What's wrong with a budget surplus?

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quote:

Originally posted by Fledz What's wrong with a budget surplus?

Can someone explain to me the purpose of the surplus?

I always figured it was "rainy day" money, in case we have a natural disaster, or need to lend aid to Timor, or something like that. Otherwise what's the point?

Also - all John Howard needs to do to win election is introduce (temporary) petrol rebates and aim for $1/L. Not only would people notice every week at the pump and think "thanks John!", but it would also prevent further inflation and more interest rate rises - something which is counting against him at the moment.

If I was John Howard this one would be in the bag.

p.s thank christ I'm not.

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lol I don't think anyone wants to be John Howard

If he wanted his party to win then there's one thing he could have done. Retired.

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quote:

Originally posted by Fledz lol I don't think anyone wants to be John Howard

Costello?

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quote:

Originally posted by Domesticated Can someone explain to me the purpose of the surplus? I always figured it was "rainy day" money, in case we have a natural disaster, or need to lend aid to Timor, or something like that. Otherwise what's the point?

No seriously, I'm waiting for an answer from someone with some idea of what they are talking about.

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quote:

Originally posted by Beat Blog No seriously, I'm waiting for an answer from someone with some idea of what they are talking about.

surplus is what let's the government do shit like tax cuts and make grandiose promises of increased spending on the eve of elections...

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why is there gst on petrol?

i think its a bit dodgy that howard says that if he wins he will retire and give the job to costello, don't they think people would vote for costello, so they just hand it to him later?

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i'd vote for costello, only coz he was on Chaser's.

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quote:

Originally posted by Beat Blog No seriously, I'm waiting for an answer from someone with some idea of what they are talking about.

Theoretically, governments will try to run budget deficits during lean economic times (more money = more demand = more spending = more growth) then shift to budget surpluses as the economy strengthens, which can be used to pay off the public debt built up during the deficit periods. Australia has basically no public debt at the moment, so most of the surplus money is going into the Future Fund - basically a bank account to help the country deal with the social pressures of having all its baby boomers retiring at the same time.

The absurd thing about it, though, is that we are one of the highest taxed countries in the OECD and most of the growth we're experiencing in the economy is being fuelled by people taking on unsustainable levels of debt. In other words, the government is taking money from us which we're then just borrowing back from the bank with interest. If it was possible to cut taxes and ensure that people reduced their debt by the same amount (which it isn't) then it would make more sense to do that and run a smaller surplus. As it is, though, if we substantially cut the surplus, any money we got back (in the form of tax cuts) would only cover the rise in inflation that would inevitably result from such a decision.

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Work has been seriously monotonous over the last couple weeks and ive been spending most of my free (work) time keeping an eye on the election.

i think its a given that labour has it. and its a good thing imo.

john howard has made huge election (and non election) promises time and time again and he has straight out bullshitted the australian population.

kids overboard
NEVER EVER have a gst (and someone said if labour takes over pay double for everything?!?!)
interest rates....
it goes on and on.

to be honest the war is a big issue in this election and i believe that if labor had been in power over the last 11 years or whatever - its not cut and dried whether wed be there or not. Paul keating (bless his heart) was all for the hooking up with asia and using OUR region to the best.

england, france and australia where the only countries that backed america (from memory) - i think its not a wild thing to say that it may have been different if labor was in power. i guess its my opinion tho - i see some of you think we should be there - i suggest u join the army reserve and go fight and die for bush

john howard has been tryna dig himself out of a very big shit hole....
he wants to take credit for the good points of the economy, but when something like interests rates go up - he has no control!
Rudd is playing word games - BUT he pulls a journalist up because he wasnt apologising, just saying he was sorry about interest rates...
WTF you little worm.

keep digging mate.

our economy aint that grand - costello is okay with numbers but not the wiz hes made out to be as far as treasurers go.

on the side of rudd...well at the start of this election i thought anything other than howard would be good.
i didnt think much of rudd...in my opinion in this election - he has shown me and im sure a few other people - that the only way this country can go forward in this election is to get him in as fast as possible.

his foreign policy will pwn
the economy is going to downturn in the next few years no matter what..at least hes being conservative
goodbye workchoices....
he might even say sorry!
he just sems like a charismatic leader who may just get this country back where it should be:-
a forward thinking, friendly country with a high quality of living.



not the american cocksucking, negative state of fear it is becoming.

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Last edited by Light The Fuse on Nov-15-2007 at 11:06

quote:

Originally posted by Light The Fuse john howard has made huge election (and non election) promises time and time again and he has straight out bullshitted the australian population.

A politician lying? Never!


ah yes the GST, where shallow people think its made everything 10% more expensive but conveniently forget it replaced several taxes (some of which were higher than 10%), and that the states were meant to cut stamp duty (which some have but some haven't). If theres no GST where do you think the states would get their money from? All the GST goes back to the states remember. Ok so it was a broken promise, but the actual thing is not a disaster. No one can definitively say whether they are worse off.

quote:

Originally posted by Light The Fuse to be honest the war is a big issue in this election and i believe that if labor had been in power over the last 11 years or whatever - its not cut and dried whether wed be there or not. Paul keating (bless his heart) was all for the hooking up with asia and using OUR region to the best. england, france and australia where the only countries that backed america (from memory) - i think its not a wild thing to say that it may have been different if labor was in power. i guess its my opinion tho - i see some of you think we should be there - i suggest u join the army reserve and go fight and die for bush

whoa, England, France and Australia are the only ones?
For starters France were against it (but want to invade Iran for exactly the same reasoning....), but have you actually seen how many countries have troops in Iraq? Far from the only ones mate
(No I don't necessarily support the idea of the war in Iraq, but our troops are there now and they deserve our support for it, we also created a mess so have to be intelligent about how to fix it, just yanking our troops out is potentially a very bad idea indeed).

quote:

Originally posted by Light The Fuse john howard has been tryna dig himself out of a very big shit hole.... he wants to take credit for the good points of the economy, but when something like interests rates go up - he has no control!

But the government doesn't have control over interest rates, the RBA does. Heres the way I understand it, a good economy means people generally have more money and feel better about borrowing more money, more debt forces the interest rates up to try to reduce the amount people are spending because if the economy crashes then everyones fucked cos they can't pay back the debt. So interest rates are driven up by people spending, which is facilitated by a strong economy. So it would be difficult for a strong economy not to force interest rates up cos people will spend more during those times. If people reduced spending and debt then the rates wouldn't go up. Thats not likely to happen as its not part of human nature.

quote:

Originally posted by Light The Fuse his foreign policy will pwn

why, cos he speaks Mandarin?




I'm not rubbishing Rudd, I do think he'd be a good Prime Minister and its easily the first time in the past 11 years that Labor have put up a leader who would make a good Prime Minister (Lets not forget who Howard has beaten, Beazley and Latham, things would have been shit with either of those in charge). I won't be voting for him because that entails a vote for Nicole Cornes. But also do realise at the end of the day its a politician and also with a large group of politicians behind them.



By the way, don't believe any either party says about fixing climate change, they're all full of shit.

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