Correction, marginally veritable should read marginally variable.
Anyone would think I was half blind?
Apologies one and all.
Rhrosty.

This whole essay could have been written WITHOUT the grey tsunami beat up. The issue is about housing, not old people.

Australia does NOT have a grey problem. This is an artificial panic created to get rid of the aged pension and put up the retirement age over the long term. This panic is driven by ideology not reality. The costs incurred by the economy in the first 20 years of life are infinitely greater by several times over than costs incurred in the last 20 years of life. Not only that, the life-savings of older people are the main contributors to the share, bond and currency markets - which fuel our global capitalist economy. Even those on the pension still have at least a six-figure nest egg that is fuelling the economy in one way or another.

And also, who is doing most of that voluntary unpaid labour that is worth about 60% of our Gross Domestic Output .... hmmmm?

However, everything the author says about the housing market is absolutely correct. Australia's housing market is the most overinflated in the entire world. Value for value, house prices in the rest of the developed world are about one half to one third the price of Australian houses (except for some major world cities). This means that increasing numbers of younger people are unable to afford to buy their own home.

However, even more significantly, those who do manage to buy into the market are facing high mortgage stress and will almost certainly sink into negative equity should the market correct itself or if the government were to introduce reforms to force prices down (e.g. getting rid of the first home owner's grant and negative equity and/or tighten up controls on easy credit).

Devil and the deep blue sea. But, hey, just blame it all on those selfish baby boomers.

Rhrosty

Can you explain the actual mechanics of the tax system you are describing? That is, explain how it actually works, rather than argue its benefits, which you've already done.

Also, are there any countries that use such a tax system? If so, how successful has it been?

Once again David G you are correct , a very wise and interesting person.

"still working on a pre-industrial model of employment"

And a human-labour economic model, while more and more work becomes mechanised and computerised.
At some point in the future, *no* "work" will be done by humans.
We need to prepare for that inevitablity now.

My suggestions:

Stop most immigration: reduces housing demand/prices, decreases unemployment/welfare numbers.

Simplify tax (single tax on transactions, no exemptions), prohibit offshoring of domestic income. A higher rate (double?) for foreign transactions encourages domestic economy without needing specific tariffs.

Abolish the notion of a "retirement age". People are simply employed or not employed. People not employed who own $1 million assets not entitled to welfare.

Superannuation not available based on age, but on financial need. Again no $1 million dollar home owners.

Eliminate public funding of all but the most essential needs, reducing the need to tax in the first place.

No more fluff. No more grants/awards for The Every Artistic Man and his Dog Festival, the Every Disadvantaged Man and his Dog Service and the Every Minority Man and his Dog Community Group.