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Many Factors Involved in Longevity

Live to be 150 years old. But can you afford it? To live that long will take genetic manipulation and intensive drug therapy. Research has shown that the primary thing extending life is diet. Remove processed food completely and you will live longer. That is all processed food. New evidence shows that people did live into their eighties centuries ago. Note, there were no processed foods then. Meat and vegetable were eaten every meal. Even bread kept the attributes of the grain. What brings the average life-span down is the large number of people dying in accidents. Suicide is another factor. Improved health care will extend life over coming decades. That is if taxpayers can afford it, which is doubtful. Much is said about good genes predisposing a person for a long life. However, personality is important. How you choose to live determines longevity. Good food. regular exercise and mixing socially are major factors. It is important to be positive. Keeping the brain acti

Good Macroeconomic News - Wages Falling in the West

A news asset macroeconomic placed on wages citizens attempting to enter falling. News, salaries are falling for high-income economies, macroeconomic. ◘1 west news or wages we macroeconomic of falling at Using am west it macroeconomic it news macroeconomic he falling an news australia ◘1 The world capitalist system is a leveller. As time goes by wages in Western nations will fall in real terms. Asian producers of low-end goods will not make things cheap enough. Europeans and Americans will not have the disposable income to purchase from abroad.         ◙2 in wages to Using or west macroeconomic ◙2 This can only be a good thing macroeconomically for so-called advanced countries as factories start opening up again and people buy things made by local suppliers. Wages are falling now. There is less permanent work and workers have to take just about any job. Security in employment is history.   ⦿3 west up macroeconomic wages ⦿3 Australia's superannuation policy will die as ear

Guaranteed Minimum Income is Fairyland Stuff

SOCIOLOGY Many in Australia are calling for a guaranteed minimum wage whether a person earns it or not. If a low paid job for say 30 hours a week is below this minimum then the state will top it up. This sounds fair at first instance, but there is the problem of government income to pay for this and the world economic environment that thrives on low wages. If every country in the world did it, the system would be viable. Unfortunately, humans are greed driven. We are nice to each other. This in only to a degree, however. Man is torn between egalitarianism and competition. The Star Trek world where only those who want to work abandon their sloth and actually go to work is far off in the future. When I was young the dole was quite high. It was meant for times between jobs to maintain family income. Indeed, in England those who paid more tax got a higher rate of unemployment. This was definitely not egalitarian. The Australian benefit has fallen way behind the cost o

Malcolm Turnbull is Big Bad Wolf - Watch Out Goldilocks!

When you get chosen as Prime Minister the first rule is... look after yourself and your mates. For some odd reason the "group of independent deciders supported the Coalition's policy of exempting Australia's wealthiest people from disclosure requirements on a new tax system taking effect in December. Mind you, the ordinary Jack and Jill will have to disclose their data. It seems Malcolm Turnbull is not just a pretty face: he is a crafty sod as well! Let's all head for the Cayman Islands. If its good enough for our PM, it is certainly good enough for the rest of us dinkum Aussies. Kerry Packer the famous now deceased billionaire once said that "it is every Australian citizen's duty to avoid paying tax: I have lived in Australia and elsewhere all my life and have never paid one cent in tax". When he died the Australian Government gave him a state funeral. Guilt is not for the wealth it appears. For the ordinary Joe though, he must be checked and dou

Countries Must Bring in REVENUE TAX

Multinational companies are making a mockery of national tax policies. Countries have set up collection systems based on the pre-internet period. Everything today is mobile. People and money are flowing freely around the world. Google, Apple, Facebook and others are moving income from all their national operations to Ireland where the tax rate is ridiculously low. They inundate branches in other countries with mythical charges from head office, so profit is reduced to zero. Of course, in reality it is not zero. What countries should do is instigate a REVENUE TAX. This idea will shock and frighten CEOs. It is the last thing they want. Companies should be levied with either revenue tax or company tax whichever is the greater. Setting a revenue tax rate at a realistic 4 per cent will solve national tax collection problems. Companies will not be able to avoid paying some tax. Say a company has revue of $100 million. The tax payable on this would be $4 million. If

