Stimulus package effects gone - Harvey Norman

[nunthewiser]

Whats the "ragamuffin" all about, and which saturday - The Long weekend - ?

reggae festival .24th supreme court gardens , good line up m8 , http://www.raggamuffin.com.au/

 

[prawn_86]

Let it be known that this is not sour grapes, as a thousand dollars is quite meagre to me (despite being a student) - but rather, it's the principal of the thing. I guess I'm just upset that our surplus is being used to grab votes.

Same story to me. Im in a much better position than most students, but why shouldn't i get it when i took time off to work and prove independence and pay tax...

Ah... you mean a Uni student that would have been lucky to have paid several thousand in tax. And you want a hand-out...

You are young, have no dependents, and can have an income if you choose, unlike pensioners.

See point above about tax.

And yes i can work, i dont dispute pensioners getting it at all, they certainly need it more than me (generally). However my income is reduced by 50% for every $1 pre-tax i earn due to Centrelink, then i pay tax on that too, so for every $1 i earn the gov gets about 70%.... how that for a high tax rate...

 

[shaunQ]

And yes i can work, i dont dispute pensioners getting it at all, they certainly need it more than me (generally). However my income is reduced by 50% for every $1 pre-tax i earn due to Centrelink, then i pay tax on that too, so for every $1 i earn the gov gets about 70%.... how that for a high tax rate...

I think its a separate issue about student welfare though, which I agree sux. I remember going to Uni, unable to get AusStudy because of my parents, who weren't in anyway rich. But I could have quit anytime and got on the dole and received $400+ per fortnight instantly.

The same thing with tax rates happens to families, with increasing income comes decreasing family benefits.

I think it should have been based on receiving part B, not A which would have been fairer.

But you've admitted you didn't NEED it - you just WANTED it. There's a difference. (not to say that people that didn't get it - needed it.)

 

[Sith1s]

..anyone have a link to the parameters used to determine who received the $1000? We have a child, but did not receive anything - just interested (means tested?).

Hi Bigt, Part A is measured on the combined income of your parter and you. The link that may be able to answer you question is....
http://www.facs.gov.au/Internet/FAO/FAO1.nsf/content/payments-ftba-get_ftba-income.htm

 

[gfresh]

(hmmm this thread seems to have gone far off topic)

I was at the local shopping centre over the weekend, and was a little surprised that it was almost as busy as just before xmas. So people seem to be spending on regular things.

Maybe Mr Gerry may be feeling it as people aren't buying so many "big ticket" items, but I think there is still plenty of general shopping and retail going on out there at the moment.

 

[prawn_86]

Mr Gerry may be feeling it as people aren't buying so many "big ticket" items, but I think there is still plenty of shopping and retail going on.

Yeh, there is some non-empirical evidence floating around that people simply buy smaller items, rather than big ticket HVN items, during a recession.

 

[Largesse]

I think its a separate issue about student welfare though, which I agree sux. I remember going to Uni, unable to get AusStudy because of my parents, who weren't in anyway rich. But I could have quit anytime and got on the dole and received $400+ per fortnight instantly.

The same thing with tax rates happens to families, with increasing income comes decreasing family benefits.

I think it should have been based on receiving part B, not A which would have been fairer.

But you've admitted you didn't NEED it - you just WANTED it. There's a difference. (not to say that people that didn't get it - needed it.)

So all the people that spent their payments at the local pub/club or at Harvey Norman NEEDED it?

You can't break this down to a need/want argument because you have the bloke at the top (Krudd) telling everyone to blow it on discretionary spending.

What Prawn is (rightly) getting at, is in a Stimulus Package (note: Stimulus NOT Support), who sets the rules as to who will STIMULATE the economy more? Will a pension spend their payment any better on beer/wine and gambling than a student?

 

[Trevor_S]

God, it's painful to hear the same carping and whinging about poor bugger me I didn't get my $1000. I got it. I own four businesses and my wife owns one. We have two kids and I crazy lifestyle to boot.

Either your business are not making much money or you are committing fraud to hide income, as the $1000 "bonus" was means tested.

Neither I nor my wife have ever collected any welfare before however this just showed up in our account. I guess the government keeps good records of babies!

My understanding is that to have received the bonus you must be receiving the Family Tax Benefit (FTB), which is welfare, if so, this brings into question your seemingly emphatic statement that

Neither I nor my wife have ever collected any welfare "

Government spent some $20Millon adverting the concept, and bureaucratic bloat sees something like 20c in the dollar taken by bureaucracy to deliver 80c of service (ie the $10Billion spent needed $12.5Billion taken off the tax payer in the first place).

