To My Dear American Colleagues...

[@realAzhyaAryola]

While I have breath, I will voice and show my opposition to the extremists. I won't give up too easily on the US of A. It is not hopeless. Conservative American has very deep roots.

[@realAzhyaAryola]

Another born on the 4th of July...Happy Birthday, Malia Obama!



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[Bricktop]

Yes, it is.

No, its Independence Day. The day America declared independence from Britain. Despite the fact that British taxpayer funds built most of it to that point.

[@realAzhyaAryola]

It's the birth of our independence and that's what we celebrate on the 4th of July so we say, Happy Birthday, America!

[Bricktop]

OK. Its your birthday...

[asal]

I am very grateful the United States is to our south.  Excellent neighbours/neighbors.

[Anonymous]

Yes, it is.

No, its Independence Day. The day America declared independence from Britain. Despite the fact that British taxpayer funds built most of it to that point.

Would that be true of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and India too?

[Bricktop]

Not Australia.



Our Australia Day represents the day the First Fleet arrived from the UK.



For obvious reasons, our aborigines are less enthusiastic.

[Anonymous]

Not Australia.



Our Australia Day represents the day the First Fleet arrived from the UK.



For obvious reasons, our aborigines are less enthusiastic.

But wouldn't British taxes helped to pay for a lot of what was built in Australia before it became an independent nation?

[Wulf]

Not Australia.



Our Australia Day represents the day the First Fleet arrived from the UK.



For obvious reasons, our aborigines are less enthusiastic.

But wouldn't British taxes helped to pay for a lot of what was built in Australia before it became an independent nation?

First of all what our esteemed Aussie colleague has stated was not entirely true. The American colonies may have been originally financed by British government and more so British corporate entities but the majority of Colonial America was financed by the colonial economy. By the 1750s the American colonies were almost entirely self sufficient. In fact trade with the mother country was rather lopsided in favor of the Americans. By the time of the 7 Years War the British economy was very much dependent on colonial trade.



With the French defeated, the British government could turn its attention to tightening control over the colonies. It needed revenues to pay for the war, and looked to the American colonies for that. Also, the colonial trade had become more and more important to the British economy. Trade with the colonies that amounted to about 500,000 pounds in 1700 was worth several million pounds by 1770. It can be argued that the US war for independence wasn't as much a military victory over the English as it was a financial victory. The fact remains that the British were forced to sue for peace because without the ability to suck money out of the colonies they could not continue the war. By the mid 1700s any so called British taxpayer revenues used to build the colonies was far offset by the economic benefit that Britain received from trade with the colonies. The loss of the American colonies was a huge financial blow to the British treasury and economy.



Also just as a fuel for thought, it can be said that the social and economic hardships placed on the British economy by the loss of the American colonies was one of the catalysts for the forced influx of the bottom of British society into Botany Bay. Social and economic changes in Britain that had been brewing since the 7 Years War with France came to a head shortly after the American Revolution. England no longer had the southern American colonies to dump the criminal element and poor so they were forced to look elsewhere in the empire in which to offload their growing mass of undesirables. Australia made the perfect dumping ground.

[Bricktop]

Yeah.



Thanks for that.



Nonetheless, we are avenged.



We gave you Mel Gibson.

[@realAzhyaAryola]

But remember what he said about the Jews?!

[Wulf]

Yeah.



Thanks for that.



Nonetheless, we are avenged.



We gave you Mel Gibson.

Oh no you can't claim that. We gave Mel to you first and you had the less than stellar manners to regift him back to us. Thanks much.  



Tell you what, we will call it even if you take Rebel Wilson back ASAP.

[Frood]

Yeah.



Thanks for that.



Nonetheless, we are avenged.



We gave you Mel Gibson.

Oh no you can't claim that. We gave Mel to you first and you had the less than stellar manners to regift him back to us. Thanks much.  



Tell you what, we will call it even if you take Rebel Wilson back ASAP.

Rebel is yours for eternity now. We don't offer refunds or exchanges on that one.

[Anonymous]

Yeah.



Thanks for that.



Nonetheless, we are avenged.



We gave you Mel Gibson.

For a minute, I thought you meant Mel Gibson who used to post here when he was drunk.