Let's start with working for the dole instead of having foreign workers picking fruit, with the latest threat to allow them to stay here. Get the local bludgers off their arses - "many of whom would welcome the opportunity to earn extra money". Like hell they would! They need to be made to do it.

Rather than getting rid of federal/state duplication, get rid of the states altogether. The China virus should have shown everyone what a burden the states are on the economy and freedom. And a big yes to privatising education.

But now, thanks to what is supposed to be a 'right of centre ' government, we are pretty much a welfare state, past the point of any chance of getting our act together.

An IPA investigation has shown that the lower end of the job market has been wiped out by draconian lock downs, while the people with the best jobs and biggest share of the economic pie have seen opportunities increase by 200,000. Lower income workers are paying the price for government incompetence and lockdown panic.

Nobody could seriously think that our current crop of politicians - irrespective of brand - are capable of getting us out of the mess that they alone have caused.

Why not suggest politicians and media insult China even more so as to reduce more of our exports?

A big wake up is needed.
There is evidence the so named covid strain of coronavirus was in other countries prior to December 2019 in Wuhan.
Blaming China is an insult that was part of Trumps US trade war.

Due respect for China could help get Australias budget back in order?

Why doesn't David Lyonhjelm recommend curbing the insanely immoral salaries of senior Public Servants ?
These people are just so out of touch that I wonder if it ever enters their mind what could happen if they keep going like that ?
Surely they're not that insipid, are they ?
Bringing the Budget back in order entails stopping rorts & re-introduce accountability !
Would he actually know what that means ?

They will have to start bringing in millions of cashed up Chinese migrants to get the budget back in surplus.

I'm sure the CCP will oblige them. A Chinese Australia is just what the CCP wants to see.

I can understand why the authors of this piece think the way they do. It's because of their narrow-mindedness and vested interest in putting the workers down. What about trying to retrieve Jobkeeper money from the big companies, like Harvey Norman & AP Eagers, to name a couple- there are many more owned by billionaires, who benefited handsomely from the Australian Treasurer's generous package designed to put people into work- instead it has put taxpayers' money into the pockets of the rich.

So, let's be real about the world we live in. The 'preaching' by this pair, that the workers should be saving their money; and that house prices are cheap are in Fantasy Land, or Cloud Cuckoo.

Australia has historically had high home ownership, but among 25-34 year olds the rate dropped from more than 60% in 1981 to only 45% in 2016. Owner/occupiers dropped by 10% in last 25 years

Commercial Welfare is a massive & immoral hurdle on the track to more equality in economics !

The Chinese can have this lot:

http://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/gina-rineharts-hancock-agriculture-to-sell-northern-cattle-stations-with-herd/ar-BB1elGZC

They can transmigrate tens of thousands to their nationals to work the cattle stations.

If each work pays $10 a week in tax that should help the Commonwealth get the budget back in the black.

I know people that make $400 a day off Uber and work 3 days a week.
I lost $5000 this week just by selling some of my cryptocurrency too early.

I sold 220 LUNA for $8 each, they went to $12.
A 50% gain missed
- They only cost me 80 cents though each which I purchased on 12 January.
I probably sold and rebought back a couple of times over the last month and gained a few as well I think, so maybe I paid less than that originally.
I may have bought a few thousand dollars worth to begin with, (2000+ LUNA) then sold the the majority for a few cents more and gotten 50 or 100 for free to start with then built them up selling and rebuying over the following weeks going by the look of my trading history.
So they probably cost me less than $100 altogether.

Then I sold 120 DEXE for $11 each; and a day and later they hit $35.
I first bought 53 DEXE (worth US$500) on 13th FEB, I sold them for around $11 and rebought them back under $9 a few times over the next few weeks until I had accumulated 125.7 DEXE.
I last sold 120 DEXE for $11 2 days ago for $1320, but if I had've waited and sold the lot at $35 I'd have gotten $4400.

Just those 2 coins.
225 LUNA at $12 would've been worth $2700 - cost less than $100 total from an original $2000 outlay which I sold the majority of early to get my money back.
125.7 DEXE at $35 = US$4400 from a $500 outlay.

See for Yourselves
https://www.binance.com/en/trade/LUNA_USDT?layout=pro
https://www.binance.com/en/trade/DEXE_BUSD?layout=pro

If only the rest of my portfolio was doing as good....

Hey Mr Opinion,
"They can transmigrate tens of thousands to their nationals to work the cattle stations."

