TomB wrote:Firstly, just answer the question.
It was a silly question in the first place. Secondly, you have already conceded that it served as more of an analogy and as such is nothing more than the fallacy of begging the question.
Secondly, the resource they generate huge profits from belongs to all Australians and the people who actually get it out of the ground have to pay more tax doing so than the company which employs them.
Focusing in on Western Australia only, how much tax should the mining industry pay over and above the
$1.6 billion in royalties paid in 2009, for example?
Or maybe, if it is equality you seek, not only are you suggesting that the mining industry should pay taxes on profits over and above royalties, but also that workers should pay royalties for the right to work in that mining industry? (A rhetorical question aimed at showing the absurdity of your question begging analogy.)
As it stands we have had to go on a massive spending spree just to avert a recession caused by guess who .... 'corporations'.
I take it, you have not heard of the govt. bond bubble gripping the world as the second wave of this Global Credit Crunch kicks in.
The Liberals gave them so much power during their tenure that it may well be impossible to reign them in.
That is too one eye'd for my tastes. As a swinging voter, I have no allegiance and so see quite clearly that there is no 'Labor' or 'Liberal' parties... merely conservative, centralist, populist, governments who move to the will of multinational corporates and the US... with a smattering of local governance... although with labor's drive to centralize, even that local flavor is in doubt.
A dead rose, by any other name, would smell just as foul.