy.

not to mention that if we do decide to buy 'em it'll cost us $12 billion.
It's absolutely ridiculous. They have the money to spend on this, but they
have to take money away from health and education. Not that Howard and
friends would notice the education problems since while decreasing education
funding they increase private school funding. It's a private school, for
fuck's sake. It's meant to be a business. If they can't support themselves
then too bad. Hey, the same thing would go for him noticing the health stuff
too, wouldn't it? I wonder if he takes a 30% rebate from his plan.

> What an absolute fucking waste. That $300m should be spent on local R&D
> and manufacturing. Local job creation.

Absolutely.

> And if they absolutely have to fund military hardware, fund an
> Australian company like  www.metalstorm.com -- at least their weapons
> have agricultural and fire-fighting uses.

They shouldn't have to fund it at all. when will they realise that our
country is not able to support itself militarily? We just cannot support a
big enough population to be able to pay for stuff like that. That's why we
need to be spending on the money on grants and that kinda thing for
research. We have the talent for being a first-class r&d nation, and if we
invest in it properly we can export enough technology to then easily be able
to pay for that kinda shit if they have to do it. But anyway, our physical
location and allies are our protection. It's ridiculous trying to protect
the country because it's too damn big with not enough money or people.

> Howard is so intent on trying to make a spot amongst the big boys, but
> I really don\'t see the point. What\'s wrong with being a happy country
> of 20m unthreatened people who don\'t force their policies down the
> throats of disadvantaged countries, etc. I don\'t want to be a larger
> player with influence if that\'s what our influence brings.

+1. We're already doing some kickarse stuff (bacteria to harvest ore,
instead of pollutant chemicals, anyone?). Imagine how much more kickarse
stuff we could do if the government actually helped.

Lach
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