Fractelle,
Thank you, like I said I'm not at all an expert, just expressing my view whether it's right or wrong :)
Yes I understood the points you have made, especially about affordable housing.
Shelter is a basic need so any country that fails to provide affordable housing must be doing something wrong.

CR
I’ll try to explain about the merit of my view.
In principle, I agree with you that people’s choices should not be restricted especially when they have increased their options by taking risk.
But I am not at all convinced that extreme Libertarianism will achieve a society full of unrestricted choices because the very choice one person makes may restrict someone else’s choices.
While it would benefit some people to pay less tax and increase their choices, less tax may mean that someone’s child may be refused medical treatment because there is no money in his family for health care.
This is not the child’s fault- the child has not made choices.
It would be a little more convincing if we were talking about adults only. But there are children involved.

With my ‘little tree in gloomy corner’ story I was trying to make that same point about children. I didn’t get that point across but I was alluding to children that are born in disadvantaged, poor families.
Babies have as much choice of environment as a tree has.
The baby did not choose to be born in a disadvantaged family; the tree did not choose to be planted in a dark, dry part of a forest.
And even though the baby born into poverty did not choose this, it has no chance to be offered the opportunity to develop to its full potential unless a welfare system is available that will offer him/her healthcare, education, supply of basic needs such as housing and food.
I believe that all people, especially children, no matter what, should have a certain standard- a package of basic needs.

Even under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher -and I agree that she has done a lot of good for the UK - she did not solve the fact that children lived in poverty and were suffering malnutrition.
Any society that does not offer affordable housing (as others have mentioned), education, health and so on, is failing all the children who are living, through no fault of their own, in poverty.
The most vulnerable will have the least choices while the most powerful have the most choices just because they happen to have been offered opportunities during their childhood years that enabled them to develop to their full potential.
There are exceptions but generally the above statement is true.

So, I am not convinced at all that total libertarianism is the answer to guarantee everybody freedom. Especially not the kind of Libertarianism as practiced in the US.
Big corporations can be even more tyrannic than a government.
Obviously, communism is not the answer, either.
Both sound convincing in theory, both make a lot of promises of Freedom.
Neither seems to work in practice.

I believe that the best option would be some form of libertarian socialism, some form of balance, with common sense.
Having said that, there are quite a few different forms of Libertarianism and I don’t have a lot of knowledge about the differences.

Then again, I may be missing something- but I thought I express my ideas anyway because as Fractelle said, “Nobody is wrong all of the time.” (Funny!)
And nobody is right all of the time either, we ale all imperfect.
We have no perfect political system- it does not exist.
We have to make-do with what we have and imperfect people will continue to improve on it.

From my reading of Col_Rouge's posts over time, he studied Art in London in 1978, dropped out then moved into accounting. He is probably on the ethics committee of National Institute of Accountants, at a stretch he is a Chartered Accountant, probably not a Certified Practising Accountant. He lives in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. He moved to Australia in 1981 and is a strong adherent of the economic policies of Milton Friedman and the Chicago School of Economics, whether he is aware of this or not. Have you heard that Margaret Thatcher's son Mark has been implicated in providing mercenaries to overthrow a government in west Africa. He supplied mercenaries to overthrow the PNG government.

My friends and I counted up how much money we pay in taxes, we included direct taxation, health insurance and superannuation and found that Australians earning average wages pay more tax than Swedes. We don't want to live in fear that we won't have enough income in our old age to receive adequate health care to keep us from pain and suffering from treatable conditions. We wonder how the majority of university students are going to be able to pay off their HECS debt, buy a house and get pregnant before they are too old to be fertile. Individuals can overcome poverty to reach the highest levels of society but they are very rare, think Evo Morales in the coca farmer who is now president of Bolivia despite strenuous United States opposition. Anyone with any familiarity with poverty doesn't lightly dismiss the Australian statistic that 49% of children in sole parent families are growing up in poverty with all the stunted outcomes that that entails.

Of course history and literature shows us the british are very used to treating poor people as a different species that don't deserve shelter, employment, adequate food, health care. In the 1860s depression that half the population of Birmingham died of starvation. Recent history shows that the United States isn't concerned about the welfare of black americans flooded out of New Orleans in hurricane Katrina.

