LEGO, of course my comments aren't beyond reproach. If you can spot any actual errors then by all means tell me. But don't assume the rorting of thirty years ago still exists; those days are long gone and the loopholes just aren't there any more. And don't post lies like "Most of our ever increasing welfare bill is aimed at buying the votes of this demographic, and the Labor Party in particular is foremost in purchasing their votes through increasing welfare". That's prejudice. Have a look at http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-09/interactive-budget-2013-where-will-your-tax-go/4682404 to see the reality of where the money is spent.

What you think you know about me is wrong. I don't think money can solve every social problem on earth, but I do think that it can cure or prevent a lot of the social problems in Australia. I don't think money falls from the sky, but nor do I make the false assumptions about its creation that you do. And nor do I think that every boat person is a victim of persecution. But most are and I make no apologies for thinking Australia should NEVER become the persecutors.

And Monis was not the result of my "muddle headed way of thinking" any more than yours.

To Aiden

I take exception to your premise that my opinions are "prejudice" and yours are not. Your opinion, is that all you have to do to end poverty is to keep on increasing taxes on "the rich". That is your prejudice. The Laffer Curve is easy to understand and it proves that you are wrong. I know this is a shock for you. You just do not want to think that the flow of money from governments to your pet causes can ever stop flowing.

You are correct to say that the more outrageous welfare fraud from thirty years ago are not tolerated today. What you fail to acknowledge is that when these frauds were being perpetrated in the past on the Australian taxpayer, people with your mindset at that time were claiming that they did not exist. I can still remember one Labor Party luminaire ( I forget which one) who made a public statement in Whitlam's administration that dole bludgers were an invention of the right wing press. That was news to me, I lived in a Housing Commission area and I was surrounded by dole bludgers.

Today, people with that idiotic mindset are represented by people like your good self who simply refuse to acknowledge self evident reality. According to one article in the SMH, the largely Muslim suburb of Auburn has the nations highest proportion of long term unemployment. We are importing people into this country who are little more than a crime problem and a drain on our economies. The figures are startling, 95% unemployment among Afghan "refugees" and 88% unemployment among "Iranians" like your friend Man Haron Monis.

In Europe, 50% of Muslims are unemployed and European countries are facing bankruptcy plus crime and terrorism problems. Why we Australia wants to emulate self evident European failure is something you could please explain to me. The only beneficiaries of these stupid immigration policies are our troublesome and welfare dependent minorities and their Labor Party representatives, plus the legal profession, the social worker profession, our ever expanding prison system, ASIO, and our Police forces.

LEGO, of course you take exception to my claims of prejudice on your part. But when you post blatantly false claims blaming problems on particular groups, what other explanation is there? I have pointed out where you have done this, and of course you're welcome to do likewise you find any similar errors in what I've written.

But what you regard as my prejudice is actually conclusive proof of yours, as it is based on a prejudiced assumption about what my opinion is. For nowhere have I said that "all you have to do to end poverty is to keep on increasing taxes on the rich", and it is not what I believe.

Furthermore, not only does the Laffer Curve not prove me wrong, but it doesn't even prove that someone of the opinion you wrongly ascribe to me is wrong. To do that you'd need to show where we are on the curve. You haven't done that, Laffer hasn't done that, and AFAIK everyone who has done that has found we're a long way to the left of the peak.

If you want to disprove that "all you have to do to end poverty is to keep on increasing taxes on the rich" is wrong then forget the Laffer Curve and look at the actual poverty and what it would take to end it.

Thirty years ago I had never even been to Australia, so I don't know who was claiming what. So please direct your answers at me, not the stereotypical mindset you assume me to represent. Monis was never my friend.

To Aiden.

"Prejudice" quite literally means "to pre judge" and everybody does that. Prejudging without hearing all the impartial evidence may be considered wrong in a legal trial, but not in everyday life where it is impossible to make everyday decisions using unbiased information combined with objective reasoning. It is an everyday occurrence to everyone on planet Earth. Some moron, somewhere, claimed that prejudging in everyday life was wrong, and every person with a small mind who could not think straight began parroting this mantra because they thought it made them appear intelligent.

Human beings think by stereotyping concepts. To say that people should not stereotype because their stereotype could be wrong, is exactly like saying that people should not think because their thinking could be wrong.

Your erroneous prejudgement is to think that the reason we have poor people is because the rich are not paying enough tax to create equal outcomes. It assumes that everybody is equal in intelligence and if we just spend more money, everybody will have near equal lifestyles.

My correct prejudgement is that most poor people are poor because they have low intelligence and usually a genetic predisposition to violence and impulsive behaviour, and that low intelligence, impulsiveness, and a genetic proneness to violence is hereditary. Therefore, importing people into this country from ethnic and religious groups already notorious for their dysfunctional cultures and lifestyles is an exercise in stupidity which no amount of "taxing the rich" is ever going to fix.

The principle of the Laffer Curve is as easy to understand as the story of "The Golden Gosse" and I am sorry if it's self evident logic is beyond you.

You were a friend to Man Haron Monis because he was imported into Australia because of the actions of people with your particular mindset, not by people with my particular mindset who were his enemies. We correctly prejudged him and his country shopping asylum seekers as generally frauds, parasites, people divisive of our social cohesion, and dangerous to boot.

“Yet between Reagan’s election in 1980 and his departure from office in 1989, the federal government’s tax revenues as a share of GDP fell from 19.0% to 18.4%.”

I’m not sure of your point here David. Didn’t the tax, even after taking inflation into account, still actually rise, even if a lower % of the GDP. Isn’t that the whole virtue of Supply Side Economics? The government gets more in exchange for letting the producers make even more.
Are you unhappy because the government, and all its hangers on, don’t get the same “piece of the action” for doing nothing, as they have become accustomed to?

Struth, LEGO, it's taken you just two days to go from taking exception to my identifying your comments as prejudice to openly defending prejudice! But your defence is pretty weak. There's nothing wrong with forming an initial opinion before the facts are known, but there's everything wrong with using that opinion to condemn people. And there's a lot wrong with continuing to spread your erroneous initial opinion once the facts become readily available.

Stereotyping is generally an ineffective way of thinking. Reasoning becomes far more effective when you question your assumptions.

Again you accuse me of having an "erroneous prejudgement" because you assume me to have an opinion that I don't actually have. Where did you get the crazy idea that equality of outcome was my objective?

You claim that your "correct prejudgement is that most poor people are poor because they have low intelligence and usually a genetic predisposition to violence and impulsive behaviour". Where's your proof? Or by "correct" do you actually mean "arrogant"?

Poverty doesn't equate to low intelligence, and IMO a predisposition to violence is more likely to be due to lead exposure than genetics (but I'm willing to consider evidence to the contrary if you have any). As for "dysfunctional cultures and lifestyles", shouldn't people have an opportunity to escape those?

As my posts on this thread have demonstrated, I understand the principle of the Laffer Curve perfectly, but you don't seem to.

Prejudging people is one of the biggest barriers to social cohesion, and it was not needed to stop Monis. His asylum claim was always regarded as dubious and there was ample opportunity to deport him once his bad character became clear.