*but it's heart has been in the right place and this is important to me.*

It might be to you, Thinker 2. Many politicians have their heart
in the right place, look at the Greens, but if they simply
don't understand the future consequences of their actions in the
real world, disaster inevitably follows and that is the problem.

Personally, I am not a party person, but an issues person. The
problem with our public is, they like crawlers, who tell them what
they want to hear and suckhole up to them. Howard was good at
it, so was reelected. People like Costello and Keating were seen
as arrogant, yet when it came to facts, they had the smarts to
do what needed doing.

I wasn't actually against Rudd for a long time. But now its clear
that they are starting to cause long term damage to the place, so
either he has to rethink things and back down, or he is going to
have an awfull lot of people against him. The problem with Henry
is that he is a bureaucrat and an academic. Rudd and Swan rely
on him totally for advice. Yet its rather silly to ask Henry
to devise a new tax system and then have treasury review it.
Henry's underlings are hardly going to go against him.

So I think the Govt needs to do some real soul searching right now
and get some independant advice, if they understand what is good
for them. But the way I see it, they have their blinkers on and
are going to try and use spin to dig their way out. It won't work.

Now I know my position is sound Yabby - you usually make personal comments.

Not that it is any of your business but I gave it up due to an illness and even if that were not the case, being in business does not make anyone an expert.

On one hand you state you have been in business for over 30 years but learn something new everyday, but when I mention doing some courses apparently I am not allowed the same latitude to learn but most be all-knowing at all times.

Sheesh...just admit you are wrong about the tax Yabby. You know you can do it.

:)

Pelican, doing a course on business, teaches the very mundane, boring
stuff, not what I am on about at all.

One of the interesting things that I've learned on OLO, is how
little, reasonably intelligent posters know about the business world
and how it functions.

I was watching a bit of Bloomberg after lunch and there was much
discussion about the BP dividend payment cuts, due to their oil
spill. UK pension funds are in panic, as it will cost around 600
Pounds per pensioner! That is serious money for a pensioner and
highlights what I have been on about for so long: most of these
large so called evil multinationals, are in fact largely owned by
everyday mums and dads through their pension funds.

I've read enough of your posts over time, to have a pretty good
idea of what you think and why you think it. Its not the hardware
that is the problem, you just lack a bit of software :)

So all I'm suggesting is that if you really want to understand
business and economics a bit, take the time to listen to what
informed and largely objective, seasoned business commentators
are writing about all this. Alan Kohler, Robert Gottliebson and
similar, comment every day in the commentary section of Business
Spectator. What they are saying is worth knowing, if you want
to pass an informed opinion on all this.

As to the damage, well that is already starting to happen. Money
is being pulled from small prospecting companies and they are
the people who go out and find minerals in the first place.
That is less bad news for tomorrow, but very bad news for a few
years from now. Its also a great shame for Australia's future

Yabby
I am not doing a business course per se, but something related to the area I am thinking about in terms of a business idea. Why does it matter? You make assumptions that I don't read the same stuff you do, just because we disagree. Talk to a group of economists - same education, same reading experience and yet many differing opinions.

Your comments are completely off tangent from the discussion.

No matter what you think about any particular contributor's credentials the debate is about the proposed mining tax. I suspect it won't go ahead as planned in any cases, too many vested interest groups making lots of noise, and Rudd won't have the mettle methinks.

Gerry Harvey supports the mining tax although he does not approve of the way the government went about it, lack of consultation and so forth, of which I agree.

But that is where I leave you, one can only go around and around the same argumetns for so long.

The tax is so wrong. Rudd is behaving like he does not know what to do so stalls. He would earn $50,000 a year in the private sector then be lucky to keep his job. Now he is in meeting with mining exces who are on a different level to the wuss. He is so far out of his depth I would feel sorry for him if he had shown some simiar concern for the lowly staff workers he has abused on so many occasions. As it is Karma lol

*Talk to a group of economists - same education, same reading experience and yet many differing opinions.*

Pelican, your answer once again gives the game away. Economists
like Henry are actually part of the problem. All theory and
no practical experience.

That is why I suggested a couple of seasoned business journalists,
who work with the business community every day and in particular
understand our mining industry and what drives it. These are
all areas of expertise, which if people don't understand, they
simply cannot make an informed judgement.

But stay naive if you wish :)