Bitcoin is an Asset According to the Australian Tax Office

Everyone thought that bitcoins would remain untraceable and out of the reach of national revenue collections. This belief has proved to be fairyland. The Australian Tax Office now values bitcoins as assets to be included on your yearly income tax form. If you have millions of these things when there value increases you will have to give part of it to the Australian Tax Office (ATO) if you reside in Australia. Don't think that this is the end - it is just the beginning. Other countries are looking at making bitcoins taxable income. BitPos an Australian company which arranges an exchange and purchasing service for people dealing in bitcoins say owners have to pay the Goods and Service Tax (GST) on the full value of coins not just on the fee. This is when buying the actual "currency" itself. Because dealers say bitcoin it is not a currency it opens the door for countries to interpret it as they like. It is possible some jurisdictions will class it as c

Privatization Is Not the Answer for Government

Australia is going down the same road as the British by privatizing public resources. There is a major problem with this economic theory. That is, that once resource are sold and the money is used to pay off debt it cannot be sold again. When railways, electricity and water are privatized they are no longer under public control. Ordinary people are at the mercy of private enterprise who have been shown to continually increase charges beyond what citizens can bear. This is the cold reality of what the future will be like. Politicians of the right have put faith in private enterprise for a century or more. The trickle down benefits of wealth are shown to be completely wrong. The riches of nations is still being consolidated into fewer hands. The poorer are poorer still. Despite consumer goods being widespread, very few can afford a Ferrari. Millionaires have been superseded by billionaires. And the these consumers of all things monetary still want more. When services

Cash Reward for Whistleblowers

Australia has a culture of a fair go and don't dob your mates in. The question is, are your coworkers mates? In England, for example, the government encourages people to dob their neighbors in for fleacing social security. It is accepted there. But in Australia there has been an outcry against offering cash to dob others in to the authorities. This kind of offer could backfire. Dobbers could just make things up to get cash. Who is to monitor this? It is hoped that companies will jump in to catch employees stealing from the business. Dodgy financial traders should watch out. Some rewards offered in the US have gone as high as $US104 million: though a court case resulted and fines were paid, this is a huge amount. Tax authorities are examining the possibility of reward for information that brings to light tax evasion. It seems though that those in high places will still not be caught. The Australian government turned a blind eye to Kerry Packer paying hardly any tax at

The Tax Working Group Makes Predictable Recommendations

The Tax Working Group (TWG) has reached the conclusion that there should be a corporate tax cut. This finding was not surprising considering it was set up for this purpose. It is said that this will bring more investment money into Australia. Considering the Australia currency is already far too strong and is slowing down exports because they are too expensive on the world market, the last thing we need is more money flowing in. This can be funded by reducing tax offsets for R&D development, it says. What a silly idea this is. Reduce R&D and we will have nothing new to sell. This is like robbing Peter to pay Paul. These are the same companies who will enjoy the corporate tax cut. By cutting back on gas, oil, agriculture and transport tax write offs, there will no overall benefit. Furthermore, ending tax deductions for multinationals will slow foreign investment not improve it. These inquiries are often a waste of public money. They make recommendations that are usuall

Tax on Internet Sales is Economically Irrational

Calls by big business in Australia for the Goods and Services Tax to be extended to cover Internet purchases less than a thousand dollars is just sour grapes on their part. Only 3 per cent of all Australian purchases are for Internet sales and many of these are local Australian purchases. The Government has said the cost of collection would be far more than the income gained. Such a tax would be like re-implementing tariff barriers. It could certainly be interpreted that way. Big business is not calling for new trade barriers is it? It has taken half a century to reduce barriers in the car industry. Even now some obstacles to free trade remain in motor vehicle production. Australian businesses have to lift their game. Go into a department store and try to find someone to give assistance. You can't find anybody! Staff has been cut to ridiculously low levels. If you do find a lower price for a product on the Internet from a company overseas there is still the post and packaging cost

The Mining Tax and Bank Tax Are Similar

Is a bank tax the same as the Australian minerals tax? Mining companies are playing a dirty game by paying Olympic stars good money to say the mining tax is bad for the country. There isn't much doubt that such a tax is tremendously beneficial to the Australian economy. This is because other countries will quickly follow suit and bring in their own mining tax. Olympians who go for the money will soon lose support of the community. This has happened in the past when celebrities let their political leanings been known. Straight away half the population doesn't like them anymore. If you belong to the public there are certain things you should keep to yourself. People have long memories. Not much is being said about the new bank tax proposed by European countries. However, this is much like the Australian minerals tax. There are dangers there for European countries. If the US doesn't bring in a similar tax, banks will re-register there to avoid paying the tax. Perhaps that is w