FINANCIAL REVIEW article 16 April –> http://www.afr.com/content/afr/news/policy/tax/ato-finds-60pc-more-super-rich-20150416-1mm2vs.html
People getting rich shouldn’t normally worry us. But it’s not envy to recognise that people, including ourselves, who are engaged in ripping off the economic rents of our natural resources are more than a bit of a worry. Particularly those 0.1% who have made it into so much of an art form they’ve very quickly turned themselves into billionaires at others’ expense. Look, for example, at how developers in China have made “super profits” in real estate to become billionaires as Chinese peasants starve!
So, to oppose rent-stealing certainly aint envy. This is where Ron Paul lost the plot in his drive for Liberty. Ron thinks rent-seeking in real estate is OK, thereby missing the fundamental point on where banking and money-creation goes awry.
Land rents, mining super profits and spectrum rents are OURS–as a community–and ought to be the natural source of revenue.
Wages, and non rent-seeking business profits belong entirely to those who earned them, and should not be taxed. You won’t find socialists saying that, Ron Paul!
Rent-seeking has crippled world economies–and is crippling Australia at the moment–but this remains invisible to all but a few!
