Politics and a small world

We have been listening to both Australia and New Zealand news and if you ignore the accent you would swear you were listening to the evening news back home.  Political parties both blaming each other for the current state of affairs.  Uncontrolled government spending, budgets bloated with entitlements, high unemployment and financial institution failures.  Gas prices off the chart.  We are paying two dollars a liter (a little more than a quart)  We have calculated our petrol costs at $1.96 per mile, yes $1.96 per mile.  We have days where we spend $100 per day in gas otherwise the prices are quite reasonable especially wine where the house wine cost about $4  per glass for house wine.