Yes and they probably will, after they buy the cattle stations with all the money they made from mining bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

- And when our businesses fail because they can't compete with Chinese imports;
The Chinese will buy these companies at cents on the dollar and make them profitable again.

There are ways to balance your budget better in this new world though.
Just depends whether your in the know or not in the know.

I still made 5 times my money in less than a month, and I'm upset because it should've been 10 times.

How much tax does crypto currency produce for the benefit of all ?

Hey Individual,
With profits like this, probably plenty.
I'm sure that if you move a million dollars to your everyday account and withdraw on it, the tax mans going to pay you a visit.
I expect it would be like Capital Gains Tax or something, maybe 20% or something though I'm not sure on the exact specifics.

I've never withdrawn any profits, only ever deposited funds.

I've deposited around AUD$6000, in smaller deposits (couple hundred on average) over the last 8 - 10 months or so which is now about US$14000.
Would've been more like US$18,000 If I didn't mess things up the other day.
It looks good on paper, but I've actually done pretty badly, I've made many trading mistakes, and I should have made a lot more.

- I also spent about AUD$6000 on computer equipment and monitors during the same period, mostly thanks to Afterpay.
I have 4 computers with 18 monitors in my loungeroom, besides my 55" Smart TV which now sees little use.
But as far as the computers go, they've all paid for themselves in profits already, though I've had some problems getting them to work reliably without any issues, and this has cost me a bit over the period as well.

10K in each of these coins a month ago, would've given you enough money to buy a house outright.
We all talk about stuff like 'Not being the opportunities there were back in the old days'
Well, I'm telling you no-one ever had an opportunity to get rich so easily as they do now.

If you put a few hundred thousand into crypto a year ago, you'd be buying Dunk Island with your own landing strip now, and still have money left over.

That's Life Changing Money, me well I'm still playing with a pittance.
But I've got coins that have gone up 5, 10 20 X in value.
If only I had've been able to buy more.

Some people are getting out of bed and making 100K before lunch.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-12/dunk-island-for-sale-again-at-a-discount/12875542

Armchair Critic,
Ok, let me re-phrase, is crypto currency beneficial for society or does it add to society becoming even more greedy ?

Hey Individual,
I think you might be asking the wrong question.
If cryptocurrencies are the implementation of different use cases of blockchain technology;
Then the correct question probably is

"Is blockchain technology beneficial for society?"

The answer to that question I suppose is that there's pro's and con's.
Blockchain technology without a doubt allows us the potential to do things we could never do before.

Take something really simple for example:
Say that all the people who applied for public housing and were on a waiting list.
Having the data recorded on the blockchain would mean that no-one could hack the or change the data, and no-one can jump the queue.
You could even add in the ability for the computer itself to only offer that person at the top of the queue the lease contract.
- So no-one could cheat anything, and you wouldn't even need people presiding over who gives what to who.
The computer program would have fairness built in, and it's unchangable.

But the ideas behind these things are dangerous in a different way.
The implementation of blockchain technology also has the potential to enslave all of us, and most likely that's what will happen, in the end.

As for being greedy in regards to financial opportunities, well I suppose everyone wants to better their lot;
People are people after all and will take advantage of anything that benefits them.
That's probably just human nature.

Armchair Critic,
Thank you. I'm actually for anything that is not detrimental to anyone & provides employment for a fair wage.
What I am against is huge money being made for no other reason than making huge money with only one benefactor who does not employ people with some of that money.

Hey Individual,
I see your point of view, hopefully those who do make money from cryptocurrency put their wealth to use within the community.

- But I also thought about your question from another point of view.

Whether cryptocurrencies are a good thing or not:

What happens if one nation tells its people to learn about and invest in cryptocurrencies and others don't?

In essence if our citizens are making money on cryptocurrency doesn't that bring wealth into the country?

The alternative is this:
- Going back to my earlier joking comment about the Chinese buying that Rhinehart Cattle business with money they made from mining bitcoin.
- That cashed up foreigners who did make heaps off cryptocurrency get to come in and buy up all our wealth cheap.

I think if Australians are bringing wealth into the country from cryptocurrency - then on face value its a good thing because it's stopping other foreigners getting a bigger piece of the pie themselves which they can use to buy our nation out.

It is certainly better though if those Aussies who have wealth put it to good use within the country.

But what good is any of it if the government has poor policies?

I told you all my ideas ages ago.
Give everyone the opportunity to have the 'job you have when you don't have a job'
- Double dole for full time work doing things to help the government save money.
- And training credits for participation, to use to upgrade your work skills.

