Whether in Kabul, London, Washington or Pretoria global leaders appear to believe that big mouth is more important than sound math. In South Africa only a small percentage of the populace pay tax, electricity bills or television licences, they are also the best educated and most productive part of the population and those most likely to leave the country for foreign shores. Yet government is allowing them to get taxed to the borders.
Eskom is demanding 45% annual price hikes and although electrification is the most widespread here of any African country, those who pay for its use are a small segment of the electricity consumer base. The rest get by on illegal connections and inept municipalities writing off losses. Those who consistently pay get zapped with lights cut off the minute they neglect to pay in full and on time.
Now the South African Broadcasting Corporation is asking for those who pay tax — again the same few — to have one percent cut off their salaries to fund an organisation riven with corruption and maladministration. Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan has warned that this small coterie of payers who fund a very big country and a growing citizenry living on handouts — more than 13 million — can expect additional tax hikes.
And so a country with a massive skills shortage can expect a deepening brain drain. Why should the cleverest remain? High taxes, like those in Sweden or Switzerland are acceptable if there is a quid pro quo of a state that delivers great health, superior care for children and the aged, good schools and safe societies; in South Africa we have none of those advantages. The school system is all but collapsed after endless fiddling with curricula and a dominant union that has seen teaching ethics destroyed. Before we had bad schools in black townships but fine Model C schools, now all are collapsing as educational standards teeter.
Failures in the health system are terrifying and the proposed national health insurance system brings the danger that what has happened with schools will happen with health. And good schools and healthcare as well as personal safety is what draws immigrants; failures encourage the best skilled to leave. As one Dinokeng Scenario presenter noted last week: “In the past Afrikaans leaders sent their children to government Afrikaans schools and they and their families would go to state hospitals, today’s leaders send their children to school in England and have private hospital care, they are removing themselves further and further from the people.”
And the people know it and are increasingly burning tyres on public highways and challenging shoot-to-kill instructed police. The Dinokeng Scenarios suggest that South Africa has 15 years in which to “adapt or die”. We will walk together, apart or behind according to these political scenarios. If we walk apart, which this increasingly divided society is already doing, it suggests that in eight years we will experience the rule of a “strong man” or dictator.
I would suggest that 15 years is hopelessly optimistic, it took 14 years from the June 1976 uprising to February 1990 and the unbanning of organisations including the African National Congress or seven years from the massive protests sparked by the tricameral parliament in 1983 and the founding of the United Democratic Front and only five years from the formation of the Congress of SA Trade Unions in 1985 for change.
All of that rapid movement in historical terms, although it felt like lifetimes living through them, was with a relatively politically immature, afraid populace confronting the best organised military and police on the continent. Today we have a politically adept, if not radical populace confronting a disorganised military and police who earlier this year battled it out on the lawns of the Union Buildings.
And yes, we arguably have the best administration now since the Mandela years. The best politician in the country at present? Undoubtedly Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane for ethics, empathy, courage and hard work. This administration appears committed to listening and acting, but is still not showing the leadership that encourages rhetoric and actions that show empathy or that unites and builds optimism.
But such political rejection of reality is not ours alone, let’s take the United States and the United Kingdom. Battling with two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — the latter of which seems to be getting hopelessly out of control and endangering Pakistan and potentially India — as well as massive internal economic problems and growing joblessness — 10.6% of the US’s 250 million people and three million out of work in the United Kingdom — they’ve taken to waving a big stick at Iran.
Iran responded with alacrity allowing inspections of its nuclear plants. Now the US and its allies are demanding that Iran send uranium to be enriched in Russia before being sent to France for conversion to medical use. Russia? I’d trust Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad before Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Ahmadinejad has countered by saying they will send small consignments to Russia instead of large consignments and given the corruption and instability of Russia, it seems sensible.
France and the US are rejecting that saying Israel might attack Iran before that happens. So why don’t they stop Israel? Who is its biggest funder? The US alone has the capacity to stop Israel. Surely the US has enough on its plate without seeking another war? President Barack Obama, whose star is sadly waning as election promises go unfulfilled has an $85 billion healthcare bill to operationalise.
During his election campaign, he promised to pull troops out of Iran and Afghanistan and to close Guantanamo Bay, but the man who is this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner has fulfilled none of those campaign promises. He seems set to send more troops to Afghanistan as that war begins engulfing Pakistan and poses challenges for security in India.
