Miners, charity and corporate tax

[think positive]

Nice try yourself, but you're a knowledge worker and that's your bias. So was I but I acknowledge that we need blue collar workers as the foundation.

Bingo

[pietillidie]

^In case you missed the follow up, see below. That view couldn't be more wrong at every level you care to analyse. My final comment:

It's clearly the complete, absolute 100% opposite! As per the chart above, mining is rubbish at creating jobs, including non-knowledge jobs. Even worse, there's a shortage of workers in stable, long-term, sustainable non-knowledge work including the trades, construction, healthcare, agriculture and high-tech manufacturing. Mining is plainly a job destroyer for non-knowledge workers because its capital-employment ratio is pathetic.

Even worse, it's a misallocator because jobs it provides are unstable, subject to booms and busts, and remotely located.

And it's not the 00s; all good jobs involve technology. The entire decade has been defined by the merging of software and hardware, whether in healthcare, agriculture, construction or manufacturing.

Anyhow, forget it. I like you guys too much to keep going on about it.

[think positive]

'Anyhow, forget it. I like you guys too much to keep going on about it.'

6 pages! hmmmm, remind me never to get in a short tiff with you!

[Skids]

I'm bemused by the anger directed toward the mining industry. An industry I've been involved in for over 2 decades.
I'm wondering how many mine-sites you've visited PTID?

A large percentage, whilst being 'remote' are also the centrepieces for large towns; Kalgoorlie, Port Hedland, Karratha etc.
Some of the larger remote ones are like small towns with; gyms, pools, taverns and shops. Roy Hills catering provider employees over 250 people alone (cleaners, gym instructors, cooks, gardeners etc).

We were basically the only people using airports (and keeping the aviation industry afloat) for almost 2 years.

My favourite stat they talk on TV, the Hilux is Australias number 1 selling ute... that's because the miners buy thousands of them every year. I don't rate them at all and I'd never buy one, but there you go, they're the countries top selling car.

Saying - "mining is a labour black hole that pisses a ridiculous amount of capital against the wall for a pultry handful of jobs" is a tad off too I reckon. Around 15% of the countries apprentices employed today are working in mining.
Supply companys, Like Reece Plumbing Supplies, have divisions totally dedicated to mining, employing thousands. You really do underestimate the employment created above the numbers you highlight.

"Mining is an Australian strength because it has been made an Australian strength", well, yes. We're the worlds largest producer of lithium and in the top 5 for producing; Iron Ore, Coal, Gold, Lead, Nickel & Zinc. We also have the largest deposits in the world of uranium. Why we don't embrace nuclear energy is baffling, but that's another story.

It's a bit like saying - Crayfishing is a Geraldton strength because it has been made a strength. Yeah, there's heaps of crayfish off the coast... and they catch them.

[pietillidie]

^I respect your expertise in mining as I do that of anyone who has developed a specialised career in anything important. It's highly admirable and the economy absolutely needs your expertise. You didn't personally cause Australia's sub-optimal industrial policy.

I've already answered you on specialisation: it's not the 1700s where economic specialisation is limited to the paddock next door. You clearly have choice because you have other industries and a good education system.

Can the many options for a more balanced industrial policy be presented any more starkly than the below?



https://australiainstitute.medium.com/e ... a67baac540

[pietillidie]

Worthy related news:

More than 220 investors managing $30 trillion have signed up to a plan to push companies over social issues and human rights, with an initial focus on firms in the mining, metals and renewables sectors.

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/inves ... 40791.html

[What'sinaname]

Go woke, go broke.

You only have to look at current sustainability funds performance.

Climate Change Fund 12m return -28%
Global Leader Fund 12m return +13%

No opinions, no subjectivity, just facts.

[pietillidie]

^I presume you've chosen those two funds because the latter has unclean energy in its portfolio? If so, have you thought this through in any depth? Everyone knows dirty energy stocks and their downstream dependency industries are through the roof; it's not called inflation and an energy crisis for fun.

There's nothing to celebrate about Putin's war efforts artificially driving up global inflation and returns to fossil fuels, even as it turbocharges a global warming that is already costing trillions of dollars.

It is beyond me why any sensible adult would get so entangled in internet culture wars they would literally corner themselves into applauding things like inflation, the invasion of Ukraine and adverse weather events.

Get a grip, for goodness' sake.

Fortunately, like time, capital is forward-looking. Putin's energy blackmail will pass, and green funds will benefit from the continuing decline of green energy costs, update of energy grids and new battery technology.

You do know that $US30 trillion is something like 15-20 Australian economies, right? And you do know that many of those funds are leadership-driven in full knowledge of Putin's blackmail, but also knowing this transition has to happen?

[Skids]

Since my 20 day stay in Sir Charles Gardiner Hospital my view on the hoarding of money by mining moguls has taken a turn.

Whilst I have private health cover, my surgeon advised that with the complexity of my operation SCGH was the best equipped hospital to be operated on. My case was very unique, being only the 18th case in Australia since 1965.

The hospital was built in the 50's and is very run down to say the least. the place is constantly at capacity, as are all the hospitals around the country.

