Not sure if you're just interested in Australia, or actually living here?
A Medicare card will get you inpatient hospital care totally free, whether that's getting a gash stitched up in an ER, a drug eluting stent or defibrillator (contrary to a previous post, public patients get the Rolls Royce models) months of chemotherapy for any cancer, a kidney or liver transplant or a premmie baby months of care in a NICU. You will wait months or years if you want a hip replacement, prostate bore-out or cataract surgery. If you're fat and want lap banding, go on a friggin diet.
Seeing doctors out of the hospital system will cost you, maybe $20-200 out of pocket depending on whether it's a basic primary care consult or a specialist. Market forces dictate some radiology and pathology services are free, others out of pocket depending on the local competition. Drugs are subsidised - cost about $30 for a script, a bit more than what I paid in the US.
30% "buy" private health insurance out of their own pocket. It doesn't come with your job like in US. It costs about $5000 pa for a family. I think my contribution when I worked in US was about $3000, and my employer contributed $30 000 to my private health bill!
Our income tax rates are relatively high, especially at the top end. As some people point out, we don't have all the state and local income taxes that you guys do, so it actually doesn't work out THAT much higher. But as a country we are far too reliant on personal income tax for govt revenue, this balance has been changing but we need a broader tax base (corporates, consumption) to take the burden off the general wage earner, including high income wage earners who don't have clever accountants, but just choose to work hard.
Cricket = baseball. Rugby (union and league) = NFL in terms of physicality. AFL = NFL in terms of only being played in one country. Union = private school, and is a bit more complex tactically like NFL. League = public school, and is a bit "simpler" (sorry).
Don't really care about Russell Crowe, other than to say he is a pretty kickarse actor, he's good at his job so good on him as far as I'm concerned.
Summer Christmas is great. I did enjoy my two white Christmases in US too. A strange combination of beer, cold seafood and salad, and more traditional British hot dishes (turkey, roast pork, ham) a bit like Thanksgiving.
Indigenous Australians have been very hard done by, they are very disadvantaged, some of this is self inflicted but most of it is white man's fault (and I am a right winger). Their health standards are disgraceful. Both left and right wing governements are to blame. They own big ******* mines, national parks and environmental resorts, not trashy casinos. Except in Queensland where the left wing government did the dirty on the indigenous people in Nth Qld for a grubby little voting deal with elite latte sipping communist greens in inner city Brisbane, but that's another story.
US entertainment dominates Australian TVs and cinemas. It is not an exaggeration to say the US have achieved more with their entertainment industry than their military every will, in influencing the world.
I lived in America for 2 years while doing fellowships. Boston and NY. Travelled to Texas, Nawlins, Vegas, San Fran, LA and New England. It is a wonderfully diverse and incredible country. Our Prime Minister John Howard had a saying "the things that unite us are greater than the things that divide us" in reference to divides within our country. I believe Barack Obama says something similar. The same could be said for our two countries. Living there I noticed more similarities than difference. People love their families and close friends. They love their country. They love holidays, social activities, hobbies, etc. They want the best for their kids, and probably don't look after their elderly generation as well as oither cultures. The vast majority of humans are courteous, responsible and civil minded. I have extremely fond memories of America and Americans. I think they are misunderstood, just as the French, the British, the Israelis, the Palestinians...
The differences? Americans work VERY hard, too hard in my opinion, but I really respect them for that. Work tends to dominate their lives more than in Aus. They are probably more ambitious. Depending on which way you look at it, we're either lazier, or have a better worl life balance (although by all reports Australia is still a hard working people comapred to Europe).
America, despite being very libertarian, also has a strong authority structure. Even the bitch in the ticket booth at a train station is the ticket nazi, that's her little space and you have to do it her way. Australians have this rebellious anti-authority trait which comes from most of us being convicts and rebelling against the British authority structure. We don't even respect our Prime Minister, whereas your President seems to be revered / respected even if their policies are unpopular.
Religion. I'm Catholic, I go to mass at Christmas, Easter and I'm trying to go more often on normal Sundays. I try to be a good person. But it doesn't dominate my life or identity. Religion really is big in the States. Are you Jewish, are you Evangelical, are you Mormon? It seems more tied up with a person's identity, and it comes thru into politics, which I don't like.
Politics - deep down we're both quite conservative countries, but certainly US is far more to the Right. Issues like abortion, gun control, etc just don't rate a mention here. Taxes, health care, education, etc are more relevant issues. I myself am a Conservative voter, but would not vote Republican in the US as I think they're too obsessed with fringe issues, rather than running a decent economy, keeping spending down while still providing good services, etc
We have strong gun control here. Automatic weapons were banned by a conservative government after a massacre in Tasmania - I believe it is still the worst massacre in the world, sadly. As stated you can get guns for other reasons but they are strict. More to the point, it just isn't in the culture. Obviously, criminals have ways of getting these things, so there is still some gun crime.
Basically, the more exposure one has had to different humans, cultures, countries and goverments, the more one realises - I'm not perfect, my culture's not perfect, my country's not perfect and my government's definitely not ******* perfect. If you are actually living in Australia, I'm sure you'll find plenty wrong with our country, little things that annoy you and big things that aanoy you. Arseholes, rude people, bad drivers, the occasional bad customer service operator, weird food that you're not used too... the same happened to us in the US. I hope, overall, you like our country.
Welcome.
Ged
