Pelican you write

'Turning retirement savings over to the private sector is fraught with risk and there is no guarantee that the government won't need to pick up the pieces in the long term.'

Do you think the Greek Government has proven itself trustworthy? If a Government can squander the billions it has like the Rudd Government in very short time only a naive person would consider their funds safe (especially in Labour hands)

It's all part of the total cost of employment, so any increase will be passed on in lieu of a similar rise in pay. At least, that's how I will be handling it. The admin burden is already there in the present system, so that's not going to increase. So for me, 12%, 9%, makes no difference.

What really bugs me though is the hangers-on who help themselves to a slice on the way through - and you can't tell me that a clampdown on commissions is going to make even the slightest dent in the number of gold-toothed leeches who will have their noses in the through.

Bloody parasites. Almost as bad as politicians, helping themselves to our money, and then taking no responsibility for the way they piss it up against the nearest wall.

A pox on all their houses.

runner
I can name you many governments who collapsed and just as many private companies who collapsed or mismanaged funds to the detriment of their members, citizens or workers. Thankfully in Australia we are not quite at the Greek Government stage yet. I suspect if we were, the private sector in such an economy would be pretty unstable in any case.

I am not sure why there is such a high trust in the private sector on all things economic. We have to work out what should be in the hands of the private sector (good for business) and what should be a public service (to the benefit of all). Some things are too important to be left in the hands of profit motive centred organisations, some things are better provided by the people via taxes or a form of (government owned) user pays in the right circumstances.

BP is a private company and they just stuffed up an entire section of ocean. Do these names ring any bells: Storm Financial, Ansett, Westpoint, Opes Prime, HIH, OneTel and Bernard Madoff. All private companies with little accountability.

Rechtub is the thread a bait.
Or evidence you truly do not understand the subject.
I think the last is about right.
Employees have paid for past super contributions by not getting pay rises.
EBA written saying clearly wage rises had been diverted to super.
Employees often would op out of super if it was not covered by law.
Far more high income earners use super to rip us all off, and why no complaint about the tax breaks?

Well said Belly...and I heard Heather Ridout saying the AIG group would be negotiating pay offsets for the mooted rises.

Besides, work expenses all get passed on to consumers don't they, and qualify as a taxable item, so super hardly comes out of the back pocket of the employer, does it?

As with all the other rorts open to employers but closed to employees, the ATO funds the easy ride business gets in its profligate profit making.

Instead of taxing 'super profits' (the phrase used to describe the new suggestion for miners, not the profits from 'super') it might help if the wealthy had a few tax breaks cut off....a non-rortable tax structure would be a novel approach.

And billions of tax dollars, rates and charges are filtered off by religions, how about them paying their way for a change?

This will mean a loss of jobs.We should not be putting extra money into super at the present,since the markets are too unstable and the money is needed to make the real economy work.Put your money into gold since the world currencies collapse as they bail out more basket cases like Greece.The depression has just begun.

Keynesian economics is dead.Let the Austrians rule.We need sound money and rid us of the fractional reserve system of counterfeiting money.It is theft by stealth.