JC Political Thread - For All Things Political Part 2

[Sabbath']

Except everyone does it these days. All banks make record profits each year, teloc's make big bucks, petrol and power companies are the same too. It's a loose loose situation for the average consumer.

There is a good reason why the 1%ers own over 90% of all the wealth in the world and the rest of us go backward in real terms each year.

There is plenty of bitching on this forum about the cost of energy in Aussie because the companies will sell gas overseas before locally because they can make more money that way.

Russia/Putin just enforced local energy companies to sell domestically because it was more profitable to sell overseas than to local Russian citizens. Funny how a murderous dictator can see it but we in free market capitalist economies can't. It's time govco's start taxing excess profits.

None of that explains or excuses why somebody in politics should get the same as somebody in the private sector.

It's just "whataboutism" at its finest.

 

[J_D 2.0]

None of that explains or excuses why somebody in politics should get the same as somebody in the private sector.

It's just "whataboutism" at its finest.

Nobody has said that politicians should get the same as someone in the private sector. In fact politicians get far less than than the “people in charge” do in private business.

 

[chrisp]

None of that explains or excuses why somebody in politics should get the same as somebody in the private sector.

It's just "whataboutism" at its finest.

“The same’!!! They’re orders of magnitude apart.

The guy who runs an airline gets paid $24,000,000 per year. The guy who runs the country gets paid $590,000.

Just think about that. Alan Joyce’s annual superannuation contribution alone would have been about 4 times the prime minister’s annual salary.

Who has more responsibility?

And that example is just an airline. The same would be happening with banks, supermarkets, etc.

 

[Immortality]

None of that explains or excuses why somebody in politics should get the same as somebody in the private sector.

It's just "whataboutism" at its finest.

Never said it was and I'm at the head of the queue to say pollies get paid to much and receive to many benefits and perks after their time is over.

 

[hademall]

The guy who runs an airline gets paid $24,000,000 per year. The guy who runs the country gets paid $590,000.

That's the difference between monkeys and gorillas

 

[Sabbath']

“The same’!!! They’re orders of magnitude apart.

The guy who runs an airline gets paid $24,000,000 per year. The guy who runs the country gets paid $590,000.

Just think about that. Alan Joyce’s annual superannuation contribution alone would have been about 4 times the prime minister’s annual salary.

Who has more responsibility?

And that example is just an airline. The same would be happening with banks, supermarkets, etc.

"The same" being a large, annual pension or payout. Not dollar figurative.

If they are in it for money, go into the private sector.

Any and all money a politician is gifted year on year is money taxed from citizens and deflected from services

 

[chrisp]

Capitalism when things are going well. socialism when things are going bad. Qantas received $2.7 billion in taxpayer subsides because of the pandemic and have just had a record year. Jim Chalmers says they don't have to give any of it back.

I suspect that they’ll be paying a very small proportion of it back. They’ll be making donations to the major political parties on a nudge, nudge, wink, wink understanding that the activities of Qantas are kept as low key as possible politically.

Banks, mining magnates, supermarkets (etc…) all do the same. A small political donations across the major parties just to (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) keep the political focus elsewhere.

And much the same with the media, place a few advertisements here and there on the (nudge, nudge, wink, wink understanding) that there aren’t too many negative stories. By all means publish a few articles advising the public to shop around (for their home loan, supermarket shopping, insurance, energy). In the end the consumer is still getting royally reamed and companies are all still making wonderful profits.

 

[Sabbath']

Nobody has said that politicians should get the same as someone in the private sector. In fact politicians get far less than than the “people in charge” do in private business.

No, but people are trying to draw parallels between the earnings of the two like the money comes from the same place.

 

[Immortality]

Well it does, ultimately it all comes from the consumers who also happen to be voters.

Personally, I'll never fly Qantas again, flew with them once and they were crap so I'll not fly with them again. At least with the likes of Jetstar you know it's going to be crap but at least it's cheap crap.

 

[J_D 2.0]

No, but people are trying to draw parallels between the earnings of the two like the money comes from the same place.

It does all come from the same place, the government! If the government didn’t print the money in the first place then it doesn’t exist, it’s spent into existence by the government and private banks.

Governments with currency sovereignty (ie: Australia) spend first and tax later. Federal taxes don’t pay for anything, it’s just a means of creating demand for the currency.

On the other hand state taxes do matter as states don’t have currency sovereignty and thus can‘t issue new money to pay their debts (government bonds).