Who Is Going to Pay for All This?

Who is going to pay for all this sh!t?

With sweeping policies regarding government spending aimed at helping businesses and unemployed during COVID19

The government is having over 700m to airlines (probably more in the end if virgin gets cash too)

130billion in their job seeker program

Millions more in beefed up welfare payments

On top of that extra funding is urgently needed to our healthcare system incase this crisis worsens

Over 1-2million jobs will be lost and unemployment is tipped it hit around 10%

Pretty much every industry bleeding money it asking for a hand out

Keep in mind we just had horrible bushfires….

When this is all said and done who is going to pay for this?

I agree with most of what the government is trying to do because desperate times call for desperate measures though i cant help but feel that we will be incredibility screwed for generations to come…eventually the dust will settle and who will fit the tab because we will essentially be in the worst financial position Australia has been in most of our lifetimes…. And unlike the GFC we aren’t in a mining boom to help us out…

Update

ill add this should Australia stop all international aid, refugee re-settlement programs and essentially humanitarianism for at least the next 5 years?

Comments

    • Welfare cutbacks hurt more people than taxation increases

  • +2

    Really well explained here: https://brrr.money/

    • thank you for bringing this into my life

  • +1

    Who is going to pay for all this sh!t?

    the usual, SINK/DINK.

  • +6

    And in 6 months it'll be fire season again. Crazy.

    Gst is probably going to go up. Those of us with jobs are going to get taxed to (profanity).

    China should pay.

    • that sounds a lot like xenophobia

      • +1

        China caused this and has (profanity) the entire world. After this is over they will have record profits because so much needs to be manufactured.

        Ooooo cant say anything tho because blaming them might be racist.
        When it started they were locking doctors up for reporting what was happening.

        • -2

          never happened - fake news

          • -1

            @petry: It did though. And the who is in their pocket.

  • +4

    Remember last year when we were making a big deal about huge corporations off-shoring all their revenue and paying (profanity)-all tax? I 'member.

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-21/how-amazon-australia-…
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-01/google-facebook-make-…

    Might have been handy to have a few policies in place for that right about now.

  • All of us…. its a war

    • On the tax payer. They'll drop things like super contribution concession which will push more people into arms of age pension which will make it even more unaffordable wacking future generations.

  • Looks like our kids, will pay for it when they grow up and go to workforce. They will increase the cash rate, cpi and higher tax. The whole thing b will become really greed. Because they don't want to print more $$$$ because the value become like Vietnam Dong….

    • kids are already gonna pay for climate change the pandemic won't be that bad.

      in any case, lifestyles or living conditions have improved, through the ages.

      Lots of people think boomers have great lives but a lot of health and safety wasn't around.

      And people had to make do with less consumer goods/services.

      Going out for a 20 dollar breakfast wasn't a common thing.

  • -4

    Us, our children, our children's children, and their grandchildren. We'll all be paying for this for a very long time. But that's just money. The real question is, who will be fighting for our flag once the world goes into another global war? China screwed us. The US will go after them. We'll have to pick a side. Eventually arms will be drawn. The coronavirus and the ensuing stimulus package is going to cost a lot more than money.

    Hopefully on the other side of this we all learn to change, especially the progressive woke crowd. Me and my children will not die so future generations can keep making the same mistakes.

  • Libs doing what they do best, spending like drunken sailors.

    • +2

      Copper to the node style ;)

  • +1

    Maybe they'll finally tax big business and the 1%

    Likely? poor people

  • +1

    How is this going to be paid for:

    • reduced govt services (in quality and quantity) in the future or sold off to private sector and what was previously free will have to pay for.
    • turbocharged sale of more govt assets.
    • higher taxes —-> that's an easy one.
    • privatisation of any government service feasibly possible, which we will need to pay a profit run firm for
    • relaxation of foreign investment rules to encourage overseas capital flow to Australia —-> more foreign owned Oz firms/land
    • on-shore gas mining will be agreed to regardless of the environmental effects —-> fracking all systems go, anywhere and anytime

    In short…there is no such thing as free money and your kids standard of living will be much lower than yours.

