Little twists

These governments have too much money.

Based on the new allotments, each red bellied parrot is worth $32,000. (Most working Australians will probably wish the government thought they were worth that much. They do. Look at your tax bill...) These folks in Canberra are struggling to find ways to give back the taxes.
You'd think someone up there would remember Ronald Reagan, and just stop collecting the taxes so people could make up their own minds.
I'm no fan of Ronnie Rocketman, but I'm not fan of the government controlling people's lives through taxes either. And it feels a little funny for me to be quoting anything called a "right-wing think tank" but here goes. (from The Australian Institute website, newsletter No 44 Sept 2005)

For several years now, the right-wing think tank, the Centre for Independent Studies (CIS), has invited Australians to celebrate Tax Freedom Day – the day on which ‘we finish paying for the Government’s spending and we start to work for ourselves’.

Although there are several ways of calculating Tax Freedom Day, the method used by the CIS involves dividing per capita tax revenue by per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and then multiplying that by the number of days in the year. For 2004/ 05, tax revenues constituted approximately 32 per cent of GDP, meaning it was equivalent to 118 days of output, giving us a Tax Freedom Day that fell on 29 April.

Tax Freedom Day has been getting later and later each year as the tax share increases. The CIS wants us to believe this is necessarily a bad thing, notwithstanding the fact that, as the day has moved forward in the calendar, we have witnessed rising living standards, higher literacy and education rates and longer life expectancy.

So if you're wondering what you're really worth to the governments of Australia, total your income up to April 29th, and that's how you compare with a red-bellied parrot.

There's a great cartoon in the Herald Sun today: Two red bellied parrots sitting on top of a nest made of hundred dollar bills. There's $32,000 each for just being red bellied parrots. Then $14,000 for their new home (nest). Each of their three baby parrots is worth $3000. And then if they were to move their nest somewhere, the government will kick in another $5000.
Seems like I missed something, but you get the idea.

Pilot Progam

I read today that the Howard government is running a pilot program in NSW to offer $5000 for people to relocate when they find work. The opposition and some of the coalition members comment they think it should be a more realistic $10,000.
The program will expand to Victoria if it is "successful" in NSW. (You gotta wonder how they define "successful", but ...)
Reading it made my head spin.

This is an economy which claims a 4% or so unemployment rate. Now, by the Keynesian economics I studied, that should be an economy that is dangerously overheating -- on the verge of runaway inflation. And the recent interest rate rises, even if they are only 1/4 of 1%, would indicate something like that, too.
The more it costs for money, the less money will be used. The less money is used, the slower the economy. -- That's the basis of how a central bank and government manage an economy.
So why is this same government handing out $5000 (or maybe $10,000!??) to get more people into the workforce? That would just fuel inflation. (It puts more money into motion.)
It comes down to: Are you willing to trade quality of life and lifestyle for a job? -- if the government bribes you?

If that seems fundamentally silly, another good question comes up quickly: Why does this government has so much money it can to bribe people to work?
Aww, that one's not so hard: More work means more tax revenue.
Taxes are already giving the government so huge a surplus it is trying to find ways to give it back, ergo -- bribes for work.

Spin, spin, spin ...