Middle Class Lands...

Hey,

So after spending some time in both Australia and New Zealand, i haven't seen that much extragrent riches nor that much extreme poorness. Yep you have the homeless in both countries but thats not an indiciment of the countries wealth rather a few individuals who have fallen on hard times.

I was on a boat cruise in Sydney and the thing the tour person kept on pointing out was like well on the right you have like Russle Crowe's flat which cost like 10 million dollars, or here is Rupert Murdochs (owner of News International) or Nicole Kidman, basically every rich or famous Australian but if you look at the places i mean some are nice but there not like grand homes most of them,alot are penthouse apartments on the harbour front, anyway if you were walking by you wouldnt be able to tell its someone famous or rich really, like well off yes but not billionaire or anything standard which they are.

That may have to do with the culture of the aussies and new zealanders as they dont appear to be that ostentatious as i have only seen one ferrari whilst i have been out here, a friend told me that was due to the high foregin car taxes as alot of cars here are locally made and are therefore considerably cheaper.

At the other end of the scale there are people who dont have like amazing jobs but manage to live very comfortably, like for example a friends extended family work in a department store here like say Debenhams in the UK or like bloomindales or something in the US, anyway both parents worked in the store since they moved to Oz, and from working there they have a nice house in the suburbs, 2 cars, managed to send their 2 kids to University, all from that job, and i think there is few countries you could do that but because everyone is looked after for in the society with beneficial employment terms it means more people can live comfortably.

For me i think the relatively low crime rate is a result of this social balance that they try to achieve, if you manage to wipe out discontent/poverty then crime as a result will fall and that is what i have seen here, its not completely eradicated by any means but say walkiing around a big city at night, i feel alot safer in Sydney, Auckland or Melbourne than say i would in Paris, New York or London.

Anyway i will leave with with something quite cool i found about the society's mindset is that the money here is waterproof, its made of like plastic material and so if you get into the water it wont be damaged.

Thanks

Stormy