  • +3

    A simple fact inherent in human beings is migration. You can try to fight it. You can try to stop the sun from rising and setting.

    The meta for migration is to manage it. If you block it all you are doing is setting up a system where the migration that does happen is out of your hand and create a costly system to manage the blocked migration.

    If you provide no management at all, you get a system without regulation much like big business without regulation, and atrocities and trafficking happen.

    The meta is to manage it. This is in response to OP's "edit"
    Also I'd like to mention that this OP is big on creating controversial topics to stir the proverbial poop.

  • +3

    I hope the housing market crashes. I'd kinda like to be able to afford a house in my lifetime.

    • It will crash, but unless you have a few 100k in cash you won't be able to afford it anyway. That is one of the reasons its coming down, nobody is paying rents and nobody is going to buy the excess stock on the market

    • +1

      1 million dollar 3 bedroom homes will drop to 900k/800k. Still be expensive

      There just is too much wealth/demand in the world.

      • +2

        Silliness too when you consider a house is just a bunch of bricks, wood and some land.

  • +1

    UNPOPULAR OPINION (yes I know)

    Why should the Government bail out businesses, was this a mistake the Government made? Did they accidentally release the COVID-19 in Australia?
    Every Business should have a Contingency Plan, a Disaster Recovery or Business Continuity Plan - it's Business 101.
    The Government hasn't banned online orders and Delivery, so why can't their business continue to operate in a takeaway model?

    This is the essence of a 'business' the high risk involves much higher returns on the face of chances of greater losses too.
    On the other hand, people that opted to work PAYG/Wage chose a conservative risk approach where the risk is outsourced to their employer - simple economics.

    Question, when these businesses in their peak 'hey-days' were raking in $10,000-$50,000/week net income, did they stop to give a little bonus Tax Back to the Government? Source show that one of the biggest tax-dodgers are business owners, so seems you can never win with them. Most of them that made big profits went and bought Yachts, mansions and super cars - now they're crying for $100,000 cash give-outs? GFd

    Every business owner has a responsibility to manage their balance sheet and take a hit, adapt and change their business model whichever way fit.
    These days I still walk around various bustling eateries demanding "cash only" - let's see how they go now when they've been reporting $80K revenue to the ATO.

  • -2

    Who is going to pay for this sh1t? If Govt is smart, they would pour as much funds to finding a vaccine. Once found, sell it to the rest of the world and recoup our 130billion plus. Special price for China 50k per vaccination. No need for fiscal policies, nor increase in GST, no special levies, nada.

  • If it last for 60 days then that's just 2 months of lost productivity. Surely that's just 2 years of annual leave gone. I don't think it's like generations to come as you say.

    • uh… do you think the world just resets like the push of a button? even as cases level, restrictions will remain in place for a long while. you can't do things like randomly open up international tourism again without careful consideration of who's coming and staying

  • Indian nationals and or indian students? I spotted some market research on them the other day on them. India is the current hot market with their middle class boom. A lot of Aussie educational institutions are already prepared to switch their focus from China to India.

  • +8

    Who is going to pay for all this sh!t?

    Exactly the same "who" that is going to pay for the 1.5 trillion dollars for our new Nuclear Submarines running on Diesel.

    The money "spent" for this crisis is absolutely chicken feed in comparison.

    • +2

      If the Navy needs any Coles 4 cents a litre off dockets for diesel purchases, i got their back. Accumulated heaps due to hoarding

  • +5

    Get rid of franking credits, negative gearing and increase business taxes and we'll pay it off in a few years

    • +1

      Want to kill the stock market more? say good buy to super for anyone retiring in the next 10 years…

    • Won't business start charging more for products and services? Pretty sure businesses will pass on the extra cost to consumers.

