Paying the price for the Age of Entitlement

[nero_bolt]

This story is behind a paywall. A very interesting read

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/opinion/paying-the-price-for-the-age-of-entitlement/story-e6frfhqf-1226594297706

IT'S like a secret. How could this country run out of money even in a mining boom?    

How come Deloitte Access Economics warns we're tracking for years of more federal Budget deficits?

Sure, we can blame Labor's big spending, up from $272 billion a year when it took office to $363 billion now.

But here's a specific problem even the Liberals avoid discussing: in a country of just 22 million Australians, more than four million are living on welfare.

Almost two million more are public servants - federal, state and local.

That's six million people living on some form of state income. Who is paying for them all?

Who must also pay for the handouts given even to working Australians from the Schoolkids Bonus to subsidising broadband?

Who must do all that, and still look after their own family?

Hear that crack? A back just broke.

Few politicians before an election dare speak about us catching the European disease - too many people living off too few - though shadow treasurer Joe Hockey did try last year to an audience in Europe.

As he later told the ABC: "With an ageing population and an entitlement system that has seen extraordinary largesse built up over the last 50 years . . . Western societies are going to have to make some very hard and unpopular decisions . . .

"The age of entitlement is coming to an end because governments are running out of money."

But pushed to say if he was referring to Australia and, if so, what he'd slash, Hockey took fright.

"I'm not going to get into cherry-picking Australian initiatives from London . . . Australia hasn't got the enormous challenge that other countries have."

Not yet. But soon.

A Centre for Independent Studies report last week noted spending by all governments grew on average more than 4 per cent a year (after inflation) for 40 years.

But government revenue in the past three years slowed to just 1 per cent and, if mineral prices fall or the economy stalls, we're in strife.

We must cut spending, and that means tackling the entitlement culture that has so many Australians, not all deserving or helpless, living off the sweat of others.

How can it be, when we need so many foreign workers, that 530,000 Australians are still on the dole? How can even more - 819,000 - be deemed too sick or disabled to work, and in need of a pension?

Are we so feeble?

Then there are the 2.2 million Australians who didn't save enough for their retirement and are on age pensions. Add another 350,000 students we pay to study full-time at universities.

There are only eight million of us in full-time work, and one in five are public servants.

So almost every Australian with a full-time job in the private sector pays for either a public servant or someone living on welfare.

For now, those workers still just outvote people with a big stake in keeping the Age of Entitlement going, but soon the entitled will outnumber those paying for them. Then the chance of reform will be as slim here as it is in Greece.

Best start cutting now.

[cherples]

This story is behind a paywall. A very interesting read

All that C&P and they are the only 10 words of your own in the whole post.

Do you have any thoughts of your own or rely on Bolt and Co to give you your opinions?

[*crikey*mate*]

Education Tax Refund 2011

http://www.ato.gov.au/content/00307696.htm

You must meet one of the four following conditions for each student for whom you want to claim the ETR.http://www.ato.gov.au/content/00307696.htm

Eligibility for the Schoolkids Bonus

To be eligible for the Schoolkids Bonus, you must either be a parent or carer who gets Family Tax Benefit Part A for a dependent child who is:

under 16 years of age and in primary or secondary educationbetween 16 years and turning 19 years of age in the calendar year and in full time secondary study, or exempt from full time study

The Schoolkids Bonus will also be paid to primary and secondary students if they are:

turning 19 years of age or younger in the calendar year, and

receiving:Youth Allowance

ABSTUDY (Living Allowance)

Disability Support Pension

Carer PaymentParenting Payment

Special Benefit,

oran Education Allowance from the Department of Veterans' Affairs

The Schoolkids Bonus will also be paid to secondary students receiving Pensioner Education Supplement if they are:

turning 19 years of age or younger in the calendar year, and

receiving:Disability Support PensionCarer PaymentParenting Payment, or

Special Benefit

Children in preschool are not eligible.

http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/enablers/schoolkids-bonus/eligibility-schoolkids-bonus

and your point?

That info doesn't change what I said.

[2012foolfool2012]

The worst thing we could do is follow the Americans, their people are very badly treated if your anything less than middle management  

Anyone who votes Liberal is voting to do so.

That's why it's in the best interest of conservatives to keep the population staring at men running around a field chasing a strange shaped ball, than to have them seeing (and god forbid thinking about and understanding) what happens in the rest of the world (or even just their own state would be a start).