Pelican

“Get rid of GST”

I disagree, it is a broad based tax which is relatively easy to calculate and recover.
I would, however, force through the delisting of the taxes which it was supposed to replace, like land tax, some stamp duties etc.

“government become small (only smaller)”

I agree with you, small might be the ultimate goal but smaller is where to start.

“Don't involve ourselves in unnecessary wars”

I disagree, that is not a tax-simplification measure and even if it were, no government of any persuasion could ever guarantee it.

“These are personal life choices and can better sponsored by the private sector or by parishioners (in the case of churches).”

Absolutely agree.

“There are other areas within government”

That is a deployment issue, not a tax issue. I agree with the sdentiment but think it should be a topic separate to taxation.

“Get rid of fees for higher education” certainly a highly desirable objective, although I think some “fee” is valid, if only to challenge the commitment of the student.

Ah billie – a potted biography of me, how sweet, not fully up to date.
Come around one day and I will give you the full, unabridged version, including my years in USA.

Re “Have you heard that Margaret Thatcher's son Mark has been implicated”

So you are suggesting the sins of the son should reflect on the character of the mother, billie?

Bob Hawke fathered a junkie.

should Ivan Milats mum be publically vilified because of her sons conduct?

Hitler persecuted the von Stauffenberg family for the participation of one of their members in the July 1944 assassination attempt.

You support a similar system of “guilt” by family association be applied to Margaret Thatcher?

Btw. “superannuation” contributions are not a tax. Funds are held in your name and for your exclusive benefit. They attract tax at a favourable rate to other forms of savings and your contributions taxed at a lower rate too. Well that is the present system, who knows what perversity the socialist swill budget will impose upon us all soon.

Fractelle, you poor pathetic loser

“One last item before I totally bail on this thread.”

Your emotional rambling and weasel words have underwhelmed us all and failed against the reasoning of my argument.
You run away and pretend you have made a stand; whilst what you have really done is inelegantly taken a squat on my doorstep and been hosed away.

“What you haven’t done is offer much at all (if anything) about sustainable living.”

Reading your posts, nor have you.

Most of your inane drivel has been a direct and deliberate attack on my right to post my view and to live my life as I see fit.

As in “Col (if you care to read his prolific postings on OLO) is always about justifying HIS choices, HIS lifestyle,”

Intellectual pygmies, like you, pretend your view on life and your values are the only ones which are of merit. You are wrong.

I can live my life perfectly well without you. You could die tomorrow and it would make no difference to me. However, your model of society needs people more innovative and creative than you to produce and create wealth, which you then tax.

Somehow, that equates you to a parasite and as such, you should be expelled from the body of society ( most commonly through the fundamental orifice).

Pelican, US view of “churn” is a good example of tax waste. Government taxing folk only to repay them the taxes as special allowance, like baby bonuses.

I disapprove of means testing. Both wealthy and modest incomed people are critical contributors to the social whole. They are deserving of respect for being the “net tax contributors” from whose effort allows government tax and subsidise the poorer ( “net tax beneficiaries”).

Fractelle has turned this into a “them and us”. I have tried to address the objective of this thread, a better tax system.

I do not have all the answers.
However, do have the “direction”.

I remain convinced, a better solution is to avoid the churn which US speaks of.

That means lower taxes and less government.

Red_Neck has failed to explain why the majority of Asutralian tax payers would be better off with a poll tax? Does Red_Neck want to follow the United States example and spend government budget money subsidising the large corporations that bankrolled the successful presidential campaign? Red_Neck fondness for laissez-faire economic policies are an indicator of sociopathic personaility disorders. Red_Neck has failed to explain why it is more efficient to pay for profit foriegn corporations to administer our health system ratehr than just funding hospitals and health staff wages directly? Why does he want to waste money overseeing every red cent spent rather than getting on with the task of providing the service?

Why doesn't someone who believes in smaller government just migrate to the home of the brave and land of the free. Oh, it was too tough so he came here.