Perhaps you wouldn't be so quick to post if you understood how far along Swedes are in terms of their "socialist" system and the amount of tax they correspondingly pay. I would be very happy for the miners to be taxed like Swedish companies, but not so much with the tax ordinary Swedes have to pay. The Swedes have a direct and an indirect tax that amounts to around 48% - depending on deductions, etc. and they pay 25% VAT (a GST) on most goods (except for food and a few other things).
All that tax goes to pay for services. National health, retirement funds, etc. If a government tried to do the same here, it would not be in office long! Also, if we had that kind of tax system there would be no need to go after the miners or any other group for that matter - although there could still be merit in some additional resource tax...
What the government here has tried to do is make some changes for the future and spent money to keep a lot of Aussies employed and the economy rolling along, so that when the good times return we will already be way ahead. Some people screwed it up because they took advantage of the situation and what do we do, instead of going after those people (the shysters with the teenager putting insulation in building, the builder over-quoting for work, etc., etc.,), we blame the government! They "didn't management it very well", we cry, with crocodile tears, as we go to our jobs, whinging about the increased tax on cigarettes (that are killing us and costing every Australian $$$'s! and so much grief!).
Some of it the government has really stuffed up - no arguments there - but I doubt anyone could have done much better, when the imperative was to act quickly. BTW, does anyone see the other few 100,000 home owners whinging about the free insulation in their roofs?
Tell all this to your Swedish "friend" and next time, try to look at the big picture...
