inequality sabbie What could be done about inequality By TIM COLEBATCH from The Age online, Wednesday 24 October 2001 What could be done... These are proposals for Australia in the next 10 years. No government could afford to introduce them overnight. 1. Adopt full employment as our prime economic goal, reduce taxes on jobs and increase places in TAFEs and training programs. 2. Restore adequate funding for Job Network, and offer intensive assistance, training and wage subsidies to all long-term unemployed. 3. End welfare poverty by raising unemployment and Austudy benefits above the poverty line by 2005. Introduce a single benefit for all adult Australians out of work, whether they are unemployed, disabled or retired. 4. Reduce poverty traps by cutting the clawback of income from unemployed people who get part-time work from 70 per cent to 50 per cent. advertisement 5. Wind back the draconian penalties for minor breaches of social security rules, making loss of benefits a last resort rather than a first resort. 6. Shift the Aboriginal debate from the past to the future, by formally apologising to the stolen generations and doubling efforts to give Aboriginal children an education that will help them find jobs. 7. Reverse the long rundown in public housing investment and collaborate with the private sector to find innovative ways to increase affordable rental housing. 8. Encourage large corporations to develop a code of corporate philanthropy and set aside part of their annual earnings for distribution to charities and community projects relevant to their business. 9. Focus tax reforms on reducing the average tax paid by Australians in the lower half of the income distribution, rather than those in the top 20per cent. 10. Finance increased spending on the poor by seeking increased revenue from the rich: close tax loopholes, crack down on tax avoidance and review the merits of new revenue sources such as taxation of wealth and large inheritances. ------------------------------------ and some days i lie awake jsut waiting for utopia. 011023 ... unhinged it will be the buzzword of the 2016 campaigns i watched the video of president obamas eulogy at reverend pickneys funeral and i cried. wept obama the beautiful orator showed up at that speech. obama the black man led a congregation in song. this white girl cried. we still measure things in these terms. i dont see things in those terms. i cried. 150707 ... unhinged thanks to the internet there are more of us that know what the world is like beyond our borders 'as for inequality compared to other nations, here too america's contemporary record is not enviable. among industrialized countries, the united states ranks fourth WORST in income inequality between top earners and those at the bottom, and inequality here is actually growing much faster than in those other nations. at present, the poorest half of americans own less of our nation's wealth than the poorest half in india, the uk, and china. in other words, inequality is actually more severe in america than elsewhere. importantly, it isn't just the gap between the rich and poor in america that signifies our nation's greater inequality relative to other countries; we also have the greatest wealth gaps between the *middle* class and the wealth of any industrialized nation. recent evidence suggests that this gap between the wealthy and the middle class is only getting larger, in fact; since 2010, middle-class wealth has remained flat, while wealth at the top has continued to grow, producing the largest gap between affluent and the middle class in recorded US history.' - tim wise 181003 ... unhinged (OBAMA was president while our inequality climbed to the highest levels in recorded US history; OBAMA did nothing about it but lecture the poor about getting better job training and taking responsibility for themselves, while his justice department let EVERY SINGLE banker that crashed our economy walk free. but it was racism and sexism that made trump president...funny how democratic identity politics lets neoliberal liars take no responsibility for their actions or lack thereof) 181003 what's it to you? who go blather from