this post was submitted on 18 Oct 2023
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My favourite response to the referendum was that it was a waste of time and money
Yeah that's a really weird response, considering having the referendum was literally a major election promise.
It's also like peanuts on the nation state level. Like one of my neighbours complains about what the 4 million dollars on the yes campaign could have done and it's like, well, not much?
Obviously it's enough to change the lives of like 40 people dramatically but that's a) not a lot and b) not how it would be used. We regularly spend BILLIONS repairing roads, subsidising millionaires, subsidising landlords, shit we lit several billion on fire just to appease the usa and get their subs.
I don't think people grasp that the difference between a million and a billion is a billion dollars. Or that the state of Australia spends about 700 billion in tax revenue (which is already kinds laughably low on the big end of town with a lot going straight back in upper class welfare) every year.
Yeah it's pretty frustrating. I get annoyed when there's some hit piece that's like "$pieceOfCrucialLifeImprovingInfrastructure to cost 10 million". So? shit costs money, some people spend that much on a fucking house + mortgage as private individuals. Meanwhile there's some slightly widen a road project next to it which will cost 2 billion and serve like optimistically 10 times as many people and have higher maintenance costs.
Shit like public transport, cycle ways, clean water in rural areas, healthcare etc get hit by this shit all the time and it's nonsense.
Its a very strange comment to make to, do we only count successful things as money well spent? The waste in reality comes from the fact that at some point (maybe a decade or 2 later) we are going to have to do it again rather than having just got it right this year