Heavy lifting . . . for some
“The rich regard wealth as a personal attribute. So do the poor. Everyone is tacitly convinced of it. Only logic makes some difficulties by asserting that the possession of money may perhaps confer certain qualities, but can never itself be a human quality. Closer inspection gives this the lie. Every human nose instantly and unfailingly smells the delicate breath of independence that goes with the habit of commanding, the habit of everywhere choosing the best for oneself, the whiff of slight misanthropy and the unceasing consciousness of responsibility that goes with power, the scent of a large and secure income.” — Excerpt from rich people’s code of living, The Man Without Qualities, Robert Musil
When Kerry Packer appeared before the Print Media Inquiry in 1991 he famously said
“Now of course I am minimizing my tax and if anybody in this country doesn’t minimize their tax they want their heads read because as a government I can tell you you’re not spending it that well that we should be donating extra. I pay whatever tax I am required to pay under the law, not a penny more, not a penny less”
His daughter Gretel got married earlier in the year and Kerry spent $3 million on her wedding. Apparently, that same year he paid no income tax.
In 2012, mining magnate Nathan Tinkler of Whitehaven Coal put his plans for a $13 million beachfront pad in Newcastle on hold and moved his family to Singapore. In an amazing coincidence, Gina Rinehart has reportedly spent $S57 million ($A43.8 million) on two units, off the plan, in the same Seven Palms Sentosa Cove condominium project. Eduardo Saverin, who co-founded Facebook at age 21, also lives in Singapore.
It might be because Singapore is a nice place that so many mega-wealthy people are flocking there – or it could have something to do with the fact that capital gains are not taxed. Individuals are only taxed on income earned directly in Singapore, and for the super wealthy, there are no inheritance taxes. Personal tax rates in Singapore are among the lowest in the world, with a cap of 20 per cent, compared to the top tax rate of 45 per cent in Australia. It’s got the banking secrecy laws, it’s becoming a financial centre, new casinos and now a lot of the big banks are operating out of Singapore purely because it’s becoming a very exclusive place to live
Gina Rinehart’s personal wealth is more than two times greater than the gross domestic product (GDP) of Cambodia, population 14.5 million. She has about 41 times more than the GDP of East Timor, population 1.3 million. She has more than the GDPs of Haiti and Bolivia put together (combined population 20 million).
She could buy up the economies of the world’s 10 poorest nations, and still have about $22 billion left over.
One in seven people — or 1 billion people around the world — do not have enough to eat. Rinehart could feed them all for a year.
In 2011, Rinehart made $1.5 billion more than was spent on the entire NSW health system ($17.3 billion). She made 18 times more than was allocated to the federal government’s climate change department. She made 70 times what the federal government will spend to improve education and training for young Aboriginal Australians.
In 2012 BRW Magazine said that Rinehart’s rise in wealth “is unparalleled”. It said she might soon become the world’s richest person: “A $100 billion fortune is not out of the question for Rinehart if the resources boom continues unabated.”
Despite her huge fortune, Rinehart is convinced she pays too much tax. Her tax lobby group ANDEV (Australians for Northern Development and Economic Vision) campaigns to cut taxes on mining industry profits and lower payroll and income tax.
In February 2013, the Coalition released its policy/discussion paper ‘2030 Vision for Developing Northern Australia’. The catalyst for the policy was a 2010 open letter signed by the executives of over 50 resources companies that called for the establishment of a special economic zone with fewer regulations and taxes to develop Australia’s north, and the capacity to import cheap labour.
“Various industries in Australia already make use of overseas countries’ labour without restriction – for example, sending work overseas to India and the Philippines and elsewhere in Asia where labour costs are lower. The group argues mining companies should be allowed to hire short term workers from overseas for the construction periods only, for say up to two years and nine months, thereby increasing long term job prospects in Australia, rather than becoming uncompetitive and these jobs heading overseas to countries like Guinea and other countries in Africa.”
It was quickly followed by the establishment of ANDEV, a lobby group chaired by Gina Rinehart to realise this vision. The Institute of Public Affairs was soon recruited to give the project a veneer of free market respectability.
