I do not gamble, Mr. Compton.

I am doing my best to save the money that I get from hard work for my old age, so that I can survive for as long as my body remains without taking a cent from the state - or otherwise let my body drop once I no longer have my own money to sustain it.

But it is already an uphill battle due to taxes.

Now you want to take even more from me and give it away to gamblers. How nice of you, Mr. Compton.

Yuyustu, I had a good very well paid job, with gold standard super. Only to see it torn away with my marriage and family by cruel fate and a freak accident.

And in sad but true all too common occurrence, husband comes down with debilitating injury or illness and wife finds solace in the arms of another.

That said, we do need a plan that resets our use of finite resources, some of the finest of which are just physically disabled humans with still agile minds; or just old and like an aging Everald, who has become perilously pedantic with his list of must do's that as always, (like the greens) is bereft of how to erstwhile pragmatism?

Simply put Everald, if one would carve out bigger slices for all? One needs a much bigger pie!

And you don't get it by feeding the birds with over half the ingredients, or keeping them in the cupboard instead of adding them to the pie.

Every western style economy rests on, or indeed lives or dies supported by just two economic pillars, energy and capital! Both of which have been gifted to private entities who like a blind Samson are pulling furiously at them in some mindless attempt to improve personal situations.

Our notion of tax reform is to rob Peter to pay Paul or make the less well off pay more and more, as the multinationals; and a range of diabolically disingenuous nationals find ingenious ways to pay less and less.

A much smaller near neighbor, Singapore started with a tiny cupcake of an economy and grew it into one which is now large enough to contribute large slices of it to us! The major difference is a government in the business of getting into business!

As for energy, we've just sold the farm and now pay through the neck for energy dependant manufacture and household amenity, with as you'd logically expect, a consequent and equal reduction in discretionary spending so critical to a healthy and debt free domestic economy.
To be continued.
Alan B.

Maybe we need to go back to yesteryear before the public had been so dumbed down to realise that you can't burden future generations with debt and destroy the natural family without diastrous social consequences. Emerald shows that you can be dumbed down even as you age. To long on the public purse often results in rehashed failed ideology. Maybe we could pay public servants $3 per hour like Richard has. Would be plenty for pensions then.

Continued: It's nigh on impossible to fix anything when you're ideologically and implacably opposed to the solutions!?

The first of which is to wrest back the pillars that support your economy from the blind (private interests Samsons who manipulate and price gouge the hell out of it along with virtually every cash cow essential service they can con governments out of? Usually at fire sale prices!?

All we need to add to publicly supplied amenity is actual competition for survival; to more than undo the claim that private enterprise does it better, which generally speaking, is only ever true of (still private enterprise) cooperatives!

And following that retrieval and or legislated reversal, remove residential real estate as an investment vehicle for the clinically lazy investor!

Investing needs to retain an element of real risk if it is to work at actually growing the economy!

After energy and essential cash cow service are returned to the not for profit public sector, (essential to grow the pie) we need real not clayton's tax reform.

Real tax reform would improve the lot of everyone except the avoiders, who will resist to the last drop of our economic lifeblood!

It should be a flat rate universally applied unavoidable, [without exception or exclusion,] stand alone expenditure tax, that given the inherent no frills simplicity, is the only way to actually and fairly reduce real business costs. And consequently grow the pie!

Moreover as avoiders are forced to carry an equal and fair share of the load; those paying all our tax will see it seriously reduced, all while increased revenue flow eliminates the structural deficit and actually grows a substantial surplus.

Tiny adjustments in a small universal stand alone, unavoidable tax rate, all that's needed to simultaneously, combat inflation or stagnation?

Impossible? Only as long as some seriously resisting pollies personally benefit from the current status quo?
Alan B.

As the author is positioning this article in the runup to the 2 July Election oldies need to keep politicians guessing, for once.

If oldish people of 70+ want to be taken notice of they should stop being a fairly predictable conservative voting bloc - who vote for Turnbull's Coalition.

If, like residents of Adelaide, the aged were swinging voters, the Coalition and ALP would be forced to bid for their votes - offering larger pensions and other goodies.

The only thing for sure is for chnage to occur, you need to chnage. There is nothing but more of the same with the ALP and LN. I switched two elections ago from Independents to The Greens. We have to start somewhere, LNP/ALP last on the ballot paper is a start.

Quote '...there is little to be gained by being an armchair critic'

Say what??!! Lol