Because the vast majority of the people who are crying about Labor, installing Liberal state governments, and about to do the same on a national level, have no idea what they are voting for, the changes that will be made in this country, nor the effect it will have on them and their children.

A country that has a Liberal Federal government in combination with every state Liberal. Big changes are coming and many will have irreversible consequences for the people, services, workings of society and the environment.

And no, I'm not a Labor lover, personally I think they've lost their way, no longer support their original voter base, and are slaves to opinion polls and idealists. But lesser of two evils.

[the_hawk*]

gee 2012 do we know each other, your thoughts seem very similar but you have a better way of saying it.

Labour or liberal as I see it, its the frying pan or the fire and we have to decide which one and give they the power to do more of the same to us.

[*crikey*mate*]

I'm sure we will follow the American way..... It's what we do - we look at what other countries have done successfully - and then ignore that, and then we have a look where other countries have failed, and we say "She'll be right mate, we'll give it a go too".

Example - our education system (now this is going back maybe 3 to 5 years) - a problem was identified with the literacy levels of our kids - so guess what Australia did - they spent a bucket load on research etc and then adopted a method which had previously been used by America and England.

The thing is - both those Countries had thrown those systems out 20 years earlier as they had failed! But despite this - we still gave it a shot - and surprise, surprise - it's just been removed from the curriculum, cos it didn't work for us either.

Now, I don't know which party or person was responsible for that decision - but it seems to be the way we do things... (I remember not having a high opinion of Anna Bligh if that helps - pretty sure she used to be the education person for Qld, wasn't she?)

[*crikey*mate*]

Where's Monman?

How fast is our country's population growing compared to the number of births?

I dunno - but 60 years ago we didn't have 20 million people, so it seems to me a bit unrealistic that with population growth that there are more people retired than there are able to work.

[the_great_she_elephant]

I see that article also overlooks the fact that EVERYONE IN AUSTRALIA - even those on welfare - pay tax of some kind and Government employees and most families receiving the schoolkids bonus and subsidised broadband are also paying INCOME TAX.

And all  those feckless pensioners who mostly were not in a position to save much for their retirement, anyway, were  conned into a false sense of security by being led to believe that taxes they paid - which were paying the pensions of the previous generation were some kind of guarantee that they would receive the same benefits when they reached retirement age. 

[lakeland27]

abbott is going to start a genuine class war that will make him a one-term PM if he makes it.

the stupidity of 'giving him a go' out of dislike for gillard is similar to bighting off the nose to spite the face. allowing him to create a homeless beggar class for the sake of a disproven austerity approach is foolish. deliberately setting out to disenfranchise more people is fascist ideology, and nothing new.

[polksaladallie]

Don't upset the pensioners who didn't save enough for retirement 

There was NO superannuation for women until relatively recently, so what were they expected to do to save for their old age?

[azureline**]

I'm sure we will follow the American way..... It's what we do - we look at what other countries have done successfully - and then ignore that, and then we have a look where other countries have failed, and we say "She'll be right mate, we'll give it a go too".

Example - our education system (now this is going back maybe 3 to 5 years) - a problem was identified with the literacy levels of our kids - so guess what Australia did - they spent a bucket load on research etc and then adopted a method which had previously been used by America and England.

The thing is - both those Countries had thrown those systems out 20 years earlier as they had failed! But despite this - we still gave it a shot - and surprise, surprise - it's just been removed from the curriculum, cos it didn't work for us either.

Now, I don't know which party or person was responsible for that decision - but it seems to be the way we do things... (I remember not having a high opinion of Anna Bligh if that helps - pretty sure she used to be the education person for Qld, wasn't she?)

She became Deputy Premier of Queensland in July 2005 - the same month she celebrated 10 years as Member for South Brisbane. As Deputy Premier she was also Treasurer and Minister for Infrastructure, running the $33 billion Queensland State Budget and leading construction of the $9 billion South-East Queensland Water Grid.

Ms Bligh was formerly Minister for Finance, State Development, Trade and Innovation. Prior to that she was Queensland's first female Education Minister, spending almost 5 years overseeing the most significant reforms to the state’s education system in decades.

The reforms saw the introduction of a preparatory year of schooling and requirements for all young people to be “learning or earning”. During that time she also had responsibilities for the Arts portfolio, overseeing construction of the Millennium Arts Precinct.