Trump or Clinton?

[bushies.girl]

My money is on Clinton  .... 

[the_great_she_elephant]

We may not have travelled as far down the path of social seperatism and poverty as America, but we are certainly following in Americas footsteps. Lets hope we dont have to vote for an Australian Trump to fix the mess.

Do you seriously imagine voting for an Australian Trump would fix  a corrupt system which ensured jobs for the boys, deals for the mates and endless gravey trains while many Americans Australians live in poverty.

[chameleon54]

The biggest problem with voting in elections is that all of the candidates are politicians LOL.

The system of party politics is broken and sometimes the only way to fix things is to tear them down and start again. That is essentially what the British public has done with Brexit and the Americans with Trump.  Will it work ???? No one knows. What we do know is we cant keep going the way we have been. Political parties and systems worldwide have become too corrupted to work for the citizens they are supposed to represent.

There are a number of reasonable, rational independents and minor parties that people can vote for, that have well thought out policies. Often these members hold the balance of power and can have a major influence on policy development. It is not neccesary to vote for some of the more extreme fringe dwellers that have found a constituancy in order to affect change. There are other options besides the big two..

[johcaschro]

It's not only the party political system which is broken; our economic model is broken as well. 

I see that Mr Trump wants to reduce the USA corporate tax rate to 15% (currently it is 35%)

In the UK Ms May wants to reduce their corporate tax rate to maybe even below 15% (currently it is 20%)

The conservative party political philosophy of supporting tax cuts for business in the expectation that business will plow their increased profits back into the community by offering more employment as they fund expansion is flawed.

Company shareholders demand first suck of the saveloy and any increase in profitablity will be quickly absorbed by increased shareholder dividends and increases in company executives renumeration.

'Trickle down' or supply side economic theory just doesn't work. Business exists to be as profitable as it can be and there's no way on earth that we (the taxpayers) will get our money's worth by cutting corporate tax rates.

I see now that Mr Turnbull  is singing the same tune about wanting to reduce Aussie company tax rates.

It's an economic philosophy which dooms the poor to increasing and ever deepening poverty, widening the gap between the haves and the have-nots. It's really a "trickle-up" model.

Our politicians no longer serve the community; they serve Business based on a false and dangerous optimism that Business can be trusted to play fair: they cannot and they will not.

This model of continued and unending expansion of the economy cannot be sustained for much longer. Finite rescources on a small planet experiencing a population explosion. gee, what's going to happen?

What's it going to take to change things? Can we even expect to be able to change things?

Ok, so if we cut corporate tax rates I wonder where the govt going to find the money to replace the shortfall in revenue? (actually, I don't wonder about this very much at all)

[lyndal1838]

It is not long ago that the company tax rate went down....and personal tax rates went down in October I believe.  It was such a small reduction that I did not even bother to adjust my wages or my OHs.   We will just get a bit more back in our refunds.

[johcaschro]

You can "adjust" your own wages and that of your OH at will?

Luxury.

Many folks might kill for such priviledge but it's ultimately against the interests of Business to make those folks so desperate that they might actually go out and do just that.

It's paradoxical that in an attempt to rid ourselves of obviously unworthy politicians and the government they constitue, that we're actually making things worse by voting in such people as Trump and Hanson (and Abbott and Turnbull and . . .  no, I can't write the whole list. I don't have enough time. sometimes it seems as if all of them are rotten)

It's a sign of desperation.  So what's next when our desperate voting decisions produce an even more oppressive government?

Desperate people do desperate things.

and that's really bad for Business. How much worse do things have to get before this is thoroughly understood?

[lyndal1838]

We have a small business from which we each take a wage....full time for my OH and part time for me.

The wages are subject to the usual personal tax rates applicable to everybody.  We have always paid more tax than we have to in order to get a larger refund.

If I had followed the latest rates we would have had an extra $9 a week between us.  As we don't really need it at the moment I decided not to do any adjustments.

At present my OH's tax rate is getting dangerously close to the company tax rate.  If the company rate goes any lower he will not be getting a pay increase next year as it will be cheaper for us to pay company tax than personal tax.

I suppose it is adjusting our wages, but only within the ATO rules for company and personal tax....there is no luxury about it.  At present my OH works very hard one day a week to see the whole day's income go to the ATO.  Another day's income pays for mandatory Workers Compensation payments and insurances etc.  A third day's income covers the expenses of running the business.

There is no luxury in working 5 days (14 hour days) to only put the income for 2 days into our own pockets.....there is nothing luxurious about being a small business owner at all.

[davidc4430]

we hear nearly daily of 'we must lower taxes or we are doomed'

but no one ever says, what are taxes and what are they for?

i thought we paid taxes so we could have all the things governments do for us.

so if we lower taxes, thus govt gets less money, what are we not going to get that we now get?

where will the money come from to do the things we expect govt to provide?

somethings got to go if the govt has less income just the same as if we all took a cut in our pay.

so if the govt cuts taxes what else will they need to cut to still keep paying the bills?

i havent heard anything about what services we will lose because there isnt money to keep them going.

[peteepie]

Maybe if Donny T cuts taxes he will actually pay some.