It would be interesting to see what happened to house prices if negative gearing was abolished.

Would the market be flooded with cheap houses and if so would the current renters be able to afford to buy them? There seems to be many different views on what would happen if it was abolished (which I agree it should be).

I've always thought one house is quite enough for each family but maybe that is naïve as there will always be people who need to rent. Unless Gummint bought all the excess housing stock...?

I lived in a place once where your mortgage interest AND principal payments on your family residence were tax deductible. A far better incentive and cheaper than making other homeowners fork out in their taxes for the first home owner grants. It had to go hand in hand with very strict rules about overseas ownership.

CoodaShooda:
So tell me do bankers, real estate agents, politicians, lawyers, etc. create wealth? Or do they just manipulate the system for their own benefit. I would suggest there are very very few in Australia that actually create wealth these days. Do miners create wealth by just digging resources out of the ground and flogging them off to the highest bidder?

Until Australians learn how to create wealth, possibly by adding value, then we are all bound up sh*t creek. Taking in each others washing doesn't really cut it in todays world. So tell me CoodaShooda who do you think actually creates wealth in Australia.


.

Alcoa bhp, rio tinto, builders to name a few.

Dont leave out Doner Kebabs.

The only negative gearing that Abbotomy is concerned about are the free shimano ones he yet again failed to declare. Is it just me or does he appear to be a complete klutz? I see the lieberals new NBN head is up for some special court attention, roll on the DD.

Yea that would be interesting, its one of things you wouldn't really know the effects of until you did it and waited.

There's a significant amount of people getting second houses in the mining industry. Though technically high income, when integrated over the long term there high income is only transitory. Hence its a good incentive for them to buy something in the short term instead of the usual bogan [email protected]

I would be in favor of some sort negative gearing for one or two houses.

Never said there was. Certainly agree Australia isn’t a poor country, although another 10 years of Liarbor would have seen us in the same category as Greece.
Dr Wilson claims Australia is ‘worst of all the rich countries 'at supporting single unemployed people’, ergo an attack on our welfare system. Again, if Australia’s welfare system is so bad (in this case, at supporting single unemployed people), why are boat loads of ‘asylum seekers’ risking life and limb to get here, bypassing a whole bunch of other countries in doing so? Easy – because in the majority of cases the ‘asylum seekers’ are in fact economic refugees wanting to get on the gravy train that is Australian welfare.

I think it is time to get on the gravy train :p

Alisoncc

In my naive view, real wealth derives from food and natural resource production plus value adding through manufacturing.

Everything else is wealth redistribution through artificial and flawed social constructs.

Interesting article on the Student protestors.

Memo to uni fees protesters: stop being selfish thugs and bullies

I couldn't find much fault in the reasoning of the article you linked, 500N. The points made seemed logical, well thought out and reasonable. I'm interested to hear another (or opposing) view if there is one.

I didn't post my views as I wanted people to read it with a clear head
and not think it was another right wing rant !!! LOL

Yes, agree. I thought it was a pretty good article.

A bit like the one's on the student protests, maybe some of the
students should read a few of them !

It seems they are finally getting tough on the clergy !

"Victorian priest Frank Klep has been jailed for 10 and a half years for sexually abusing 15 schoolboys."


Now if they could just nail all the others, that would be good.


What has always amazed me with these incidents is not one victim
has taken things further and into their own hands.
Maybe a different mentality to me ?

Creating wealth.

Their is no creating wealth, its all about the system and society. The bankers, the miners etc are all a part of the system. That system requires them to do their best to make a buck for their bosses.

We all like our fancy gadgets and all the rest of the [email protected] witch goes with it, but a quick to have a go at the very people who support the system that makes it possible.

HECS UP FRONT
 

I wonder what % of HECS "debts" are paid using the upfront option.

When my two reached Uni, I felt I still had a responsibility for their education and thus chose to pay their HECS upfront. Thankfully, I also had the ability to make those payments and I accept that many did (and do) not have that ability. Call it a form of self imposed means test.

The other consideration I had was the remove the potential for an additional tax burden on a young Australian just when they started to earn sufficient to get a decent start in life.

BTW, in addition to the discount, I paid by credit card and as the card was linked to my FF account, received points.

MJG

Ken

"We are so fortunate that we live in a gentle society where there are limits imposed on our freedoms that actually enhance society rather than divide and destroy."

You say that coming on the day an Ex NSW Police detective is charged for murder of a 22 yo student and another (disgraced) cop is wanted for questioning over same murder as a body wrapped in a tarp is found floating in the water :rolleyes:

Yeah, right ! Here is a picture of "our gentle society" !

http://i60.tinypic.com/2qce538.jpg

Having lived in other societies, and spent time in others, too, I really do agree that we in Australia do live in a gentle society, notwithstanding the few (maybe many?) individuals or relatively small groups that are the exception to the 'gentle society' generalisation.

We used to be a gentle country.

Not so much any more. Look at the Melbourne war, Sydney shootings,
Queensland shootings.