Early Impressions of Oz

Since Clara and I have been in Australia almost a month, I thought it was time to offer a few thoughts on the 'mandatory' subject, 'How Australia is Different from the USA.'

There's a certain mystique surrounding Australia for Americans.  The place elicits a 'knee jerk' positive reaction from Americans generally.  Although few of us have been here because it's so far away, I've never heard an American who has made the trek, say anything but positive about travelling or living here.  (Okay, I lie; one American friend who visited and returned home with a half-dozen speeding tickets doesn't think he'll come here again...)  And Americans who encounter Aussies outside OZ almost always come away with positive thoughts.  During my military years, I worked with a handful of Aussies - most recently I was deployed to Qatar with an Aussie chaplain - and I agree completely with these sentiments.  The reason, of course, is that the Aussies are just so bloody NICE...after a month here, I cannot recount a person-to-person encounter that was anything but pleasant.  Even my neighbor was smiling when he 'groused' that the American comedian Robin Williams calls Aussies 'Rednecks with a British Accent.' (I assured him that Aussies don't sound British at all...and that to some Americans, 'redneck' isn't necessarily a pejorative.)  Even my son, Eyal, who was pulled over and breathalyzed by the police the other night, descibed the three cops at the stop as 'nice and polite.' (No, he didn't blow positive...)

  

The social landscape seems very similar to that in the USA.  Australia is a diverse, multicultural society, a mecca for immigration.  As in the USA, people generally seem quite tolerant; although they naturally tend to choose their 'mates' from among those that resemble themselves, I see many mixed-race couples and groups of youth unselfconsciously enjoying themselves in public.  That said, one does occasionally hear grumbling from the native born about newcomers grabbing the jobs...and from recent immigrants about how the natives get the best jobs.  But by and large, one finds little obvious evidence of inter-racial tensions.  Muslim women in headscarfs do not seem to draw disdainful looks; they are ubiquitous as are immigrants in various styles of dress native to the places they left.

Australians are struggling with a number of the same social issues that cause tension in the USA.  A big one right now is 'marriage equality,' or the rights of same-sex couples to receive sanction and various social benefits from the state.  The substance of the argument seems similar to that of the same issue in the US, although the tenor of the debate (on both sides of the issue) seems more civil. 

The physical landscape also seems very familiar to an American, especially one who grew up in Florida.  With a generally warm climate (here in Queensland it is subtropical to tropical), Oz often resembles Florida and California, both physically and in the laid-back qualities of those places.  But it seems cleaner and greener.  Well, the 'cleaner' part doesn't extend to Melbourne's rail lines, which are one continuous canvas for graffiti; even the sides of houses facing the tracks have been spray painted with those bold statements.  But otherwise even Melbourne is a relatively clean city; it sort of reminds me of Toronto, but with a warmer climate.

Given the warm climate, it's no surprise that beaches are an important part of the Australian landscape and culture.  The beaches here in southern Queensland resemble those of southern Florida where I grew up.  Farther south in New South Wales, the beaches begin to look like those on the central and northern California coast.  The beaches in South Australia and West Australia are wild and isolated.  We live in a suburb called 'Surfers Paradise' and indeed surfing is a far more popular sport than in the coastal US.  Our son Eyal who has been a lifeguard and lifeguard trainer in the USA, has gotten involved with a surf lifesaving club and is learning rough water lifesaving.  He finds it interesting that lifesaving on Australian beaches is less a profession and more a 'club sport.'  Each local lifesaving club has a clubhouse with a restaurant/pub/gaming room to support the enterprise of surf lifesaving. 

Society here is also somewhat more 'orderly'; Australians have bought into the principle of bigger government and the 'nanny state' that cause so many arguments among Americans.  There is far more regulation of everyday life here.  For example, I noticed signs in Melbourne informing bicyclists that the State of Victoria requires them to wear helmets.  And there are heavy fines imposed for using a cell phone while driving without a hands-free device.  A motorcyclist was caught last week by a traffic control camera, texting while riding; it made the nationwide news, and he was stripped of his license forthwith!

I'm not saying these are bad things; the requirement to wear helmets on bicycles might be a bit much, but given how mny traffic accidents and fatalities are caused by talking and texting drivers in the USA, I don't think heavy fines for those things are such a bad idea.  The difference from the USA seems to be, that Americans generally prefer to sanction the bad result rather than the behavior itself.

