Here We Go Again

Ian Verrender

This just keeps going on, but then what would you expect? I commented on tax 'reform' back in October 2014, noting that reform in the guise of an increase in a regressive tax is a reform backwards. Ian Verrender makes similar points here, and reference to George Orwell is extremely apropos. Not enough people read Mr. Verrender and I to get these clowns out of office and prevent further regression of our society and economy. If everyone did, they would understand the urgency of this eventuality.

Elites in society have been gaming the political system in their own interests since the beginning of society. It was easier when a single member of the elite controlled all the levers of power, so the gaming was overt and you could more easily call a spade a spade and people would believe you without too much explanation because everything was self-evident and obvious. So, Louis XIV, The Sun King, having drained the coffers in the pursuit of futile foreign wars, not to mention the maintenance of an extravagantly profligate court, needed more money badly and cast around for new sources of revenue.

I hope this sounds familiar in reference to what is happening now. This all happened around the turn of the eighteenth century, about 300 years ago and the similarities are striking.

Louis had no constraints because he was an absolute monarch, having spent much time and effort ensuring the precision of this label. He simply increased the taxes on the poorest people in society grinding them further into destitution, while continuing to misspend the revenue, wasting vast sums on unnecessary military adventures and bribes. Taxes which have this effect on the poor are termed regressive

No one recognises the present regime for what it is: very similar to Le Roi de Solei 300 odd years ago. History is not studied. Thought is not studied. Conservative governments deliberately take funding away from education, driving its quality down. All in the pursuit of maintaining the status quo. to a state in which the electorate is not capable of seeing these things.

The progressive income tax, haled as such since its inception, is called progressive because the rates progress from low to high as the taxpayers' level of poverty declines. The poor pay little or no tax on their income, while the higher income earners pay progressively more.

Can you get blood from a stone? Is it possible for those who have no money to magically give money to the government?

These are the injustices and absurdities encapsulated in the LNP policy to raise the GST and broaden its base.

They must be stopped.