Aspiration! That’s a good thing, right? But envy, that’s a bad thing. Of course one could become confused because how does one aspire unless one sees something worth aspiring to.
Now I do realise that there’s a big difference. In the case of envy you may merely want to bring the other person down, while aspirational people work hard and always brush their teeth. Aspirational people don’t get upset because some successful people pay little or no income tax. Aspirational people want to become so rich that they can have little or no taxable income.
And it’s thanks to people like that, Australia has the economy it has today. Lots and lots of successful people who managed to own several properties and businesses while earning almost nothing. Or at least, nothing that needs to go to the wasteful government…
Yes, I do find it strange when politicians talk about how taxation is a burden and just a waste of people’s money. It’s always been my ambition to ask one of those politicians who champions privatisation, “So you’re telling me that someone in private industry would be able to manage this much more efficiently than you can! If you’re so incompetent, why do people keep voting for you?”
Now that Labor has lost the election and is being blamed for just about every policy of the current government whether they support it or not, we’re being treated to the idea that it was lost because of Bill Shorten’s class warfare and how it was a rejection of the politics of envy.
In spite of the success of a more Keynesian approach from the Rudd government during the GFC, the Liberals seem to be operating as though Milton Friedman’s trickle down economics hadn’t been tried for the past forty years.
“Trickle down” is an interesting phrase, isn’t it? I mean, generally speaking, if anything trickles down onto you, the normal thing is to find shelter or put up an umbrella… Maybe it’s an appropriate phrase after all.
It’s the entrepreneurs that create the jobs, we’re told. While that’s true up to a point, they all rely on the hoi polloi to actually buy their goods and services or they end up like many businesses: broke and not able to pay their debts!
Thankfully we have a government that’s going to look after people on very high incomes. They’ve locked in tax cuts all the way to 2024. Now, one would have thought that it would be prudent to wait and see how the Budget actually looks in a couple of years time before making decisions for a future government, but no. Josh and Scottie have the power of prophecy and are giving tax cuts because the government will be well in surplus by then and the economy can handle the tax cuts. It’s not like they’ll add to inflation… Which is surprising because I would have thought with their superior economic management we’d have an economy that was in serious danger of overheating and we may need an even bigger surplus.
The economy isn’t a zero sum game, but Economics 101 tells us that people have unlimited wants and there are limited resources, so it’s all about how we managed scarcity. Like aspiration and envy. it seems we can concentrate on whichever part we want to justify our actions. Giving tax cuts to the wealthiest taxpayers will encourage investment and there’ll be a bigger pie for us all to share, but even targeted government spending, for some reason, doesn’t lead to greater jobs and wealth because… Well, just because, ok.
Yep, it’s going to be a long three years. Unless the Senate is painful and Scottie decides that, with God being on his side and all, he can call a double dissolution and push through some of his more contentious legislation. Unlikely, I know, but when Kevin Rudd and Obama were national leaders, who would have predicted much of the past ten years? Abbott as PM? Brexit? Trump? Barnaby Joyce as Deputy PM? Barnaby Joyce finding a second woman prepared to perpetuate his genes?
No, everything is just too far-fetched. That’s the difference between fiction and real life: Fiction has to be believable!
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