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Krudd/Swan scraps private health rebate for rich

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it is going UP?
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I suggest you read the article bushman added to the start of this thread...basically if you're 'well off' and don't get/or opt out of private health insurance, Rudd will slug you another .5% on medicare.
 
With over-time I will be pushing the $75K mark, yet my g/f is at uni working part time earning less than $20K. How does the govt determine if 2 people are a "couple"?
 
Ahh... al you 150k up earner winge too much!!
My parents earn a combined income of like 50k, and manage to get me
and my 2 brothers though private schooling, pay the bills and even
have enough for a few investment properties... do you know how privileged you are to have an income of 100k up for just a family of what... 3, 4, 5??

My parents have had to live life pretty damn tight to get through all this with hardly any disposable income for things most of you high income earners take for granted. Next time you decide to complain that the lower income earners have it well is all the govt benefits... i suggest you think again.. put yourself in the shoes of those low income earners that arent just dole bludgers and actually work several jobs just to keep their kids in school at put food on the table!!
 

The stats are for census night (August 2006) and were the latest available that I could find (do you have updated numbers?). I make that less than 3 years ago. I think wages increased by about 5% a year between 2006 and 2008, a total of about 10%. This would have moved a reasonable number of families above the $150k mark. This may have taken the number of families who earn above $150k from 6% to 8% or 10% of all families. So maybe we we are talking about the top 10% of society, rather than the top 6%, however I still feel comfortable using the term "top echelons". I agree that there is a big financial difference between a family on $150k and one on $500k (2 company directors). This is a factor of just over 3, similar to that between a family on $150k and one on the median income of $50k.

According to you, a family earning a combined salary of $150K aren’t deserving of any tax benefits while one earning $149.9K is…
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You responded to my first post where I raised concerns about having a strict cut off point, as this reduces incentives around the $150k, so you have distorted my position somewhat.


Nearly everyone makes a valuable contribution to society, not just the well off. Firemen, policemen, labourers, garbos all work hard and are an essential part of society. An increasing trend over the last few years has been for higher income earners to grow income at a higher rate and lower income earners to grow income at a lower rate, as the demand for unskilled labour declined. The Howard government did a good job of compensating for this trend by increasing family tax benefits for lower income earners, so at least their kids have a better chance. Before the GFC hit, wasn't unemployment around 3%? - some of this would be bludgers but some are people between jobs and some are people who struggle due to disabilities, poor education etc. I think the amount of $$$ that goes to bludgers is not that great and there are centrelink rules to ensure they look for jobs.


The following quote is from a speech by the NSW housing minister from her website - I assume numbers come from the department of housing

"But today public housing caters for a very different group of tenants.
Reduced Government investment has necessitated tighter targeting and this in turn has resulted in the profile of public housing tenants becoming more disadvantaged over the years. We have more jobless households in public housing – 66 per cent of working age adult households were jobless in 2001 compared to 43 per cent in 1981. We also have a higher percentage of sole parents in public housing. The biggest increase has been the number of public housing tenants receiving Disability Support Pension: Around one in twelve households were receiving the Disability Support Pension in 1981 whereas now one in four receive the Pension."

I used to work in the CBD so am aware of the Millers Point housing you refer to. Yes a very desirable area, however I was not aware of a right to "pass it on". There is public housing near me in Hunters Hill and as a generalisation, you know who the public tenants are - they look poor and disadvantaged.

So I have provided quantitative and qualitative evidence for you. And I used to live in public housing as a kid, we are not all "scum"

Let’s not forget the Dept of Housing officer taking bribes from ‘scum’ to move up the queue for ‘affordable' housing.
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Illegal and should be prosecuted.

As for physical disabilities… the irony was the neighbours next door to me who also made the mistake of buying near a housing commission estate consisted of a brother and sister paying off a mortgage. Her brother was deaf and dumb…
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See my earlier quote from housing minister - 1 in 12 are disabled


The point I was making is that many individuals do not have the intelligence to so anything other than low paid unskilled work.


I got retrenched due to GFC but am living off my own savings rather than the dole. I know how much we are spending as a family and it is a lot more than $400 a week and I don't have mortgage or rent to pay. So from personal experience $400 for a couple to pay rent, food etc is not a lot.
 
Jono, that's an amazing effort by your parents. What a great effort on their part and an example for you and your siblings.
 
gooner said:
I suspect that the family income of most ASF posters is above average and so it is easy to forget that half of Australian families get by on less than $50.000 a year.
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Yes i think you are right in the first part but very wrong on the second part.

From many posts it seems they have come from such a background. And the memories of such a struggles motivates them to move away from that life. I do not think ASFers are oblivious to doing it tough.
Soft Dough said:
There is a difference in how much work they do.
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Yeah probably about 120 per weak.
 
Julia said:
Jono, that's an amazing effort by your parents. What a great effort on their part and an example for you and your siblings.
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Probelm is that current families see sacrifice as thing for others to the point that even making and living to the budget is outrageous.

They want everybody else to be responsible for raising kids, even health is left in hands of Medicare where sensible diet and lifestyle could prevent quite few health issues later in life.

The list goes on.
 
Julia said:
Jono, that's an amazing effort by your parents. What a great effort on their part and an example for you and your siblings.
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I know it is... thats why im trying my best now that im out of home to be as independent financially as i can to reduce the burden on them...


This is so true... its pretty sad to see where society has gotten to, but it does reveal how dependent they really are on the govt. You can't simply transfer all responsibility to the govt and just vote them out when they cant solve all your problems!!
 
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