First, underemployment is not the same thing as unemployment. In our case it means that the gap between our current GDP and the maximum potential output is positive. That is, that we could produce much more if our part-timers could be given full time jobs. What saddens me is that we are importing workers from overseas on 457 visas instead of training people here. And let me tell you that lots of uni courses are just plain useless as they are totally irrelevant when it comes to providing an entry point into the job market. This is because our unis are now-a-days profit seeking enterprises. Another thing is the fact that lots of young people are being left rotting in our cities when the Commonwealth with a bit of imagination and money could organize a chain of
youthwork camps in regional Australia, a chain of camps also open to backpackers from overseas and in that way putting an end to the exploitation of the latter by unscrupulous people.
Second, in my graph the loss of revenue to the states to be derived from the fall in prices is offset by the increase in real estate transactions. The loss to government as a whole comes only from the disappearance of a source of revenue to the Commonwealth in the form of a reduction in the capital gains tax rate to zero.