US General Stanley McChrystal, the overall commander of foreign forces in Afghanistan wants 40 000 more US troops — or a 40% troop increase — to boost the failing battle for that country after nine years of war. But Bagram Air Field in Parwan province, as an example, the largest US military base in Afghanistan already houses 24 000 military personnel and civilian contractors and simply has no more room.
There are plans for a new $22 million air terminal and a $9 million cargo yard. When the US military took over Bagram in December 2001, the base was 3 993 acres, it is now 5 198 acres with furious building activity a constant feature — in the US itself, with the economic downturn construction has all but collapsed as war leeches resources.
Back to South Africa: at this stage, this observer is non-plussed by the failure of the South African administration to do the math and its foolish belief that the small percentage who already pay their school fees, medical bills, utility accounts, traffic fines, security company charges and do tax eFiling on time have the capacity or the desire to quietly be milked with few returns on their investment in this country. Some take to the streets and burn tyres in service delivery protests, others quietly approach the Australian, Canadian and British embassies and buy one-way tickets out.
In the United States those banks that were given billions by the Bush administration to secure their status despite track records of profligate overspending and poor management are getting ready to give multimillion-dollar bonuses to executives and staff despite millions of Americans out on the street with no work. The bankers haven’t learnt their lesson and nor has the US government remembered the lessons of Vietnam.
US historian Barbara Tuchman wrote in The March of Folly: “The power to command frequently causes failure to think … If the mind is open enough to perceive that a given policy is harming rather than serving self-interest, if we are self-confident enough to acknowledge it and wise enough to reverse it, we will have reached the summit.”
At present it feels as though global leaders are languishing in the swamp of lessons not learned and we as citizens forget that democracy is about the people governing, us speaking up, doing, and applying pressure for the change we want to experience.
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43 Responses to “Ignoring the math: Political folly from the US to SA”
Summed up a sad situation very well… do you think any influential politicians will actually read this & say to themselves “wait a minute…”
There are far too many factual misrepresentations in your article. While I too am a fan of low taxes, I wonder if you can backup this claim:
“In South Africa only a small percentage of the populace pay tax, electricity bills…”
Do you have the statistics from SARS to support this claim? Who pays VAT? Its pretty naieve to think the rich pay the most taxes.
“In the past Afrikaans leaders sent their children to government Afrikaans schools and…state hospitals, today’s leaders send their children to school in England and have private hospital care..”
Hmm, I wonder if that was because those Afrikaners wanted the kids to be taught in their native language and treated only by white doctors?
By saying that you would trust Iran’s Ahmadinejad over Russia’s Putin shows a serious lack of judgement. The US and Russia went through the cold war which assued mutual destruction and survived. Russia has a proven track record with nuclear weapons.
Oh, btw speaking of emmigration, I think its now extremely difficult compared to a few years ago to emmigrate unless you’re seeking asylum.
Wrong about Switzerland’s tax I’m afraid. Do your research - it is one of the countries with the lowest of taxes but with some of the best infrastructure to show for it.
The personal income tax rate depends on the canton / dorp you live in.
Health care is entirely private, with only partial cantonal financial support of hospitals, but everyone pays for their own medical insurance (by law you have to have specific set of minimal cover, but the insurance companies are entirely private).
I am an ex-SA living here and loving it: I chose this country because of its “extreme” form of democracy and self-governance (can’t do a proper description here, but research it). Taxes are a very good example of Swiss efficiency!
i’m leaving this country next year. there’s so much potential here, but this country insists in putting up so many roadblocks for me to set up shop and actually work and that i’ve had it.
i’m so eager to leave that i’ve already sold my house [for a loss]. i need to sort out of little things like custody and university education for my stepson and things like that, but i’m done. i just want out.
this country really needs university-educated black people to help. of course, the fact that i look “nigerian” [i know i do] and have been stopped by the police for chattering in yoruba on the street … i’m really like “screw this place”.
maybe i’ll return to cape town after everything has collapsed. if the capetonians can keep koeberg running, i’m sure that they would quite make it, probably in brazilian fashion [cape town is so much like rio it’s really ridiculous; but joburg is nothing like sao paulo.] … and it will make it.
i think that if the grumblings related to moving parliament to pretoria ever come to fruition, cape town will just write a very nice “fuck you” to the rest of the country and just not care about the goings-on in the rest of the place. [which is *precisely* the reason that parliament is in cape town in the first place, but people are too stupid to figure this out. shame.]
Oh, I cant wait to see what Simphiwo simphiwo says about this one…something along the lines of “..go, leave south africa…we dont need you here anyway…” and other such brainless drivvel.
the inner anarchist wonders if perhaps the time has come for civil disobediance. It seems to be the only mothod, our leaders can understand. Call a tax strike. And see how they feel after that? Enough already of making the few, carry the wieght of the few, for what ever reason.
