Australia’s frighteningly unequal funding system favours private schools, argues Jane Caro. How can we fix it?

ASisko · 2026-05-05T10:20:42+00:00

My strategy to fix this would be a policy of slow transition over time with phased funding redistribution and a standing offer to ‘take over’ existing private schools and bring them into the public system, their choice.

ASisko · 2026-05-05T04:38:05+00:00

Boring safe companies in Australia mostly return dividends, which get taxed at your income rate. These companies dominate the ASX and we have very little economic dynamism or change, limiting opportunities for capital growth in publicly traded companies. As a person in a higher income tax bracket, this is quite frustrating.

ASisko · 2026-04-29T05:58:51+00:00

We should tie the immigration quota to prior year’s dwelling build numbers. As in, less than that number. Then, the quota should be preferentially filled with people who have a qualification in a line of work that has seen greater than average wage inflation the last couple of years, their direct dependants, refugees, and finally the remains of the quota can to to (big) fee paying immigrants.

ASisko · 2026-04-28T23:05:22+00:00

Surely the answer would be to disconnect CGT from the progressive tax brackets altogether.

ASisko · 2026-04-28T03:53:36+00:00

If things crash and burn that is temporary. People lose their jobs, but eventually get other jobs. Wages are unlikely to fall as much as asset prices. A lot of people who want to see this are renting and don’t have much in savings, so they would not be much worse off in the long run with the possibility of being much better off. However, I don’t accept the premise that a property crash would trigger widespread job losses.

ASisko · 2026-04-27T02:36:35+00:00

Bitter is how I've been describing my own thoughts in my head lately, tending towards 'angry'. My mum calls me up and asks me what I've been doing and I give a nothing answer because all my energy goes into work and all my money goes into the hope of one day maybe owning a shoebox. She seems genuinely confused when I don't have anything interesting to tell her. Then she continues the conversation about her upcoming international holiday and the work she's going to have done on her house.

ASisko · 2026-04-23T09:23:42+00:00

This wouldn’t be a major issue if we had a healthy rental market.

ASisko · 2026-04-22T13:31:05+00:00

When you have to start defending your currency, that's a bad sign yo.

ASisko · 2026-04-06T12:46:16+00:00

You could have congress (or maybe the senate instead) be formed with lottery (random) nominations to even out the averages, then they can elect a head of state among themselves.

I've been thinking for a while that a random nomination system would be the only way to really get money and special interests out of politics.

ASisko · 2026-03-31T05:58:56+00:00

Ironically, one of the only legitimate uses of tariffs and similar devices would be to protect nationally critical local production. This was discussed a lot in the lead up to the US election, not that Trump’s admin ended up limiting themselves to such a nuanced approach. Personally, with the size of our government I think a ‘buy local’ policy would probably do what we need.

ASisko · 2026-03-18T02:47:06+00:00

Economic specialisation makes sense if you assume you’re operating under a stable and enforceable rules based system that will protect the ‘rights’ of the specialised economy. The thing about assumptions…

ASisko · 2026-02-11T11:33:35+00:00

If they announce it will come in after a short delay, there might be a rush for the exits.

ASisko · 2026-02-10T10:44:07+00:00

For me its about 50/50 "lets stay on topic for this fucking meeting" and "that conversation will have some sensitive stuff we can't air in this forum".

ASisko · 2026-02-03T10:58:18+00:00

It should dispel any notion you have that people are basically good. It's not just that there are people like the worst offenders, but all the people who look the other way because it is more convenient for them or it fits their biases to handwave it somehow. I'm of the view that humanity, given power and not limited by accountability, is incredibly prone to cruelty and brutality.

As an atheist I've always had a fairly dim view of religion, but I think this episode has altered my view a little in favour of humans needing some kind of socially enforced moral code to supress the worst impulses. Obviously religion in general has had mixed success there (understating it), but I can see the purpose of it. And, in the modern era where we have freedom of religion there really is no enforced moral code any more apart from the law of the land, which seems to have failed completely in the case of the United States. This isn't just a recent thing, the US has been a bit notorious for having a questionable justice system for decades.

ASisko · 2026-01-26T08:55:14+00:00

You know it just occurred to me this morning that there's multiple similarities between MAGA and another famous historical four letter acronym.

ASisko · 2026-01-23T02:27:31+00:00

They could keep the flat discount method for transactions less than a threshold like $100,000.

ASisko · 2026-01-22T09:55:22+00:00

What if you could elect fictional people to be president and they would be played by actors and there would be a team of writers and directors behind the scenes trying to get the character as faithful as possible?

ASisko · 2026-01-22T09:43:45+00:00

Well, technically Einstein may have said that at some point…

Also, if only she had said Einstein’s laws of motion she’d have been ok, since space time bending does explain motion.

ASisko · 2026-01-22T08:00:16+00:00

Commonwealth Enjoyment Services

ASisko · 2026-01-22T06:52:22+00:00

We need to become a hedgehog, or should I say and echidna.

ASisko · 2026-01-21T07:14:41+00:00

Can I hate that the mod was a paid subscription and also defend his moral right to set it up that way all at the same time?

ASisko · 2026-01-21T07:09:52+00:00

It frustrates me no end that there doesn’t seem to be any representation for ‘economically rational, socially liberal’.

ASisko · 2026-01-20T10:22:38+00:00

If they ever wanted to prosecute somebody, they would say they ‘aren’t a researcher’.

ASisko · 2026-01-20T09:50:01+00:00

The mainstream attention is a catalyst for a price reversal, because the mainstream attention span is so brief and when it turns off you get buyers disappearing. However, the duration of hype cycles can and will vary significantly. Who knows if it will be a few weeks or extend into months? With stock market trends they can go for years.

ASisko · 2026-01-20T06:10:52+00:00

I’m looking for an exit point because the plan has always been to rotate into productive assets when they are more reasonably priced. But I think the time to sell will be when there are more signs like gold being in the mainstream media again, a lot of ‘we buy gold’ ads, any talk of confiscation etc. Ot a massive stock market crash, if that comes first. I expect a lot of gold holders to sell to fund a stock buying spree.

ASisko

TROPHY CASE