ANDEV’s plan was not just a slight drop in taxes. It included vast sums of taxpayer investment in infrastructure, accompanied by the abolition or dramatic reduction of taxation levied. The Coalition policy has wording pulled straight from the ANDEV site in a series of op-eds and speeches. The 2012 National Party Conference keynote address, given by one of Rinehart’s employees, was dedicated to promoting this vision, going so far as to include ANDEV promotional material in all delegate’s packs and exhorting the audience to meet with him to discuss ANDEV privately.
The central thesis behind the ANDEV plan is that northern Australia is ‘underdeveloped’, ‘underutilised’ and ‘underpopulated’. The Coalition’s policy adopts these claims uncritically, spicing them up with promises of taming Australia’s ‘last frontier’. ANDEV also bandies around some odder reasons; the “multitudes of snakes” and “excessive heat” that afflicts residents of the North apparently entitles them to generous tax offsets. The latest Coalition incarnation of the policy leaves it to a future white paper to review how to achieve a preferential taxation regime without ending up in the High Court as it is probably unconstitutional.
Going on the word of vested interests, especially when the result is worth a huge influx of government subsidies, does not make for sound economic policy. Herein lies the problem at the heart of the Vision for Developing Northern Australia: it’s been driven from the office of a vested interest into a Liberal party that can no longer distinguish between crony capitalism and free markets. It undermines federalism by subsiding infrastructure spending and tax cuts without imposing the fiscal responsibility that a state faces in having to balance the books on this equation.
In 2010, the mining industry spent over $22 million in six weeks on its campaign against Kevin Rudd’s plan for a resource super profit tax. This led to a slump in Rudd’s popularity contributing to the Gillard takeover and the subsequent compromise deal on the MRRT costing the nation billions in revenue.
In March this year, the ATO announced an amnesty for off-shore tax evaders. Under the disclosure initiative, those who come forward will “generally” only be assessed for the last four years, even if they held the assets offshore for longer than that, and be liable for a maximum shortfall penalty of just 10% of their debt rather than 90%, the ATO said. Those coming forward also will escape investigation by the tax authority, and will avoid criminal prosecution.
While these people are busy investing their money and lobbying the government so they make no contribution to the country that has afforded them such wealth, average Australians are being hit with a “sick” tax and a deficit tax and told that we must work till 70, that pensions will decline in real terms, and the minimum wage will be slashed. We will continue to hand over billions in fossil fuel subsidies, spend billions on infrastructure for the miners, and provide guarantees for banks while we listen in amazement to the profit announcements. We will continue to provide tax concession schemes like negative gearing, investing in superannuation, and private health insurance rebates.
As Adam Bandt said
Around the world, there are some people who are incredibly wealthy who see it as part of their social duty to lift people out of poverty and to give a bit back to our society. Gina Rinehart certainly doesn’t fall into that category.
But there’s a broader issue here than just about the individual – it’s about in Australia, what do we consider to be a fair share for billionaires who make their money out of the minerals that we all own digging them up and selling them off overseas, which we only get to do once, what’s a fair share for those people to pay?
Gina Rinehart wrote and self-published a book called “Northern Australia and then some: Changes we need to make our country rich.” I will close with a quote from a review done by Cameron Whitehead at Crikey.
“What she has produced is a weirdly amateur book which is everywhere inscribed with the signature of someone accustomed to command but it is also — sometimes with a wildcard, unexpected poignancy — the work of someone who is blind to how she is being perceived. This is a book that reveals a woman for whom love, work and money are indistinguishable, a woman who has so much, and yet so little.”
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Return to home pageThe only heavy lifting Gina has ever done is when she gets out of bed everyday.
Good point Richard Deniss from The Australia Institute
“Just in case anyone forgot, it was the Business Council of Australia who called for a ‘Commission of Audit’, it was the head of the BCA who ran it, and it was the BCA’s head of policy that ran the secretariat that write the report…just to be clear, the representatives of the big foreign businesses that make up the BCA don’t think that its a good idea for them to pay tax, and they think that spending money on our health, education and welfare is a luxury we can’t afford…thanks for your input multinational corporations, but I think Australian citizens are the best judge of that:)”
Thanks for yet another article that deserves to be widely distributed.
It seems patently clear to me that money may imbue individuals with power and influence. But it does not transfer intelligence, nor a moral conscience.
