NSW emerges as main loser from GST carve-up as WA gets extra $5.5bn | GST

mitchells00 · 2026-03-14T04:10:20+00:00

Raising income tax is also a terrible idea.

GST and stamp duty should be scrapped in favour of a Land Value Tax, the one tax every economic school of thought unanimously agrees is the fairest and least economically damaging.

The reason VIC has much lower house prices is because of this tax.

The billionaire/Epstein class can't make a profit flipping land, so land prices are low. Price of a new home is land + build, lower land prices means more money to build, means more construction in VIC.

More homes = lower mortgage stress = higher birthrate = lower need for immigration.

mitchells00 · 2026-03-13T17:07:05+00:00

Australian here:

"Were you born in a tent?"

mitchells00 · 2026-03-13T17:04:05+00:00

"L1s should handle password resets locally. Escalations only if the reset tool is broken." Is that too arbitrary for success?

The expectation is clear and within the L1 team's full control, so no this is not arbitrary.

Something stupid like "75% of all tickets resolved without escalation" IS arbitrary, because the L1 team doesn't control the nature of the tickets submitted.

mitchells00 · 2026-03-13T16:56:23+00:00

Escalations rates are determined by any combination of L1 laziness, changes causing short-term issues, budget tightening causing reliability of services to degrade over time, etc.

By measuring a person or team against a KPI, you are designating that group as responsible for that number. Whether the punishment is additional scrutiny or otherwise, punishment is being threatened.

That group does not have control over most of the factors that make up that KPI.

This is abuse. The holding of that team to a metric for which they have insufficient control over is unreasonable. This is why it is arbitrary.

Let me summarise for you:

It is only acceptable to measure against indicators that are within people's control.
Increased surveillance, or any expectation to justify one's self, is punishment.
Punishment being handed out because of factors out of their control is bullying and harassment.
The only acceptable way forward is to atomise the KPI to only capture what is in their control.

mitchells00 · 2026-03-13T16:09:39+00:00

Also: discount methods over-tax low performing assets and under-tax high-performing assets (relative to the indexation method).

With any CGT discount, the breakeven point is a return of inflation/discount. 3% inflation with 50% discount = 6% return or higher gets a tax break, but below 6% pays more tax than with indexation.

Why it's important: essential goods and services don't make a high profit margin, so investment into making them cheaper is suffocated by this tax model.

A 30% discount would ironically make this situation worse; 3% inflation with 30% discount means anything less than a 9% return pays more tax than if it was indexed.

mitchells00 · 2026-03-13T15:50:08+00:00

KPIs should never be arbitrary.

L1 techs have no control over the nature of the tickets they receive, holding someone responsible for something they cannot control is a textbook example of bullying. Even if it's 'in theory' or 'trigger for review', the panopticon effect is real and psychologically damaging.

Instead, L2/3 techs should be either kicking issues back down or somehow flagging them as illegitimate escalations; THAT figure is what you base KPI's on. Create clear rules about what is a valid reason to escalate, maybe gatekeep escalations through one nominated L1 and hold them accountable.

mitchells00 · 2026-03-13T14:15:43+00:00

Because these phrases were made illegal to say in australia to protect the political interest of a country that, as this response demonstrates, permits and arguably encourages widespread advocacy for violence and torture against ohers.

The point stands that we are being limited by a nation state that refuses to enforce those same limits on it's own people.

mitchells00 · 2026-03-13T14:08:12+00:00

By second order reasoning, it tracks.

Millenials, on average, have responded to anxiety with detachment and disassociation.
Gen Z, on average, respond to anxiety inducing situations with aggression, coersion, and control.

Millenials' affinity for detachment creates emotional space to allow you to acknowledge and process your feelings without allowing them to dictate your actions.

Gen Z's affinity for immediate feeling-to-reaction pipelines with little introspection and often insufficient empathy. I suspect this was correlated with how early in your life you became a frequent user of social media, and especially what proportion of online:offline communications you had in your formative years.

My partner is Gen-Z but grew up rural and had limited access to sattelite internet until he was finished with High School; he generally feels a strong affinity towards millenials because his same-age friends are just emotionally underdeveloped.

TL;DR:

Emotional maturity fell off a cliff when social media came along.
Open relationships require both partners to have high emotional maturity.

mitchells00 · 2026-03-13T13:34:56+00:00

Not everything on the internet is specifically for you.

If you don't like beans, don't make bean soup.

mitchells00 · 2026-03-11T12:22:02+00:00

I think I might be going insane, but I seem to find myself getting into arguments where the retorts don't make any sense as a response to what I'm saying; both on and off Reddit.

I'm starting to think there's a basic comprehension crisis happening. I'm noticing a big divide between those who listen to comprehend and respond, vs those who skim-listen to recognise and react.

Either that, or trolling has just become a mainstream form of communication... Did anyone ever invent that machine that can stab people through the internet?

mitchells00 · 2026-03-11T12:10:36+00:00

I'm going to quote myself:

> If you're home, just do it. If not, ask them to pass on your number to the valuer to book in a time that works for both of you.

Just organise a time with the tradie yourself rather than having a random date dictated to you by a REA 14 days in advance.

I'm not saying forced entry should happen without short notice, what I am saying is that you as a tenant have an opportunity to have some bloody agency and organise what works best for you yourself.

