#stage3taxcuts

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The Individual’s Right To Private Wealth

It is hard not to reduce the salient difference between those on the Right to those on the Left, as an overt concern with selfishness vs inclusiveness. Republicans in America always back tax cuts for the rich and big business. The LNP Coalition in Australia follow a similar predilection, when it comes to things, as exemplified by the Stage 3 tax cuts. Those on the Right are fed a diet of the individual’s right to private wealth over most other considerations. They see that capitalism is about such things, and are highly suspicious of the welfare state. Their ideological stance is that everyone must make their own way in life with no handouts. However, they have no problem with receiving a leg up from their family if they come from a wealthy background. A level playing field is not high on their list of priorities.

A Right To Lower Taxes & White Neighbourhoods

The message coming from the Right is invariably one of pushing for lower taxes and especially no wealth taxes. They see no problem with playing the game of life from an uneven playing field, economically speaking. They enjoy their advantages in life but do not respect disadvantage for others. It falls to those on the Left, politically speaking, to raise their voices for those disadvantaged by birth or by circumstance within their community. The political game, then becomes Republican and conservative politicians criticising policy measures in government to address disadvantage as wasteful or manifestations of dangerous socialism. This has occurred frequently, like clockwork in the US over many decades. The slaves were freed via Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War (the 14th Amendment) back in 1865. However any economic efforts to help those recently liberated black slaves were consistently voted down by the politics of the day, suggesting that any measures would detract from the wealth of white American men. Self-interest has always been a powerful force in America, politically. This is why there remains a large wealth divide between whites and African Americans, still to this day. White supremacists will tell you that it is because African Americans are lazy but this is not true. Rather, they have been locked out economically by racist policies and institutional racism over many decades. Segregation in housing is a clear example of this throughout American cities even to this day. School segregation is another widespread reality in America today, especially in the northern states. When the governments of the day in the 1960’s , 70’s and 80’s tried to do something about it – this was the beginnings of the white Christian Nationalist movement. A big chunk of white America is racist.

The White Right To Complain About Stuff Donald Trump has not invented racism and white supremacy, no, he being the grifter he is, has only taken advantage of it politically. Trump champions the politics of grievance. White America has never been invaded by another foreign power. Most white Americans do not live in poverty. Their ancestors were not enslaved by other Americans back in the day. Still, they complain loudly when they have little to complain about. Christians complain about their diminishing right to persecute Americans who may be members of the LGBTQIA community in their midst. Christian Nationalists want to control the reproductive rights of all women in America whether they share their beliefs or not. The once slaver states of the Confederacy are almost always at the forefront of these state based attempts to take away the personal freedoms of ordinary Americans. They call them the red states, politically speaking, and with Trump’s crush on Vladimir Putin there may be more in that to see. “We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled. The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision, including the one on which the defenders of Roe and Casey now chiefly rely—the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.”  Justice Samuel Alito (Majority) (https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/supreme-court-case-library/dobbs-v-jackson-womens-health-organization)

Neoliberalism Is A Proven Economic Failure For The People The individual’s right to private wealth is high on the agenda of the GOP. Privatising everything that they can see is the main thrust of the Federalist Society’s Project 2025. Government bodies will be put into the hands of the private sector. We know how well neoliberalism has gone for the majority of people over the last 30 years. The trickledown effect has left most of us a hell of a lot worse off than our parent’s generation were. The promises of greater efficiencies have been accompanied by massive profits and payments going to investors and CEO’s. Corruption is never far from the door when regulation is lessened and you let the foxes manage the hen house. Republican voters are either really stupid or they just don’t care, as long as they can get their snouts in the trough too. Corporate America has sent all the manufacturing jobs offshore to cheaper climes. Big business has screwed ordinary Americans in their desperate quest for ever more profits. The GOP is their party. People vote for this party knowing that they are crooks, but in the hope that a crooked boss will spread some largesse their way. It is a pretty dispiriting thing to observe. If you are only ever looking out for yourself, your world is shrinking. Eventually, that will catch up with you and it wont be pretty. Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of Money Matters: Navigating Credit, Debt, and Financial Freedom.  ©WordsForWeb

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Australia Has A Tax System Which Unfairly Taxes The Working Poor

The newly amended Stage 3 tax cuts are making headlines at the moment. Political point scoring about broken promises has been less effective than usual. Perhaps the cost of living crisis and the unfairness of the tax regime may have something to do with that. Australia has a tax system which unfairly taxes the working poor rather than the wealthy. The LNP Coalition under the aegis of former PM Scott Morrison wanted to accentuate that even further via the regressive stage 3 tax cuts for the highest earning Australians. Their federal replacement, the Albanese Labor government amended those tax cuts to be shared more broadly with middle Australia.

