Who do you think will be repaying the Government?

Originally posted by moorookamick: ↑

We already have $1.1 trillion of Government debt, add to this the current $180 billion Corvis-19 grants and at least that much again in forgone tax reciepts and that only over the next 3 months with a likely repeat of the dose come July 1st. This will take our Government debt (Comm , State & Muni) to well over 100% of GDP .

https://australiandebtclock.com.au

In the context of posters posts above, we should be asking now who's going to pay. before the Fires & Covid debacle, we were paying $21 billion a year interest alone on debt with this likely to double over the next 2 years.

IMO, the first hit will be:
-Sell the NBN.................say $50 Billion
-States to sell remaining power generating assets ....Say $100 billion
-Sell the Post Office..........Say 10 billion
-Sell the ABC..............say $1 billion
-Sell down Commonwealth & State Government buildings.........$5 billion

To form a reasonable discussion on recurring Government income we have to consider what is happening now:

https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/mf/5506.0

At present we have a disproportionate amount of tax imposed on individuals in the form of PAYE, GST (exclusively a consumer tax)
Rates , etc. With the wealth of our resources it seems absurd that only 19% of tax collected is Corporate.

https://treasury.gov.au/review/tax-white-paper/at-a-glance

IMO, we simply have to get more tax revenue from Big Business, particuluarly from those in the extraction & export businesses.
so that the individual is not crippled with extra tax to pay down Australia's ever increasing debt load.

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So wrong on so many levels...

Sell - to whom? You'd be lucky to get 50% of the funds you mention in the next 5 years. If you did sell, what do you think would happen to the prices of the services provided by the utilities/agencies? You think we're overtaxed now? Wait till you have to pay for increased services.

Think about it. Tax is paid on your gross earnings, everything else is paid from your net... Just think about that for a minute...

And recurring Government revenue - if you sell everything off, where's the cash going to come from? Sure, let's start taxing the companies more and more - that'll fix the deficit. BS I say! Companies are designed to survive. They do that by charging customers more than what they spend, and they employ people in the meantime too... The answer is not easily found in 2 lines of debate but I do feel that wider debate needs to happen. Certain sectors are getting away with far too much and don't start me on CEO's disgusting remuneration packages. Increase GST to 15% on everything and then we can debate PAYG reductions...

I'd be happy with reeling in the massive Welfare base we operate under. Couples earning $180k p.a. getting handouts? That's insane! Welfare recipients having to do nothing in return for the cash - doubly insane! Get the able bodied out assimilating and working on their social skills - volunteer at the local sporting club for example. The amount of hours should be proportionate to the level of benefit they receive.

Another 4 initiatives that would save the Country Billions are: (1) ALL companies to lodge BAS monthly, payable by the end of the next month (like real 30EOM terms) and (2) No lodgements for 3 months and you're shut down - right now it can take 2 years for events to get to that point. The ATO loses Billions each year to Phoenix and other schemes where companies fail to lodge returns and all they get is a slap on the wrist and a lodgement failure fine/'bluey'. These companies go into Administration or worse owing the ATO the most of all Creditors and they just have to write it off as company assets are never enough to cover the debt. And the Aust Govt (ie: you and me) bails out all employee entitlements.. Lose/lose for the taxpayer. (3) SPEND money on water capture and turn the Country into a safe food producer. The current low interest rate environment is not going away for decades so take advantage of it.. (4) Nuclear. Dig it, enrich it, sell it. We're bloody good at digging stuff out of the ground so lets do more of it.

Recent events will force a whole new level of thinking and our current Political System is not up to the task. The first Party with a 10 year plan gets my vote.

Cheers,
TC.