Political Economy, Academic Progress, Rabbit Health

[tcpip]

Dove-tailing with the Henry Review Prosper Australia have a petition calling for a review of costs of home ownership and the role of land prices (which the Henry Review was quite smart about. I have written an article on such matters entitled The Spectre of Henry, and have started a group called Land and Labor in support of the Henry Review. I am of the opinion that this is the most significant social justice reform that has been raised for decades, but alas, discussions public finance is typically a cure for insomnia.

On a related issue I received assignment results back from my two MBA courses for this semester; an 80% grade for Economic Decision Making, where I wrote on the implementation of an emissions trading scheme and subsidies for the electricity generating industry (where I suggested that they be treated like the tabacco industry) and 92% for Business Law, which was analysis of a recent Service Level Agreement. The former grade was docked a few percent because I forgot to include proper citations for two graphs - although in the process of tidying this up I did get in contact with one of the authors who seems to be a delightful chap.

One of our rabbits, Astaroth, has stopped eating which is a particular problem for a grazing animal. A visit to the local vet has diagnosed a sore tooth and has provided the usual medicines (anti-inflammatory and anti-biotic) for such a problem. At the moment we're feeding him baby food via a syringe, which he is hardly thrilled about. If he is not eating of his own accord by Monday it'll be off to the vet to get a tooth extracted. Presumably in the wild a toothache is a death sentence for a rabbit.

Comments

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Royalties are state-based legislation, so the Feds can't legislate them out of existence. They can, however, allow companies to claim royalties as a tax deduction until the states get rid of them.

One of the things that the Henry Review pointed out is that most of the regressive and inefficient taxes are state based - payroll tax, property transfer taxes, stamp duties on vehicles, fuel and rego charges etc.

[kremmen.livejournal.com]

It seems overly optimistic to suggest the states will ever get rid of them. If royalties become tax deductable, surely that's just an incentive for the states to raise them and claw back some extra revenue from the federal government by a back door.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Nah, the Feds will stare them down on that one. The States depend on at least 50% of their revenue from Federal grants (although that includes GST) and they know it.