Scotty T
Walks the walk
You don't know that, anything can happen to anyone.
Your idea about housing the poor with your tax break for another tax break, like every government service, can't work at scale.
The election thread - Two middle-late aged white men trying to be blokey and convincing..., same old shit, FFS.
- Thread starter johnny
- Start date
Your idea about housing the poor with your tax break for another tax break, like every government service, can't work at scale.
Squidfayce
Eats Squid
Not everyone would be doing it though as not everyone is so inclined. The point was that as an individual, if you were inclined, you could do more for somone that way then by handing it back to the govt and trusting them to come up with something.
pink poodle
気が狂っている男
Most of those things are of no or little direct use to me, but part of building a better nation. I live less than 2km from work and most of my recreational pursuits (except riding which is only 7km away) and access all of those things on my bike. I use a train at a hefty fare maybe one day a month. I have no children to benefit from free education, I am not on a waiting list for corrective orthodontics, nor stuck in the ED waiting room panicking that my toddler's unending vomit may be life threatening. I am not caught having to choose between putting food on the table or filling my car with petrol to get to work. And I am not laying stuck under my tractor in the back paddock or on the side or a regional road wishing I had half a bar of service to send an SOS message. I am a single male in good health that enjoys a life of reasonable luxury in a reasonably well developed country town filled with services and mod cons. But I would happily pass up a small tax cut I don't need to ensure those things and more exist. Money is a deception and feeling entitled to money that was promised by the corrupt overlords is akin to chasing a dangled carrot. You never had the money in the first place so you wouldn't notice not having it now anyway.
As mentioned a while ago the last time I needed medical attention I used the Medicare rebate for the small amount it covered and paid the gap in cash. This was to have a tumour the size of a grape cut out of my face, fortunately not cancerous just unfortunate to have it. I didn't cry poor (despite having a pretty flakey job at the time) and I didn't lament never having had private health insurance. But I did enjoy the look on the face of the medical staff when I pulled the ad of cash out. But you bet I was well aware that there are countless others out there that would not have been able to access that level of care with that ease, and that is something that needs to be corrected.
Howard's legacy (yes pork barreling and struggling were around long before that slime bag became prime Minister, but he did it with such long running and consistent manipulation) has dragged on and held back this nation for ~15 years since that piece of shit was humiliated and ran out of office. People still subscribing to that selfishly deluded paradigm need to get out of he 1950s..or face the same fate as Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison - to be cast aside as outdated pricks.
pink poodle
気が狂っている男
And I would much rather trust the government than a faceless corporation. Corruption exists in plenty of forms beyond graft.
Squidfayce
Eats Squid
How's our better nation building going? I mean we've had all sorts of money thrown at addressing social ills and inequality. No child will live in poverty by 1990? Are we there yet?
Fair point on the Carrot though. Realistically i dont feel "entitled" to it despite my rhetoric. I just have little faith that anything they do with that money would make a net difference to any class of peoples. At least if it goes through, I can use if for meaningful things in my life. in my mind it makes up for all the wasted tax dollars I've handed them over the years that have been used for meaningless pointless shit.
Flow-Rider
Burner
pink poodle
気が狂っている男
We really haven't...We have had an almost endless attack on nation building since 1997. Reduce funding for any form of nation building and privatisation of things that worked are the opposite of nation building.
Squidfayce
Eats Squid
So trust them to do anything productive with 240 billion?
Squidfayce
Eats Squid
We have btw, it's just been so shit, no one really wants to remember it.
Remember close the gap?
Close the Gap: Indigenous Health Campaign
Close the Gap: Indigenous Health Campaign Australia's peak Indigenous and non-Indigenous health bodies, NGOs and human rights organisations are working together to achieve equality in health and life expectancy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The Close the Gap Campaign aims to...
humanrights.gov.au
There's other shit. Didn't work.
