Comments by "ChineseKiwi" (@ChineseKiwi) on "Second Thought" channel.

  1. In Australia, there are mandatory pension contributions that are *on top* of wages. It is currently minimum 10.5% of wages, going up to 12% by 2025. Every worker gets this, even fast food workers. This is then invested by an investment company and portfolio of your choice. Iceland, the Netherlands and Denmark have similar schemes. It is more in reality the US being 50 years behind the times. Again. Ironically, as a lot of this is invested into US equities, it is Americans indirectly paying for these citizens' retirement via their stock prices and dividends.
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  2. And because of that, the FDA recently has approved importation of those generics from China. This is more a case of over reliance on one supplier.
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  3.  @TheOfficialArthurMorgan  or both extremes bad, middle good mmmmmk. You are literally using the Internet based on socialism based things like net neturality, and open source software, set regulations and standards and freeware. Try again. - Also a badly led government command economy with a LOT of corruption and financial mismangement in Venzuela isn't 'socialism'.
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  4. Meanwhile in Australia, one of the Labor Party's policies is to get rid of the significant consultant glut and hire cheaper full time government workers. They are favoured to win the election this upcoming weekend.
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  5. that is illegal.
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  6.  @darksid007  Been there, done that. Australian pension fund returns have averaged 8.9% return in premixed 'high growth' portfolios the last 29 years, including a -21% drop in 2008 due to the Global Financial Crisis.
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  7. Yep. I so could have easily been born an American in Miami if my Dad took up a job as a seafood chef at a casino there. He had the choice between Miami; Sydney, Australia and Christchurch, New Zealand. He chose Christchurch because that's where his friends were. Looking back, hindsight being 20/20, Sydney (when he immigrated in the mid 80s) would have been the best choice but Christchurch is far from bad. I would be broke and/or dead in the US because of the lack of universal healthcare.
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  8. Canada is USA-lite for ALOT of things in reality.
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  9.  @리주민  which was an absolutely disgusting act. We voted them out for a reason. That said, it wasn't "before you get any benefits".
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  10.  @MajorPickleSwag  they are more than compensated well. Australia is the direct opposite of the US wage law wise.
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  11. Remember your ancestors crossed the Bering land bridge to seek a better life. Seeking a better life is human.
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  12. Gonna need some sources bro. This gonna be good.
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  13.  @Freerunemem  see my post. It's fine if you are looking at 35-45 year horizons. And you nominate who gets the funds when you pass away.
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  14. Nothing to do with population. PER CAPITA. Know what that means.
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  15. Only it isn’t. The numbers have been crunched. In Australia, literally the best place in the world for solar, even if you make an unrealistic scenario of a 90% renewables generation share (thus more batteries required) by 2030, it still has a cheaper total generation cost than fossil fuels. Also concentrated solar says hi regarding night power.
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  16.  @jLL-r9s  Also the "American Left" has proven to be socially progressive, but economically conservative e.g. the American left's hypocrisy surrounding housing policies as shown by Johnny Harris and the New York Times' video on it, both far from right wing.
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  17. 11:52 - Yeah, China really isn't. There have massive systematic problems there as well, such as the current ponzi scheme of real estate "investment" collapsing. Evergrande was the biggest but definitely not the only one, and the over reliance on Australian natural resources to fuel this real estate bubble and to literally power homes as most of China's electricity is still coal and global coal prices has rocketed this year, compounded by politically motivated banning of Australian coking coal, used to make steel, grinding the Chinese economy to a halt as electricity generators were designed to only process this Australian coal as Australian coal is the most refined and best quality in the world. Within China, despite the system, there are many protests about this, out of desperation, such as a massive loss of money in these failed real estate 'investments' or well, people are cold and can't afford heating.
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  18. 1) This is not how collective bargaining works around the world. I can explain it in detail if you wish.
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  19. Second Thought forgot a BIG BIG elephant in the room: Why do you think like universal healthcare and education is gated behind the armed forces in the US, when it isn't anywhere else?
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  20.  @andresandog  today actually ha!
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  21. Nuclear takes 10 years to build on average (IEA stats), is a nightmare to decommission cost wise, with an average cost of US $330 million and that if there is few complications, otherwise if there are, try towards $1 billion. In 2013 dollars. It actually needs to be near a water source as well. Not to mention, like fossil fuels, uranium is a globally traded commodity that is subject to world demand and geopolitical whims. Not to mention the bridging of waiting for the nuclear power plant to be built means often more bridging with more expensive fossil fuels, significantly negating any economic or environmental benefit. And even with closed cycle nuclear, it still produces waste that needs to be stored for 500 years. At least. Nuclear is not a cure all and the best and cheapest option literally depends on geography and national grid generation design are designed as such.
