We had politicians here recently saying that families on $250k are not rich. Aussie dollar was at parity with the US at the time.
In fact, my household is on just over $250k and we're eligible for welfare.
I'm starting to think that the vast majority of people earning an average or higher income never understand that they're not actually poor.
Stupid question: if people making a quarter of a million dollars are welfare eligible, who the heck is paying for all those welfare benefits?
It's not that simple. If you're earning $250k you're probably paying $50k in tax - getting something like 'child benefit' at $100 a month might be termed a 'benefit' but it's still much less than you are 'paying in'.
Should people who earn a lot not get the.. I won't call them perks.. of situations just because they are rich? Ahem.. have a good remuneration package? They are already getting clobbered in the highest tax bracket...
I'm not saying they should, but rather it's not that simple. The system DOES adjust without government input. A bigger problem is the ways rich ("actual" rich, not salaried) folk get around paying much tax at all. But then - if the idea behind the world's various dividend credits (ie, if you live in Canada and invest in Canadian companies, the dividends you get are actually tax-positive for you) is that the company has already *paid* the tax.. well.. Not fair to take tax from that money again, is it.
The short is - if you piss your money up the wall, you're held into working. In most ways working is probably good for us, but not this 9-5, 5 days a week - for many people. We are generally lazy - lazy like animals, we'll work to make ourselves fed and warm, but if there is an easier way of being fed and warm, we'll take it. Why burn calories when you can bask in the sun?
There is a lot of moral judgement. I mean - I *despise* people who sit back and claim benefits because they are too lazy to work. But on the other hand, they are doing a very sane thing. The government keeps on giving them money!
I can work hard and save up for that car... or buy it on credit. The payment becomes background noise. I look shiny and flashy and might be able to procreate more easily. We forget, in our clever article-reading minds, that life is the explosion of two worlds meeting - our intelligent, logical one, and our reptile, emotional one.
And Labour? Well. The UK needs an infusion of upstanding, humble, hardworking politicians. Not Spin-Doctored, Flip-Flopping... ugh. I am sure many of them are decent, and many have their hearts in the right place, but the oily sleazy disgustingness of most that you see... Who argue to win points... I hate it. Hate it. The right answer is to become a politician, to agree with what you agree with, and oppose what you don't, regardless of party lines, but taking some account of your constituents' wishes.
It makes me want to cry. But, in the mean time, the world continues. The economic system adapts; so what, the real rich hold 95% of the wealth? They just lock it away, act as a giant sponge so there isn't too much lubrication. It's ok - it's self adjusting (else where would we be after the last ten years?).