Careful wolf, you're sounding a bit like buddug. lol

I can guarantee you that 99% of Australians are very happy to be Australians and not Americans btw.

There's nothing to be jealous of.

Nobody says they feel smug or self-satisfied, they just act like... you.

Whatever you say UT.

Come now: how many countries and islands do we get imperial tribute from, eh? How many of these do we colonize these days? I'm listening for the tramping of hordes of settlers and it's so nice and quiet I'm about to go to sleep...:p

How many countries do we lock up their economies into a mercantilist "sell your raw materials only to us, buy manufactured goods of these materials only from us" deal?

Imperialism in large measure springs from a mercantilist economic paradigm. Mercantilism is something we've never really practiced, having gotten too much of a taste of it in the Colonial era, which led directly to the American Revolution -- which in its turn had a great influence on the form and behavior of the British Empire -- rather better, I think, than the behavior of other empires of the last two centuries. Parliament and nation learned something about what not to do by the American example, and it worked rather well -- see Canada, the "pine" part of the "Dominion of palm and pine."

Full-on capitalism in our manner (okay, it's how most humans do capitalism if they at all can) does not encourage imperialism, and is why we're the one non-imperialist great power and superpower.

I don't mind; laughter is a good gift to give -- get a good start on your 2007.

We Americans regard a state of war as an abnormal and unfortunate state of affairs. Which does not make us peaceniks, merely sensible. Not, I think, uniquely so, but sensible nonetheless. Bear in mind wars invariably devour wealth; it's a war-college tenet that the execution, prosecution, and evolution of a war is at bottom economic. The winner, as a rule, is that economy that can endure the greater damage, or suffers the less damage.

Yielding to a temptation:

R. Lee Rman, centurion. :D

You actually believe that Australia would LIKE to be like America?! :eek:
to use the "theyre all descended from criminals" cliche displays a snobbery and unjustified attitude of superiority the world has come to expect from certain people in the US.

Australian culture, and the experience that made it, are indeed similar to the American -- which is why Australians and Americans get on very well together. Consider that both are a fundamentally English society, with English expectations, transported to a very wide, hotter and drier land, with agrarian national beginnings and industrial development later -- both even have less than completely creditable relations with the indigenes. These leave similar stamps upon their peoples. Where American culture diverges from this is that it's more polyglot, each nation having taken respectively different paths there.

And it happens to be about as true in the US case as in the Australian -- see how the state of Georgia was founded. Nor, in either, did the influx end with the end of the penal colony -- what sustained both these nations was the continued seeking of improved opportunity.

Aussies are cooler than Americans, any day.

If there's jealousy, its the OTHER way around.

I can't believe I just read a post by UG without rolling my eyes!

It's a miracle. (sorry UG, but I'm sure you see the humour ;) )

Ibram, I think most Aussies are pretty daggy (self included) actually, but if you think that's cool then that's ok. lol

Miracles provided free of charge, roughly on a monthly to bimonthly basis.

(I mulled over the smilies. I can't pick one.)

Every one's a winner!

Now you see my difficulty!

There's some justice in regarding Americans and Australians (alpha. order, nothing more!) as funny-talking versions of each other.

And both parties have been known to wear broadbrimmed hats -- with good reason!

There's no doubt that American's and Australian's have a lot of similarities in their cultural heritage both as settled countries and also as new nations (in so far as the history of the world goes). Australia doesn't have the climate or resources to support such a population as the US does though. Most of the country is inhospitable and not very pleasant to live in (for white fellas).

Our outlook is a bit different than a lot of other countries though. Maybe that's because of our youth. Still a bit carefree perhaps, but certainly worth knowing.