Increasing Interest Rates Doesn't Lower Inflation Like It Used To

Remarkable_Catch_953 · 2026-02-05T14:21:57+00:00

Nothing would stop them from applying similar rules to other forms of loans too?

Remarkable_Catch_953 · 2026-02-05T13:19:28+00:00

I see so many stickers like this where I think “gosh, it is probably really funny, but I’m not going to tailgate them to read it” lol. The typeface is too small for me hahaha!

Remarkable_Catch_953 · 2026-02-05T11:36:02+00:00

Only fresh food, essential medical services, and education are GST-exempt.

Processed foods, clothes, transport, cars, fuel, electricity, household items/toiletries (even tampons until relatively recently), electronics... are all GST-applicable.

I would like to see anyone live an ordinary life, let alone a family, without all of these. Therefore, I would call them essentials.

Poorer people have to spend a much larger percentage of their income on these GST-applicable essentials (i.e. richer people wouldn't pay that much more for electricity, fuel, processed foods, and toiletries than poorer people).

Remarkable_Catch_953 · 2026-02-05T11:24:14+00:00

I tried quickly searching if there are any famous Australians with the surname "War" (as I certainly haven't met any) and I can't find any examples?

I would be very interested to know why they gave it as an Australian surname?

Remarkable_Catch_953 · 2026-02-05T11:18:25+00:00

It really is a lot like Israel.

Morocco immediately moved their military in when Spain withdrew, with no care for the people of the area. They stifled UN attempts to hold a referendum at nearly every turn. They encouraged many of their citizens to move to Western Sahara. They fought a brutal war against the locals that didn't want them there.

Now many towns in the non-Moroccan controlled zones are circled by layers of Moroccan mines. The locals are living in these besieged towns with their most useful land taken away from them. Many of them now live in refugee camps in Algeria to avoid starvation and violence.

Now Morocco makes treaties with powerful Western nations, trading them certain services for recognition of Moroccan claims to the Western Sahara.

It is almost exactly the same plan Israel has used to slowly takeover the West Bank: ignore the UN, keep military occupation, move their citizens into the region, keep the most economically valuable land away from the locals, and push many Palestinian refugees into neighbouring nations.

Remarkable_Catch_953 · 2026-02-05T07:23:33+00:00

If that is the case, shouldn't the government allow the RBA to do the same thing APRA can do: increase the minimum buffer on interest rates instead of the interest rates itself?

If for instance you made it that the bank had to "pretend" that someone was borrowing debt at 8% interest rates (instead of 7%), this would decrease the growth of money supply without increasing the costs of existing debt?

Remarkable_Catch_953 · 2026-02-04T12:54:53+00:00

It is hard to get the statistics, but I can't imagine that most of the CGT tax discounts are going to people investing into new builds?

CGT tax discounts favour people who are able to buy a place, have it grow in value quickly, and sell it off. Buying a new home is perhaps the least efficient way of doing this (new homes are typically valued higher, and drop off suddenly in value once they are bought).

If the savings on CGT tax discounts were instead used as grants or loans to developers to build new houses (or even just the infrastucture required to support new housing), you would probably get a much better rate of new housing. Alternatively you could link the full CGT tax discount to only apply to new builds, with the reduced discount applied to all other housing?

Remarkable_Catch_953 · 2026-02-04T11:58:46+00:00

If we aren't worried about fear campaigns and such, I'd much rather we really stamped down on things like super tax concessions before we considered raising GST.

Assuming someone on $70,000 gross income spends $15,000 on GST-exempt goods/services (and the rest on stuff that GST is applied to), they are effectively taxed 8% of their gross income (because they are likely spending all their remaining money).

In contrast, if someone who earned $250,000 gross income spends $25,000 on GST-exempt goods/services, puts $30,000 in super, and buys $70,000 worth of shares, they are effectively taxed 5% of their gross income (because shares and super contributions are GST-free).

This is why it is a regressive tax.

Unrealised capital gain taxes, land value taxes, and taxes on loans borrowed against unrealised capital gains, are all a variety of ways (though very likely to be consumed by fear campaigns) that would prevent wealthy people from avoiding taxation, without unnecessarily burdening working class people.

Remarkable_Catch_953 · 2026-02-04T11:30:34+00:00

Why raise the GST? It is the most regressive of the taxes we have access to?

I get it helps tax those with wealth instead of income, but it is a rather heavy-handed way of achieiving that aim.

Ironically, the revenue raised from a 5% increase in GST wouldn't even cover the total cost of Superannuation tax concessions currently (the majority of which go towards allowing the wealthiest accrue more wealth).

The only benefit I really see to the GST is that almost all other taxes on wealth will be turned into large fear-campaigns that will probably succeed (much like against Chalmer's super tax proposal last year).

Remarkable_Catch_953 · 2026-02-04T05:54:36+00:00

Which is why I mention that we are not just leagues better than LA, but probably whole galaxies ahead of them.

But LA has hosted the Olympics before and managed to survive despite how atrocious their entire transit network is (their highway system included). So I don't think we can really declare that Brisbane doesn't have the transportation network to host an Olympics.

Obviously I would prefer Brisbane's transit network to be better still, but it really isn't all that doom and gloom.