Laying in a hospital ward for 20 days gives plenty of time to research things. I looked into costs of building new hospitals and the fortunes of 2 of the countries wealthiest individuals; Gina & Twiggy.

Between the 2 of them, they have enough money to build 30 state of the art, 500 bed hospitals and they would still be multi billionaires. Not only that, the income they make from digging up and selling OUR dirt to China generates a profit of $2.43 million an hour... 24 hours a day, every single day of the year... that is profit, after every cost is covered.

What on earth are they going to do with all that money?

Nurses wages start at around $63,000pa. They're not even allowed to eat the hospital food that is prepared every meal.

I just can't wrap my head around this greed, I would love to see either of them spend a few nights in a shared room at SCGH.
Due to the numbers, young girls can end up placed in a room with 3 men. We had an instance in our room.... you can hear everybodies conversations, where a young girl, no more than 20yo was put in my room, there was a 60yo male terminal lung cancer patient and a 76yo skin cancer patient with dementia at the same time. She had some blood disease that was still not fully understood and had spread to all of her organs (something along those lines). Hearing her weeping late at night while the lung cancer patient continually coughed up blood and the old boy kept yelling out, asking the same questions was hard to listen to.

I kept notes in my diary of what transpired during my 20 night stay and it doesn't make for pretty reading.
Several times I had to seek help from mental health help lines due to the effects of what was going on around me... and I consider myself a very strong willed individual.

It just all seems so out of whack to me. I know we can't save the world, but surely we can look after some of the more vulnerable amongst us a hell of a lot better.

[David]

I’d totally agree, and that’s why I reckon they should be taxed much more than they currently are.

[stui magpie]

The WA Government is rolling in money courtesy of the mining royalties and their GST share. They have the cash to have the best public health service in the country, instead they have the worst. (narrowly behind Victoria who prioritises level crossings and continually fixing the same roads over Public Health)

[Skids]

The WA Government is rolling in money courtesy of the mining royalties and their GST share. They have the cash to have the best public health service in the country, instead they have the worst. (narrowly behind Victoria who prioritises level crossings and continually fixing the same roads over Public Health)

Exactly. Our existing hospitals such as SCGH and King Edward are in desperate need of repair. A new 500 bed hospital is also urgently required. Our current capacity is always fully loaded.

https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/an ... 510-p5d7hf

West Australian Premier Mark McGowan has handed down a budget surplus of $3.3 billion.
Thursday’s budget was the sixth consecutive surplus for WA.
WA exports representing close to 45 per cent of the national output.
Treasury forecasts for the iron ore price of $US74 a tonne, despite the commodity recently trading above $US110.

The state’s languishing healthcare system, struggling with ongoing ambulance ramping and staffing shortages, will receive $1.2 billion for major public hospital infrastructure projects. Another $840 million will be spent on increasing hospital services.

[pietillidie]

I’d totally agree, and that’s why I reckon they should be taxed much more than they currently are.

I think the compromise is to tax capital that's not in motion. 'Use it or lose it', a bit like taxing vacant second properties when there's a housing shortage. The problem is excess wealth locked up in safe-as-housing investment, which is a massive socio-economic co$k blocker and power accumulator.

Housing is the best example. Land and cities are finite, so subsequent generations are disadvantaged as population grows, which is an enormous looming menace for young people and creates generational lines of wealth and power. No one owns the nation and the city, and no one earns the right to have a bigger say in perpetuity. Allowing the hoarding of wealth at a risk-free premium (i.e., parked safe-as-houses capital) ruins the whole game for everyone. It's the complete opposite of competition.

A great example is AFL versus European football. In the latter, only a few billionaire or oligarch-funded clubs (and the odd fluke) can ever win. Do Aussie Rules players look like they're suffering because they can't earn what top soccer players earn? Happiness and success are highly elastic.

As you know my philosophy is that it's the quality of competition that matters most.

[think positive]

I’d totally agree, and that’s why I reckon they should be taxed much more than they currently are.

I think the compromise is to tax capital that's not in motion. 'Use it or lose it', a bit like taxing vacant second properties when there's a housing shortage. The problem is excess wealth locked up in safe-as-housing investment, which is a massive socio-economic co$k blocker and power accumulator.

Housing is the best example. Land and cities are finite, so subsequent generations are disadvantaged as population grows, which is an enormous looming menace for young people and creates generational lines of wealth and power. No one owns the nation and the city, and no one earns the right to have a bigger say in perpetuity. Allowing the hoarding of wealth at a risk-free premium (i.e., parked safe-as-houses capital) ruins the whole game for everyone. It's the complete opposite of competition.

A great example is AFL versus European football. In the latter, only a few billionaire or oligarch-funded clubs (and the odd fluke) can ever win. Do Aussie Rules players look like they're suffering because they can't earn what top soccer players earn? Happiness and success are highly elastic.

As you know my philosophy is that it's the quality of competition that matters most.

they do its called land tax. its also paid on any industrial land you own too. and its just been increased.

[pietillidie]

^Thanks. I knew some jurisdictions did that, but wasn't sure in Oz. So, what I'm saying is do that for all hoarded safe capital, not just housing.