GOVERNMENT POLICY FAILURES – GROUNDHOG DAY
GOVERNMENT POLICY FAILURES – GROUNDHOG DAY Australia’s public sector has been lauded in the past as one of the best public administration systems in the world. At this time Australia also had…
resolutionconsulting.com.au
So yeah you'll have to excuse me when I'd rather the govt give me money rather than doing some dumbshit for no net benefit again.
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pink poodle
気が狂っている男
I'd like to see them try for a change. Imagine if Gonski (original) had actually been given a go? Or if we were still rolling out insulation, solar panels (to everyone!!! I want some fun it), and building alternative energy infrastructure? How much better would our universities be if they weren't stuck begging foreign students to fill their ranks and keep the books afloat? And dare I mention the NBN...
Flow-Rider
Burner
Squidfayce
Eats Squid
Might be most. But not here
Squidfayce
Eats Squid
They tried. They failed. They keep trying. They keep failing. At some point you have to draw the line. If this was a private organisation, they'd be broke and out of business. If it was a public company, they'd have had a class action against them every year by shareholders. Why do we keep trusting them to get things right when the track record shows that they can't be trusted.
I'd feel differently if the govt put forward a plan to address these failures before staring anything else, told us how they'd reflected on them and spent time analysing them and working out how to mitigate future ones. Then actually putting appropriate controls in place that were transparent, data accessible and subject to ongoing public scrutiny.
Fool me once shame on you, fool me 10 times in 10 years, well fuck me, here take more of my tax money and burn it, I dont need it, neither does anyone else!
#icandomorewithmy10kperannumthanyoucanwith240billion
pink poodle
気が狂っている男
Ha...they'd score a bail out, tax cuts, bonuses for the bosses, and there would likely be laws passed to coerce citizens to support their unsustainable business model.
Scotty T
Walks the walk
@Squidfayce you're a judgy greedy man. You have nothing to offer anyone other than yourself. Nothing you have said in this discussion is anything other than self interest. But you already know that. Greed is not good.
Squidfayce
Eats Squid
The difference is I'm not lying to myself or to you about it. I know who I am and what I have to offer. I posit to you, its you who's judging me for being honest about it.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with self interest. Self interest is a driving force of a productive thriving economy and innovation (not "the", but "a", just so you know im clear on that point). Self-interest is important because it dictates competition and allows an individual to perform their best to increase their own personal gain. If you cant see what benefits that has, that's not a problem. But don't make out I have a problem because of it
You and everyone else in this world benefits from other people's self interest every day, like it or not.You might disagree, but to be fair, I don't care. We're not living in a fluffy lovey kind world. Most strangers couldnt give a shit about anyone else. The basic proof of that statement is that between 20M of Australians, we cant find the heart or solution to help ~200k homless people out of homlessness. Thats kind of disgracefull when you think about it, right? But if you've got a spare room in your home and you're not doing your bit, it's kind of hypocritical to point fingers at people and and label them as "greedy" or "self interested". There's lots of reasons why you wouldn't want to participate personally in housing a homless person in your own home, and most of them if not all of them are sourced in self interest. Safety, cost, added stress to your day to day, will they rob you etc... Having regard for the down trodden and less fortunate while keeping it at arms length and having your taxes pay for it (with questionable, poor or downright no beneficial outcome) isnt a vitruous position to be coming from. We all pay taxes and the wealthy pay a significantly larger proportion of Australia's tax burden (as they should) so again its a bit shitty to denigrate that self interest when arguably, by your standard, they are doing more for the welfare of less fortunate australians then most of the rest of Australia.
Looking after yourself and your own is kind of a requisite in these times. You do you.
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Haakon
has an accommodating arse
And what productive things will the wealthy do with it instead when they get their precious tax cuts?
Squidfayce
Eats Squid
Who knows. I'd open a soup kitchen.
Freediver
I can go full Karen
Bullshit you would and for fuck sake what makes you think underpriveledged deserve nothing more than soup.
Squidfayce
Eats Squid
Of course I wouldn't. It's a smart arse response to a smart arse question.
What's wrong with soup? It's nutritious, delicious and for 10k, you can make a lot of it, arguably spreading the benefit further than other foods.