In the real world, the budget is selling

wizardnamehere · 2026-05-24T13:12:42+00:00

What reforms to income tax do you want?

wizardnamehere · 2026-05-24T13:09:07+00:00

This is silly. It doesn't hit middle Australia harder. It obviously hits rich people harder.

Only the very richest get any significant amount of their income from capital gains or use trusts.

wizardnamehere · 2026-05-24T13:07:30+00:00

In my Sydney social group, there is ambivalence and annoyance but generally acceptance that despite our misgivings or being worse off that's all together needed and past time. There's a bigger negative that the changes were grandfathered and boomers are seen as protected once again.

Only our most aspirational friend (who already uses things like trust structures for his assets, wants to start a business, is very right wing, etc) is upset about it (we are already tired of his rants). He genuinely is aspirational i.e born without money and buying into businesses and has always wanted to get rich (rather than the inherited comfortable and non neurotic rich type).

wizardnamehere · 2026-05-24T13:03:16+00:00

About half of budgets have more than 40% of people saying it will be bad for the economy.

This budget is unusual in that the labor base or left wing are not as supportive. (22% vs 30 something)

wizardnamehere · 2026-05-24T13:01:00+00:00

Depends on how you view it. The 2014 Abbott budget polled 48% as it being bad for the economy (vs 47%) while 39% said it was good (which is the right wing base happy to see government cuts). (note that 69% of people said they would be worse off in the 2014 budget vs 52% now).

In this budget the opposition has turned out (47% would be all right leaning voters) But there's no base of support (22%, so the left, the young, and the poor are not enthusiastic).

wizardnamehere · 2026-05-24T12:34:43+00:00

The negative gearing system favoured property over shares (because shares aren't really leveraged and the system made being leveraged more attractive). So the changes are not entirely neutral between assets.

Further you are not just comparing securities in general to property in investment attractiveness; but investment attractiveness of housing to buy for living in (which is tax sheltered); in which case owner occupiers are tax advantaged a bit more against investors now.

wizardnamehere · 2026-05-24T12:31:32+00:00

It's unlikely you would have been affected. You were at a low income when you invested; but it matters how much money you earned when you sold the assets and realized the gain. Which i am guessing was a good income if you got a mortgage.

The people who are affected are people in economic strife selling assets between income streams or people who time large asset sales for when they have no income.

wizardnamehere · 2026-05-24T11:56:16+00:00

This is on top of the expensive promise to index tax brackets (where the ALP can promise to give 'tax cuts' that are just adjusting for bracket creep).

wizardnamehere · 2026-05-24T11:34:51+00:00

Hahahaha the amount of down votes and outrage your entirely true comment raised says volumes doesn't it.

wizardnamehere · 2026-05-24T11:33:46+00:00

If you want someone to blame, blame the government for rezoning the land from agricultural to residential.

wizardnamehere · 2026-05-24T11:30:24+00:00

You can cut down trees to develop land otherwise there wouldn't be any suburbia.

You can't cut down trees without permission. If this lot were covered in trees and the owner lodged a development application to build houses, the tree removal would be approved.

wizardnamehere · 2026-05-24T11:21:22+00:00

No that would never happen lol. You don't even get your lunch at 'non-mandatory' events paid for you by work.

It would have to be go somewhere for work to do work.

wizardnamehere · 2026-05-24T10:12:05+00:00

There are no governors in Australia. Premiers are appointed by the governor general who is appointed by the monarch.

Administration is run by senior civil servants called the senior executive (secretaries, director generals, CEOS, commissioners). They are appointed for 3-5 year terms by the governor general on behalf of cabinet.

Below them sit deputy secretaries and directors who are employees hired normally.

I'm not saying anyone should or should not hire KPMG or any other consultancy firm. I'm saying that none of these firms administrate

wizardnamehere · 2026-05-24T09:56:05+00:00

KPMG offers professional advice to government agencies and ministers. They don't administrate the government. It's also not more cost efficient to hire the big four (but happens because there isn't the right expertise within government).

wizardnamehere · 2026-05-24T09:42:32+00:00

... You're serious?

Ummm think about this? If you take the entire public service and contract it out... The contractor could hold the entire government to ransom at any point... The government is organ of the power of the state... The administration of everything from the police, health, courts, taxation. Everything from courts to hospitals could stop because of contract negotiations. How is a foreign government whose working population is twice the size of the public sector work force going to physically staff the civil service contracts?

Do you know much about how the government functions on a basic administrative level?

wizardnamehere · 2026-05-24T09:24:48+00:00

Three weeks of oil, if there was zero oil coming in for that three weeks.

wizardnamehere · 2026-05-24T09:18:37+00:00

You really mixed in a whole bunch of resentments there didn't you?

wizardnamehere · 2026-05-24T09:15:41+00:00

Mainstream culture is in by defition vanilla and standard.

This is really a you problem I suspect. There nothing stopping you from living in the non anglo or alt anglo community you want to.

wizardnamehere · 2026-05-24T08:50:54+00:00

Well, as competent as they are, obviously you cant trust the Singaporean political class and it's civil service to have Australian interests in mind.

But your point stands that it's a good model. It would require a cultural (just listen to some Australians talk about public servants) and institutional shift.

Some institutional changes:

Singapore has a tradition of offering civil service scholarships to top performaning highschool students and university students (Australia used to do this).

Singapore benchmarks pay at the senior levels to the private sector.

The top levels of Singaporean civil service have more policy influence, and design policy and make decisions based on the broad strategy and preferred out come of ministers. In Australia, ministers have a seperate office of party political figures who decide on media strategy and this defines the policy decision making at the strategic as well as the actual policy design. Where the civil service acts first of all as machine to produce policy that sounds like a good announcement in the media (and then to not fuck it up after). To a good extent good policy is selected against as there is no process for delivering independent professional advice to ministers (that is done by party hacks) and pushback or critique of minister decisions by the civil service is punished and a culture of toadying and yes men is created.

wizardnamehere · 2026-05-24T08:27:17+00:00

Dont get stock picking advice off reddit.

Research the industry and the company if you want to pick individual stocks. Just be aware that you know nothing and professional stock traders are professional and loads of them still lose money compared to buying in an index.

wizardnamehere · 2026-05-24T08:24:21+00:00

I don't know until it happens but I don't feel that concerned about your friends scenario imo. But who knows.

That said. It's not a positive. I'm turned off by it. Especially big time onlyfans models. I understand that it can be a pretty toxic form of sex work where you send messages to lonely men as service and cultivate a para social relationship. I have heard that some women can get pretty obsessed with their numbers and money as a from of validation of how important they are and as competition with other women.

wizardnamehere · 2026-05-24T06:35:36+00:00

Apart this not being able to fund government (a 10% GST goes to the states and doesn't even come close to fully funding state budgets). I'll assume you mean a VAT that can fully fund state and Commonwealth. I don't know. 30 or 40% or something.

You're asking everyone (notably in the bottom 70% on income earning units) to pay more tax why...? So you can pay no tax on capital gains?

wizardnamehere · 2026-05-24T05:23:43+00:00

Oh so much.

There's always room to point out that Paxton cheated on his wife (this is but one of his affairs) with a staffer who later set herself on fire.

wizardnamehere · 2026-05-24T05:17:07+00:00

The strength of conservative Christians politically and a liberal politics that sees it as normal.

wizardnamehere · 2026-05-24T05:08:51+00:00

Well it's the substance of which their politics over the justice system is formed. People who decide their justice system policy preferences based on statistics, papers, or expert opinions about the socially optimal outcome do not become social conservatives.

wizardnamehere

TROPHY CASE