Tax and Spend

The broad philosophical divide of politics often revolves around the government doing too much or not enough.

However, in my experience there is one thing that individuals more or less agree upon and that is the matter of taxation.

Note the emphasis on ‘individuals’. Whenever I ask an individual if they are happy to pay more tax the answer is invariably ‘no’ or ‘I pay enough already’.

But often these same individuals advocate for an increase in government programs or additional government expenditure that can only be funded through higher levels of taxation. The fact that government can only spend money taken from today’s taxpayers or sequestered from future taxpayers seems to have escaped them.

Now collectively, there must be large groups of people who actually don’t mind paying more tax because they vote for the Labor Party which has a history of reckless spending and high levels of taxation.

The Rudd Government shows no signs of breaking the Labor mould. In their first 15 months of government they raised taxes on cars and ready-to-drink beverages. They managed to turn a $20 billion plus surplus into an expected $20 billion plus deficit, with very little to show for it.

With over $200 billion in government borrowing expected over the next four years, it’s possible that a graduate in 2012 will spend the remainder of their working life helping to pay off a few years of disastrous economic management.

In a nation with an ageing population, that will likely have a smaller percentage of Australians working than ever before, it is foolish to burden our future generations to the yoke of debt that this Government is committed to.

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