Adventure Ausrama Blog

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

There is a reason more women are not in high income occupations. Let's face it the truth is the truth - most women do not have a mathematical mind. It is based on evolution where women developed social skills to collect berries and tubers. Men on the other hand had to hunt dangerous large animals and this needed calculating brains. Even today the sexes express their differences. More men choose university degrees in maths, engineering, technology and science. This where big money is earned. Humanities degrees especially the common or garden Bachelor of Arts will leave you in the unemployment line. Australians generally persist in studying for a BA despite all the statistics showing how weak this honor is. They know it is easy to get, but the easy way is not the best and more rational way. Just choosing a non-humanities degree is not that easy for females. A few have extremely good mathematical skills. They are at least equal to men. Most do not have the ment

It is a pipe dream to raise the pension eligibility age and expect the elderly to go back to work. With thousands of young able bodied young people unemployed what kind of work are older people going to do? Employers will not have older workers unless there is some sort of financial benefit. It makes no sense to give this with all the youngsters looking for work. Furthermore, making the unemployed wait six months to get any money at all is absolutely irrational. How are they going to get food to eat? The crime rate will rapidly increase. We will be back to the days of being imprisoned for stealing an apple. Many of the young would like to see the accumulated assets of the elderly confiscated and given to them in benefits. Little goodwill is left in society. The old, worked 12 hour days, seven days a week in hard physical labor to gain their assets. The young today will only lift things under a certain weight. They use lifting machines to move heavy things around.

Pensioners have gray hair. They are also entering a gray area, politically, socially and economically. Most people reaching pension age have never paid superannuation and others have only been paying it for a few years of their working lives. The amount saved by super is certainly not enough to live on. This group relies on the government to provide them with an income. Calls are coming from all sides for an increase in the pension to a "livable" level. Basic costs like council rates, rents, electricity, gas, water and sewerage have gone through the roof in the last decade. There is no solid reason why this should be so. Electricity companies keep saying the old infrastructure has to be renewed. Surveys show they have actually over-spent, pushing the cost onto consumers. Giving those who could afford solar power a massive discount for feeding electricity back into the grid is appalling political decision making. Pensioners could not afford solar. They are s

Despite the boom times in Australia which has finally peaked, a significant proportion of working Australians do not have permanent full-time positions. This is because both sides of politics have freed-up the hiring contract between employers and employees. The claim that bank holiday and annual leave pay is included in the casual rate is rubbish. People are hired for a per hour fee. No moneys are set aside for rest day payment.  Part-time employees can be called in to work at any time of the day or night. Even in management the market is distorted. Tests to find the "ideal" personality to do the job have never been tested in the real world. They have been written by university people who teach and must write a certain number of papers for "respected" journals. Governments are reducing employment in the public sector. When they have to get the work done in future by the private sector the real cost will become apparent.  While contractors offering specific

According to the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey we have never been able to buy so much with our income. Over the last decade income inequality has hardly changed, Wages have risen faster than inflation. Of course, we know that announced inflation is lower than real price rises. Although Australia's debt is low compared to other developed countries, less than half of Australians believe this. Despite the good times, many are feeling down and depressed feeling that the country is not doing well economically. This is probably due to the negative political arena at the moment with any bad news being blown out of proportion, with political blame and counter denials being kept uppermost in people's minds. We should be happy but the minority, politicians, are pulling us down. Things are certainly changing now with Chinese demand for primary products falling as well as prices producers receive. The new government, in September, will have to deal with

The overseas economic crisis is changing the perception of wage rates in Australia. Over recent months the Aussie dollar has fallen in value.  It helps exporters. The retail sector has also been calling for the dollar to be intentionally weakened. This is odd considering Australian consumers are heavily "addicted' to imports, so prices will probably rise in the shops. There will be an election in September. Any color of government will have to cut back on spending. This will mean higher unemployment. Therefore, despite inflation steadily rising there will be downward pressure on wages. There is already a glut of people seeking employment in the vegetable and fruit picking industry. When you go shopping a distinct feel of recession is in the air. With many buying online, the shops are almost devoid of shoppers. The lowest income earners have just been given a 2.6 per cent pay rise. This was done to redistribute income. Higher unemployment will prevent future artifi

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

A fall in house prices is a good thing for first home buyers, but it puts a squeeze on the rental market. With lower property values investors invest in other things, the bank or the share market. You would think that rents would move up and down with the price of housing, believing that monthly rents are tied to monthly mortgage repayments. This is a generality that is not always true. The reality is that as house prices fall, rents go up as investment to built more rental properties declines. In Canberra rents increased by 2.2 per cent last year. Perth continues to experience a drain of money to mining areas from Perth city itself. Consequently, new rental properties have not been built and rents have also increased. Those on low incomes who do not earn enough to get a mortgage are at the mercy of the rental market. As rents rise they have to pay more. Furthermore, students from poor families cannot afford to pay high rents. Despite the mining boom in Australia, many a