Viv Forbes,Common Sense, September (1985) p 7.
Incidentally we have a few misguided people around who believe that if only we could soak the rich all would be well for the rest of us.
Let us define as rich, anyone with a taxable income of over $40,000 per year. According to the latest statistics produced by the Tax Commissioner there are above 88,519 individuals in Australia with taxable incomes about and over $40,000 per year. The chief taxer already takes an average of 42% of their income. If he took the lot, the additional taxes gathered would keep the entire bureaucracy going for just 8 working days.
Incredible though it sounds, Australian governments are currently spending at the rate of $364 million per working day. Soaking the rich is not an option. The bulk of the taxes must be paid, as they always were paid, by the bulk of the people. (The poor pay for modern welfare and the middle class and rich benefit.)
There are about 4 million families in Australia. With governments now consuming $90,000 million per year, every family is liable for a bill of $22,500 per year. To meet these liabilities, governments are robbing the savings of the past generation with continuous inflation, bleeding the earnings of the current generation with excessive taxation, and saddling the future generation with crippling debt.