In many respects ethical behaviour, empathy and compassion is almost antithetical to the accumulation of wealth.
Ben Eltham
“The Commission of Audit was announced as a supposedly independent body. But the people doing the auditing are mostly rusted-on, hardline conservatives. Tony Shepherd, a former chairman of Transfield, is also the former boss of big business lobby group, the Business Council of Australia. Peter Boxall is a former chief of staff to Peter Costello. Howard government minister Amanda Vanstone is there too. This is a political body, set up to do a very political job. This is a recipe for a poorer, nastier and more brutish Australia. If implemented, it would mark the beginning of the end of the Australian fair go.”
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/01/commission-of-audit-a-recipe-for-a-poorer-nastier-and-more-brutish-australia?CMP=twt_gu
Kaye Lee,
I’d love the source of your quote from Richard Deniss.
Where did you get that from?
Cheers
Stephen
It’s on his facebook page Stephen
https://www.facebook.com/richard.denniss.9
Thanks Kaye.
“Doctors, pensioners and university students have criticised recommendations made by the Commission of Audit, saying the proposed cuts target those most in need. Areas in the firing line include family payments, child care, health care, education, unemployment and pension payments, aged care and the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).
The Australian Medical Association’s Dr Steve Hambleton says there are savings to be found in health, but they should be made by people who understand the sector.
“We can’t have accountants designing a health system; we’ve got to have outcomes that are actually better for patients,” he said.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-01/commission-of-audit-doctors-seniors-brace-for-budget-cuts/5424524
Gee, Poor old Gina. She would not allow her Kids a few million, now she wants to take the lot with her. Judging from her size,(that poor old heart must be working overtime) it won’t be long. Can you not do one decent thing in life, before you trot off for ever ?
Rich people deserve it.
Kaye, nailed it again, 🙂 great job, as always 😎
Love your work. 😀
Cheers 😀
When the hell is enough enough? This level of wealth is inconceivable. Most people glaze over with nary a thought of the actual discrepancy between wealthy and poor. These are Australians resources which are making individuals, who inherit a fortune, wealthy beyond imagination. What an abomination while so many live in poverty and squalor.
Personally I think it is appalling but what would I know? Either I am and naive idealist or the majority of the country just do no care. How could one possibly be against the resources tax proposed by Rudd and watered down by Gillard under pressure from these greed infested oligarchs? There is no rational answer.
The great big mythical debt is in the hands of a bunch of selfish self-appointed elites that think the rest of us owe them just by being born and wanting some reasonable return on our labour. Be damned that we pay for the infrastructure and then sell it off to these entitled elites so they can further their profits by fixing prices.
This is a Ponsy scheme of epic proportions leading us down the road to endemic hardship, distress and inequality.
The longer the Conservatives remain in power the longer it is going to take to recover. Australians you are being sold a lemon. Please wake up befog it is too late.
Rinehart is a truly despicable person.
The only HEAVY lifting Gina does, is place her $4 billion breasts on the Mammography Table.
Stephen, Don’t preach to me I never voted for them. You should be reaching out to the blind, mentally retarded,deaf and dumb. They call them Liberal Voters.
I have to agree with Kerry Packer. He minimised his tax as the law allowed. Politicians must take responsibility for this. They are the ones that make the laws. They know that the very wealthy are paying well below their fair share of tax, assisted by legislation, but they do nothing to address the problem.
Mike Kelly, ex Labor MP for Eden-Monaro
“I am deeply shocked by the depth and breadth of what this Abbott Government is doing to our region, brought to a head by this outrageous Commission of Audit. The massive slashing of the public service that we feared will now come to pass with huge implications for the whole regional economy.
Worse for the long term future of the region and our kids, the undoing of the Clean Energy Future Package, including the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, undermines the major investment driver for Eden Monaro. The interference with the NBN roll out has thrown our region into more years of constraint on our potential and relegation to second class citizen status.
The plan to sell the Snowy Hydro scheme exposes the massive lie by Hockey and Peter Hendy that this wasn’t going to happen and that I and the ETU were just scare mongering.
We have more pensioners than most areas who will be directly slugged with flow on effects to our whole regional economy. Worse the Coalition have perpetrated a cruel hoax on our Defence personnel by giving with one hand and massively taking away with the other. It is now clear that the Abbott government will can the MSBS scheme and force all new recruits onto a less supportive scheme.
