Americans seem fed-up, bitter and angry

Hello Joe,

I just watched your interview on a morning talk show on Australian television. I was fascinated by what you were talking about in the U.S. I am an American "ex-pat" and have been living in Australia for the past three years with my Aussie husband. Just so you know, you are absolutely right on the money about how Australia is at the back of the bus and the U.S. is seeing the crash first at the front. I try to tell people the road that they (we) are going down but nobody seems to see it or want to see that this is the boom before the bust.

Granted there are definite differences like Medicare and a living minimum wage but with the new laws, there are now loads of loopholes for employers to under-employ workers. Well like me, I'm on a permanent part-time contract and I get paid based on an 18 hour work week BUT if necessary, they can schedule me to work up to 30 hours per week without any change to my pay check. Now to be fair, I "bank" the extra hours and theoretically they have to pay me those hours at the end of the financial year. However, my boss is told to make sure that doesn't happen so suddenly I'll not be scheduled to work until the bank goes back to zero. What's interesting is that I believe that the company I work for is one of the best contracts available and I'm very lucky that my boss doesn't abuse the situation. It's the one thing the government here does not acknowledge and that is the millions of under-employed workers. Sure we have low unemployment but I'd be curious to know the numbers for the under-employed.

I put up with it because I am trying to build a work history here, but I am constantly looking for extra work to make up the difference. Other potential employers, however, all want me to be openly available and are not interested in my need to work two jobs even though they can't offer me more than two to three days per week.

Housing is a problem due to the fact that there are no 30-year home loans and every time the interest rate goes up, so does the re-payment. Many people lose their homes or go into deep debt because of that.

Saying all that, I still think my life here is better then in the US. Medicare is a huge plus (despite all the problems of waiting lists). And at least my hourly wage is $18 instead of $8.

Well anyway, enough of my ranting. I intend to track down your book and give it a good read. I was in the U.S. back in July and I don't know if it's because I've been away and am no longer used to the "American way of life" or because it really has changed. People seem very frustrated, angry, fed-up and bitter and my first thought was due to the war and economy and Bush, etc. It's truly sad.

Thanks for the good work,

Kimberly
Australia

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Kimberly,

Thank you for an inside look at working in Australia.

Upon first arriving in Australia, all I could see were the obvious good things in this society. As in, a bunch of unarmed, healthy people pretty much enjoying life in a free society. But the longer I am here, the more clear it becomes that the nation is steadily going the way of the U.S. In fact, it so resembles the U.S pattern of deterioration it is absolutely eerie. I find working people cannot truly imagine the complete destruction of the social safety fabric they have constructed and paid for over the years, much less within their own lifetimes.  And, much as it happened in America, their system seems to be being dismantled incrementally, bit by bit, through complex legislation being enacted in the background of their lives, orchestrated by global corporate interests. Like you, I see more fairness and value in Australia than I ever saw in the U.S.

But I also see an economy based upon many raw natural resources that are dwindling. It seems to me that Austrailians may be taking a similar ride to that of America. The one for which there is only a one-way ticket toward an ever diminishing future.

Seems like no one is willing to determine a default position while the party is still raging forward.

In art and labor,

Joe