Yes Bec, but we have to let it happen, we have little choice, unless of cause we get a fairer, more effective tax system, but I doubt that's going to happen soon, if ever.

Also, I think if one qualifies, as I'm sure your dad would, the disability pension is still available. Worth checking out because I doubt anyone expects those with SERIOUS disabilities to continue working to 70.

As for starting work latter, my dad started work at 12, which was common back in the early 40's. He died at 75, so in fact he lived for twenty more years than his life expectancy would have been when the pension was first introduced.

Kids today often leave school, then go to tafe for another four years, then they may get a job and start paying tax.

So starting work at age 20 and paying tax till age 65 would mean thatbifntheynthen lived till 85, had a low paid job, itmwould mean they would earn more the pension than they actually paidmin tax, and that's not counting the hand outs they may have collected along the way, because where we did have 27 tax payers to 1 pensioner, the number now is more like 2 to 1.

In fact, if you apply the same numbers to today's stats, we should not receive the pension until we reach 101. So even at 70 our funding model is going backwards.

This is why leaving the pension age as is is unsustainable, and compulsory super just strengthens the argument for raising the age.

Personally I would like to see all welfare spending examined so we can identify the waste, and remove it from the system, especially those welfare for lifers who don't respect the fact that their dole is a gift, not a given right.

....There was an article a few days ago saying we were paying the near or the highest rates for that service.

Yes Phillip, and each and every one of those companies work out of a big fat office, no doubt funded by our super. Or at the very least, propped up by it.

That's why that should nevervhave been allowed to happen, because even had the money stayed in the banks we woukd still have a health nest egg in 40 odd years.

Another option would have been to retain the likes of the Com bank and Telstra, but allowing gambler access to it was a dumb move.

Wow, Rehctub knows the precise cause of everything that's wrong with everything, and better still ... he even knows all the answers and solutions. What an intellect. It's utterly amazing what he has learnt from watching Bananas In Pajamas.

Yes, sorry about that Poirot, I just hate being tagged as an under achiever, as I have raised my two children without assistance from the tax payer, created hundreds of jobs and donated in excess of half a million dollars, much of which went to underprivileged kids.

Cheers.

Wow, now we've just learnt he's a MILLIONAIRE, has never ever used anything whatsoever that's been funded by any taxpayer anywhere, and employs hundreds of people. I believe him. He sounds just as honest as Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard.... yep carrying on the proud tradition.

nohJ,

Possibly rehcteB meant that he has 'donated' in excess of half a million dollars in income tax over his working lifetime, a concept you may trouble coming to grips with. It certainly may not mean that he is a millionaire.

Try to calculate how much a person about to retire may have earnt, and how much she has paid in income tax, over a working lifetime. Let's say forty years of work: at, say, an average of eighty thousand dollars per year, works out at more than three million dollars of wages or salary, minus, say, an average of fifteen thousand dollars each year in income tax, or six hundred thousand dollars, in today's dollars.

When you finally leave uni and go to work, you can calculate YOUR lifetime total income and tax too. Would those totals mean that you are, or will be, a millionaire ?

Try to stay in the real world :)

Joe