After all the hard work that was done to put us on the right track in the areas of health, disability support and education will now be undone and plans abandoned. All of the schemes we built stood to benefit a region like ours the most in curing the disadvantages in our schools and ensuring our greater health needs were met.”
rangermike1
Why take it personally it is only and opinion piece? Criticize if you like. After all the majority of Australians voted for this lot and removal of the resources tax. Nowhere did I imply everyone.
“When the hell is enough enough? This level of wealth is inconceivable.”
What is even more inconceivable is that Gina Rinehart is so selfish and greedy that she thinks she should not have to pay any tax at all because she invests in the Northern Territory. We all invest in this country every day because we all have a requirement for consumables. Rinehart could give away 99/100 of her wealth and still live in luxury for the rest of her life.
Stephen, No offense meant. Glad you are on the same path as me. Sorry.
rangermike1
Thanks mate lets get the bastards.
Stephen, As the Yank’s say, I am right with you Buddy. You are right Mate, this Govt. is turning into a circus.
Awwhhh, poor old Gina and all those personal attacks, I wonder if she has a pet pig, you know what people say, people start to resemble their pets and judging by the photo above, she might, indeed, just have one.
I think it’s wrong to attack Gina, as she has a mental illness called Billionitis of terra Australis and she deserves some respect for this terrible affliction.
She can’t help it wanting to give employees $2 a day to operate her mines and she can’t help it when viewing the govt. coffers as essential subsidies, it’s all because of her severe case of billionitis.
Now, please, lets all be nice to Gina.
Star wars cast is reconvening, maybe she can get the part of Jabba the Hutt, it wouldn’t take much makeup
Hockey just announced that anyone born after 1965 has to wait until they are 70 to be retire, as is any form of pension will exist by then, after this lot have sold-off the farm and left is living under their Corporatocracy.
This of course, won’t apply to the poor $400k per year politicians who earn double that thanks to their generous perks, and who will all walk out into directorships and cushy jobs for life.
Apparently also Australians aged 22-30 who are unemployed for more than a year be required to move to areas where there are more job opportunities. Presumably these areas with so many jobs will be located within the IPA/Rinehart ANDEV zone paying $2 per day to live in mosquito-infested flea-pits alongside hundreds of thousands of foreign 457 slaves?
Who exactly is going to pay for these unemployed people to move? Most are struggling just to survive on the pittance they get on the dole. How will they afford to pack-up and move, find accommodation, pay a bond, leave their families and connections? Or will we end-up with an underclass like in the US whole families live in their cars – even that situation is getting so bad many towns in the US are outlawing the practice, so people are going to jail because they have nowhere else to live. The abject stupidity of this is that housing people in gaols isn’t exactly cost-effective and efficacious for society.
State government funding form the Commonwealth will also now be dependent upon them privatising public assets.
I thought I was angry before the election and I had several people tell me to calm down. But even the worst of my fears weren’t sufficient to believe the damage these idiots will do to all of us, well… except the rich, of course.
I see no other alternative that to launch a coup and take-over the government, on behalf of the people of Australia. And it needs to happen now because by the end of their term, we will have nothing left.
I am available to be online benevolent dictator if you need me Anomander provided I don’t have to dress up and get my photo taken all the time.
Just to underline the point about mining magnates and developers…..
New South Wales Police Minister Mike Gallacher will step aside from his position after being named in the latest Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) inquiry.
The ICAC has heard allegations that Mr Gallacher was involved in a plot to hide a developer’s involvement in payments to an alleged Liberal Party slush fund.
The inquiry heard claims Mr Gallacher and former energy minister Chris Hartcher hatched a plan to hide donations from a development company controlled by mining magnate Nathan Tinkler to a business called Eightbyfive.
bobrafto,
I suspect if a pet pig existed it would only be considered a convenient form of mobile bacon.
I’ll be kind to her when she thinks about me as more than just an overpaid serf.
Bobrafto, please stop insulting pigs. They are nice animals and they have feelings too. 😉
Oh I can’t wait until some of my work colleagues start whining about working until they are 70. I love opportunities to thank them for voting Liberal and I know I’m going to have plenty over the next couple of years.
