Thursday 28th of March 2024

playing with retirees' mind at a numbers guessing game...

heavy lifting

The MMMM is full of speculation about the age of pension which if I had it my way should be 60 or under (say 55) and give the young people a go at mucking things up.

 

But I believe that the "hints" by non-treasurable Hockey about raising the age of the pension is a "Howardism". That is to say "our" Joe (not mine but I can go along with him being yours) is letting be known that the age of pension shall be raised, possibly up to 70 years of decrepitude, though I believe he will compromise half way at 68 "to be fair"... That's the not-so-cunning way, Howard used to push the envelope: make outrageous possibilities and cutting the stench by half "to be fair"... Still crap but only half-crap.

 

Of course when politicians retire, way before reaching the age of pension, they are entitled to a pension that is way above market rates... Hey, they're the ones making the rules. One for them and one for us.


Anyway I am too old a dog to be eligible for anything pension without them robbing me (ah ah!)...

capitalism does not work in the hands of conservatives...

As Joe complains that the G19 nations (G20 minus Australia) aren't doing enough of the heavy lifting, it has been obvious for years that capitalism does not work too well. All it does is create new ways to syphon pennies from the poor into the pockets of the rich. As there aren't enough pennies, the rich also invent new games in which they can rob each other as well: money market, stock market, exchange rates, derivatives, CDS, bingo — no, that last one is for oldies in retirement villages after the government, ruled by CONservatives, has played its last card and robbed them as well. 

Capitalism in the hands of CONservatives is the pits of strangulation (mixed metaphor of doom). When a moderate socialist or a "Labor" government runs the circus (usually, some clever conservative cuts a few strings to sabotage the puppet show), at least there are "rules and regulations" (that the CONservatives call red tape) to limit the field of thieving platforms. 

Of course the MMMM (mediocre mass media de mierda) hates anything that limits the way shonks can operate, though from time to time the MMMM will point out to shonks (especially of they are lurking disguised as union officials). Liberal shonks are victims or a limiting system. Labor shonks are despicable. 

Read http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/12/capitalism-isnt-working-thomas-piketty...

In this article explaining why capitalism does not work, Piketty carries on supporting capitalism with some mega surgery... Useless and massively painful... with a possible revolution coming from the wrong end of town... Hey, the rich are the one or two per cent who control the armies, the police and the NSAs of this world!... We, the proletariat (long dead really in advanced economies but we've turned into whinging shop keepers, bean counters and officious public servants) don't stand a chance. Some of us would be fodder, like asylum seekers being treated like shit, as "example" to prospective clients, on Manus Island... Very much in line with my education where the "teachers" (sociopaths) used to punish anything that moved till all stood still. Cotton-wool-ed "be-creative" kids of today's are too soft... Blame capitalism.

age limit...

pension a

Apparently, the average age for a male Australian Aborigine is around 69.1 compared to 79.7+ for white Aussie male... Women fare a tad better: Aboriginal women average life expectancy is 72.9 while the average age for a white Aussie female is 84.2... 

So Joe's rumbling about the cost of us, we oldies, is only fiddling on the edges of accountancy because by age 65, most people who have worked really HARD (unlike bankers — these could die earlier because of derivative stress) are knackered... They either go on the pension or a disability allowance because of their bad knees. 

But Joe may want you to go shuffling around the block only when you cannot shuffle anymore.

Anyway, I think Joe threw the idea of heavy-lifting the retirement age in the ring, just to see how the oldies were going to react. If Joe has not been punched in the gonads yet, it's because the oldies are a bit too weak, or too polite, for the reach...

 

Original dialogue for the drawing above:

OUTRAGED MAGESTY

NEW CHUM:

"Hi, John, is this the right way to Toowambie?"

KING WILLIAM:

"Who you call um John, take me for a damn 

Chinaman? Go to the debbil."

Thomas Carrington MELBOURNE PUNCH 1875

hitting the poorest with a stick...

...

Even now the age that you can access your superannuation (the preservation age) is well below the pension age. Those born after 1964 will be able to access their superannuation at 60 years old - seven years before they will become eligible for the pension. And of course those who can afford to retire only on their superannuation are inherently wealthier than those who need the pension.

But rather than raise the preservation age to that of the pension age, the current system attempts to keep those people in the workforce by providing significant tax benefits for those over the age of 60.

All up, tax concessions for superannuation see the government foregoing around $27.6bn in revenue. To put that in context, the government spent $54.8bn on the aged pension this financial year.

Yes, there is a case for tightening some pension eligibility rules for those with low income but high wealth, but changes to the pension indexation and increasing the age eligibility will save money by mostly hitting the poorest.

Hockey has been talking big about everyone sharing the burden. But he also only talks of expenditure cuts, not revenue increases. He says he wants a discussion about the pension; he also needs to talk about superannuation. He talks about expenditure; he also needs to talk about revenue.

And while he's at it he might also talk about why he thinks Australia is in an age of entitlement, when it plainly is not.

Greg Jericho writes weekly for The Drum. He tweets at @GrogsGamut. View his full profile here.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-04-16/jericho-hardly-the-land-where-entitlement-runs-riot/5391558

meanwhile, while the Abbott regime is tightening your belt...

 

The Federal Government has given the go-ahead for the next batch of Joint Strike Fighters (JSF) at a cost of more than $12 billion.

The Government will today announce, as expected, it has approved the acquisition of another 58 F-35 aircraft, bringing the total number purchased to 72.

The Government says it will also consider the option of buying another squadron of the jets to eventually replace the F/A-18 Super Hornets.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott says the JSF is the most advanced fighter in production anywhere in the world and will make a vital contribution to Australia's national security.

"Together with the Super Hornet and Growler electronic warfare aircraft, the F-35 aircraft will ensure Australia maintains a regional air combat edge," he said.

