New tax

[VivalaBuses]

eagle, let's break down your argument - it's quite a shallow argument, if you looked deeper, you'd see why each component of your post is happening, all of which point to the structural adjustment occuring in the economy.

Industry of any kind must be efficent

Correct, hence:

Our manufacturing industry is moving off shore

Because manufacturing is a highly inefficient industry in Australia, as I have stated before. Likewise:

Telstra, Optus, and other telephone and media companies have or are moving their call centres off shore,

For the same reason why we are showing the door to the manufacturing industry.

Qantas and Virgin are moving more maintenance off shore

These airlines are not propped up by their governments, unlike other overseas carriers. They are running how a private business should - minimise their costs.

Tourism is down

Our currency's value is high as our economy is doing way better than everyone else in the developed world. Less bang for their buck for incoming tourists, if they can even afford to come here, which leads to your next point:

Farmers are struggling

Same reason as above, but also the natural disasters in early 2011 affected them as well.

The mining industry is gearing up for a down turn

And BHP want 170,000 more workers for expansion. Sounds like some gearing up for a downturn to me

Superfunds have lost billions

A natural fluctuation due to human irrationality

We have a new carbon tax being introduced on every one, with a promise of tax cuts for some ( yes I believe that like I believed the pensioners were to receive an increase but didn"t)

Back to Economics 101: the carbon emissions from the production of goods and services are a cost on society (poorer health and environment, pollution) that is not factored into the price of the good or service (termed a negative externality). What this tax does is integrate this social cost into the cost of production of the good or service ("internalising the externality") This tax is placed on the producer, ultimately the producer will pass the extra cost onto the consumer, but the revenue generated by this tax will be used to compensate the consumer for the rise in price due to the tax. The tax will cause businesses to become greener, to reduce their costs of production.

[eagle]

When I see the 170,000 jobs created in Australia by BHP I will stand corrected until then I reserve my right to free speech with out ridicule. I accept your comments but will agree to disagree.

[kitkat271]

Love this thread ... maybe I'll buy eagle a gift voucher to Economics 101 course for Christmas.

[eagle]

lol, time for a break, have a kitkat.

[eddy]

Sorry Eagle I think you misunderstood me. I am actually saying to keep income tax but replace the costly ineffective GST with a new tax on people doing short selling etc to stabilise the world economy and raise revenue in a more cost effective way.

[eagle]

Granted

The whole tax system in Australia needs to be reviewed.

[kitkat271]

Granted

The whole tax system in Australia needs to be reviewed.

Funny that - there's a talkfest in Canberra this week to do just that ... some interesting articles:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/nationa ... forum-2011

[eddy]

I know it is difficult to identify what the Wall St. protesters are on about but there does seem to be a common thread that they are sick of ex casino types playing games with the world economy so perhaps there could be a tax that would prevent places like Australia losing $36b in one days trading. That is ridiculous and the value of stocks does not change that much overnight. Evidently the trading is now done a lot with computers that are set up by these ex casino types to trade 140 times in one second and that too is ridiculous.
With enough popular support I am sure some sort of worldwide tax disincentive could be devised to prevent this and take some of the burden off the taxpayer.