RE: Why cuts everywhere, regardless of budget, is lunacy
January 17, 2013 at 3:38 am
(This post was last modified: January 17, 2013 at 3:40 am by Aractus.)
Kichi, to begin with, I don't agree with having a government debt. I agree with running deficit budgets sometimes, but not doing what the ALP does. Didn't Swan say to Rudd "You won't believe how much they've left us!" in 2007? Labor thinks money grows on trees.
Next, the federal government in Australia collects something like 23% or so of GDP in taxes. The USA federal government collects about 15% or so. I don't know the exact figures off the top of my head, but it's something like that. The USA is very different to Australia, they have much higher State taxes - and they have to if they want to stay united together as one country. So you may look at their debt-to-GDP, federal (that'd be 16.4 trillion USD) and say "it's only 75%". Well Australia's is about 30%, but the federal government collects much more of the GDP in taxes so you can't compare side-by-side like that. By my calculation we would need a federal debt-to-gdp of 115% to be in "the same position".
Next, the federal government in Australia collects something like 23% or so of GDP in taxes. The USA federal government collects about 15% or so. I don't know the exact figures off the top of my head, but it's something like that. The USA is very different to Australia, they have much higher State taxes - and they have to if they want to stay united together as one country. So you may look at their debt-to-GDP, federal (that'd be 16.4 trillion USD) and say "it's only 75%". Well Australia's is about 30%, but the federal government collects much more of the GDP in taxes so you can't compare side-by-side like that. By my calculation we would need a federal debt-to-gdp of 115% to be in "the same position".