Another area of greater government regulation is in the private ownership of firearms.  Because of the heritage of rugged individualism that is a part of the American psyche, any measures however modest to control the ownership of firearms in the USA elicit robust debate.  After all, the right to bear arms is enshrined in our very constitution!  In Australia, it is difficult at best to own any firearm, and the idea of citizens legally carrying concealed is absolute heresy to most Australians.  Recently, two members of the Australian olympic swim team were photographed in a California gun shop, mugging for the camera with pistols and shotguns in their hands, and the photos found their way to Facebook.  They were severely disciplined by the Australian Olympic Committee for this 'incredible transgression'; they will be allowed to compete in London, but will be sent home from the UK immediately after their events; no post-event revelry for them!

Let me go on record by revealing that I held a concealed carry permit in Colorado and often packed an auto-loader while out and about.  Of course, I left all my guns - hand guns and rifles - behind when I came here.  I have to say that, so far, I feel safer here in Australia.  Not so the Australians; despite relatively low incidence of violent crimes here compared to the USA, many Australians feel quite vulnerable.

Australia has a hybrid-type health care delivery system that seems to resemble the system that the new health care law in the USA ('Obamacare') envisions.  There is a state-run system, which they call Medicare, which all citizens and permanent residents are eligible to use unless one is covered by a private health insurance plan.  (We're not covered by Medicare, being temporary residents or .'visitors.')  Most Australians prefer these private plans similar to those that Americans obtain through their employment.  Since Medicare is taxed to the breaking point by demand for services, the government heavily subsidizes one's private health insurance premiums.  Clara and I are paying about $5,000 per year for private health insurance, but a citizen or permanent resident would pay considerably less.  Since we haven't needed to use it yet, I can't compare it to American insurance.  Because we were covered by Tricare, the health system for the military in the US, I have no point of comparison with the costs of insurance here.  Australians with whom we've discussed this issue assert that they wouldn't be caught dead using Medicare.

Australian reality gives a glimpse into the future should Social Security be 'privatized' in the USA.  Everybody receives an additional nine percent of their pay in 'superannuation,' the equivalent of an employer contribution to a 401(k) plan.  The money goes into a private plan of the individual's choice; they set up these plans at banks and brokerage houses, choose the kinds of investments and manage their accounts.  It seems to work.

After a month we're still in 'sitcker shock' over the prices here; just about everything seems more expensive than in the USA; either marginally or significantly...sometimes spectacularly so.  Food, especially fresh produce, seems to cost at least twice as much.  But eating out in restaurants only seems a little more expensive when one considers that the tax is already included in the menu prices and one doesn't tip here.

Petrol (automotive gasoline) is frightfully expensive in comparison; the other day I filled our car's tank for $141.9 per liter with a four-cent store loyalty discount.  With the Aussie Dollar trading on rough parity with the US Dollar, that means I paid about $5.37 per US gallon.  That's high.  The Aussies, though don't seem to drive any less than Americans on a day-to-day basis, and while a larger proportion drive small cars, large cars and SUV's are very much in evidence.  We are driving a Mitsubishi Magna, a car of similar size and weight to the Chevrolet Malibu that we drove in the US.  I would personally opt for a smaller car, but it is provided through my employment.

Part of the higher price structure for most things is attributable to the higher costs associated with labor here.  The minimum wage is somewhat higher, and the employed must be provided with benefits that are discretionary in the USA.  For example, a month's paid vacation per year.  There is no 'sub-minimum' wage for certain classes of workers.  In America, fellow conservatives sometimes rail against these sorts of constraints against the free labor market, prefering that forces of supply and demand keep things in an equilibrium.  They argue that such regulation drives up unemployment, especially unskilled unemployment.  The usual example given as a warning is the fast food industry; if labor costs should soar through increased regulation and thus increase the prices of meals, countless jobs would be lost as people scaled back their patronage of such businesses.  I've always accepted this prediction as being likely true, but from this side of the Pacific I'm not sure; fast food outlets her are as ubiquitous here as in the USA, and a 'value meal' that would cost six or seven dollars in the US generally costs ten or 11 dollars here.  I haven't eaten US-style fast food since I arrived here (but I've eaten enough fish and chips for a lifetime), but if those restaurants are out there in such large numbers, then obviously someone is eating there...

I'll wait for another opportunity to comment on the differences in Judaism and the Jewish establishment here; that will require a long post in and of itself!  The whole religious landscape here seems less robust than in the USA, although Australia overall seems more religious than Europe.

Overall we're enjoying our stay here.  It's a lovely country full of lovely people who seem to enjoy their prosperity.  We look forward eagerly to our three (or more) years here and welcome the adventures that may come our way.