Sir Mike's Comments: " Aussies we are being ' Ripped Off ' "

People one of the few things that maybe good about getting to be 75 plus especially when you have achieved senior positions in other peoples business organisations where you are privileged to know the inner workings of the organisation or you have successfully run your own businesses over decades you become fully aware of just how much the average - not only Aussie - but the every day plebbs world wide are being ripped off and made to carry the the respective countries financial burden.

Larry Elliott - The Guardian.

Ed Pilkington - The Guardian.

There are as I am sure you are aware ? if not shame on you you should be!! many papers, reports on the internet and within the media generally of the ever widening gap between the rich and poor and the ever increasing so-called " Working Poor " such as we have in Aussie which is estimated to be at something like 2-3 million or about 10 - 12 percent of our so-called wealthy nation -?wealthy for whom ?.

However one of the most interesting articles I have read is the one written by the two blokes above from the Guardian - Elliott and Pilkington - headed " New Oxfam report says half of global wealth held by the 1% " dated the 19/1/2015 and I recommend the read because in my view for a lefty news paper it is fairly well balanced and for this day and age where we are given such a lot of biased media bullshit protecting financial and or political interests or in the case of the ABC some ideological thyme in order to make them some what relevant in this day and age is some what refreshing.

Now the Guardian - Oxfam summary is at least three pages long so I don't propose to go into it in any detail and it is available on the internet anyway but I do propose to hopefully use it to support my argument.

The article went on to state that according to Oxfam that the share of the best-off 1% of the worlds wealth increased from 44% in 2009 to 48% in 2014 where the worse well-off that being the 80% at that time only owned just 5.5%.

It also went on to state that 85 people - that is individuals - have the same accumulated wealth as the poorest 50% of the worlds population of 3.5 billion people and that figure of 80 individuals is down from 388 in 2010 plus it is estimated by Oxfam that the richest 1% will own 50% of the worlds wealth by 2016.

People by any stretch of the imagination and the sense of fair play how bloody sick is that????

However I have absolutely ' NO DOUBT ' that these figures in regard to the worlds wealthy would be under estimated because even the worlds government tax departments find it very difficult to find the tax havens and wealthy "hidie" holes so I doubt Oxfam would find it any easier.

Now I am in no way suggesting there has been anything untoward or inappropriate done by asking would we as Aussies citizens and Tax Payers have been made aware of our PM Malcolm - the Magnificent - Turnbull sending funds over to the Cayman Islands had he not been the Aussie PM and I would say by answering by own question obviously not! but surely then we have the right as Aussie Tax Payers to know who else of this wealthy mob are doing it and why????

Some 30 plus years ago I was fortunate enough to be employed as the NSW Divisional Transport Mgr for a very large international container shipping conglomerate come amalgamation.

The Aussie organisation of this conglomerate was made up of the following:

1. The shipping division was classed as an agency handling the import and export of the groups cargo.

2. There was a wharf terminal division that handles the offloading and loading of the groups vessels.

3. We had also container unpacking and packing depots where consignees and consignors cargo was held when it was less than full container loads - LCL's as compared to full loads of FCL's.

4. Then we had in Sydney and Melbourne which were our major ports for imports and exports our Transport Divisions where as I have stated I was the NSW Transport Mgr.

When I took over the NSW Transport Division it was a loss - cost centre and it was my job to turn it into profit which with my sales and marketing experience plus transport we were able to obtain what was classed as third party, or out of group business, which was more than able to subsidise the groups activities and with the right motivation of a very strong unionised staff which made it difficult to say the least!! and a change in systems and procedures within say 18 months we were able by the next full financial year to turn what was a loss situation into a $118.000.00 net profit! which 30 plus years ago was good money by anyone's standards - well done all I reckon!!

However when I received the final report back from accounts our what we thought was a net profit of $118,000.00 was reduced to only $8,000.00 where the group had deducted $110,000.00 for so called UK Head Office Consultant Fees ??? which ofcourse was absolute rubbish however it obviously reduced the groups Aussie tax bill.

This transport division stayed profitable for the next 17 years until it was absorbed in a group merger.