Once again Kaye Lee…. But given what’s going down, rather than (justifiably) bagging out Gina and her ilk, we should be looking at legal and constitutional ways of stopping these rank bastards. The first step must be refusing supply in the Senate but will PUP, Labor and the Greens have the guts to say you don’t have a mandate for these changes?
Heavy lifting for the electorate? Not a chance.
The Auditors did their job of scaring the life out of the punters and now it’s time for Abbott, Hockey and that Belgian chappie, who by the way does a very good impersonation of a Boer, to mount their charges and ride to the rescue. It’s a third rate circus act, characteristic of incoming conservative governments.
But it has a downside, particularly for those wanting a second term. Have they overreached? Have they erred by failing to distance themselves with all due speed?
While most of the recommendations won’t breathe any oxygen in this term, that mightn’t be true for the next. There will, or should, be legitimate doubts that any decent opposition can plant and cultivate.
Now where can we find such an opposition? Perhaps Scott Ludlam might be available?
Something you don’t see every day:
“Farewell to a fair go: Commission of Audit”
http://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/2254892/farewell-to-a-fair-go-commission-of-audit/?cs=298
Kaye Lee, incredible research, how do you do it? wish I had a grasp of the particular and specific, and the wider implications, as Kaye.
I agree Matter NOT.
Questions that need to be asked:-
*How much did this buck passing show, known as the “Commission Of Audit” cost us tax payers?
*Regardless of the outcomes,why should the public accept that this Liberal party out sourced this circus to their “mates”,instead of governing themselves?
*When can we have have a public lynching of selfish people like Gina NoHeart? She then would really be doing the public a service,and think of all the starving people she could feed…
Lee you’re lucky, I dont know anyone that would vote Liberal …… I hope I dont. Guess Im lucky to.
The treasurer, speaking on Alan Jones’s 2GB radio show, said: “Can I be a little indulgent? I drive to Canberra to go to parliament and I must say I find those wind turbines around Lake George to be utterly offensive. I think they’re a blight on the landscape.””
I’d much rather drive past a coal mine
http://www.foster.vic.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/hunter-coal-lemington.jpg
He’s supposed to be looking at the road.
I know people who voted Liberal – dumb and ignorant the lot and even more so those under 50.
A blight on the landscape? not that long ago people were hanged in Hyde Park, the crowds loved it, you get used to it, when its habitually so.
Joe Hockey knows what it’s like to be a blight on the landscape.
As always they pander to the likes of Jones. And his dislikes as well.
ICAC documents reveal the head of the government’s Commission of Audit Tony Shepherd made a $1,500 donation to the Liberal party in 2010 which was then paid into the slush fund the Free Enterprise Foundation set up to help bankroll the NSW 2011 Liberal election campaign.
“You are not what you own” – FUGAZI
Excellent news about Tony Shepherd. These revelations are the only news I look forward to from the MSM these days. The Liberal Party is rotten to the core.
and so is Labor, they’re all tarred by the same brush of corruption.
Good to know everyone’s doing their bit to help with the heavy lifting, eh?
Google only paid $466,802 in tax last year despite profits of $46 million and estimated ad revenue of $2 billion. One of 3 multinational tech firms under scrutiny – but merely the tip of the tax scam iceberg.
http://m.smh.com.au/business/google-gets-its-tax-bill-slashed-despite-earning-millions-in-local-profits-20140501-37krm.html
A host on ABC radio this morning added to the news report; “Companies are well within their rights to legally reduce their tax burden”. Several callers later also backed-up the idea as a legitimate way of doing business – because supposedly, if we raise taxes on businesses we will cease to be competitive.
How effective has the neocon propaganda become when average punters happily parrot back this kind of insane bullshit?
Lee:
Well I suppose it also quite nice to be able to “influence” the politicians who make the rules….
As ICAC is showing, they (all stripes) are just a bunch of crooks legitimising graft. A criminal gang. A Mafia who enrich themselves by legalized extortion
Reblogged this on Web 2.0 Chronicles.
Yesterday you may pay $5 as a medical routine charge, today this has been revised to $15, tomorrow $30, next year revision to $ 100.
The cost of students going to substantially increase, the rich will be the only ones able to afford education, the Liberals want the rich in power, do you know why?