Stop people going into downward spirals in their lives when things go bad and save a fortune on dealing with social problems, build a better system.

In essence if our citizens are making money on cryptocurrency doesn't that bring wealth into the country,

Armchair Critic,
Not if they import whatever they buy !

You can't buy Australian made if they don't make it here can ya?
I couldn't buy Australian made computers can I?

How about importing money individual?

LUNA, which I sold last week at $8, (and I'm still displeased about)
and which I bought in January at 80cents
has pulled back a little from $16.50, it did hit $17.50
That's double your money in a week, 100% gain.

You're not going to earn that in interest or a term deposit or house price revaluation or shares.

Do you all understand that you could've IMPORTED money to the value of 'EVERYTHING YOU HAVE'?

Do you have a problem with importing cash to benefit our nation?

"Not if they import what they buy"
- You could say rightly that for ANYONE couldn't you?

Seems like you WANT to FIND something wrong with cryptocurrency.
Maybe you already have some kind of per-existing bias against it.
If so what is it?

And does Australia tell its kids at school "Buy crypto, you'll never have to work again unless you want to"?

No mate, the public school curriculum prepares those kids for a life of service to the kids who go to private schools, and who will never do menial work.

Armchair,
>And does Australia tell its kids at school "Buy crypto, you'll never have to work again unless you want to"?
No it doesn't. Nor does it tell them "bet on Port, you'll never have to work again unless you want to"!

Crypto is essentially a zero sum game. You can only make money from it if some other sucker is willing to pay more for it than you did.

As there's no shortage of suckers, you're unlikely to be the last to make a lot of money from it before its value drops to zero. I don't begrudge you for doing so, but it's not something that will improve the world.

"Crypto is essentially a zero sum game. You can only make money from it if some other sucker is willing to pay more for it than you did."

It's the same argument as shares Aiden, what's the difference?
You wouldn't speak the same way about the ASX200 would you?
The issue is the same thing when it comes to each coins or tokens underlying value.

Some coins and tokens have more underlying value in the cryto-space than others, and different coins and tokens do different things.

Like Coles or Woolies shares are different to say Dominos or Stockland or Afterpay.

Take my now sold DEXE for example, what does it do?
It's copy-trading with API integration.
What does that mean?
Well what that means is I can set my buying and selling up to EXACTLY COPY other successful traders trades, but I don't have to do anything.
I don't get any notification that says 'Buy this now' when old mate did it 2 minutes ago, because of the API integration, my trades on my exchange will automatically happen.
When that other successful trader places an order, and order automatically gets placed for me on my exchange.
I pay the trader in DEXE.

Totally different usage to say MANA
http://decentraland.org/
Where you coins are used to buy assets in a computer game.
- That's all that coin is, purchasing assets in a computer game.
I paid 8c for MANA on the 6 January, I bought 1060 for $84
- The price today was $1.03, my 1060 MANA are now worth $1090.
- That's $1000+ profit off an $84 investment, in 2 months.
- And obviously, I wish I'd bought more.

And what about this Aiden?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/billybambrough/2021/02/03/visa-reveals-bitcoin-and-crypto-banking-roadmap-amid-race-to-reach-network-of-70-million/?sh=25c79978401c

Crypto now has mainstream adoption.
Which means soon I'm going to be able to pay for my groceries at the checkout with whatever cryptocurrency I choose.
Hell, I can even buy a Tesla right now with Bitcoin.

All the employees of tech companies already own crypto.
So what happens when one or two of Apple and Google, Netflix etc and decide to make ALL of their employees, board members etc stinking rich by getting the companies to buy large chunks of bitcoin itself?
Then every other tech company will do it.

Bitcoins not unlimited you know, there's only so much.
At this point, we'll see Bitcoin go to 250k+

All one has to do is double their money 10 times to turn $10,000 into 10 million, you know double it once 10,000 becomes 20,000 etc.
Do that 10 times and you have 10 million.

Tell me Aiden can you put you shares in a bank and earn interest on them?
In crypto you can.

I've shown you all just 3 coins that have gone up way more than double.
All of them at least 10X in the space of a few months.

In crypto right now there's just under 9000 coins trading on approx 450 exchanges.

Armchair,
Because companies can issue and buy back shares, the share market can be thought of as a machine for turning people's desire to speculate into productive investment that funds companies. And the dividends to shareholders ensures that shares have value other than what someone else is willing to pay for them. With billions of dollars being made in profits, it certainly isn't a zero sum game.