Very true, what you say.
I look at Helen Zille as a tireless and courageous fighter and leader..for honesty, efficiency,accountability, competency,integrity and for a South Africa, that we all want and know can be achieved..being defeated by the ANC government. How..you may ask !!?? I will tell you how:…The ANC government, know they are unable to compete with her ethic and her and her party’s ability to deliver…so, they,the ANC - will undermine every effort shown by her… and importantly..go directly for “the heart”. And “that heart”..is the “DA’s support” - black and Coloured and White voters and supporters out there …that are being told, “we will defeat you and your party, for thinking differently”. And, we will do that….,by “encouraging you” to slowly and quietly head for that Australian, Canadian and English embassy, with your one way tickets !
WOW - you say it all.
1. SAZIM is coming at a faster rate than I ever anticipated.
2. I have observed that effective policy statements emanate from the Youth of RSA. This is condoned. Where is everyone ?
3. Malema sits next to the Real President and is introduced as President Malema.
I do not recall voting for the mini-me to rule beside the real ruler.
Did anyone vote for him other than drinking buddies ? .
4. Note that every day that arrives - they make a “statement” and voila !
So it is.
5. Proof of his VIP status is R30k security. At only a third of the other President - he will not be pleased at being short changed. SAPS squash speeding penalty as he is blue light - very, very, VIP.
6, The clown he is no longer. The Lord of The Flies commands.
Well writtin ..in the pocket.One of the highest taxed countries in the world. We are going down–down–down. Can’t wait to get out of here and breathe again
Speaking truth to power. Thanks, Charlene. I just hope journalists the world over write the headline LARGE when it happens: “Nobel Peace Prize Laureate sends more troops to war”. And that “we the people” all realise how we are being lied to by Obama, BlairBrown, Israel, etc ———- I believe you are right about who should govern. Until we, the people realise that we MUST govern (NOT “be governed”) we will continue to be pillaged and robbed and disappointed by these “leaders” who regard themselves as divinely entitled.
Charlene: who are the few that you speak of? The few that are being milked and drained to fund the lazy, overfed many? Whites? Because I don’t think you mean to include the black middle-class 9who are unlikely to live but are willing to build and sort out the mess that Apartheid made in this country. You are right that it is wrong for political leaders to send their children to private schools (within or outside the country) but you are mistaken in saying that “black township school” performed poorly while Model C schools were the best. Quite a few under-resourced and poor township schools have outperformed many well-resourced Model C schools. It’s clear you are trying to imply that Model C schools are performing poorly because many blacks are schooling there.
And the reason why many black people do not earn enough to pay tax is because they are discriminated against and cannot find jobs as easily as whites with the same qualifications.
The whites with ‘scarce skills’ (surgeons, Chartered Accountants, Astrophysicists etc) are not so many that their immigration would diminish the tax-base (many blacks pay tax by the way. Sure, it would be a huge loss but a large number of people with technical and scientific skills are Indians and they are not exactly leaving in droves. Sure enough, the emigration of even one surgeon would have tragic consequences but I think that crime affects everyone and should be addressed in the
We as the struggling, paying middleclass citizens have to find a way of forming alliances in order to fight the new oppression that we face. There are plenty of us out there who would be more than willing to devote our lives to this task. The hurdle is that most of us are too busy slaving away in order to pay our enormous tax burden! I would suggest that one way around this would be to form highly focused lobby groups, which could be funded by related industries, in order to allow the average joe with a passionate desire to facilitate change to drop his day job and fight the good fight. We need to expand the presence of highly focused NGO’s in order to win the battle before us. Come on business and the ungodly wealthy - its in your best interest. I am more than ready to do my bit, but I need to pay my bond and feed my family - ideas and ideals don’t come cheap!
@Dave, perhaps you should show some proof to the contrary. From reading your posts on various blogs, I find that you are fond of countermanding whatever is said, with no proof whatsoever. In blogging terms, this kind of behaviour might be construed as “trolling”, which is undesireable. Even elegantly worded wild accusations are just that, wild accusations.
