Victoria’s Taxi Industry Inquiry headed by Allan Fels is a breath of fresh air to a monopoly riddled area that overcharges passengers and keeps drivers in poverty. We wrote about the inquiry – Taxi! Tax Me! - back in February. The most repugnant monopoly features...
BLOG: economic rent
Citizens are entitled to RSPT
PM Gillard’s defiant speech to the Minerals Council of Australia yesterday – asserting national ownership of our mineral wealth and the country’s right to a share of the bounty being dug up and shipped out – was good politics, good economics and a much needed...
Ride for free or pay the fine
In his second budget, Victorian Treasurer Kim Wells is aiming for a surplus of $155 million, of which $109 million is due to increased fines. The Government has budgeted for $662.5 million in total fines, including $306 million from road-safety cameras, in 2012-13....
Global financial collapse – what’s happening to us?
Bryan Kavanagh blogs at thedepression.org.au His latest tirade nails rentiers and land speculators. Many attempts to analyse the cause of the GFC contain more than a grain of truth. The vast majority, however, provide no useful hint to a remedy. As the process is...
Land price too high
From the Canberra Times 5 April 2012. Your article “Capital’s housing prices highest in the country” (April 3, p1) was missing one very important word – land. As we move toward Canberra’s centenary celebrations it is time to reflect on the great wedge that is driving...
How government policy provides rich pickings for Australia’s billionaires
Philip Soos' latest withering attack on privilege from The Conversation today. Over the last year or so, the Occupy movement has garnered wide attention, with people of all backgrounds gathering to protest the deteriorating social conditions. However, these grievances...
Taxi! Tax Me!
Citizens retreat confused when talk turns to Economic Rents. The taxi industry is an excellent example of how assets granted by government create economic rents – at the expense of the wider community. There are 5181 taxi licences in Victoria, of which the Department...
Change or suffer
Australian land prices are falling. They will continue to fall until their fundamental economic link to incomes and rents are fully restored. Many with large mortgages will be crushed by these towering liabilities when their equity is erased. This claim is bitterly...
“No Visible Means of Support”
photo credit: DrWurmA term employed in Vagrancy statutes to test whether an individual has any apparent ability to provide for himself or herself financially. The Law frowns upon people who make their living outside formal employment. Yet it bows deep before land and...
No Reform – Paradise Postponed
photo credit: Steve - wants a job at Chester ZooMELBOURNE and CANBERRA:- Australians had high hopes the Tax Forum would herald the end of taxes that distort and diminish economic activity as Ken Henry recommended. Sadly, these hopes have been dashed, says Prosper...