Politics is a dirty word

All the talk about debt and deficit in the Australian economy and the Government's rationale for cutting back pension entitlements and health services ignores the fact that successive Australian Governments have collected taxation revenues totalling trillions of dollars in the past 25 years. Income taxes paid over a lifetime in the workforce were supposed to ensure ongoing services, including education, good healthcare and a dignified retirement for those who contributed. Revenue from mining taxes and royalties added to the funding base for Australia's future. So what have the politicians and bureaucrats done with all that money? Why is the community now told that we have to endure cutbacks when our politicians and senior bureaucrats live the high life on money plundered from the system.

Australia's Treasurer, Scott Morrison seems determined to ignore economic reality. He spruiks about this country's "25 years of growth" as if he can keep it going for another 25 years. Economic cycles dictate that growth cannot be exponential. Periods of strong growth are inevitably followed by collapse or recession. History demonstrates that. Governments can prop up growth by stamping around the world in an endless cycle of war, providing a short term stimulus by spending on armaments. The Roman empire couldn't keep going, neither will the US or Australia.