I remained the Transport Mgr for the next 4 years until I became the Group Marketing Mgr.

This I gather was the same with the Aussie water side terminals and unpacking depots.

The Aussie shipping agency that handled the onshore administration of the containerised imports and exports charged the group on a per tonne handling basis which I gather was charged out at the bare minimum cost per tonne possible just to cover the Aussie operating and administration costs and thereby again minimising the Aussie tax take??.

The group in Aussie apart from one container depot in western Sydney leased everything - offices,furniture plant and equipment, vehicles all for Aussie tax deduction purposes.

Now I am in no way suggesting anything this group was doing was illegal just bloody immoral.

They used all the Aussie infrastructure , roads, rail, and all the various local, state and federal government facilities where they obviously had to pay the various fees and charges plus they employed some 2000 people across the country which they had to in order to generate the huge profits - in those days and probably today containerisation was a licence to print money as the saying goes- they were able to transfer funds around the world to the various tax havens and where easier to do it than with an international shipping company travelling the world??

Nassim KHadem - Sydney Morning Herald.

Craig Butt - Sydney Morning Herald.

Subject: ' Which of Australia's biggest companies are not paying tax ' published 17/12/2015.

The two people mentioned above - Khadem and Butt - collectively produced the in-depth article mentioned above discussing the publication of Tax Commissioner Chris Jordan's release of the tax details of various corporate entities where 985 were foreign-owned and some 554 were Australian foreign entities with a $100,000,000 - yep million or more annual turnover and where there were 579 local and foreign based companies that with a combined turnover in 2013-14 of $405.9 billion - yep billion - with a taxable income bill of $4 billion - yep again billion, that according to this and other media articles covering the same subject ? are you ready for this - PAID NO TAX IN THE 2013-14 TAX PERIOD!!!.

Just reading this article let alone others plus the TV NEWS makes my blood boil!!!

It just goes to prove beyond doubt to me what a bunch of naive bastards we Aussies are and being so-called led by another bunch of amateur self interested wind bags of Aussie Pollies and their bosses the bureaucrats who in general are only interested in surviving from one election to another and providing it does not effect the Future Fund and their retirement entitlements just turn a blind eye to this lot that are ripping our financial future to shreds as it is all to hard so lets put into the " TO HARD Basket " along with all the other 100''s if not 1000's of problems we Aussies have from the " Cradle to the Grave "??.

Now having been involved in business one way or the other for say at least the last 50 years whether as a young employee or later managing other peoples enterprises or my own for at least the past 35 years I am more than aware that no local Aussie business can successfully survive on just tax deductions and write off's for say 2 maybe 3 years without covering their cost with at least some sort of nett profit no matter initially how small??

However having worked for not only that International Shipping Group but various international Freight Forwarders as well I am fully aware that does not necessarily apply to them because providing the Aussie part of the international group can cover their operating costs and develop a legitimate system of transferring funds - another name for profits - to their Mother Head Office - or even not their head office just some other part of the international organisation where they pay less or no tax at all then - as is the case today - they can survive for decades? or until the governments bite the bullet - as the saying goes - and plugs the loop holes??

But then ofcourse they close the Aussie operation down putting all the management and staff on the Aussie Tax Payer Funded Centrelink Welfare queue which the company or organisations have contributed little if anything too!!

So people while these local, and especially the overseas and international companies and organisations are plundering with gay abandonment - gay as in joyful not homosexual - Aussies current and future financial and material resources we good old Aussies across the board naively continue to pick up the bill with our personal and indirect taxes such as the insidious regressive Goods and Services Tax that hits anyone earning $50,000.00 PA or less - the majority of Aussies - very hard!! and yet there is talk that these lazy, unimaginative, pedestrian pollies and bureaucrats of ours wants to increase this insidious regressive tax from 10% to 15% and include fresh food which it does not currently do.

However people pollies and bureaucrats only know how to spend money, especially when it is not theirs!!, not make money or profits, so rest assured that it wont be many years down the track that give them the 15% they will spend that and come back for more because they - the local,state and federal governments of this over governed country of ours - know that they have captive shareholders by the name of Aussie Tax Payers who may whinge like a stuck pig but by law we have to cough up or we could be jailed- ? great choice? what do you reckon??