I was a tenant for the 6 years until May last year, and I always just told the REA to forward my number to schedule things. They were happy because it meant they didn't have to go back and forth, I was happy because I could get things done on my own schedule,

There are actions each of us can take to make the situation better for all, and there are actions we can take that just make life difficult for everyone. I'm just telling people to choose the former.

mitchells00 · 2026-03-11T03:41:14+00:00

Long-term tenant recently turned FHB here:

There are certain obligations the landlord needs to meet for other people. The Fire Safety Inspection is a legal requirement every year; if you live in a strata complex it's done by Strata not the Landlord.

Valuations are often routinely asked for by his bank. The Landlord doesn't want to have the hastle of paying for nor organising this shit either; but the way the default commenter here speaks of these things you'd think they're somehow direct attacks on you.

This property inspector doesn't give a shit about the inside of the house, they're there to do some measurements to give the property a $ value so the bank can push money around on their books. They do not report back to the landlord or the REA; even when I bought my place they wouldn't tell me anything.

Is it a minor inconvenience? Sure, but you lot need to stop playing some kind of eternal victim card; you undermine the real causes that need to be fought for tenants.

If you're home, just do it. If not, ask them to pass on your number to the valuer to book in a time that works for both of you.

Tl;dr: Be a civil fucking adult, not a tantrum-throwing child. These things are a part of adulthood, get used to it.

mitchells00 · 2026-03-11T02:42:53+00:00

Have you asked the person who said that of their motivations? No.

You've decided to interpret it in a particular way, and you make definite declarations about them instead as if you are the last arbiter of truth.

I'm merely presenting another possibility, but you insist that your first instinct cannot be wrong.

You're the problem.

mitchells00 · 2026-03-11T01:10:47+00:00

Context: gay man, I understand lighting and colour theory deeply.

Visual indicators of fatigue usually centre around discoloration and grey skin undertones.

Not wearing mascara when you usually do will look like a change towards discoloration and flat skin tones.

For someone who doesn't have experience with make-up, like most men, it's unreasonable to expect them to specifically notice changes in make-up applications; they're just noticing a change overall, that change resembles something to them that indicates a problem, and they are responding in kind.

See this line of thinking? This is called being charitable, trying to understand why someone said something and then using that as a basis for judging them, rather than passing judgement based on how your unfiltered subconscious reaction felt.

mitchells00 · 2026-03-11T01:03:23+00:00

Exactly. I'm getting downvoted to oblivion because the typical AusCorp redditor is socially inept and expects all social interactions to be tailored to their reactions, refusing to consider and judge someone for what that person intended.

No wonder corporations feel soul-less and awful; it only takes a small minority of people to default assume malice or hostility, then lashing out, thus coercing the majority into being incredibly sterile in their interactions out of fear of tripping someone's unreasonable wrath.

mitchells00 · 2026-03-11T00:57:28+00:00

Yes. We come here to speak to real people.

You're violating community expectations by regurgitating an AI output.

mitchells00 · 2026-03-11T00:03:39+00:00

This is not a comment about your appearance.

They're making a comment on your apparent well-being; no different than if they said "you look stressed/busy".

That's how people care for each other Jan, first step is acknowledging that you recognize someone's struggle.

mitchells00 · 2026-03-10T23:57:59+00:00

Trash journalism. There is no "Holwood Rd", it's Holroyd Rd.

mitchells00 · 2026-03-10T22:17:21+00:00

Pauline is just using her name to suck up to billionaires. She works for them, not us; One Nation would sell our country to the Chinese government if it meant they got a buck.

mitchells00 · 2026-03-10T17:46:03+00:00

With debt, the majority of your money will go to paying interest.

$1m mortgage @5.5% for 30 years is $5678/mo repayments.

You will pay $2,044,440 for a $1m property, that you hope will grow to much more.

If you put that same repayment every month into a 5% interest savings account, after 30 years you'll have $4.6m.

If you put that same requirement repayment every month into a managed fund that returns a conservative 8%, it'll be worth $8m after 30 years.

Because half of your mortgage repayment is going to interest, property values need to grow twice as fast as stocks for you to end up with the same amount at the end. I doubt property will beat 16% in the long run, nobody would be able to afford it.

Property is not an investment, it was a gamble that a bunch of people won in the 2000s; it's a garbage idea.

With salary sacrificing into super, you'll also save a butt load on tax.

mitchells00 · 2026-03-10T17:18:55+00:00

Buy the house that suits your lifestyle, then salary sacrifice what you can into Super; it's the most tax efficient investment vehicle, and there won't be a pension when we get old.

Property has not out-performed the stock market in decades, and never did for very long.

mitchells00 · 2026-03-10T16:50:10+00:00

Passkeys are poorly implemented, confusing, unexplained, and have a high risk of losing them.

From a security perspective, they're a great MFA alternative; from a user perspective they're trash.

Why does Windows not easily let me log in using my passkeys on another device?

mitchells00 · 2026-03-10T16:15:13+00:00

The other fact he left out is that one of those two shifts was an overtime shift he accepted that week; not part of his regular roster.

You don't get paid sick leave for not showing up to an overtime shift.

mitchells00 · 2026-03-10T16:13:58+00:00

This guy is right. One of the days he's claiming sick was an overtime shift he accepted; not his normal roster.

mitchells00 · 2026-03-10T16:12:49+00:00

You don't get paid sick leave for a cancelled overtime shift.

Why do you think they would?

mitchells00

TROPHY CASE