I don't know about that. The socialists are prone to relapse. Now that *most* of the national debt has been repaid (under a 'conservative' government), I would not trust a future Labor government to reduce taxation AND spending. The previous Labor Party government had to disavow the earlier disastrous Labor government economic policies, but now that the (largest part of the) economic pain is becoming a mere memory, Labor is prepared to commit to too many spending proposals, despite continuing to claim to be committed to "balanced budgets". For instance, the Labor Party from time to time criticizes the Liberal Party government (or conservative, supposed to be classical Liberal, but I doubt that most members of parliament even remember what that means) for having too large a surplus. In response, Labor vows to spend (even) more on health, education and welfare! In fact, before the "War on Terror" (and more significantly, a collapse in the price of Telstra shares) the treasurer had plans to complete the privatisation of Telstra and then to pay off the entire balance of the government debt. Certain interests went into a panic, because that meant that the government would have no way to "control" the economy through the government bond market.
>From what we hear from USA, I am certain that people in Australia on average incomes pay considerably less taxation than people on equivalent purchasing power in USA, and many people (especially families) on low incomes, due to reverse taxation and welfare policies often in reality pay nothing or are nett recipients of government funds, but there are people in both countries earning a lot more than that also. I'm sure no one will be surprised that the top tax rates here remain considerably higher than those in USA. (Although the maximum is generally about 50% income tax (Federal only), and 10 percent GST. Unfortunately, there remains a high amount of taxation on petrol. There are no death or estate taxes, but there is a 15 percent tax on superannuation contributions (the employer-contributed part of which is income tax exempt). There has also never been any tax liability on proceeds of gambling and competitions, because they know the house (which pays taxes) wins on average, including lotteries. So lotto winners get the whole lot, tax free, no matter how many millions it may be. However, this in no way negates the established principal that a fool and his money is soon parted. Regards, Ian Green > From: FileMatrix [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Wednesday, 15 October 2003 3:34 AM > To: e-gold Discussion > Subject: [e-gold-list] Re: Income tax <SNIP> > > In New Zealand and Australia the key leaders in both the > 'conservative' > and Labor parties learnt > from the economic devastation > > Talk about socialists knowing better than capitalists :) > > Good news! At this time, do they have higher taxes than USA > (say 40% or > more)? Last time I checked they were rather moderate. --- You are currently subscribed to e-gold-list as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Use e-gold's Secure Randomized Keyboard (SRK) when accessing your e-gold account(s) via the web and shopping cart interfaces to help thwart keystroke loggers and common viruses.
