US economics: One big Ponzi scheme

Its a sad state of affairs.

While slightly different in Australia we unfortunately have a very similar system (though I don't understand it as well as most of you on this thread).

I happen to live in Perth (Western Australia), one of the more isolated cities on Earth. Also one of the most highly taxed places on earth.

We basically get hit three times:

1. Transport costs to import fuel, food (even though we grow our own high quality grain and ship it to China) and other goods (Like Nike shoes etc) means prices are just higher than the rest of the country. More oil used to get here = higher price. Overall Australians pay a lot more for food than Americans from what I understand, even more since the recent floods and cyclones.

2. Income Tax. Every Government's favourite revenue source. In fairness they have to spend a lot on roads etc but that is a similar setup to what a previous poster was talking about (Borrowing off the Fed). On the other hand, we spend a ridiculous amount on War, much like America. I think the massive mining industry in WA (shipping heaps of metal to China) has also resulted in a higher tax rate to help out the rest of the country economically, but I'm not 100% on that.

3. "Goods and Services Tax" (GST). Basically an extra tax that got slapped on almost everything across Australia a few years back. It was justified by telling us that income tax would be reduced, but that never happened.

So yeah, we basically have to work more/harder to support global corporations to make massive profits. Growing food and livestock and exporting it to other countries, only to import the same type of food back again is absolute insanity. Selling our natural resources overseas to poorer countries and buying back products when producing it in our own country would stimulate our economy is insanity.

At the same time we are all equally as guilty as Americans of supporting this system. We still buy those Nike shoes, eat imported food and are hopelessly dependant on oil like the rest of the world. Besides being slaves to full-time labour we have a pretty comfortable life and while the fear level is increasing exponentially its nowhere near as bad as it seems to be in America right now (from an outsiders perspective).

Apologies if this was too off topic - just wanted to point out that you are not alone in this ponzi scheme - Julia Gillard (our PM) is still blindly following Obama's lead as he dives down the rabbit hole