As expected, the reptiles played it hard this day, and the delcons were merciless at any attempt to find pity in the hard, cruel wind …
The pond was ready for it and determined to row against the tide, or sail against the wind, or whatever other metaphor was to hand, and it being an emergency, and requiring serious distraction, the pond wheeled in an old 'our Gracie' column …
Why waste time going over all the rituals - the pond can imagine them, the oscillating fan trying to find hope, the Oreo baying at the delcon moon, the bouffant one wringing his hands, nattering 'Ned' shouting at the clouds … oh they'd all pile in, and by Tuesday morning, would Malware be gone?
No, it was time for a considered ravaging of the Anglicans, and who better to do the job than our Gracie?
What's this? The pond promised that our Gracie would ravage the Anglicans and thus far all she's done is ravage the greenies, and incidentally delivered some first class satirical writing …
Why did the pond enjoy it so? Well it's about time someone in the lizard kingdom took down Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek ...
There's your problem in one go, greenies getting into bed with Fred and Milt … (and more fun with other supporters at Fortune here).
And now to give the bloody Anglicans a bloody good serve … tax the churches, tax the churches!
Say what? Anglicans smoke the wicked weed? Tax the churches, tax the churches …
Would it have been too much for lazy our Gracie to provide a link? Well the reptiles don't like links, it takes people away from their life trapped inside the herpetarium.
The pond doesn't mind … anyone who wants to leave the pond and our Gracie and head off to Anglicare for the report here are welcome, though the pond would love the departing mob to be chanting along with our Gracie, 'tax the churches', 'tax the churches' …
For those who decided to stay, sorry there's just a last small gobbet of Gracie ...
Why was the pond pleased with all this? Well you see the reptiles had originally promoted our Gracie with a term that the pond regards as its very own and for a moment it feared a trade war or a patent battle…
Thankfully our Gracie only talked of lunacy, and the pond could retain its loony crown …
And now, as acknowledgment of the real reptile task for the day, the pond will allow one mention … but only in the form of a Rowe cartoon, with many more mentionable Rowe cartoons here ...
I'd like to thank Gracie for pointing out that Per Capita research paper:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.anglicare.asn.au/docs/default-source/default-document-library/cost-of-privilege-report.pdf?sfvrsn=0
More along the same lines can be found here:
https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/2018/04/07/turnbull-and-the-boomer-racket/15230232006058
"It suits the political right to foster the notion of younger people bludging on the taxpayer, but the statistical reality is that only one age cohort takes significantly more from the system than it puts in: people older than 65. Their net benefits per household average more than $30,000 per year".
All this really confirms what you see around you. It takes serious delusion to see the various well-to-do rent-seekers as "wealth creators" - but it's a delusion that's easy to entertain when you are the beneficiary.
Thing is, though, that I've paid taxes - income, sales/GST, licenses, stamp duty - and I've paid for various services (medical, dental and pharmaceutical) out of my own pocket - for approximately 45 years (and remember that a $ paid over much of that time is worth way more than a $ now). In fact over my last decade of full time work I was paying more than twice the supposed 'net benefits per household' in income tax alone - including a significant amount of tax on my attempt at having a self-funded retirement sum.
DeleteThe next idiot that crows about how I haven't paid my due will suffer eternal damnation !
Well, I don't think that's the issue. The right wing consistently misrepresent the cost of centre-link as a proportion of welfare. They also run a moral equivalence argument that compares the worthy retiree with the unworthy dole recipient.
DeleteFor comparison - I started work in the early 70s and I guess I have been the beneficiary of a number of government policies (super) as well as taking advantage of quite a few (legal) tax loopholes. I have had a much easier run than my parents and my main worry is that, despite better qualifications, my kids don't seem to be doing so well.
And yes, I probably should be damned.
Ah, so you were really saying that the 'right wing' just tell self-serving lies all of the time. Well, yes, I think we can all attest to that. Yeah, the 1970s was a good time, though I am still nostalgic for the 1960s - both of those decades were well within the Great Prosperity (at least for the Anglo-Euro-Japanese worlds) that ran across the 1950s, 60s and 70s and into the 80s.
DeleteBut regarding your kids, they have the misfortune to be around in the Great Wind-down era when the population of the Earth is seriously starting to exceed the carrying capacity of the planet and the rich have finally extinguished any thoughts of workers' rights and the mixed economy in order to claim a greater and greater part of the world's wealth every year - which they are very successfully doing, year after year.
Tell your kids that some of us oldies are sorry we didn't understand what was happening, we were just contented with our own transient wellbeing when we really should have been out there fighting alongside Che (until we won when we'd have had to kill him in order to prevent another Lenin or Mao, or even just a Castro.
As to being otherwise damned ? Well since there's no heaven of any kind, it's either damnation or total non-existence oblivion. Which would you choose :-)
Indeed Befuddled, a big tip to Gracie for sharing that fact on the Per Capita paper - a veritable how-to-guide on legally enabling the very best of Australia for you and the kids while paying SFA tax.
ReplyDeleteHow the hell did we get here? My toupee has exploded off my head and into the stratosphere.