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  22. And governments around the world are giving incentives as such. Australia’s main source of renewable generation is literally rooftop solar feeding back into the grid
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  23. Only that is false. In reality, American insurance companies approve or deny FAR more
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  24.  @TheofficialDropthatbeat  that isn't how stocks work. Do you know what dividends are? They are literal payouts **of profits**. Ignorance of a thing isn't just a right wing thing. Not to mention it isn't just stocks, but investments into say infrastructure or commercial property if you want.
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  25.  @jLL-r9s  thus why investment companies do the investing for you. The ones involved in investing pension contributions are highly regulated in Australia. Please read my post properly.
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  26.  @darksid007  profits are actually, for better or worse, higher than ever and You have ethical investment options. You can also think of this as the more diversified, less riskier "workers owning the means of production" as well, as it's literally other workers' money being invested.
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  27.  @uhohhotdog  it is very different. It is mandatory and on top of wages unlike 401k, it is not employer tied like 401k, if you move jobs, you can stay with the same management fund, more portfolio options, more diversification in those options, far harder to get out, Australian ones often come with insurance.
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  28. He never said it was. However organised collective power is always more powerful than an single individual.
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  29. The US Army and its generals has stated that it did not need more tanks but Congress bought them anyway. At least twice. You literally have billions of dollars of tanks sitting in warehouses. Second Thought didn't mention the savings closing unused bases with no operational or strategic value either. You can literally have a MORE powerful and cheaper armed forces but the military industrial complex won't allow it. US military secrets have been stolen via the hacking of third party contractors who skimped on IT security. There is a reason why China and Russia have state owned military companies.
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  30. Criticising a system does not mean all of the system is bad. Less stupid.
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  31. or because they should be held to a higher standard as they have money to reform and do things properly.
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  32. hard evidence or this gets the hose - yours, rest of the world. The stats (apart from the obvious fascist leanings) show Trump was terrible. I assume you actually read the climate change report.
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  33.  @der_ludo5460  The government pay really well and has has decent benefits such as more employer contributions towards your pension fund. There will still be the need for contractors time to time but not because they need to fake the numbers in regards to staff numbers to satisify a fake goal budget wise like it often is.
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  34. brainwashing essentially.
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  35. leftist? It is literal hard facts.
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  36. you can afford universal healthcare...in the military. Notice how it is gated behind that? It is coerced national service.
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  37. Germany literally have made it work. You know there are real time generation stats these days right? Germany was still dumb shutting down their nuclear for political reasons but Germany literally halves their generation cost when the renewables crank up
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  38. tbh, you should contact Second Thought about your story and whether he is interested in it.
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  39. Yes and no. But what is agreed upon is European colonisation was devastating. The reality was more complex and you cannot lump different Australian Aboriginals groups together in this context as each group had it's societal values. It is like saying "European culture". Some Australian Aboriginal groups were more egalitarian than others and on different aspects.
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  40. Also there was ALOT of of established trade between each other.
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  41. Another one: Most of the people that is owned by private hands in England are descendents from William the Conqueror's army, who invaded in 1066. OLD MONEY IS VERY REAL.
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  42. this is not how anything works. Deflation is literally worse and causes more problems than high inflation.
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  43.  @nunyabusiness8538  I’m literally sourcing from the IEA and IAEA smart one 👏🫢😂
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  44.  @nunyabusiness8538  means nothing. Generation cost does.
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  45.  @nunyabusiness8538  the International Nuclear Agency is a lobbyist for renewables? You hit your head somewhere? 😂
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  46.  @fabianodendrella5526  1) it is 10 years on average based upon IAEA data. 2) 45% of uranium comes from Kazakhstan. Uranium spiked in price during their protests 3) every energy generation infrastructure has an end of life 4) that small amount of waste still has to be stored for 500 years. At least.
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  47.  @fabianodendrella5526  1) reserves are one thing, actual extraction are another. You know this as of course, it needs to be profitable to do so. All this indicates is a lot of those reserves aren’t and in order to be, uranium prices have to increase, which negates the point of nuclear. 2) technically it could go 80 years, but so can early 90s cars, but they cost far more to run. Extending the life of a nuclear power station is US $500 million to a $1 billion per GW per 10 years. 4) I said. 500 years. At least. The thing is with other waste you can isolate them much more easily and cheaper. What matters is economics in the end, not pure technical strength. There’s a reason why thorium reactors aren’t a thing yet, despite it being far technically better than uranium.
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  48. The punishment is time and restriction of freedom of movement and things you can do for a set period of time. Like it should be.
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  49. The thing is, taking care of the crisis IS PROFITABLE. Here's a line that should shock you if you are from the US: "Packed shopping malls and bumper consumer spending (in Australia) seem unbelievable in the context of the worst pandemic in 100 years. But boosted savings from working at home, government assistance and reduced travel have primed households to splurge at Christmas." - Australia had record spending at Xmas because it was safe to do so.
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  50.  @DavidJBradshaw  everywhere that has decent Sun, like South west USA has similar numbers. It is ALWAYS about geography. Nuclear is not a cure all
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