I point that out a great deal.

While not on direct assistance such as these programs, we do benefit from ACC (our national health care system here), as well as education subsidies. In NZ, all schools are supported by the government. ALL of them. Which means that the private school that my son goes to is a "special character" school and as such, they charge "special character donation." this donation is tax deductable and they also can't force you to pay it. Our school has $500 mandatory, non-tax deductable "processing fee" -- which is essentially what constitutes the tuition for the school. Everything else counts as "fund raising."

this means that in stead of staying in the US and paying $6k/annum for DS's schooling at this age, $10k/annum during grades, and $14k annum junior high and onwards, I pay $500 minimum and they "ask" that you donate $2k more per year (or more if you'd like).

The fact that it's tax deductible too makes it something that the government subsidizes again. There are lots of other ways, too, of course -- roads and police forces, and so on. But food is not subsidized or modestly so, same with power and gas.

I laugh when my friends in the US complain about the price of gas (and usually blame obama for some ignorant reason), liking pictures like "Like if you think gas should cost this much!" and showing a sign from the 1990s when gas was $.89/gal. They complain that -- in their area --it's over $4 per gallon!

oh no! It's over $9/gal here now. And honestly, we don't complain. NZ is heading toward (and preparing for) peak oil. They've been researching how to manage it for the last 5 years, and they've been decreasing the oil subsidy in order to ease people into using less petrol over time. And, people have responded overall. The only major problem is rural bus routes/driving routes and the cost of setting up the other transportation needs in/around cities in addition. So, there are several issues with which they are contending, but yeah.

I keep pointing out that the price of gas has a lot to do with the value of the dollar as compared to back then, the shifting cost and it's relationship to OPEC (and war, etc), the relative supply/demand issues independent of OPEC etc, and so on and so forth.

No, it's really obama's fault (or whomever is president). And gas "should be" only $.89 per gal. Right?

Everyone's a welfare queen these days. LOL