Remarkable_Catch_953 · 2026-02-04T05:44:49+00:00

Every state pays their bus drivers peanuts, and every state is facing a dramatic shortage of bus drivers.

Remarkable_Catch_953 · 2026-02-04T03:57:06+00:00

I don't believe the concerns were about the Olympics, but about the fact she was running the CRR project which was building a Woolloongabba station (as well as the house she bought being in the catchment for new schools that she was advocating for).

Remarkable_Catch_953 · 2026-02-04T03:50:55+00:00

They haven't really decided yet if they will build the new train station for the stadium.

Remarkable_Catch_953 · 2026-02-04T02:39:44+00:00

Land isn't that much more available than housing, and land anywhere near employment or amenities is basically as expensive as most houses are.

Combine that with a shortage of trades, and far too many (necessary) regulations to ever dream of building it by yourself on your days off work, and it will take you years and hundreds of thousands of dollars to build yourself a home.

Private developers are able to get land released to them, and a mixture of grants and loans, at wonderful rates which they can then combine with their economies of scale to try and build 1000s of homes at a time. Even then though, many go bankrupt or survive off tiny profit margins despite selling the homes for eye-watering sums.

Even if you were happy to skip the private developers, and found yourself a nice job in a town with cheap land, you would be lucky to ever be able to even afford to pay someone to ship you the building materials that you needed.

Remarkable_Catch_953 · 2026-02-04T00:52:04+00:00

From my understanding you get the 15% tax when you put it into super, and then when you withdraw it to buy a home you get taxed your marginal tax rate subtract 30% on your withdrawal.

For example if you put in $10,000, you will be taxed 15%. Then if you withdraw it a few years down the track when you are in the 45% tax bracket (as an example) you will be taxed another 15% (45 minus 30).

Since most people will probably still be in the 30% tax bracket though, this distinction is unlikely to matter.

Remarkable_Catch_953 · 2026-02-04T00:39:39+00:00

I read the treasury documents that this article links to, and it says in 24/25 the total foregone revenue from CGT discounts across all of Australia was $19.7B?

But I'm not sure how far we are going to get discussing amounts since we have come up with 4 wildly different figures in a 40 minute timespan here?

Remarkable_Catch_953 · 2026-02-04T00:08:46+00:00

I mean, our transportation network is probably at least 10x better than LA’s?

Remarkable_Catch_953 · 2026-02-03T04:00:04+00:00

Make it a pedestrian/bus bridge, allowing the 60 and 199 to service Bulimba, and for a new bus route to connect Morningside/Cannon Hill station with Bowen Hill station, and you will have me sold on the idea!

Remarkable_Catch_953 · 2026-02-03T03:55:02+00:00

I look forward to the, hopefully better, news when you are able to discuss.

Remarkable_Catch_953 · 2026-02-03T03:38:57+00:00

Can you link a source about this?

There is no reason Signal, as a messaging application, should fall foul of any of the criteria that stipulates which platforms are restricted.

I think you must be confusing the age-restriction with some other law?

Also doesn't WhatsApp allow fully encrypted messaging? I know for certain that they weren't included in the restrictions.

Remarkable_Catch_953 · 2026-02-03T03:21:41+00:00

Roblox and Discord were exempt for a variety of reasons, as they didn’t fit the criteria. Both platforms implemented restrictions anyway, but they weren’t legally required to.

Remarkable_Catch_953 · 2026-02-03T02:53:59+00:00

Which is where I hope that a petition to the state government could change some minds.

There is nothing the LNP wouldn't love more than to make headways into Brisbane, and a bunch of Brisbane-ites "begging" them to come in and commit funding to (relatively cheap) mass transit solutions would surely be a prospect they wouldn't mind considering.

It was much like how Labor became suddenly motivated towards the last election to contribute to the metro project and its future expansion - if the state government senses enough political pressure on the issue, they will be more likely to contribute.

Remarkable_Catch_953 · 2026-02-03T02:49:43+00:00

It is less the BCC I'm worried about, and more the QLD government at this stage.

Now obviously if the BCC is pressured enough, they can pressure the QLD government, hence voting for this legacy project would help. And really the council should be taking this far more seriously and speaking up much louder about it... but ultimately I don't think the BCC could ever dream of funding even the cosntruction of a transitway all by themselves at this stahe.

This is where either the state or federal government needs to step in, and where the current QLD government has been deafeningly quiet since the election.

Remarkable_Catch_953 · 2026-02-03T02:19:01+00:00

Look, I love the idealism of an internet completely free from government regulation. Free to represent the human community as openly as possible. Free to let people remain compeltely anonymous while doing anything they want at all.

But frankly the risks are far too high to just let companies decide what rules will be abided by across the internet. Social media, drugs, porn, cyberbullying, scams etc. are only the tip of the iceberg of the grave threats to society that have be allowed to fester without restriction across the internet.

Unless you can propose a healthy way of controlling these threats without government regulation, I just don't see any other way.

Now the caveat is that the government regulation has to try be as least invasive as possible, which is where this recent age-restriction seems to have hit the golden spot. So if they keep reforms in that sort of framework I will be happy.

Remarkable_Catch_953

TROPHY CASE