People have tried to make crypto useful, but whatever uses it has can typically be achieved more easily without cryptocurrency. I concede MANA may be an exception.

>So what happens when one or two of Apple and Google, Netflix etc and decide to
>make ALL of their employees, board members etc stinking rich by getting the
>companies to buy large chunks of bitcoin itself? Then every other tech company will do it.

More likely every other tech company will conclude it's too late to do so profitably!

More to the point, tech companies are in the business of production rather than speculation.

Yes, the value of Bitcoin can double, but it can also halve. It's intrinsically worthless, and when people realise the emperor is naked, its value will drop to near zero.

Hey Aiden,
You mightn't get rich on Bitcoin even if it goes up another 5 times in value, but altcoins that can make a lot of money.

I've not been paying attention to crypto for the last week because I'm still angry I sold my other coins when I did, which cost me probably about US 5 grand or more.
LUNA almost got to just under $21 from when I sold it for $8 a week or so back.

Right now I've just noticed another coin I own has gone up a bit.
I bought 1000 Basic Attention Token - BAT for 31c on 23 January and it hit $1.18 this morning. I probably should've gotten out and bought it back for $1 but I'm not really paying attention to it.

I need to be more disciplined in my trading and learn more.
I want to join a trading group, and get in with more people who know more than me.
There are a few youtube channels that focus on trading from a technical analysis point of view as well as other channels that discuss fundamentals of good and bad coins.

Even when I'm not looking at my portfolio of coins lately it's still going up, about an extra US$1000 more than last week, my AUD6k is now US14.5 but it should be a whole lot more.
We both know I'm not well knowledged on financial stuff.

- But I could've opened my own eBay store with that 5 grand, as an extra idea I've been considering.
You only need an ABN, a $25mth eBay store with some stuff for sale and you can easily get accounts with suppliers.

You know anyone could easily have easily bought 10k worth in this environment, waited for it to double, sold half and gotten their money back, and then just been playing with profits, i.e no chance whatsoever of losing.

I still think blockchain and smart-contracts are the beginnings of computers replacing humans in decision making though and that could have greater ramifications for society down the track.

Armchair,
>You know anyone could easily have easily bought 10k worth in this environment, waited for it to double, sold half
>and gotten their money back, and then just been playing with profits, i.e no chance whatsoever of losing.

That reminds me of a line from the song Monday's Experts:
: Pity you can't put a bet on at the finish of a race!

It wasn't obvious that we were in this environment. We could just as easily have been in the one where you could have bought 10k worth, waited it for it to double but found it halved instead, kept waiting only for it to halve again, and maybe collapse completely.

Blockchain has a bright future, but cryptocurrency is a dead end.

"Blockchain has a bright future, but cryptocurrency is a dead end."

Well I don't know about that.
My Linear popped today. LINA
I paid .104698 cents on the 12 Feb.
You could've still bought it for 12 cents yesterday but now its just over 27 cents
How many of your investments doubled in value today?

http://linear.finance/
http://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/linear/usd#panel

The proofs in the pudding.

All I have to do is watch a couple of youtube channels and they will tell me the coins that have the best fundamentals in the crypto space going forward.
It's not rocket science, thats where I was told about Linear.

Try it: You can either get virtually free money or miss the opportunity:
Doesn't really bother me, if you do buy some you'll only push the price up further on me before I can buy more.
I'll win either way.

Elliotrades
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMtJYS0PrtiUwlk6zjGDEMA
Crypto Revolution
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiS4L2Gelx9BaOQ2UPXsDGg

A few things happened last year.
At the start of COVID Bitcoin and Ethereum were really cheap.
You had Pelosi advertising Trump wouldn't go, and the COVID and race riots were the things that would unseat him.
Democrats winning raised the prospects of large amounts of stimulus money used to buy bitcoin and other cryptocurrency.
Ethereum futures started trading on the CME
VISA began to sopport cryptocurrency and Elon Musk promoted it.

So yes the writing was on the wall to anyone who was looking.
You could've bought Bitcoin for 5k or Ethereum under $100
What's Bitcoin today - over 58k, ETH is over $1800

It's not a zero sum game,
Moreso the contrary - everyone wins, everyone gets rich.
Bitcoin and Crypto only had a market cap of 350Bn back then, now it's like 2 trillion.
- Plenty of money to go around.

- And that's why I have 4 computers and 18 monitors in my loungeroom.

Every nation got poorer during COVID but every person that bought crypto got wealthier.