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Comment by madair | Hacker News Reader

Well I know that the thing that I'm making fun of is 40 years of schoolkids, including myself...IN AUSTRALIA, no less...reminded frequently in school to live in fear from terror falling from the skies of bullshit enemies designed exclusively for their ability to provide 50+ percent of our tax dollars to the military complex.

That's quite a funny joke if you think about it.

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It's easy to trivialise things after the fact, but it is not irrational to fear nuclear war or authoritarian states.

Australians are taxed far too much, but have never been taxed at 50% in a time far I know of. Perhaps during wartime.

What do you mean when you say 'designed exclusively'. Surely not that nationalist authoritarian states with nuclear weapons and decades of stand-off are the result of an Australian government conspiracy to give night terrors to children?

"provide 50+ percent of our tax dollars to the military complex."

I think he meant that a lot of his tax dollars went to the military (or maybe he was talking about Americans?), not that he was taxes at a rate of 50%.

The top Australian tax rate is near-as-dammit to 50% (47% last I checked, plus 1.5% "because we can" levy). I think the great-grandparent was implying that 50% of his taxes went to the military though, which is completely false; it's closer to eight percent.

I am also American. Americans spend more than 50% of their taxes on the military, and I pay taxes here.

I am not trivializing the danger of nuclear war or authoritarian states. My point is to clarify that humor does not imply triviality, in my case on this subject it implies anger.

IN AUSTRALIA, no less...reminded frequently in school to live in fear from terror falling from the skies

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylab

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drop_bear

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