#tax #stampDuty #climate #government #greenhouse #areYouACommunistGetInTheVan #NSW
In New South Wales and other places, when you buy a house, you pay a lump of tax. (We call it "stamp duty", I have no idea why don't ask me).
It doesn't hurt so much, because borrowing more money to cover tax is no added pain - you've already been beaten to a bloody pulp by a bank, what's an extra $50k on $500k anyway?
Idea:
The Federal Government imposes a tax on buying property, payable after one year.
As a buyer, you either; spend 0.5% of the property on solar, insulation, electrification or storage, or you pay 0.5% to the government.
The payment would be tied to climate change mitigation efforts. It'd be a lot like the Medicare levy - either do your own, or forfeit an equivalent amount so the Government does it for you.
Call it the Greenhouse Levy.
(If the levy has already been paid on a property in the last 10 years, no need to pay it again, you are already infrastructured-up. After that? it becomes payable, that infrastructure needs some maintenance now.)
As a climate scientist who has warned about the threat of climate change for decades, I think the fact that we just saw what was probably the hottest day in recorded history, and probably in thousands of years, is deserving of attention...
https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/05/world/hottest-day-world-climate-el-nino-intl/index.html
@Neil1808 exactly right.
I remember for a while being a “freelance journalist” seemed a desirable and liberating choice.
Trouble is even though I had more free time i could rarely plan anything. Last minute gigs were bound to pop up and, if you didn’t accept them, it might affect your chances of getting further offers.
So it was like living ‘on call’.
The final blow for me was getting a bad bout of pneumonia and being unable to work for two weeks. No sick pay. No income. I had the resources to stay afloat but it made me realise how vulnerable I was.
Decided the allure of “freelancing” was an illusion and, luckily, I was able to go back into a regular job some months later.
People who have little choice but be in the casual work force are extremely vulnerable and, as you say, the flexibility is all on the employer’s side.
The gambling app proposal (which apparently is being ignored) seems a good one.
But the catch is always how many powerful organisations benefit from this addiction that ruins lives and families.
Even the ALP raking in serious gambling dollars.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/2023/07/06/alan-kohler-australia-gambling-problem/
As far as much of the rest of the world is concerned the only real “only in America” is the crazy obsession with guns that results in obscenely regular mass shootings.
The other stuff is just as possible in any number of 1st world countries.
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/7/4/only-in-america-is-a-narcissistic-lie