    • I suppose none of these things will personally affect you

  • +3

    The taxpayer who isn't a recipient of the benefits

    • +1

      Too bad $1500 a fortnight just bought all the votes they need to stay in power to screw over those who actually foot the bill.

    • +1

      You think not dying is a benefit?

      • It's really sad, isn't it, DIETITIAN? So many OzBargainers whinging what about me, me, me?

      • Paying the debt back will be a long and cruel journey. You might wish you were dead instead. Just pointing it out that it isn't a small sum.

  • +1

    People can stick the crown (corona) virus where the sun dont shine.

    9 million dead per year from hunger and hunger-related diseases
    https://www.theworldcounts.com/challenges/people-and-poverty…

    Air pollution contributes to 8 million deaths each year
    https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-air-pollution-makes-people-…

    • Well, at 8,000 deaths a day, should get 3 million minimum at year's end.

  • -1

    If there is sufficient evidence the CCP Chinese Government deliberately hid the CoronaVirus (as they did during SARS outbreak in early 2000) then they should be fined by an international court. If they whinge and complain about it, than all Western Countries need to apply trade sanctions to stop them from the repeat BS

  • I'll shout the first round

  • +2

    My answer will be everyone and already paid. It's the benefit of having your own currency, you can just devalue it immediately making everyone a bit poorer for the benefit of all people.

    Money is just a promise, and promises can be made out of thin air at any time. That's the nature of money and it's good.

  • +19

    Only one comment in this whole topic has mentioned Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). Anyone interested in the current situation should search for relevant articles online as to how this applies to the current situation.

    Where the government is currently getting money for these support measures is:

    • The Government normally borrows money by issuing bonds. A bond is a debt security under which whoever issues the bond (the government in this instance) is obliged to pay the bond holder interest (the coupon) and repay the principal at a later date. Typically bond purchasers can be local and foreign entities, banks, super funds, etc.
    • The Government now has an additional requirement with these handouts to pay people a lot of money to support the economy such as unemployed/job seekers, hospitals, free childcare, etc.
    • Recently the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has stepped in as a buyer of government bonds. The RBA has basically said it will buy as many bonds as it will take to keep the three-year bond rate at 0.25% whilst supporting orderly functioning of the market (the RBA has also been purchasing bonds of various other maturity dates). The RBA has been buying somewhere around $2-$5 billion in bonds every day since March 20. They can purchase bonds from bondholders in the secondary market such as the big four banks or fund managers. The RBA has also purchased circa $5m in state government bonds to assist with market liquidity.
    • Interest rates have decreased in the market because when the RBA buys bonds, the price of the bonds goes up and the yield (interest rate) decreases.
    • Where does the RBA get the money to buy bonds? In the old days you'd think of a cash printing press. Now the RBA literally creates money from thin air by adding digits on a computer screen. This may seem crazy but it's what is currently happening. An RBA official creates money by adding a few digits on a computer screen. That is how the central bank adds to the money supply. Money then makes its way to the economy via the commercial banking system (the Bank of England has a good article on this called "Money creation in the modern economy" which was published in 2014, similar factors apply within the Australian financial system, I've just referenced a BoE paper as it's well written and easy to understand). The RBA creates the money and transfers that money to the organisation that it buys the bonds off. The RBA retains the bonds on its balance sheet and the organisation gets the money. It's money made from thin air to keep borrowing costs low.

    • The RBA (and our monetary system) is not like a household budget. People thinking of surpluses and deficits are thinking of a household budget where your cash is fixed, your income is generally somewhat fixed and you have to spend less than you earn. Thinking of the government budget as the same as a household budget is a huge misconception which is popularised by the media and the politicians in parliament as this helps their approval ratings because most people in the general population think of a 'surplus' as the same as their household budget without taking into account the fact that this concept doesn't apply to the government. Let's put it this way - what would you do if you could just log in to your internet banking and add a few digits to your bank balance and just go out and buy what you need with your bank card? That's basically what the RBA is doing at the moment via asset purchases (Quantitative Easing). This is completely different to the notion of a household budget.