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Ordinary Australians Pay The Most Via Income Tax

Despite this relatively good news for the working poor the tax burden remains unfairly skewed in favour of the wealthy. The capital gains tax omission on the family home no matter the value of the designated home means billionaires can squirrel away untold millions via this measure. Family trusts are another tax minimisation way for the wealthy to avoid paying taxation in Australia. Superannuation in Australia has been another bolthole for the seriously rich to avoid tax on their wealth. Income tax is the workhorse of the taxation system in this country and the burden falls most heavily on those that can afford it least.

Photo by Kateryna Babaieva on Pexels.com Why Doesn’t Australia Tax Fossil Fuel Corporations Properly? In Australia we subsidise large multinational fossil fuel corporations and mining companies by lessening their tax burden for some strange reason. State and federal governments cut lucrative deals for these big companies. One wonders why? Few other nations around the globe make it so financially attractive for these multinationals to extract their profitable resources. Australia, unlike many other places offers a stable and friendly environment in which to mine. Australia is the third largest exporter of energy resources in the world. Our LPG gas is fuelling Japan and many other nations. Our petroleum rent tax brings in bugger all in the greater scheme of things, especially when compared to similar schemes elsewhere. It is as if some of our people have cut deals to benefit themselves at the expense of what could be raised for the nation as a  whole. “Norway’s Ministry of Finance projects that tax revenue from oil and gas will be a staggering A$127 billion or around $23,500 per Norwegian citizen in 2023 alone.” - (https://australiainstitute.org.au/post/norway-shows-how-australia-can-get-a-fair-return-from-oil-and-gas/) Australia’s Petroleum Rent Tax Revenue “There are 10 entities in the 2020–21 PRRT transparency population, with total PRRT payable of $926 million. The number of entities paying PRRT decreased from 12 in the previous year, and PRRT payable increased from $881.1 million.” - (https://www.ato.gov.au/businesses-and-organisations/corporate-tax-measures-and-assurance/large-business/in-detail/tax-transparency/corporate-tax-transparency-report-for-the-2020-21-income-year/petroleum-resource-rent-tax)

Photo by Loïc Manegarium on Pexels.com Richard Denniss, the chief economist at the Australia Institute, recently presented a speech on tax at the National Press Club. He made these observations about our tax system and the unfair burden it places on ordinary workers. It seems in Australia we have allowed our politicians to rig a tax regime favouring the wealthy and the big end of town. Could this be a result of lobbying by the fossil fuel industry and political donations to our two major political parties? If you look at the records you will see the fossil fuel sector is the most active lobby group and the biggest political donor. “Four of the nation’s biggest fossil fuels companies paid over 13,000 times more in “donations” to the major political parties last financial year than they collectively paid in taxes in 2020-21. Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) data released this morning shows Chevron, Santos, Whitehaven Coal and Woodside together made $390,930 in political “donations” to the ALP and the Liberal and National parties last financial year.” - (https://theklaxon.com.au/fossil-fuels-donations/)

Australians Being Screwed By Vested Interests It is pretty bloody obvious that we are being screwed by a process tainting our governments and without recourse to proper oversight or remedy. Governments and the current political system are failing us. Meanwhile, the smokescreen of cultural warfare and the politics of grievance continues. Neocons beat up emotive narratives about Australia Day merchandise not being available in Woolworths and misplaced corporate conscience regarding the colonial invasion of the continent on that day. More inflammatory is the war in Gaza and the accusations of rampant antisemitism by anyone standing up for the Palestinian’s right to exist. Of course, the Palestinian people are in fact Semitic themselves. The protest against genocide by the Israel state is anti- Zionist if a label is required. Over in America the GOP are virulently anti-woke, attacking LGBTQIA folk and their right to exist. The culture wars hide the real stuff going on, which is the control of our governments by big money. Corporate dollars get politicians re-elected and they are, therefore, beholden to the donors and their interests. Our tax system reflects this relationship. https://www.housetherapy.com.au/social-housing/

Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko on Pexels.com Until we effectively ban all corporate and private donations to political parties we will continue to be at the mercy of their power and influence. One citizen, one vote does not work if the democratic system is being undermined by large political donations by wealthy folk and corporations. Big money is always the loudest voice in the room. The unfair nature of our current taxation regime is proof positive of that. Australia has a tax system which unfairly taxes the working poor rather than the wealthy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7mwGnb4CkA Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of Money Matters: Navigating Credit, Debt, and Financial Freedom.  ©HouseTherapy

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