“You are not what you own” is a line from Fugazi song Merchandise
You are a gem Kaye Lee. Your posts are always so well researched and incisive. I think there is a pathological state to describe Gina Rinehart et al, and I invite other readers to coin a pathology.
Funny how you never see the Greens being grilled by the ICAC?
To be honest I didn’t bother reading this but I did scroll down to this paragraph on the way to the comments. I apologise if my question is out of context.
‘The central thesis behind the ANDEV plan is that northern Australia is ‘underdeveloped’, ‘underutilised’ and ‘underpopulated’. The Coalition’s policy adopts these claims uncritically, spicing them up with promises of taming Australia’s ‘last frontier’. ANDEV also bandies around some odder reasons; the “multitudes of snakes” and “excessive heat” that afflicts residents of the North apparently entitles them to generous tax offsets. The latest Coalition incarnation of the policy leaves it to a future white paper to review how to achieve a preferential taxation regime without ending up in the High Court as it is probably unconstitutional.’
What was Labor’s policy in the election? Tax advantages to the north?
Don’t know if someone’s already noted this…”Gina Rinehart’s personal wealth is more than two times greater than the gross domestic product (GDP) of Cambodia,” . isn’t ironic that Morrison wants to send them their..I propose he considers sending to the Kingdom of Rienhart because it is a more affluent destination !
Stephen,
I will leave aside your decision to comment on an article you chose not to read as I am sure you wouldn’t have bothered taking any of it in anyway.
You seem to think this is a Labor Party site. You are wrong. Kevin Rudd’s attempt at vote buying before the last election was very disappointing. To try to compete with Tony Abbott on ridiculous policies that appeal to bogans was a huge mistake. Abbott can try to fool everyone with wild ideas that have not been thought through in any way. Labor should not try to follow him down whatever crazy path his Tea Party heroes want to send him.
Reblogged this on contriteshadow.
“Well I suppose it also quite nice to be able to “influence” the politicians who make the rules…”
And whose fault is that? If the politicians were as righteous as they pretend to be, they wouldn’t be in bed with tycoons. It all comes back to a group of people who should be representing the entire electorate, but are more interested in looking after themselves instead.
“and so is Labor, they’re all tarred by the same brush of corruption.”
Oh I have no doubt there is corruption there as well. But the Liberal Party has been throwing mud over the corruption of Labor and the unions, complete with slush funds and so far this commission has only managed to reveal the corruption within the Liberal ranks. I’m over the self-righteous BS and the MSM referring to these people as devout Christians, as if we should blindly trust them. We will know them by their actions.
Lee: “If the politicians were as righteous as they pretend to be, they wouldn’t be in bed with tycoons…”
Indeed. Excellent point.
I think Kaye should be our spokesperson and help us over throw this government, we can do it we just need to stop their money, for their coffers, and then they will realise we can work things out, and we are a lot smarter than them, because we had to work and scrimp and save to get where we are, something they will never do, that is why they don’t appreciate what they have.
Does anyone remember the movie ‘Dave’, where Kevin Kline’s character gets his friend, an accountant, to help him sort out the US’s budget? I bet if an independent accountant were to view the Hockey budget, they would probably find many money-saving shortcuts! (Like pollies wages and perks)
But, seeing people like Gina Rhinehart and her cronies bitching about paying decent taxes for digging up half of the country and making billions profit, makes me so angry and yet, it is an impotent rage, because I am just one person. One person who did not vote for Liberal, or Labour.
I get so frustrated at the Abbott freakshow, how the hell can he stand there with Hockey and tell Australians like myself (I get a Carer’s pension to look after my husband, who is on a disabled pension) and others like us here, to “tighten the belt” and help with the “heavy lifting”! I seriously want to punch them all in the face! The only “heavy lifting” we should be doing, is lifting Gina and throwing her out of the country. She and Abbott are 2 of the most hated people on the planet!!
See Stephen……. looks like anyone risking their money in fossil fuels is in trouble!
http://www.smh.com.au/business/carbon-economy/bank-accounts-closed-in-fossil-fuels-protest-20140502-37mu3.html#ixzz30brf8cTC
Awesome!
Reblogged this on sooikimp.
What qualifies you as rich in Australia today?
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/how-rich-is-rich/5435468