* Dave - In the Department of Finance National Expenditure Survey 2000 published on 23 February 2000 it was indicated that at the end of 1999 a total of 2 675 801 persons were registered as individual taxpayers. This statistic includes trusts but unfortunately no indication is given as to the number of trusts on register. Approximately 3,5 million people were at that stage subject to the Standard Income Tax on Employees (SITE). SITE payers are those persons earning less than R60 000,00 per year, who have tax deducted from their salaries and who are not obliged to submit an annual tax return to the South African Revenue Service (SARS). Based on these figures South Africa had a total of 6 175 801 natural persons (including trusts) paying tax in this country at the end of 1999. By the end of 2008, however, SARS told us that there were just over 1,8m individual taxpayers - a serious drop from 2000 which would tend to correlate on emigration stats. And no, if you are a doctor, nurse, engineer, teacher or have technical skills or wealth the world is open for you - emigration is not difficult. The individual taxes obviously do not include corporates which boost the levels, but then again look at figures that recently came out showing company closures year on year increased 45% in June. The tax shortfall Gordhan has warned of for this year is R70bn.
I really don’t mind being part of the few that carries the tax burden for the many. I am my brother’s keeper, and I accept that. I also accept that even though I was too young to vote before 1994, that I refused to serve in the SADF, and that I led student protests on campus contesting discriminatory pay practices, that as a white person I am a beneficiary of apartheid, and as such have a responsibility to assist those discriminated against by it. I do this in various capacities within my private life, but the main contribution I can make is my taxes.
What I do object to however, is the fact that my taxes are NOT used to build the nation. They are used by fat cat ANC politicians to buy expensive cars, drink expensive booze and stay in the plushest hotels. Where they are placed in funds to help the poor, they are plundered by fatcats. Where they are earmarked for service delivery of any kind, the tenders are given to incompetents who pay kickbacks to the fatcats. They roll around in their satin sheets while outside the people who put them in power are wiping their noses on mouldy wet blankets trying to stay warm in a flooded tin shack. They make me sick to my stomach.
A rough approximation is that 75% of the country’s taxes are paid by 1.2m people.
My marginal tax rate is the following.
40% Marginal income tax
14% VAT
Rates and taxes on property
Sin taxes
Implicit taxes (Paying for medical aid and private security)
Toll roads, Eskom subsidies etc.
For every R1 increase I get between 60% to 70% goes to taxes and for that I get very little in return…
You say it as if it were the truth…
Charlene you see the world through DA spec now????! I live in a township KwaMashu and I know for a fact that all families of mine from me -my grnadmas house, my uncles-my 3(their houses and family houses) college friends-my aunts house - have converted to prepaid electricity - meaning we pre-buy it so (KNOWING VERY WELL THAT YOU TALKING ABOUT BLACK PEOPLE WHEN YOU SAY-as HELEN ZILLE said it- WHITE PEOPLE FUND THE BLACK PEOPLE OF THIS COUNTRY.)
Balance these for me __ Do we use water for swimming pools-do we live on credit cards and plunge the whole world into recession- if you gonna make sweeping statements sisi balance them so we won’t feel that you are prejudiced. I know people(in the hostels) use stolen electricity but are we to formulate opinion based on a segment of a population and pass it as the utmost truth.
Remember John Pilger ‘”It is not enough for journalists to see themselves as mere messengers without understanding the hidden agendas and myths that surround it”
You talk about ‘tax’ when what you mean is ‘income tax’. Every South African (or visitor) who buys something in a shop pays VAT, which is tax which goes to state coffers.
I’m a skilled South African and I don’t want any special favours to make me feel good and stop me emigrating. What we need is some patriotism amoungst skilled South Africans and a desire to assist our conpatriots who are struggling to live.
Shacks and desperately poor people are not a natural phenomenon, they are a by-product of the economic system that we have in the country. Some got rich and some got poor!
Its unfortunate that those who are rich have adopted a “I’m alright Jack” attitude and now want to turn their back on their country and fellow citizens.
And one thing we must always remember is that, unless you are a doctor, nurse,teacher etc; work is a priviledge and many would be more than happy to have the privilege of having a job good enough to enable them to pay tax.
If Charlene meant to imply that only white people pay tax, I didn’t read it that way.
I no longer earn enough to pay tax. I used to be in the highest tax bracket. My place has, no doubt, been taken by a black middle class person.
I’m not sure I have the energy to start proving that my income is so low that I deserve social benefits and a lower electricity rate. But I shall certainly take advantage of pension benefits as soon as I am able.
The fact is, that annual school fees of R200 seldom buy the same education as fees of R20 000.
A job of any sort makes families more able to buy over-the-counter medicine themselves, feed themselves, clothe themselves and house themselves, if not spectacularly.
