dailyreckoning.com.au / By Dan Denning / February 7th, 2013
Finally, it’s hard enough to look after yourself when you’re in no-man’s land in the middle of great monetary battle. But Australia’s government isn’t making it any easier with proposals to change how your retirement savings are taxed. The way these changes are described is a deliberate abuse of language in order to pervert intent and confuse meaning.
If the Gillard government follows the Obama camp’s election strategy, they will repeat a simple mantra between now and election day in September: millionaires and rich people should be willing to pay their‘fair’ share of tax in order to make Australia more equitable place for those most disadvantaged, especially children and the disabled. It’s a question of national priorities and values. And if you don’t agree with us, you’re selfish and greedy.
That’s the emotion they’ll be going for anyway. The language will be more neutral. The language will include spurious phrases like ‘tax concessions,’ or the idea that lower tax rates on earnings and contributions to retirement accounts are something the government gives to you and is entitled to take back.
If you think about it for a moment, this is just another way of saying your money is the government’s first and yours second. What you take home is not up to you. It’s up to what the government concedes. And what’s conceded can be taken away. Government first, you second. Government, of course, is ‘we’ the people. You are just a selfish and cold-hearted jerk.
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