Andrew Wilkie - Federal Tasmanian Independent for Denison

Senator Sarah Hanson-Young - Aussies well paid United Nations Refugee Representative

Independent Andrew Wilkie Member for Denison and the very expensive Tax Payer funded to the tune of at least $200,000.00 PA plus perks the Aussie United Nations Refugee Representative the South Australian Senator Sarah Hanson-Young.

These two pollies - Messrs Wilkie and Hanson-young - are the main protagonists that continually bang on about what a rich country we are and we should open up our borders to more refugees?

Scott Morrison the Current Aussie Treasurer.

Mathias Corman the Aussie Finance Minister.

People we should keep reminding ourselves, and anyone you hear that states that the council or the state and federal governments should pay - that no government body or instrumentality over any of the full spectrum of this over governed country of ours that is in receipt of any Tax Payers funds regardless how little or what for owns those funds, because no matter how far they go down or up the chain they will always remain Tax Payers funds and we should constantly remind those spending or distributing those funds of this fact.

I have over the years been informed by pollies, bureaucrats, police officers, local councilors and their retainer, and the like, that they are also tax payers!

However my responce to that is that the taxes we get from anyone receiving Tax Payers funds is just a " Refund " of the money we paid you in the first place so unless as a tax payer funded employee you were very productive in what you were doing we the real Tax Payers are in a " Lose, Lose situation ".

Now having stated that all Tax Payers Funds are the property of the Tax Payers ? what control over the funds has the Tax - Rate Payer - Answer " NONE!!!!!".

There is no doubt in my mind from information I am gathering financial and otherwise Aussie is heading for a recession within the next say 2 years at the most if some of these pollies at all three levels of this country do not start biting the bullet, as the saying goes, in regard to expenditure!!

Most of these amateur pollies across the complete political spectrum and their bosses the bureaucrats could not run a village all purpose store and be hard pressed to balance a domestic family budget yet there they are being responsible for not millions but billions of Tax Payers funds and a say 2.5 Trillion Aussie economy and this is mainly because of the short political shelf life or used by date and the pollies great concern and the - don't rock the boat - political survival technique and where the bureaucrats live in that rarified air of the various governments establishments where they talk, coerce, persuade these amateur political survivalists - " Yes Minister Springs To Mind " into spending Tax Payers Funds in their Individual departments whether we as a country - nation can afford it or not and when it goes pear shape encourage the pollies to up the taxes,rates and fees to compensate for the now not millions but the now billions stuff up - to put it mildly.

Take for instance where some bright spark who decided in their wisdom to bring in an additional 12,000 Syrian refugees over and above the normal say 12-13,000 refugees we accept every year and where it is estimated to cost the Aussie Tax Payer some additional $700,000,000?? yep million!! over four years??

Then someone had a sudden thought bubble?? " Oh dear what have we done - what were we thinking ?? we forgot that we are no longer a so-called wealthy nation we spent all that years ago and our international credit card is starting to max out so ?? how are we going to pay for these poor bastards? after all most wont be able to speak,write or read English,can't drive, probably need a lot of across the board medical care, uneducated, housing, child welfare, ? Gosh what are we to do???

Then another bright spark stated “ Well we will just have to get an extension of credit from the banks because let's face it with:

1. The nations budget bottom line now blowing out to $37.4 billion - that is an estimate people they have never been right yet and there is a Federal Election coming up in the next 12 months so we will have to wait until after then to get any where near the correct figure??

2. We have a revenue write down of $33.8 billion as a result of the end of the mining boom ?? I wonder where the boom money went??

3. We have a weaker than expected tax revenue from wages as a result of the estimated 6% unemployment figure - 800,000 plus with a possibility of only say at the best 200,000 PA jobs being created and the current 60,000 school leavers will swell those figures because in many areas youth unemployment is as high as 24%.

4. We have an aging population therefore less income tax.

5. Our growth projections at best are estimated to be only 2.5 per cent - again people this is only a guessitimate they are never right!!