What this country needs is JOBS. A job takes a loiterer off the street, even if it does not put him/her into a tax bracket. It gives self-respect. It also takes that person off social benefits.
Win-win!
Personally, I believe that we don’t have the luxury of worrying too much about what Obama and his crew are up to. We should all be doing something more to put this country right: whites, blacks and those disparate people that apparently lie in-between. We are all South Africans and, quite frankly, I am sure most of us would prefer to live peacefully and watch our children thrive, than anticipate a future hell!
Philippa, who always, always reads racism into columns written by whites, does it again. My dear, your children obviously haven’t been allowed near a township school, or you would know what causes the despair among those of us who have kidsin those schools: they are terrible. Yes, there are one or two exceptions - I know of one great primary school myself, guided by the fabulous headmaster named Buthulezi - but on the whole, they are poorly resourced and often staffed by a bunch of incompetents who couldn’t find work in the private sector. Last year, my child’s Grade 11 geography teacher did not turn up for several months! Meanwhile, friends speak of ex-Model C schools attended mostly by white children due to their position in the suburbs, which are breaking down. This is due to the SYSTEM and MANAGEMENT, Lipinski, not to the race of attendees or teachers!!
And you can accuse Charlene of many things, but she’s not a racist. I am sure the term middle clas as she uses it embraces Asians, whites, and blacks - whatever their colour, a couple of million tax payers simply cannot support the needs of 46 million.
And by the way, if I was going to be race-conscious, I’d point out that it’s often minorities - Muslims are one example - who invest time and money in charity. Those black middle-classers don’t seem to see that they have a responsibility to the poor, too.
@Alan - I agree wholeheartedly with your assertion that we all pay tax. My bleat is that we get so little in return. I have always been a fighter against injustice, but that injustice comes in many disguises. There is a marked increase in ill feeling against those that are perceived as being ex supporters of apartheid.
Personally I find it extremely racist when people assume that the colour of your skin automatically determines your politics. I want a free and fair country for all! This may help us to feel better about being one nation and will bear positive fruit in the long run.
We need to find ways of easing the predicament the poor find themselves in until our country can generate some economic momentum. It is possible, look at Japan and Korea, at how quickly they managed to rise out of there hell. It doesn’t happen overnight though and negative attitudes from any quarter will only serve to hurt our efforts. Aluta Continua!!
Theoretically poor people should pay less VAT then rich people as the good required/deemed essential are VAT free ie fresh fruit and vegetables. Since poor people aren’t spending their cash on so called luxury items they should pay less VAT, VAT sin taxes are all so called voluntary taxes, income is not
@Pissed off …”They roll around in their satin sheets while outside the people who put them in power are wiping their noses on mouldy wet blankets trying to stay warm in a flooded tin shack. They make me sick to my stomach.”
I too feel sick in the stomach … that those poor people KEEP voting the dinosaurs into power. THAT is what needs to be analysed and understood.
@Philippa … black middle class people are also capable of emigrating. And some do. If things get worse, so will others. If things get even worse, so will a lot more … I have travelled this continent stukkend and I know that the dream of so many people is to just cross the line … into the developed world.
Well written Charlene,it goes without saying that you will get lambasted for this. The presently advantaged will,so will the “I’m so sorry” previously advantaged. But I think they all miss your point. Democracy and freedom is DEAD,everywhere. Politicians are the new Kings and queens of our world,enriching themselves at the detriment of the masses. Our taxes go nowhere other than in the pockets of “the big mouths” of our so called leaders.Why can we not wake up and smell the coffee, we have to get rid of them now,a system of educated voting needs to be introduced all over the world. Your vote gets counted depending on your level of education. No more presidents only managers instated by the people for the betterment of the people. Only then will we live in true peace and harmony. I dont care what anyone says,nobody wants to work for someone else.Life is short we dont have the time for long term political plans that never happen,we live now and it is our constitutional right to be safe,happy and fed by our own hands and not dictated to by people we so called put in power.”Bastille” day is coming and it is coming fast, just ask the politicians,why they are spending 300k a month on security,surely they are the peoples beloved elected or maybe not.
Charlene, those SARS figures do not reveal anything!
- It does not tell us that “potential” emigrants are the primary tax base.
- It does not tell us the percentage of individual taxes vs corporate taxes.
- It does not give us ANY breakdown of the percentage of income taxes vs VAT vs other taxes
Did it ever occur to you that the drop in tax revenue is due to the SHRINKING ECONOMY - job losses, reduced growth, the world wide recession? How do you think SA’s revenue shortfall is compared to other developed countries?
