Should the GST be raised?

Julia said:

How so when they can feed a family of four on pasta for under $1 with a jar of sauce for under $2, compared to, say, fresh fish at (the cheaper varieties) around $15 kg plus, say, beans at $6kg, tomatoes $6 etc etc.
The only really cheap vegetables are potatoes, carrots and onions.

I don't think all poor people are regular customers of relatively expensive fast food outlets.

If we are trying to encourage the consumption of nutritious food, the last thing we should be doing is slapping an additional tax on it.

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The sad fact is quite often those who can least afford it spend so much on fast food.

I do agree we need to do more to encourage people to eat healthier, just don't see how it can be done.

As to the GST, I think it is the better way to raise revenue for the Govt as it affects savings less than raising income taxes or other taxes.

If the states can't bring themselves to agitate for an increase, then the only other option is a broadly based land tax scheme along the lines of what the ACT is introducing over the next decade.

The states really need to get rid of all stamp duties. The under insurance they cause is probably the main reason I want them gone, along with the unfairness of forcing the ~2.5% of the population buying property each year to fund a large chunk of the states spending.

From Mish's blog regarding Spain

Step back for a second and ponder why there is a black market. Is it because taxes are too low? Of course not.

The black market exists in size because people are fed up with government confiscation of their hard-earned money that the government then goes on to waste on ridiculous pet projects and to bail out banks that are in trouble.

There will always be some fraud and corruption, but 19% of GDP, if true, is one hell of a black market. Rather than crack down on the taxes purportedly lost, I suggest eliminating the economic conditions that created such a sizable black market in the first place. The place to start is with an overhaul of the preposterously high VAT scheme].
Read more at http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/#2EdAlxXv1qDLQmv4.99

The point is that raising the GST (called the VAT in Spain) encourages the black market. Another reason among many why I am against it being raised no matter how much the right wing press push it. Mish by the way is very right wing.

This is a really interesting thread to read. It amazes me though that every single solution is in some way discuss what tax to increase and or what tax to introduce.

It seems these days that less spending is not even considered as an option. Both individually and from a Govt or state perspective.

I admit that I haven't been to Europe and hence the higher tax rate countries, but out of the places I have been Australia has both the highest standard of living, in particular for the poor and low income earners and the highest tax rates. While no one wants to be poor or should be poor, if you are in that bracket in Australia you really are the luckiest poor people in the world, IMO.

Cheap food alone does not solve obiesity and poverty, people that are being talked about here may often be buying fast food etc not from price but more from nesesity and from lack of education.

America has one of the highest % of homeless people for a first world country that I have been to (interestingly very few are imigrants) and it is far from uncommon to see a homeless man with a cheeseburger in his had, and perhaps a coke in the other. To me this is mind bogling, sure Maccas is cheap there, but you can buy a loaf of bread for the same price as that cheeseburger, but yet they still continue to buy the cheeseburgers.

Anyway, IMO the Average australian needs to stand up an make the Govt more accountable for how they spend the already extremly high taxes and stop just accepting that taxes need to go up to cover shortfalls. If your attitude is that increased income will solve your shortfall then you will always have a shortfall.