The stimulus bonus was billed as an economic recovery aid when it was clearly no such thing. Some would argue (myself included) that this was a poor use of tax payer money.

 

[wonderrman]

It was a stupid from the start anyone with half a brain could see that. I think lots of people would have decided to use it to pay off credit card debt as well.

It should have been used to fixe our roads and transport systems or put more beds in hospitals. At least we would have been able to see what the money was used for in ten years time.

 

[Largesse]

The stimulus bonus was billed as an economic recovery aid when it was clearly no such thing. Some would argue (myself included) that this was a poor use of tax payer money.

too right, it was clearly a targeted hand out to strong labor demographics.

 

[nomore4s]

..anyone have a link to the parameters used to determine who received the $1000? We have a child, but did not receive anything - just interested (means tested?).

Also if you claim your family assistance - or whatever they call it - when you do your tax instead of a fortnightly payment that is when you will receive your $1000.

 

[shaunQ]

What Prawn is (rightly) getting at, is in a Stimulus Package (note: Stimulus NOT Support), who sets the rules as to who will STIMULATE the economy more? Will a pension spend their payment any better on beer/wine and gambling than a student?

I'm not saying the stimulus package was the best thing they could have done, but if the purpose of it is to give out a fairly substantial amount, in the hope of getting money passing through into the economy, because of the cost they would have needed to limit it to a segment of the community. The community has separate needs and you could probably divide it into:

a) Welfare recipients (can work, or partially)
b) Pensioners (can not work)
c) Families
d) Students
e) Others (working, either single or married with no dependents)

Now you can only pick 2. Who would you pick?

too right, it was clearly a targeted hand out to strong labor demographics.

Oh absolutely. What and Howard never played these games? just different winners this time around.

I wonder when that next package will come in... with an election in a year or so...

 

[gfresh]

or f) just do tax cuts, and everybody gets some benefit, rather than playing favourite to any one group..

 

[prawn_86]

Now you can only pick 2. Who would you pick?

Why pick only 2? Why not all at a lesser amount? Or why not none?

 

[Fatcat]

Should the success or failure of the stimulus package really be judged by the number of LCD's Gerry Harvey sells? Perhaps a better guage would be how many more pensioners were able to afford some decent meals for a month or 2.

 

[Glen48]

Yesterday Wayne Swan was tell all he won't be pushed into any rash decisions, this Avo he is talking about the Mother of all Bail outs, what ever that will be.

 

[Aussiejeff]

Yesterday Wayne Swan was tell all he won't be pushed into any rash decisions, this Avo he is talking about the Mother of all Bail outs, what ever that will be.

*Phew!*

For a minute there I thought he might have gone for the Grandmother...



I suspect most of Hardly Normal's pain is currently being felt in the furniture side of things. I've been in the local store a couple of times for a browse (no buy - sorry Gerry - I'm gonna wait for the closing down sales ) over the last couple of weeks and although the electronics section seems to have a reasonable number of "lookers", the furniture section "smells like a dead dog".



aj

 

[MrBurns]

Should the success or failure of the stimulus package really be judged by the number of LCD's Gerry Harvey sells? .

Yes, Gerry Harvey is the litmus test of retailing, if he succeeds it's worked.

What a freeking stupid idea in the first place, anyone could see that was so temporary as to be useless, it only lasted over Christmas, now if KRudd decides to do that monthly for the next 3 years, it might actually work

 

[Julia]

or f) just do tax cuts, and everybody gets some benefit, rather than playing favourite to any one group..

gfresh, actually that's not true. People with the lowest incomes, e.g. pensioners, don't pay tax unless they have other income which puts them over the $6000 tax free threshold.

Why pick only 2? Why not all at a lesser amount? Or why not none?

Or spend it on something useful like infrastructure where the benefit to the economy would be seen over a longer period of time, where it would provide jobs, and where we would have something to see for the money at the end.

The effect, if any, of this handout will have been so temporary that it's meaningless and imo represents a vote buying exercise more than anything else.

Yesterday Wayne Swan was tell all he won't be pushed into any rash decisions, this Avo he is talking about the Mother of all Bail outs, what ever that will be.

Oh, God!

 

[nomore4s]

What a freeking stupid idea in the first place, anyone could see that was so temporary as to be useless, it only lasted over Christmas, now if KRudd decides to do that monthly for the next 3 years, it might actually work

This is the problem with alot of the financial mess we are in now - short sighted policy and not enough planning for the future.

The phrase "short term pain for long term gain" seems to have been forgotten, in fact it is more like "short term gain for long term pain"