Tuesday, May 13, 2008 at 09:05
Who decides who is wealthy? Tax bracket is a good start. Some examples: The tax minimization deals for the top tax bracket via superannuation options were a good example. And your guess might just be wrong on that. Look at at the tax reductions given to the top bracket over the last decade.
Australia's spending on public schools is the lowest of all OECD countries, but support for the fee paying schools is very high by international standards. A direct subsidy to which group in the community.
Your choice of "Hopefully" to begin the last paragraph is a good one . Both parties happily sold off public utilities. Power,fuel, water, transport, roads and railways cannot be left just to market forces. One of the reasons the pollies like to sell them off is because then they don't have to take responsibility when things go wrong, or
services aren't provided. That's why the bush was so anti Telstra being privatised. Government record on some of these
services may not always have been good, but you can hold them responsible. When we sell them off they are only responsible to shareholders, and shareholders are only interested in the bottom profit line.
As for your claim that the less wealthy members of society would waste the money anyway, that must the smuggest rationalization I have ever heard. One of the saddest facts of Australia is that once we were a county with relatively few really rich and really poor. Most were middle class. The polarization into those with and those without is too
well documented to have to argue it here, but is most clearly shown in the dramatic fall in the percentage of Australians who can own their own
home.
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