Oh I thought it was Hewson who lost in 93 that run on a GST and was beaten..You are right John Howard did make it an election issue in 96 but the voters were just waiting to get rid of Keating and thats what won Howard the election.. A drovers dog could have won that year. Don't get me wrong, I am totally in favor of the GST as it makes it harder to avoid tax as everyone pays. You may work for cash in the hand but in the end when you buy something the taxman will get his share. The USA should adopt such a scheme and just maybe they wouldn't be in such dire straights. Regards Errol43
The interviewer did point out though that the loans are not for a full year, only until the next centrelink payment. However if you pay off your loan then you don't have any money for rent so you have to get out another loan, so it could be the equivalent to a year long loan in the end. But there is regulation, there is an interest cap! These people are not allowed to charge more than 48% interest, of course you have to add fees onto this!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ixn9fFatdcs[/youtube] [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMVc0IbtyAQ[/youtube] Liberal... Labor... Same thing. << Political Athiest.
That's some weird definition of "can't", if you ask me. (I know no one did.) Who can't save? Only someone with no income at all. Lifestyle, schmifestyle.
At least JWH fought an election on the GST, won it, and only then bought in the tax. Other way round with komrade juLIAR! OC
Australians Drowning In Debt? 'Course they are. I know someone who's been trying to pay off their credit card the whole year and just got a new TV for the bedroom, despite having a 60" plasma in the living room. I sorta wanted to tell them they shoulda put the money towards their credit card, but I didn't wanna ruin their excitement of plugging in the new TV. I was holding it in. @_@ Heaps of people maintain their lifestyle on debt :/ They're everywhere. I was telling a neighbour how they really didn't need a car during a short convo. We're like 5 mins away from a shopping centre, have public transport at our door step etc... I practically gave them 100 reasons and while they admitted it was a luxury, they considered it one worth getting into debt for: "once you have a car, going without one isn't the same". The "savers" I know have lent thousands to their "spender" friends to bail them out. While I can understand the situation, I think limiting aid to once per person is a good policy. In any case, all that good money being used to bail out friends with bad consumer habits is a loss of potential. It could have been used to buy PMs instead @_@ Also, I warned everyone about getting credit cards but they didn't listen =_=
As with most studies like this, I will ask: 1) who paid for the study? 2) how much does the study cost? Most articles like this citing 'studies' are cheap advertising for the firm involved to flog off their research to businesses interested in this stuff. Plus dipping into savings is what people do to maintain lifestyles; it's better than credit In my opinion, if pessimism really were strong enough, we'd see far less people buying unneeded junk and a lot more true value sense return to the retail landscape. I don't see that at all.
I don't lend to people at all unless it's a medical emergency where they need to pay for hospital fees or doctor fees. Lending to people who can't control their spending is like giving crack to a crack addict hoping they'd stop smoking crack. Not gonna work. Frugality is a mindset, it's not something you can learn over night. Credit cards are fine they aren't the main problem, they are good tools if used properly but most people just don't bother learning and screw up. (Actually almost forgot to pay mines off today ). Anyway +10000 what you said, so many people I work with are bad with credit cards, loans, spending etc etc...at least they're fuelling the economy that way.
I was going through some paperwork last night and found an unactivated credit card. God knows where it came from - but it has my name on it. Only thing I could think of is that it's from some interest free thing I done a few years back now......! Cancelling that tonight.
+1 Thats the effect of positive loop. In an economy on the rise, credit is cheap and they feel confident they can repay tomorrow.
I learned a long time ago that lending money to a friend means lost money and lost friend. Now I only lend if I"m prepared to 'give' the money. ie if it doesn't return I don't care as it's gone to a good cause. This method lets me sleep at night and help where needed, without the drama that goes from trying to collect money from friends - usually because you 'need' it back. It shouldn't be this way but it is. I'm not in the position now to give away what I have in the past, but almost all I gave away came back. The friends usually returned the 'gift' the ones who didn't weren't really friends it appears and I don't resent giving to them - it was a benefit to them and a cheap lesson to me. The thing is, that someone who will ask a friend to loan a few thousand dollars is relying on the friend to control or adjust part of their lives in most part. In true emergencies friends are there. In loans til pay day arrives - well that's all part of growing up isn't it?
Irwin Schiff on consumption, 5:30 onwards [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8phUFLyhLq8[/youtube]
I think this is a good thing for people who have saved, prepared and are waiting to swoop in when it all goes bad. I know that sounds so horrible but honestly, it's going to get bad anyway, why can't some like us benefit. Houses are too pricey at the moment, I want them to stabilize or go down a bit
It probably came from "Administratium" .... Investigators at a major research institution recently discovered the heaviest element known to science and have tentatively named it Administratium. Administratium has no protons or electrons, and thus has an atomic number of 0. Administratium does have, however, 1 neutron, 125 assistant neutrons, 75 vice neutrons, and 111 assistant vice neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312. These 312 particles are held together by a force that involves the continuous exchange of meson-like particles called morons. They are surrounded by large quantities of lepton-like particles called peons. Since it has no electrons, Administratium is inert. However, it can be detected chemically because it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact. According to the recent study, a minute amount of Administratium caused one reaction to take over 4 days to complete when it would have normally occurred in less than a second. Administratium has a half-life of approximately 3 years. However, it does not decay in the usual way, but instead undergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the assistant neutrons, vice neutrons and assistant vice neutrons exchange places, and most of the peons are let go. Administratium's mass increases over time, since with each reorganization some of the morons inevitably become neutrons, forming new isotopes, and attracting peons, often the same peons from other isotopes. This characteristic of moron promotion and peon attraction leads some scientists to speculate that Administratium is spontaneously formed whenever moron concentration reaches a certain level. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as the Critical Morass. Administratium is known to be toxic at any level of concentration and, where it is allowed to accumulate, can destroy any productive reactions. Attempts are being made to determine how Administratium can be controlled to prevent such irreversible damage, but results have not been promising.
I was looking at a graph of where different countries private debt was compared to GDP and Australia was right at the top somewhere. So many people have used equity in there homes and investment properties to live beyond their means... buying that new SUV or boat etc and it will all fall apart when property goes into a down trend/crash and i have a feeling that will coincide with another global financial crisis, maybe Greece defaulting and/or China drastically cutting its resources spending spree
Yes agree completely , too many Australians living beyond their means, I see a lot of people borrowing to buy new vehicles, flash houses etc and I think there will have to be a reckoning soon, probably very soon. The mining boom is going to end eventually, maybe the next financial crisis, and then Australia will go into a recession and we will end up like the rest of the world with high unemployment and lots of people defaulting on loans. We have no manufacturing left and farmers are struggling, the only thing we've got is the mineral boom, and like all good things, it will end! Why can't the politicians see it coming?
If all the figures are true, that's what I'm waiting on because that's the piece that's missing in all this; the reckoning. I've read that we are the country with the most private debt (world leaders). We are incredibly wasteful here, I know that much. But you'd think the reckoning would come sooner. It hasn't yet. Things seems to be 'normal' although there are signs some businesses are unwinding. The start of the avalanche?
Well we know why we're wasteful Irwin Schiff points it out in that video you posted (great vid BTW thanx for linking it)....it's our tax regime. In his book "why an economy grows and why it doesn't" Schiff uses a bully as an analogy of the Govt. Pushing his way into other people's affairs, taking their hard earned profits off them and giving them to popular rather than smart causes. In this environment, our story's hero, 'Able', decides there's no point going to extra effort when his profits are just going to be invested poorly.
