Friday 19 April 2013

Why do we pay taxes????????


I was recently driving down the South Eastern Freeway which is a taxpayer funded road and I am forced to pay a toll to use it. Basically I have to pay for it twice- tax and toll- maybe even three times if you count the tax extracted through the petrol bowser. While I was in the midst of a traffic snarl the size of Los Angeles I began to wonder why every time I drive on that particular road I am involved in vehicle flavoured jams. Whilst I morphed into boredom mode I asked myself why I actually pay taxes and what is my money being spent on? I concluded my money hasn't been invested in bitumen.

Rumour has it that the Australian taxpayer is the highest taxed person in the world? I couldn't find solid evidence to prove that statement and the data I found was inconclusive. Perhaps it's a government conspiracy or, it could be impossible to accurately decipher the endless taxation systems and laws controlling the different nations of our over-taxed world. We can present comparisons however- Germany versus Australia. Germany has survived the GFC relatively unscathed. Australia has faired okay compared to countries such as Greece etc. I must admit my bias. I am of German heritage and I will use my hard working German mum as an example. She still receives a German taxpayer funded pension similar to superannuation even though she has been an Australian citizen for 45 years. This suggests to me the Deutcshe superannuation scheme is terrific and working well.  Clever investing and policy adhered to over the course of time has caused a successful outcome for German retirees. When I retire in twenty odd years I will receive zippo. Zero. Zilch from my government.

In Australia- hospitals and educational institutions, the defence force and police force are all taxpayer-funded services. A logical kind of normal person is obliging and willing to contribute to their operation. I wonder though, what we are actually getting for our hard earned dollars. I pay local council rates but receive no rubbish pickup, no water connection or sewerage service. You can safely assume I live in a rural area and therefore it's my bad postcode choices that caused my infrastructure to be non-existent. It still makes me wonder on a larger scale though about public servants and politicians. What exact percentage of the federal and state budget goes into their bank accounts on our behalf. Just how much do we pay them? Mywage.org states Julia Gillard earns AUD $495,430.00 per annum. http://mywage.org.au/main/salary/celebrity-pay/politician-pay The same web-site claims Bill Clinton is collecting over AUD $12,000,000. If Julia hits the public speaking circuit after she gets the boot this election she could be earning 24 times more finances talking about what she failed at whilst being a tax payer funded employee. Top federal public servants earn around five times the average wage. Why? If I failed providing a service I was paid to perform at work I would get sacked. Instead of sacking incompetent pollies we have an election. Of course we paid AUD $51,347,774 for the 2010 federal election. http://www.aec.gov.au/About_AEC/Publications/electoral_pocketbook/2011/ep-costs.htm



According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics there were 1, 843,500 persons, or approximately 16% of the entire Australian workforce working as public servants in 2010. The ABS quotes their three main functions:
"- Policy advice
- The oversight of policy implementation and
 - The provision of the administrative machinery required to deliver the policies of the relevant government or agency." http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/1301.0~2012~Main%20Features~Public%20service~91
So that makes it all clear as mud. What does a politician actually do? I want a simple graph explaining exactly how much money is spent on whom and I want to sight their work diaries. This is what I found when I googled this very question answered by a very happy tax payer funded worker: "35 hour work week. 
9 day fortnight. 
20 days annual leave
. 1.5 bonus days off
. 3 days off in a row for sick leave with NO medical certificate. Heaps of days off for 'training'

could life be any better....?"
Hmmm.

Do politicians have any idea what it feels like to be tight with personal cash flow? Have they ever experienced being unable to pay the phone bill? To not know where the money for groceries is coming from or school fees or sports fees for the kids. Don't mention the vet bill for the dog. Have they got any idea how tough it is just to get by for most people?

And that brings me back to roads. The South Gippsland Highway (my highway) is the most prolific for potholes in the state of Victoria.  The bitumen is in constant need of repair. My road is littered with crater-sized potholes that love to blow out your tyres or crush your suspension and shame your wheel balance. How stupid am I? Why do I pay for road repairs and maintenance that I fail to receive? I know I am having a whine. If you compare my circumstances to that of a third world person I live in luxury. But third world citizens probably don't pay tax at the rate I do.

I really should just take Centerlink payments in whatever form it would come but I know some poor taxpayer is funding it. Centrelink by the way is the largest employer of public servants. ;-)

1 comment:

  1. "Last night in his speech, President Bush called for a complete overhaul of the tax code. He said he was shocked to find out that some millionaires in this country were still paying taxes." --Jay Leno

    Even though Bush is a little old and decrepit his ridicule- care of Jay Leno- is timeless.

    ReplyDelete