And to think this thread started with road cameras....
Having spent over two decades in both the US and Australia, can butture you that the USA has far more laws and enforces them more strictly. For instance, one thing that tends to amaze puritanical American tourists is that all beaches in NSW are topless and a few are completely nude. There are no "private" beaches, all are public.
Every pub has poker machines, or what Americans call "slot machines". Several forms of gambling are legal.
The age of consent is 16 years, and condoms are available on supermarket shelves. Some tourists freak out when they see a kid of 11 or 12 buying a pack of condoms.
Doctors can prescribe the pill to females of any age without telling their parents.
When I left the US many years ago most gambling was confined to Nevada, the legal drinking age was 21, and I had never seen anyone nude on a beach.
As to law enforcement, laws in the US are strictly enforced. If a sign in a park prohibits drinking, the law is strictly enforced. Here it isn't. Many if not most parks have a rule against alcohol consumption but have never seen it enforced unless the drinker was causing trouble. If someone wants to sit under a park tree with a bottle of wine and drinks enough to pbutt out for a few hours no one will bother him.
Sydney harbor has many ferry wharves. All have large signs prohibiting fishing from the wharf, and the fishermen use them for shade. Actually the only reason for the signs seems to be to relieve the transport department from legal liability if someone gets their line caught up in a ferry prop. I have never heard of any fisherman asked to leave a wharf, let alone anyone being arrested.
Now, of course, the US may have become a lot freer since I left it, but haven't heard that it has. Many states there still have a rest penalty.
The last person executed in Australia was Ronald Ryan in 1967.
Australia does have tougher anti-discrimination laws than the US does, though.
Writing from misc.survivalism Cheers
Australia
