"So why is he so popular? Part of the trouble is that it's a buy-now-pay-later scheme in Australia. All businesses are getting paid to be closed or to make up the gap.

That's nice. Until we have to pay it back - with two of Australia's top three main earners (both non-essentials for the customers) - foreign students and tourism - smashed for the foreseeable future. "

This is going on in the US as well. Trump, in the same wisdom that led him to multiple bankruptcies before somehow becoming president in spite of losing the popular vote, has put a furlough on federal social security income tax, which equals something like 8.5% of income. So everyone is going to see their net income go up by 8.5% until the end of the year, at which time is all has to be paid back in addition to normal taxes, which means our net income will eventually be reduced by 8.5% or, put another way, that just our SS tax will be a whopping 17% after the election in November.

It's the most insane, manipulative, irresponsible, idiotic move imaginable. And yet, a significant percentage of Americans are just stupid enough, because the shitty US education system never bothered to teach them basic math let alone critical thinking, to be swayed by this horseshit.

I think we're reaching a point in history where technology is winning, meaning that the rich and powerful can use technology to manipulate the poor, weak, and stupid like never before. A democracy, especially now, needs not only an informed public, but a public capable of analyzing that information. What we're seeing is the information being manipulated beyond the ability of the public to critically evaluate it. As a result, democracy is indeed disintegrating, or, more precisely, being dismantled or perhaps made impotent.