Who do you reckon is doing your average taxpayer the most damage, half a dozen social security cheats or half a dozen multi millionaires using tax havens?

Why do we constantly hear these calls to punish people at the $5 end of the scale but rarely hear about people abusing the system at the $5million end of the scale?

Bond, Packer and Murdoch's kids all got subsidised by taxpayers during their study years because of convenient entitlement loopholes. Alexander Downer's daughter got a scholarship after she failed her degree. Why do we focus on punishing the folk at the little end of things while those at the big end get off scott free?

The argument that there are hordes of people abusing the system at the little end of things and only a few at the top doesn't hold. Most of the cases brought to court over social security fraud get kicked out of court. Taxpayers have spent squillions over the past few years in legal fees over paltry amounts owed by people who have nothing.

You shouldn't believe everything you see on sensationalist current affairs shows or read in tabloid or hear on talkback.

"I dream of the day where nobody ever has to take a $13/hr job.
It's pretty absurd that I can earn up to 10 times as much as this just because I happen to know how to type gibberish into a computer that it can understand.

Until I have walked in the shoes of anyone who is in an unfortunate-enough position to rely on social security payments, I'm extremely wary of criticizing them for feeling compelled to attempt squeezing a little more for themselves out of the system."
Posted by wizofaus, Monday, 14 January 2008 5:46:22 PM

I cannot better this. THANK-YOU!

WHEN we are AS critical and intolerant AND able to put a stop to the greed and excess of those who least need it; get back to me about this kind of 'excess' and I will take it on board.

It is an act of moral cowardice to consistently criticize this kind of default. Cowardice because this end of the monetary scale is a much easier target.

Boy! we really have become trained monkey's haven't we? The rich ARE getting richer while we chunder on about the least privileged and dob them in at every opportunity. Politicians and boardrooms all over the globe must have a real chuckle at how obediently we monitor ourselves

Hasbeen, yes I am extremely lucky - and I recognise it. Entirely through the nature of my upbringing (over which I had no control), I pretty much walked straight out of high school into a good paying job - I went to uni more because I wanted to than because I felt it would improve my career prospects. I can honestly (and somehow ashamedly) say I've never really had to endure a genuinely hard day's work in my life, nor have I ever had to know real financial difficulty, despite some quite poor more money management decisions along the way. Life will never be completely fair, but we could make it a lot fairer if we genuinely wanted to.

Of course there are people that cheat the system. No doubt some of them have no better motive than sheer laziness. But for every one of those there is somebody else breaking their back just to pull in enough money to pay the rent and keep food on the table, and I can't entirely blame them if they see an opportunity to do a little better for themselves that is technically against the rules - rules not generally made by someone in their position, I might add.

Often, attempts to crack on the undeserving cheaters end up punishing those who genuinely are trying to improve their station in life.

Try this: http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/tax-dodgers-laughing-as-the-poor-are-hounded/2007/12/14/1197568262862.html

My dad worked in a rubber factory did double shifts to earn extra money and died of a massive coronary at the age of 52. Mum worked as well. They never questioned their pay packet - they simply worked overtime and saved what they could. They didn't buy things if they couldn't afford them. They paid cash, when they were able to buy, as they did not believe in credit. It was a different time, a different generation. I was raised with the ethos - don't expect to be given anything - if you want something - you have to work for it. Nobody owes you a living.

Those were different times. To-day, people seem to have different expectations. I feel sorry for the youngsters who have to put up with getting paid a pittance, or feel they have to cheat the "system." They are the ones that are getting cheated.

If only they could see their own self worth... And, that their destiny is in their hands - with perseverance they can make it. I'd like to say to them "Put yourself into your own hands. Everybody has two. You can use them to get a hand-out, sit on them and do nothing, or you can use them to get a serious grip on yourself.

But when you've put yourself in your own good hands, don't forget to give yourself an occasional pat on the back. Say, 'Well done, pussy-cat, you're doing okay!"

snake your post is not related to the thread but if you are putting my parents down for having too many kids think about it.
So very many family's did just that, different times different views we got Fed on populate or perish talk.
None of my siblings stayed on social security for very long.
Can we stop the rubbish about the poor unemployed? please understand some plan not to work.
Some plan to get that cash in the hand, how about the honest business man up the road? paying true wages and competing against a thief!
I have walked in the shoes of the poor, and walked right our of them by my efforts.
I want a better life for the true poor not a helping hand for weak bosses to steal from us all or people who do the same.
I can get casual work for $21.80 an hour for most good hours sometimes overtime paid at good normal rates but some want only a job that preserves social security.

Ok, but let's look at why people "plan not to work". I've never known anyone who's grown up in a comfortable middle class lifestyle and then decided that living off government handouts is a good living (I do have one friend who does do it, but he has a genuine psychiatric condition, as is far from happy about it). These are people that grow up in an environment of hopelessness, miss out on many of the opportunities available to the more fortunate of us, and have to decide between 8 hours a day of hard labour for a minimum wage, or doing nothing and receiving only slightly less. If you're a single parent, the choice is even more difficult.

As others have pointed out, if we're seriously concerned about people cheating the system, let's look at the opportunities that those on effectively 6 or 7 figure salaries have to pay very little tax. Yes, many of these people are running businesses that provide employment to others and create wealth that we all benefit from, but they also very much rely on taxpayer-provided services in order to run those businesses, and plenty of them got where they are due to a fair dosage of good luck. It's perfectly reasonable that those of us that can afford it should contribute our share towards maintaining shared infrastructure and social services, but unquestionably many don't.