I don’t know what Hockey actually said, but if he really said, as reported here, that reducing tax for superannuants with incomes over $100,000 would create jobs, our treasurer is wrong.

Self-funded retirees do save taxpayers money, but they are still richer pensioners – richer than tax-payer funded pensioners. And, even though they have more money, the richer ones usually don’t throw it about. Some of them might invest in areas that employ people – areas in which workers will end up end up being rich pensioners themselves; finance, stock markets etc. But in general rich retirees do little for wage-slaves.

But, I have only the author’s word for what Hockey said.

This statement, however, is the authors: “After all, it is traditionally the Labor Party, and the Left more generally, that has aimed to lessen the gap between rich and poor.”

Is he serious! That might have been right in Ben Chifley’s day, but it’s a “tradition” that died out long ago. All politicians are in it for themselves; they all retire much better of the rest of us, and much better off than when they were first elected. The political class is a career minded class; it does very little about equality for anyone. Socialists retire just as rich as ‘conservatives’ without having done very much about anything.

Still, statistics show that there is NOT a “growing gap” between rich and poor; there will always be a gap, but it is the rich who supply most of the ‘poor’ with their jobs, and most of the retirees with their pensions. The rich who do the supplying are still ACTIVE EMPLOYERS.

And this is why the irrational hatred and envy of the rich is just plain stupid.

Democracy does not rely on “economic equality”; there is no such thing anywhere in the world as “economic equality”.

Democracy is at risk in Australia. But it is not caused by the rich or inequality. It is at risk from relatively well-off voters who tolerate incompetent politicians with totalitarian tendencies,

The first two paragraphs say it all. Right wing conservatives have always instinctively practiced 'Thatcherism' in economic matters - ie allowing the trickle down effect to service those unfortunates on the bottom of the economic pile, and practicing 'economic rationalism' to varying degrees of severity but which always involves job losses. Too often the trickle down effect becomes a sideways flood.
Joe Hockey is right on target to become a Howard/Thatcher acolyte in his forecast economic reforms - he is also on target to be the worst treasurer of the worst Australian federal government ever.

Is this John Wright being paid with our tax dollars ? If so, I want my money back !