“..emigration is not difficult. ”
Wanna bet? Almost ALL first world countries have closed their doors and even clamping down on asylum seekers. A minor exception being Canada, a revolving door for immigrants since they cannot tolerate the brutal winter. Sorry, Charlene, there is no place to run to!
@Mark
Please spare me. You want me to believe Finweek’s spin on their “tax projections” over SARS? Huh?
Seems the information is all reasonably valid and it is probably true that everyone who buys things is likely to pay VAT. It is also probable that more than half of those taxpayers [individual] to whom you refer are probably black and feeling the effects of progressive tax limiting upward mobility to anyone reasonably honest.
Think of us all as turtles being slowly cooked in water that gradually gets hotter and hotter and that we are somewhere on the increasingly hot end of the heating scale right now.
Since the system is inherently unsustainable, and within your 8 year period of grace the economy drifts about in a probable state of stagflation the outcome is likely to be hugely unpleasant…
The probability is that some fall guy will be needed to compensate those who have grown used to looting the State and as the funds run dry as they seem to be doing then kaboom… someone has to suffer the consequences… The 60,000 dollar question is WHO?
The curious fate of the well-known liberation activist & sympathiser BG… late of Escom… rather hints at what happens when the back is against the wall… This reflexive labeling response more than hints at the probable outcome when ordinary people reach the ends of their tether… as Socrates observed “ordinary people would put a man to death and bring him back to life again, if they could, with equal indifference to reason [ref Crito… Plato]
“You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.”
Adrian Rogers, 1931
“You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.”
Adrian Rogers, 1931
You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy
You’re right on most points Charlene, just on the Russia/Iran story you are not: the Ruskies are more reliable as far as nuclear materials go, there is no muslim fanatacism there to blur judgments when it comes to the crunch..
Five years after being utterly nuked to submission was all the Japanese needed to rebuild itself into not only being the biggest, richest regional economy in Asia but the second-biggest, second-richest economy on the whole earth.
Five years is all it took for West Germany, bombed to rubble almost in its entirety and split asunder, to become the biggest, richest, most prosperous economy in Europe.
Interesting article, however you got some of your facts wrong:
“10.6% of the US’s 250 million people and three million out of work” - The US population is closer to 350 million and the unemployment rate is 10.2%, not 10.6%.
“During his election campaign (Obama), he promised to pull troops out of Iran and Afghanistan and to close Guantanamo Bay, but the man who is this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner has fulfilled none of those campaign promises” - The withdrawal from Iraq is on schedule as Obama promised in the Presidential campaign. I don’t recall Obama ever promising withdrawal from Afghanistan until the job is done.
“President Barack Obama, whose star is sadly waning as election promises go unfulfilled has an $85 billion healthcare bill to operationalise.” There are several versions of healthcare legislation currently pending. The cost of these range from $800 billion to 1.2 Trillion US dollars.
No but common sense does. They are the most financially capable and as such they can most easily immigrate. Also generally have the most skills.
No it does not, but it doesn’t have to. In any sufficiently advanced economy personal and corporate taxes are highly interlinked. Extremely co-dependent. And corporate profitability and continued existence is subject to the availability of skilled labour.
No, but again it doesn’t have to. VAT is a slightly regressive tax, but the ones in the 40% marginal bracket still pays substantially more than those that do not pay income tax.
You are quibbling over unimportant details rather than arguing your case. You are playing devil’s advocate for no apparent reason. Why?
It is proven time and again that 10% the population pays the most VAT as they have the disposable income.
Simple maths shows that combined child, disability, education, water and electricity grants are more than the VAT paid by the poor in any calendar year.
Just find a copy of the last budget at your local newspaper, do the sums yourself and then tell us who pays the balance of the countries needs that the poor also use i.e. Roads.
Get hold of stats SA and ask how many quailfied trades people have left the country? Then ask many of those were Black or other than white. You will be shattered at number that have left in the past four years.
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Charlene Smith is a multi-award-winning journalist, author and media consultant. Her latest book is "Committed to Me." She writes for newspapers and magazines in South Africa and internationally and has had 13 books published, one of which was shortlisted for an Alan Paton award.
Television documentaries for which she has worked have also won major international awards.
She has worked as a broadcast journalist and radio-station manager. Smith's areas of expertise are politics, economics, violence, women's and children's issues and HIV and Aids. She is frequently invited to address conferences around the world. www.charlenesmith.net
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Summed up a sad situation very well… do you think any influential politicians will actually read this & say to themselves “wait a minute…”
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