Australia - you're standing in it
BTW….I do agree with you on tax write offs but I know that if you added together the tax deductions of every tradie in Australian history you’d still not break the top 100,000 cases of rorting tax deductions sitting on the ATO desk right now.
I actually agree with everything blowin (or dsds) has said, ...and to a certain extent, australia has become what I believe to be ideal - where a tradesman can earn as much as a pen pushing professional... kind of...
however, I do question how sustainable our situation has become... (not very...)
and more importantly, i think the top end - be it the capital city top end tradesman, or the high level mid management / professional type positions - have become totally detached from the harsh reality of award wage / minimum wage type positions... this disparity from the top to the bottom has become so wide... hugely, disproportionately so...
this has been well reported, where just a few decades ago, the CEO of a company might earn say 3 -5 times what an average employees gets, but now its more like 10 - 20 times... even more...
and, politicians wages have seen a similar proportionate increase... I wish I had the link, but I remember reading that apparently politicians wages are somehow pegged to high management / professional positions - so, when they see a 10 or 20% increase, as we've seen over the last few decades - politicians enjoy the same...
meanwhile, low income earners are scratching for a 3% increase, and have been doing so through the same period, where top end positions have enjoyed huge wages growth - decades of this conpounding disparity basically...
and another interesting 'development' through this period, is the casualisation / increase in insecure work. where once again the bottom end, not only gets scraps, but has seen 'benefits' and security stripped away... an interesting example of this was through the recent minimum wages debate, where public service unions and workers fired up about their measely pay increases offered in comparison to others - and rightfully so.... however, the public service brings with it all sorts of benefits low income earners and casual workers in the private sector can only dream of...
my main point is how the top ends have become totally detached from the bottom, both in terms of renumeration and security / benefits
and, i know from my own experiences, and friends who have done quite well, that the higher up the chain you go, the less you seem to need to pay for...
be it corporate lunches, travel benefts, paid trainings, tax write offs, fifo accomodations beyond accomodation, or even right down to uniforms and neccesary certificates as basic as first aid etc... where the poor agency plebs at the bottom are paying for it all out of their own pockets... the disparities are huge!
hugely so, well beyond anything resembling 'fair'!!
The housing market bit in the heading gets sidelined - but if you've ever wondered how Australia's energy market got to the current situation, it's a very good recap.
Hmmmmmmm
https://www.google.com.au/search?q=the+victorian+government+bans+game+sh...
I hear they have a personal vendetta against the bees. That ain’t good
Just out of interest re: the tradies, one smart comment I read recently suggested the historic 3:1 house-price-to-earnings might reflect how long it would take a single worker to build one (assume carpenter or stonemason type skillset).
Bank Volt collapses:
https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/banking/australian-bank-volt-co...
"It said it had adequate funds to return customer’s money and to ease the transition of money to a different bank account quickly Volt had increased the daily transfer limits to $250,000, it told customers."
foot & mouth special
what is it?
https://www.agriculture.gov.au/biosecurity-trade/pests-diseases-weeds/an...
Hmm 100 years without it, a very good effort
Now some sensationalism
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-14/foot-and-mouth-bali-tourism-fligh...
https://www.9news.com.au/national/foot-and-mouth-disease-in-bali-risks-1...
A big nothing-burger? Or a real problem?
The Ms, a farmer's daughter, alerted me to this one. It would appear Australia has in place strong biosecurity measures... but... the needs of the agricultural industry are now pitted against the entitlement of gimmedat and the tourism industry. If corona is anything to go by, expect freedom rallies and business bodies to determine that tourism gets it's way, then the biosecurity measures to get hosed down by changes in legislation to allow whatever is popular in and to continue.
Will foot and mouth get here and spread widely? A staggering failure if it does so, decimating billions of dollars and an industry, but we live in an age of staggering failures.
"To be crystal clear, Australian policy makers did not see high gas prices as a problem to be avoided. This was the plan all along."
https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2022/july/richard-denniss/gaslightin...
velocityjohnno wrote:"To be crystal clear, Australian policy makers did not see high gas prices as a problem to be avoided. This was the plan all along."
https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2022/july/richard-denniss/gaslightin...
Excellent article.
Now let’s go further and substitute skilled worker shortages for gas shortages in the above article. The result being lower wages bills for business. That’s why when good ol’ “Son of a struggling working class mum and man of the proletariat” Albo tells us we are now part of a “global labour pool” you realise that, like the price of gas going up competing on a global level, the price of Australian labour is destined for third world levels.
Then we should substitute vaccines for gas. The government lies to the public and puts the Australian public through the ringer just to guarantee the billion dollar profits of the energy companies. You really think the vaccine mandates for healthy young people aren’t the exact same style of behaviour?
“Don’t trust governments” says the turd with his snout in the trough that earned $550k a year as the PM- https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-19/scott-morrison-says-put-faith-in-...
Those pizzas aren't going to deliver themselves.
I'm surprised everyday Aussies aren't up in arms about how access to their own energy got made expensive, or not happening. But, they're not. And I did link up in 'interesting stuff' a critique of the UK Labour party being very much not a party for the workers. At least over there the public wised up to it, and the red wall fell.
Wondering out loud, did the corporatism begin with the BOE (1694 I think) and the Enclosure Acts, where land became titled, the titles able to be used as financial instruments (eg secure a loan, be onsold, etc)? If so, the world that exists today - and has benefited many of us, and is almost impossible to live in without being part of - begins with a colossal theft from the people so today's goings-on are at least consistent with history.
velocityjohnno wrote:Wondering out loud, did the corporatism begin with the BOE (1694 I think) and the Enclosure Acts,
Ha ha...you and your history degree. Most people looking for clues stretch themselves to land in the 1970s, but you've reached beyond that by three centuries.
velocityjohnno wrote:Those pizzas aren't going to deliver themselves.