    • This then creates a net supply of financial assets.
    • At the current purchasing rate the RBA could end up owning around 15% of nominal government bonds outstanding by the end of this financial year.
    • People think about inflationary pressures of 'printing' money (e.g. using my household budget example before, e.g. maybe if I had the ability to create unlimited money myself then eventually people would find out and would ask for higher prices for their goods/services (inflation)?). In reality the economy is so slow at the moment that this negates inflationary pressure and if the economy was turning around (e.g. unemployment reducing) then the RBA could stop buying bonds in any case at that point.
    • Whilst they may try to do so (via tax and other revenue), there is actually no need for the government to repay the debt (bonds). It in no way comprompises the ability for the government to spend in future and in no way burdens future generations. The RBA can keep making money out of nothing as long as there is no change to inflation. If it's not inflationary then there's no reason to aim for a surplus in the future. In simple terms the government owes money to another part of government, so could just write this debt off if it wanted to.

    Summary:

    • Australia has Monetary sovereignty, which is the power of the state to exercise exclusive legal control over its currency.
    • The government is able to obtain money directly or indirectly by means of the RBA just typing money into existence via a computer keyboard.
    • The RBA is part of the government to an extent. Whilst the Reserve Bank is responsible for its own budget, which gives the Bank financial independence from the government, Reserve Bank as the central bank is still accountable to the Parliament for its actions.
    • At the end of the crisis the government just owes money to itself.
    • Government services don't need to be cut. Taxes don't need to be raised. As a worst-case scenario the RBA can just cancel the debt that one part of the government owes to another part of the government.
    • SO wait the government can just borrow money to itself to pay itself? wtf?

      there has to be come consequence to these actions otherwise why the hell done we do this all the time…?

      • +13

        Technically yes, the government can do this without consequence. The problem is if governments have unconstrained spending then this can tempt the government in power to spend to advance their own interests and if they do the wrong thing they will always expect bailouts when they get things wrong. That unlimited spending if it isn't done appropriately could in theory result in inflation with the politicians then not acting to control it.

        Zimbabwe had unconstrained inflation caused by sanctions and decisions made by their government; in the early days their inflation was just caused by economic growth but then Zimbabwe's leaders undertook a radical economic adjustment program in the late 90s with land reforms (evicting existing landholders and putting in their place locals with no farming experience/training, meaning a sharp drop in production, gvmt printing money to fund military activity, lack of confidence globally in their currency, collapse of their banking sector, government continuing to printing more money, etc). In summary the inflation in Zimbabwe was ultimately caused by a string of very poor government decisions.

        I'm sure that the 'top end of town' the wealthy individuals of our nation, would prefer to retain their wealth and not see their money eroded by the possibility of hyperinflation so they in the past also would have been more than happy to support an inflation band of 2-3% with nothing too radical happening in the economy to place this at risk.

        The problem is we don't really trust our politicians to do the right thing (not trusting politicians is basically ingrained in our society) so tying politicians to the idea that all spending needs to be funded by taxes or debt that needs to be paid back is a control mechanism of sorts. Otherwise they could, in theory, just go wild in their spending in order to buy votes and entrench themselves in power. The 'surplus and deficit' argument in many ways puts a debt limitation on the government as without it politicians could just spend on just about anything.

        That being said we do operate under a democratic system in Australia so we could as voters just vote out a government that wasn't doing the right thing by us. If the nation were to embrace the current economic stimulus and how it is being funded as a new normal rather than a one-off event then you'd have to trust the intelligence of the average voter to think beyond a short-term view though and there would definitely need to be an uplift in the standard of political dialogue in the country.

        So it's up to us to ask ourselves whether the decisions the government are making at the moment are in the best interests of the nation. I think the spirit of all of their current reforms certainly have the heart in the right place, to support the nation in a time of crisis with COVID-19.
        Unfortunately almost every journalist isn't reporting correctly on the government support packages, how they are funded, etc as they are reporting on a false burden of government debt. Most people don't really care though at the end of the day and only think about how these things impact them directly in the short-term.