"The F-35 will provide a major boost to the ADF's intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities.

"The acquisition of F-35 aircraft will bring significant economic benefits to Australia, including regional areas and local defence industry."

The first Joint Strike Fighters will arrive in Australia in 2018 and enter service in 2020.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-04-23/australia-to-buy-58-more-joint-strike-fighters/5405236

 

 

Another six years before the first of this presently "not yet-good enough" but "by-then outdated" technology can fly in aussie skies... We're paying the instalments in advance because we've got enemies to defeat in 2023 of course. 

Pensions can take a dive, a bomb or a hike. see toon at top.


And by the way, have you noticed these days that most of the MMMM (mediocre mass media de mierda) refers to "the Government" while in the past the MMMM was referring mockingly to the Rudd government or the Gillard government. Now, with Tonicchio in charge it's "the Government" as if to give it more legitimacy... Am I picky?

the next time you vote for him, kick yourself in the arse...

Prime Minister Tony Abbott says he will make it tougher for new retirees to qualify for the age pension after the next election and has given his strongest signal yet that he will target Medicare in his first budget.

Mr Abbott delivered a speech to the Sydney Institute tonight calling on Australians to put the country first on budget night, instead of focussing on individual gains or losses.

He says he will stick to his pre-election promise of not cutting the age pension and says any increase of the retirement age to 70 will occur in the long term and not in the next five years.

But he says long-term reform of the age pension is "essential and unavoidable".

"I want to assure vulnerable people that the age pension won't be less tomorrow than it is today, and that people turning 65 tomorrow are certainly not going to have to wait five years to retire," he said.

"To keep our commitments, there will be no changes to the pension during this term of parliament but there should be changes to indexation arrangements and eligibility thresholds for the long term."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-04-28/abbott-budget-deficit-age-pension-reform-unavoidable/5416470

---------------------------------

Yes, you the oldie bastards, Tony does not (or is it a ruse till budget day?) want to kick you in the gonads yet... He's preparing the ground for you to do it to yourself at the next elections... Meanwhile if you are sick it will will be tough titties... Some promises, like the pension he may not want to break yet (I want to assure that the age pension blah blah blah), because Tony possibly knows from talking to Alan Jones that grey power can really kick a stink if the oldies are bashed up, especially in the wallet... Thus, folks, Tony is already cleverly preparing the ground for you to kick yourself in the arse at the next elections and "inevitably" feel good about it, by voting for him...

Tony is a cunning idiot. Should you vote for him, you're a bloody idiot.

the old dicks versus the young guns...

 

Like previous long-term forecasts, the report will predict that the proportion of working Australians will decline as the nation's population ages.

By 2054-2055, the workforce participation rate is expected to be 2.2 per cent lower than today at 62.4 per cent.

While the report will state "it is fantastic Australians are living longer, healthier lives" it warns there is a risk to GDP and income growth unless the Government can grapple with these demographic changes.

don't bother reading more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-05/intergenerational-report-to-be-released/6281598

 

 

It's all class... You're old and you've been put to pasture on the lean and parched paddock, in the last retrenchments — public or commercial. You'd like to do more but they tell you, you are too old... They also shift the goal post. You though you'd retire at 65, now it will be 70.

In the meantime, the turdy toady government with big "I am not an economist" Joe at the helm of the finances, made sure there was LESS employment than under Labor. About 25 unemployed per job offer... As an old codger, the government does not want you to go on the pension just yet and still wants you to apply to 30 jobs a month... Most of the jobs, if you're lucky will be about 500 miles from where you have your family home and by the time you inquire about it, the vacancy has been filled up by a young 25 year-old kid who's got no idea about the work but is eager to learn what you know already for far less bucks than you did proportionally when you were doing the same as a young gun. They are desperate. Those who are always ending on the sideline are deemed "bludgers", because we are told by the merde-och press that there are plenty of shit jobs out there and no-one wants to do them... like picking fruit in the Riverina at less than the minimum wage which in the the merde-och press editorials is always shown as a luxury this country cannot afford... You should become dependant of loan sharks and the fruit you pick will often end up rotting, because importers prefer the price of orange concentrate from Brazil where workers get kick up the butt in terms of payment...

Your prospects have shrunk to barely become a lollypop man at road construction sites but as you may have noticed, the employers prefer young blond sheilas who make waiting at the STOP sign more delightful for testosteroned male drivers... Alternatively you could become a garbage picker off the streets and parks... Plenty of fresh air but, even after having hidden your bad back and your wonky knees from the prospective employer, the job is taken by a 50 year old with one leg who is prepared to work for peanuts... as long as he is given a mobile phone to call his buddies, between picking two greasy pieces of paper... Mind you the mobile phone would not be good for you because a) your fingers are too big for the touch pad and b) your hearing loss is critical.

So you apply for the dole. At over sixty, having worked all your life and paid huge amount of taxes, the questionaire to fill up is frightening. It shows you have no prospect to find a job, no matter how ridiculous your desperation is and getting the dole his harder for you than for an elephant to jump through circus hoops...

Welcome "Breaking Bad"...

But that's were the government is hoping for you to become a "volunteer"... There are plenty of organisations where you will be welcome and find a family of old kooks like you who are doing mot much for no pay but get a title of responsibility that should you muck it up, you might end up in prison for. 

By 2055, global warming will have kicked in its second phase of unpredictability with a massive trend to warming up. But you don't really care... By then you will be a worm farm six feet under ground or ashes in an urn until your descendants finally agree on the terms of your will... Welcome to the university of the third age where you can learn many new things of course, all useless for the society to function, but it will delay the onset of inevitable Alzheimer's. 

 

Read from top... and relax...