I'm surprised everyday Aussies aren't up in arms about how access to their own energy got made expensive, or not happening. But, they're not.
from the monthly article...
"It’s easier for some people to tell themselves today that politicians are hopeless and can’t plan ahead than admit that, like the gas industry, Australia’s political leaders, state and federal, Labor and Liberal, knew exactly what would happen when they let the gas industry build enormous export facilities. They knew the gas industry wasn’t spending tens of billions of dollars to make gas cheaper for Australians, and they knew that all of the fracking and the environmental harms weren’t going to drive down the price of gas for Australians. They knew it would all be exported for enormous profit, and that customers would pay a heavy price"
pretty much nails it.
stunet wrote:velocityjohnno wrote:Wondering out loud, did the corporatism begin with the BOE (1694 I think) and the Enclosure Acts,
Ha ha...you and your history degree. Most people looking for clues stretch themselves to land in the 1970s, but you've reached beyond that by three centuries.
Hehe. I've once read it described as a reverse-takeover by William of Orange, of England - those taken over also got the Dutch innovations (remember the mighty V.O.C.) of a working stock market...
tbh I'd like to know more of this time: did the people become free after feudalism, after the Parliamentary wars, the Bill of Rights 1689 - did a corporatism arise in this environment? Edit: throw in the Union of 1707 I think, the massive sheep farm concerns... I've been going back through Flannery's "Future Eaters" and the horrific warfare and cannibalism that European explorers found in New Zealand around this time, in part because they 'ate their future' - the Moa and other non-renewable food staples - and did not have the animals of a temperate economy eg pig, chicken, sheep.
But yeah most don't go back beyond the 1970s when looking for the root of modern problems, who can blame them, Disco is shocking.
Just go back to capitalism... ripping off yr bro's for profit... everything else stems from that. The love of money/root of all evil... I know a few local moneylovers that will happily screw u with no qualms.
Majority rules don't work in mental institutions. The smartest people in Australia get the same amounts of votes as some psycho inbred.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/foot-and-mouth-disease-detected-...
"Pork products that were for sale in the Melbourne CBD were also found during routine inspections to contain viral fragments of both foot and mouth disease and African swine fever – another livestock disease that has not previously circulated among animals in Australia."
Ew.
one comment, might be from one of you lot, sounds like a barrel of fun:
"I was in the UK when F&M swept through. It was awful. Millions of animals perished (by culling, burning in huge pyres), no one could access wild places (all parks shut), and farmers' lives were destroyed. So, extreme measures are now required to stop it entering Australia before it can take hold. As other commentators have posted, if it gets into the feral animal population, controlling it will be nigh on impossible. Maybe we should have a hiatus on travel to certain areas of Indonesia, ban all imports of meat from China and Indonesia, and make the punishment for evading customs with undeclared meat products a tremendous fine.....or worse. The government cannot afford to be asleep at the wheel on this, if it gets in it will be a catastrophe."
If only Barnaby was this excited about climate change and land clearing which is also a threat to Aussie farms. The farmers federation and the cattle council are both calling for vigilance but not closed borders. Not the Nationals, , they as well as Rebekah Sharkie (SA Mayo) call for border closures with Indo. That’d suck ……….
News we didn't really ask for at all...sorry 'bout that! Please try to be outraged!
Mollydookers refuse to sue the Govt over bastardized Right Handed Medicare Forms!
Amputees object to Medicare Form objectifying their disability. (Not Funny Guys!)
Birthing Parents plan to remove their Mother from Medicare Forms!
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/bill-shorten-intervenes-to-replace-b...
lightheartedly, I just found the ideal job for blowin:
Deputy Director Migration and Labour Markets at the Grattan Institute:
Ever wanted to work at @GrattanInst? We're currently recruiting for a new Deputy Program Director or Senior Associate to work on migration and labour markets!
— Brendan Coates (@BrendanCoates) July 13, 2022
Applications close midnight Sunday 24 July: https://t.co/dUJhCXx6Hj
A short thread on what you'd be doing. /1
"Reporting to the Economic Policy Program Director, the Deputy Program Director (Migration and Labour Markets) leads Grattan’s work program on migration policy, bringing an economic lens to how Australia’s migration program can best maximise the wellbeing of the Australian community."
gsco wrote:lightheartedly, I just found the ideal job for blowin:
Deputy Director Migration and Labour Markets at the Grattan Institute:
https://twitter.com/BrendanCoates/status/1547365288341311488
"Reporting to the Economic Policy Program Director, the Deputy Program Director (Migration and Labour Markets) leads Grattan’s work program on migration policy, bringing an economic lens to how Australia’s migration program can best maximise the wellbeing of the Australian community."
Hmmm…. I suspect the Grattan institute would find unappealing any evidence or opinions which contradicts their pre planned outcomes..
"Millions of Australian households have been warned to brace for savage hikes to their power bills after prices in the country's biggest electricity market rocketed to their highest levels on record. "
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-29/aemo-reports-record-wholesale-pow...
"Bruce Mountain, Victoria Energy Policy Centre (VEPC) director at Victoria University, said households and businesses had only just begun to feel the effects of spiralling wholesale costs, and much worse was coming."
(That man has to have the strongest, most Australian name in the country. Respect.)
good article.
looking forward to read the book. Murray's game of mates is essential reading.
https://theconversation.com/how-mates-and-grey-corruption-rig-the-politi...
The "I can't believe it's not politics" thread.