WE'RE too lucky as a country. We keep reminding ourselves that we are not a basket case like Greece or some other Western countries but our mode of thinking will take us there.
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Poor Treasurer Joe Hockey can't take a trick. Micro media scrutiny of him has been handsomely helped in portraying him as an aloof elitist, by his stupid behaviour with cigars and soothing words of arrogance, like his fuel excise flippancy about financially poor commuters.
Someone on Twitter even castigated Smokin' Joe for drawing on his travel allowance to to help pay off a Canberra residence, partly owned by his wife.
This is a legitimate expense incurred by federal politicians from all sides, but not while you're a treasurer, busy belting battlers?
The trouble with Joe is, that while the budget task was laudable it was unfairly applied.
We missed the fact that those in the top 25 per cent tax bracket pay two thirds of income tax and 45 per cent of Australians pay no tax at all, but to establish a social and fiscal beach head with voters the budget had to hit people according to their means. It was way off the mark.
Finance experts will tell you that our debt level is low by world standards.
Welfare expenditure has fallen by more than $200 per head of population since 2008-09.
We're ranked 27th in the world in terms of welfare spending, which is less than the OECD average. So what's the fuss?
The fuss is that unless we contain costs like the soaring welfare budget we'll end up like Greece.
It is mindless, sandpit thinking, to compare our spending with other countries and conclude that we're alright Jack.
You can't rely on the mining or China boom forever.
Being better off than Thailand or Brazil is not going to put bread on our table.
The Howard government joined other governments in expediently throwing truckloads of cash at battlers and welfare recipients.
When the GST was introduced in 2000 the boom times sent tax receipts through the roof and the government was rolling in money.
So, they gave it all back as a vote winner and since then voters have been rolling in tax cuts. It comes as no surprise to discover that the Santa Claus mentality has an end game.
The welfare bill alone rose by almost 80 per cent to $146 billion in the decade to this financial year. By 2017-18 it is scheduled to reach almost $170 billion. That's phenomenal growth.
One in five Australians are direct beneficiaries of income support, excluding child support and family tax payments.
Most Australians understand that it is unsustainable to expect a shrinking taxpayer base to prop up prolific expenditure.
It's just that most Australians disagree with the government on how to fix it.
When Reserve Bank board member and business woman Heather Ridout jumps ship and describes the Hockey budget as unfair you know you've got a major problem.
The trouble now is, the government is in retreat.
Ministers are so spooked by the backlash against its clumsy, cruel budget and incompetent sales job, that the best opportunity in years to contain unsustainable spending will be sacrificed for the sake of electoral survival.
Yep! The age of entitlement is well and truly here to stay.