wide eyed and legless said:
Weighing up the revenue collected by the government from alcohol, against the cost of alcohol abuse on society, I doubt if the government would ever come close to squaring the balance sheet, taking into account crime, road accidents, health system, sickies etc.
When you write
"revenue collected by the government from alcohol", does it include tax paid by all the workers in manufacturing, marketing, distributing, and retail of alcohol? I'm not sure how far off square they'd be.
It sounds to me like the Libs (needless) crusade for a surplus (which probably isn't going to happen anyway) has just found yet another way to hurt the population financially. Additionally, if they do manage to maintain a budget surplus it will force the dollar up and hurt exports, including booze.
Stux said:
To be objective, it was hawke who brought this in, and Rudd who fiddled with it in order to raise revenue
"Under changes made by the former Rudd government, the tax on cigarettes and tobacco will increase in March and September every year in line with average wages, which is usually a higher measure."
I'd be much happier with Rudd's approach because he would actually spend the money raised. Maybe even on something useful rather than trying to obtain a surplus (code word for not spending on infrastructure, public services, or anything else useful). And don't even get me started on the Libs FTTN NBN, 'cause that's going to be great for Aussie business...
wide eyed and legless said:
At the end of the day the taxes are taken up by the end user, but I agree that government should do more to encourage any fledgling business, be it micro breweries or any sort of manufacturing that will support a work force, because we are going to need a lot more employment opportunities available in the near future.
Yep, I agree. My mum once asked if I'd considered a career in brewing (I think she was sick of supporting me while I study
). I told her if I lived anywhere else in the world I probably would have thought about it. But not here.
Sorry about the rant, it just pisses me off :angry: . I think I need to RDW(about the economy)HAHB
.