Tuesday morning coffee

Almost as good as the morning coffee was this news article showing that the coalition "government" and Tony Abbott personally are back in the basement on political support - right where a group whose sole claim to fame is promising to do the opposite of Labor deserves to be.

Over the years I have been very much the classic swinging voter, I don't think any of the pricks actually have a complete platform I can support, but yet again the Liberals have trotted out a fundamentally weak leader in Abbott who seems to be little more than a rather nasty little man with few ideas when all the actions are tallied.

I also found this an interesting article.  While I can (very much) see the point that employers eroding salaries or lowballing because there's nothing much else on offer brings down conditions for all (or at least starts the undermining process), this does bring into question whether or not unemployment support is too effective if it is allowing potential employees to be able to afford to not take a job, because it's not one they'd like, or they'd have to travel a bit further to do it, or it doesn't pay as much as they'd like.

I'm not suggesting that anyone should have to up and move to Bahrain, but we can't all drive BMWs to work either.

In some ways I put it down to consumerism and lust for possessions; I know my kid is going to get a very, very rude shock when he gets his first job and discovers that he's not going to be able to afford a V8 Holden sports ute, a 50" flatscreen TV and to eat takeaway every night, and not for some forseeable time either.

Or like the certain young-ish former co-irker who announced a couple of years ago that they were sick of paying rent and were going to buy a house.  I don't think they liked it when I pointed out that they had $500 in the bank, were $5000 upside down on their piece of shit Hyundai, and spent every cent they made on takeaway food and electronic gadgets.  He went green when I pointed out what a mortgage would cost him, and was damn near ill when told he'd need at least a $30,000 deposit due to have precisely zero demonstrable budgeting ability.

If that bloke isn't paying rent until the day he dies I will be very surprised, unless he somehow (don't ask me how) manages to pry himself away from WoW to meet a girl who might have some degree of practicality about her.  I doubt it though.  The only women this bloke will ever meet are of the clan JPG.