Privatisation. profits and profligacy.
Power Couple; Rudd and Rein. Inspecting new unemployed training facility at Fukushima.
Privatisation is still seen as good by government. It’s when a state sells publicly owned assets like electricity, water and transport. It’s a windfall for shareholders, and like electricity the costs just go up and up. Bit like council rates. How else can we pay for that army of highly paid middle managers and senior executives. In the old days it was just a mayor, a town clerk and an engineer. No wonder people were happy then. But it’s not about happiness. It’s about distribution of wealth. To take a public asset owned by all of us, and give it to a few. And as the experience goes make those few exceedingly wealthy. My favourite example being Mrs Rudd, (Therese Rein) who made a fortune out of turning the dole office into a multi million training scheme to train and train and train for jobs that weren’t there. Both Mr and Mrs Rudd, have made a huge contribution to this country that way. We should thank them for their enterprise.
And the requirement to pay taxes nonexistent!!!
It was announced this week that Chevron’s Australian subsidiary made the handy profit of 1.7 billlion dollars. And paid just $248.00 to the Australian Government. Now that’s just plain silly. Even straight living individuals like our readership would suggest that such action might be considered a little provocative. But provocative or not, Chevron can do it, because they have all sorts of offsets and profit sharing devices that put the money all over the place. Like the increasingly super wealthy, they can really pay whatever tax they like, which is invariably none, and know that on both sides of parliament they will be described not as robbers, cheats usurers or extortionists, but “lifters’ and fine examples of venture, and entrepreneurial wit. We need more like them, because it’s the ‘trickle down effect’ that keeps the rest of us going. It’s a sort of feudalism tempered by greed and a disinterest in what the rest, (the poor) do, amongst themselves.
Frederico de Montelfeltro. Condottieri (mercenary) Prince. Not the first but one of the more celebrated to convert public assets to private gain. Unofficially known as thug, zealot, and as painting suggests now learned and pious.
The rest are the PAYE workers, those salaried individuals who must survive on what’s left after taxes are removed from their package, They are the people who pay ultimately for the hospitals, infrastructure and education that keeps society functioning. They are the folk who pay Royal Commissioners handsomely to investigate on our behalf, and like the condottieri, ensure that the investigation goes on and on and on. But the simple fact remains, there is an increasing burden falling upon the middle income earners, and the poor. To his credit Malcolm Turnbull is enjoying an “open discussion”. There are two strategies, change the laws that allow kickbacks, sinecures and incentives for the wealthier to pay less tax by socking away their finds into super schemes, wind back the inequities and corruption found in negative gearing, re- calibrate the tax system so the burden is more evenly spread. Or up the GST and ensure that the lowest rung get hung out to dry. My guess is that’s precisely what will happen. We’re a bit like Russia in the 90’s, the “upper echelon” of our society is fast resembling a kleptocracy, and this is early days. Great for fancy car sales, and a boom time for the real drivers of the economy, Real Estate Agents.
Mathew Guy. ‘For the best planning outcomes that BIG money can buy’.
It’s a bit like planning, you now get the planning outcome you can best afford, and with the lowest rungs unable to afford the hefty 1500 dollars a day to defend in VCAT, the big end of town invariably wins. Both sides of politics like this arrangement, because it means they get windfalls from the development industry, and it maintains the status quo. And besides, in case you hadn’t noticed Real Estate is the name of the game in this country. So why worry about stinking profits going offshore, Why worry about the bent money used to fund egregiously ugly and overpriced apartments, and why worry about such preposterous terms as “safety net” and ‘social services’. It’s the flip side of globalism and the lesson should be well learnt by now. It’s the twenty first century mate, and capital has triumphed over labour. And what can you do about it? Go to your local member?. Better still, talk to your Real Estate Agent, they’re always happy to listen, and at least they don’t pretend to have your interests at heart.