New global rankings for standard of living

[Angela Harlem]

#2, can I hear an AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE, OI OI OI!!

#1 in education, and people complain!

They complain because our education system is frightening. Have you taken a gander at the public system, or alternatively run screaming from the bonds of private? I want to see global rankings on numeracy and literacy standards before I'll gleefully cheer some ranking like this.


... Also, don't start me on the waiting lists for public health, and the funding shenanigans that is both federal and state health.

 

[65980]

Australia's everything is great right now, but it must be said that Auz is kind of a ticking environmental time-bomb. Should the population of Auz (from immigration) keep increasing, and if the temperatures continue to heat up globally, and if ranchers and so on are allowed to keep doing old-skool farming techniques (for which there is great public tolerance in Auz), then Australia is in huge trouble in the near future. It will be hardest hit of almost all places on earth if Global Warming accelerates (admittedly that's a big "if").

 

[HyperU2]

Now if they'd just stop being scared of a little video game.

Left 4 Dead 2 "Banned" In Australia [Update] - Left 4 Dead 2 - Kotaku

 

[dan_smee]

They complain because our education system is frightening. Have you taken a gander at the public system, or alternatively run screaming from the bonds of private? I want to see global rankings on numeracy and literacy standards before I'll gleefully cheer some ranking like this.


... Also, don't start me on the waiting lists for public health, and the funding shenanigans that is both federal and state health.

I proudly came through the public system. I am after all only 23, so it wasnt too long ago either. Our education system became firghtening to those who expect australia to be a superpower. We need to realise that we have to try and make our affairs as good as possible here and not worry about those expectations. Ether way, these rankings (which are based on access to education and standards) show that people who think our education system is frightening need to actually compare ourselves to a global standard. What do you base 'frightening' on?

I think in the last 15 years we suffered significantly as a nation with education due to the HECS fiasco. Keating introduced HECS as a small fee to pay for a place to be made for the next year. It was a way of maintaining excellent tertiary standards without significantly raising taxes or draining the public purse. Howard abused that system. People should not have to pay up to $100,000 for higher education. It turns people from low socio-economic areas away (which I think was part of the point) and hinders our nation because we don't get as many people wanting to be doctors (which flows on to the health system, which is poor, but improving).