6. We on behalf of the Aussie tax payers have a war to fight in Syria and Iraq costing millions going into billions the longer it goes on.

7. We have promised the yanks, USA, to help with their war footing economy by purchasing at a cost of many millions ? maybe billions in the long run? some fighter bomber?? maybe us and the yanks can pick a fight with someone - other than China ofcourse - in the region so we can have a reason to use them in order to justify the expense ? not to the naive Tax Payers but to ourselves.

8. Then ofcourse we have to purchase - build naval ships and submarines and update all military hard and soft ware just in case we get attacked by some medium power because anything more we could not compete with anyway?? unless ofcourse it is a terrorist attack in Martin Place, Sydney the fighter bombers and the missile destroyers may come in handy then??

9. We have to fund all the various education facilities especially the universities even though we have degreed solicitors plus many other types of graduates driving cabs and working as waiters and kitchen hands with many degrees becoming obsolete in a matter of say 20 years - however keeps the unemployment figures down!!

10. Then ofcourse we have the National Disability Insurance Scheme that started slowly on the 1/7/2013 and which should be fully rolled out for some estimated 40,000 Aussies by 2018 - 2020 however as a result that the cost could blow out pass the estimated cost of $18 billion over 7 years and if by then the Federal, State and local government budgetary situation does not improve significantly then I believe that the future funding could be some what restricted which ofcourse would be devastating for those concerned.

So people I am sure you can imagine these poor bureaucrats and pollies sitting around burning the late night, early morning candles wringing their collective hands in anguish in regard to what to do to solve this cash flow insolvency problem, or it would be if it was a private company??

Then from the dark corners comes a voice “ I know I have the answer! Let's: ”

1. Let's crackdown on welfare payments and through data matching save $2 billion over three years? What a load of feel good rubbish every government comes up with this old chest nut?? $2 billion ? I suppose the senior management of Centrelink are being sacked for doing a lousy job todate.

2. The scrapping of the Better Access to Radiation Oncology - savings $26.6 million over 4 years?

3. Removing the bulk-billing incentives for pathology - savings $650.4 million over 4 years?

4. Tougher means testing of child care payments - saving $441 million over 4 years.

We have yet to see the fine print of all the other possible savings this Turnbull mob have in store for us?

So Messrs Wilkie Federal MP for Denison, Tasmania and the South Australian Senator Sarah Hanson - Young if ? as you both state that we are a wealthy country and we should open our borders to more of the 50 million so-called refugees on the move around the world and the 12,000 additional Syrian so-called refugees are going to cost the current and future Aussie Tax Payers $700,000,000 - that's million, and as we can observe from just only the figures above, and regardless what the like's of our Treasurer Scott Morrison or the Finance Minister Mathias Corman, who are treating us Aussies as a bunch of naive morons state,these cut backs will be passed on and the billions of dollars of estimated savings being withdrawn from the Aussie economy will have a dampening effect on spending!!

Therefore Messrs Wilkie MP and Senator Sarah Hanson-Young at $58,333.00 per Syrian refugee, which is an estimate and most government estimates are wrong - to low - how much more can we Aussies, go without, tighten our belts, reduce our standard of living, not you pollies ofcourse goodness NO!! in order to comply with both your international feel good ideology???? when we have about 80% of Queensland in drought conditions with farmers being forced of their lands, some committing suicide!

I bet they could have done with a $58,333.00 hand up? but oh no!! let's look after a bunch of foreigners first!! you are a disgrace to the Aussie nation to call yourselves Aussies politicians!!

Ok people get off your fat arses and get interested in where your country and nation is going because if you don't your next Christmas could be a lot less pleasant one way or the other than this one and there is little point in whinging just to your captive audience at the B-B-Q, club or pub.

” Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavours to live at the expense of everybody else ” – Frederic Bastiat, French Economist ( 1801 – 1850 ).

A Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy Prosperous New Year to you All !!

Regards Sir Mike Howe - but you can call me Mike.

Sir Mike's Comments

Wednesday, 23 December 2015

" Aussies we are being ' Ripped Off ' "

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