indianajdp wrote:
Australians, he said, had no flag of their own; a weak sense of nationhood; no prime minister in the Lodge, with John Howard living in Sydney; no national bushfire or water plans, even with the worst drought in history; and no "broad knowledge of nation in public discourse or popular culture". Australians had replaced "Empire with Yanks" after 1942, and the country retained a "quasi-colonial status"...
He said Australia's passage to American statehood would not be difficult under its Constitution....
He listed the advantages of American statehood for Australia as:
* Access to the world's best higher education system.
* Large savings on embassies.
* Being part of the world's most effective defence system.
* Merger with the world's strongest currency.
* Being part of the world's biggest economy.
* A constitution bringing a republic and a Bill of Rights.
* Fielding teams in the US national basketball, baseball and gridiron competitions.
Wow, I think this is a first. Being mentioned in the subject line!
Guy goes away for a week and becomes a talking point...
Ok, just a few things on that so called expert
.
We do so have our own flag. It just happens to have the UK flag in the corner. By that rationale, New Zealand doesn't have its own flag either.
The Constitution may allow it, but it would take a majority of voters in a majority of states to pass, and that ain't happening in a country that didn't vote to become a republic only a few years ago.
As for the so called advantages:
* Access to the world's best higher education system.
Our uni system is about to go the same path as the US - HUGE fees for all courses, even Arts. It was an average of 6-15k for a degree here, soo to be 13-20k. Shocking. I would hardly call it an improvement. However, the reality is we will have the 'improved' eductation system by 2007.
* Large savings on embassies.
What the hell does that mean? Do you ship them over here whole? Or is this a new US foreign policy? If you guys become Americans, we don't need ambassadors anymore! Yay for hegemony!
* Being part of the world's most effective defence system.
Yes, I've seen how effective the US has been in defending the world against the evils of communism in Vietnam, Korea and Cuba. And most recently, I've seen the effectiveness of stopping imaginary weapons of mass destruction in Iraq or wherever they were meant to be.
* Merger with the world's strongest currency.
* Being part of the world's biggest economy.
Do you think this guy is compensating for something? We have a BIG STRONG CURRENCY. I'm sure a nice personality too. Size isn't everything buddy.
* A constitution bringing a republic and a Bill of Rights
Yeah, coz that right to carry arms is really working out for you guys. How many gun related deaths there? And we already have a constitution that implies many of the same rights, but we don't have the same amount of arguments though.
* Fielding teams in the US national basketball, baseball and gridiron competitions.
Ok, I give up! We should soooooo be part of the US.
You guys just want to win an event in the international swimming meets, don't you? Just once....
Sorry, if I sounded a little catty. I do actually find the whole thing hilarious.
Dr David Mosler is so ill-informed to the actual reality of the way things are set up in either country that it is embarrassing.
The truth is, culturally, we are very much like the US as we have many of their influence bombarding us daily via the mass media. In essence, our government IS following US foreign policy at the moment over many issues, but has been burned by it (SEE: Imaginary Weapons of Mass Destruction).
Anyways, in 50 years all of this will be moot as I'll be writing from Sydney, US.
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They couldn't even come up with 10 advantages for the article.
, personally I think the US should annex 
, but that probably won't happen... so I will go back to plotting some get rich quick schemes, in anticipation of this Fall/Holiday season! 