Harden up working families!

I’m really starting to get sick of the fucking “woe is me” attitude of people who want the government to hold their dick throughout their existence at the urinal of life.

A story in The Age today looked at the magic $150,000 mark which the government nominated as the cut off point for the baby bonus means test and Family Tax Benefit B.

For a start no one is claiming that families on a combined of $150,000 (which is 2 1/2 tims the average salary) are rich, however they are not exactly doing it tough and should be able to go through life, have children and educate them without hand outs from the government.

The Age story looks at the Scibberas Family of Mill Park who bring home $150,000 and “certainly aren’t doing it tough”.

However Mrs Scibberas says the cap should be lifted to $200,000 and complained that her only gain at this week’s Budget was through the tax cuts - what did she want, a fucking yacht?

Mrs Schibberas says, “There doesn’t seem to be any reward for people who have put the hard effort in.”

What reward? Why? Working hard and earning good money to send your kids to good schools and provide a comfortable lifestyle for your family is reward enough. It’s no one’s fault but yours if you’re living beyond your more than reasonable means.

It’s the people who have to decide between paying for their kid’s school camp or the weekly shopping who should be getting all the money we can give them. 

I find it ironic that it was a conservative government, hell bent on keeping its filthy grip on power, that has turned middle-class Australians into welfare whores, who think they are the first generation to have children, buy a house and make a better life for themselves and therefore need all the help they can get.

While I hate the phrase “working families” it’s nowhere as damaging to this country as the term “Howard’s battlers” which has made a generation of well-off middle class people actually believe that battling meant not having a new car or sending your kid to a private school.

Instead of obsessing with the selfishness of people on very good incomes why doesn’t The Age visit a family trying to survive on or below the average wage to put things into perspective.

Harden up you whingeing fucks!

Note: I’ve never been on the dole even when out of work; I gave up Auststudy in favour of working part time (because it was shit) and I managed to change careers, pay off HECS, have two children and build a new home (we’re talking in the past eight years) without the benefit of a fucking baby bonus or first-homebuyers grant, on a fraction of what I earn now - which by the way, when added to Mrs Wah’s income is still well shy of $150,000.

Do I want a medal? No, which is my fucking point.

Rudd pwnes whingeing pensioner

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was on 3AW’s Neil Mitchell this morning spruiking the Budget and took a call from an old lady with the usual “woe is me” tail about paying taxes since 1879, fighting in several world wars and looking after her husband suffering from 16 terminal illnesses, a stroke and a very irritating itch under the shoulder blade that he can’t reach.

When she said “there is nothing in this Budget for “us pensioners” Rudd politely reminded her of measures including a senior’s bonus of $500, an increase in the utilities allowance from $107 to $500 per year and rise in the phone allowance from $88 to $132 per year.

Insisting that she was still getting fuck all Whingeing Mavis threw in the “we’re not all married to millionaire business women” comment, to which Rudd politely repeated what she was getting again.

Pwned you old bitch!

It’s a shame Rudd didn’t do a Hawkey and call you (to paraphrase) “a whingeing old bitch”.  Even Mitchell, the champion of the grumpy and wrinkly, sided with Rudd.

Note - Club Wah’s mummy is a senior pensioner who lives on her own and while doing it tough doesn’t carry on like the world owes her a favour.

Fuck the so-called rich

Why is there more discussion and even angst over families earning more than $150,000 missing out on the baby bonus than there is about carers missing out on decent weekly payments again?

And how many people pissed off at the apparent “Robin Hood” Budget actually earn less than the numbers, and refuse to deny that like most of us they are working class scum?

The fact is while the government will save billions the well-off people these Budget measures will affect will be relatively minimal.

I love how some people on larger incomes in the dreaded comments section of the Herald Sun are complaining that their incomes of $180,000 barely pay for the mortgage and household expenses. What they don’t tell you is how big their mortgage is - I’m sorry but if you borrow $600,000 when you could have borrowed $450,000 that’s not the government’s problem.

And (sorry for all the questions) how many of the Rudd haters crying foul at cuts in benefits for the well off, the first to whinge about THEIR tax payer dollars paying for mythical compensation to Aborigines and foreign aid?

Finally no one is a calling people who earn $150,000 rich - apart from sub editors who have limited space for headlines. But you can’t deny that you’re beyond a point where the government should be giving hand outs. Unfortunately the ill-directed tax bribes that the Howard Government turned into the very people who espouse capitalism and decry the welfare state, into welfare whores themselves.

I say fuck ‘em!

Everywhere is feeling the pinch

Here is an edited excerpt from a newspaper article about rising petrol prices and household expenses. It says nothing new but is interesting for reasons outlined below.

Tough times ahead
The increase in the retail price of petrol will result in a “period of anguish” for households, an economist said on Wednesday.
Absa economist Chris Hart said the increase would cause food prices to rise and lead to fuel inflation. Hart said the country was expecting a hike in electricity prices as well as an increase in the rate of taxes in the coming months.
“We will see a period of anguish. A significant number of households will lose their houses and cars because of the pressure of the high prices,” Hart said.
Household income would not keep up with the pricing pressure.
The Chemical, Pulp and Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers Union (Ceppwawu) said the effect of the petrol increase on food prices was enormous.
“Although the department of minerals and energy say they do not have control of petrol prices, we are not happy with this increase and would like to discuss the repercussions with them and other government departments,” spokesperson Keith Jacobs.
Economist Mike Schussler said there was a possibility of a high interest rate hike next month.
He said the petrol increase could lead to the Reserve Bank Governor calling for an emergency monetary policy committee meeting.
A Reserve Bank spokesperson declined to comment.
“We do not comment on petrol prices,” she said.
She would not be drawn to comment on the effect it would have on interest rates.

While it’s a familiar story, what’s interesting about is it’s from the South African Star newspaper which shows that fuel price increases, high inflation, rising interest rates are not specific to Australia - the only difference with this story as opposed to one that would appear in an Australian newspaper is the ommission of the words “working families”.

What this shows is that pinning hopes on the Rudd Government’s first Budget to contain things is naive to say the least. Regardless of what we were told during the election campaign it’s global forces that influence our economy not the government fiscal policy. All the government can do is avoid the moving obstacles rather than steer us through them.

P.S. It’s worth noting that in South Africa, inflation is running at higher than 10 per cent. In Australia it is 4.1 per cent.