        At the end of it all, assuming eventually the economy turns around, what happens is that the higher national debt is just dollars that the government has spent that haven't yet been used to pay taxes. If that makes sense? Or to phrase it differently, money put into circulation and not yet taxed out of circulation. This money sits in the economy as cash and in dollar reserve accounts and treasury securities on the RBA's books as net money supply. Hopefully the crisis is a learning lesson that during the good times we need to be building up our infrastructure, economy and household balance sheets (I say household meaning financial literacy and control for individuals to have buffers in place if they were to lose their jobs rather than live paycheck to paycheck, discourage individuals from borrowing their maximum amount without regard to risks, etc); to be able to deal with future crises whatever they may be.

        • +2

          The yanks have been doing QE since the 2008 fiasco and the banks have been doing 'fractional reserve banking' for at least 100 years which is the biggest reason for inflation and the loss of dollar value. Did you know that on March 26 the U.S. did away with the banks requirements to hold ANY reserves? So now the banksters can print as much as they want to without even the pretence of having anything to back it up with. IIUC.

          Though with all this money printing by government how long before the landless peasants ask the question "Why are we paying taxes"?

        • +3

          Two bloody good posts here.

          You only touch on the taxation side of things and its utility to control inflation through the destruction of money. Also, most people don't understand that government surpluses are generally bad things (assuming that inflation is in control) as they are either the result of over taxation and removal of money from the real economy or under-spending/under-servicing in the public sector. The government doesn't retain the surplus money in a bank account to spend during a rainy day.

    • +2

      Good reading. Cant believe i just read the whole thing. Longest comment I've ever read in ozb lol

    • Stagflation can cause this model to have negative consequences

    • Mostly good, but I disagree on a few points.

      • The RBA is not part of the government. They are an independent, private company, just like all Western Central Banks.
      • Australia does not control is own currency supply or the issuance of new currency, therefore it does not have monetary sovereignty.
      • At the end of the crisis the Australian people owes more money to the RBA.

      The more the stimulus, the more our country is owned by the banks the the greater the threat of asset bubbling and (eventual) hyperinflation.

  • +3

    taxpayers. hundred billions handout but most working people do not get a cent.

    emergency services and police workers are working harder and longer, get paid more and taxed more. higher risk of getting the virus with people spitting at them or abuse.
    The politicans do nothing for long hours but meetings and confusing speeches on tv. The politicans should take pay cut for that.
    A higher tax or tax deferral might be coming for taxpayers to foot this bill.

    worst off for workers, get redundancy payout and queue for the next government bailout.

    hang on tight, might be heading for a waterfall.

  • +3

    Surprise: when the government pays for things, it's different to how you "pay" for your groceries. Just as when the government has debt, it's not the same as you having a Mortgage

  • +2

    Australia stop all international aid, refugee re-settlement programs and essentially humanitarianism for at least the next 5 years?

    Right, so a pandemic happens, hundreds of thousands of people all over the world are going to die, and your plan is to lose our humanity?
    Stop being a selfish whiny racist ass.

  • +6

    Very stupid question. Who pays for the damages incurred during the Golf war? Who pays for the Subprime lending collapse which made a lot of people losing their life savings? Who pays for all those human waste like plastic, old fridge causing all the environmental disasters?

    Earth are taking a much needed breath and animals returning because of this.

    Your question will inciting radical behavior against many Chinese living in Australia. Who pays for the emotional damages caused because of race related hate and crimes????

    Stop this nonsense now! Mod should remove this topic at once.

    • +1

      who was in the golf war? Tiger woods?

      • +2

        Auto correct. And yes he is American too

      • I thought the Golf War was between Obama and Trump and who spent the most time on the greens.

  • +6

    Such blame mentality.

    You, when you don't practice good hygiene.

    If we are going to be specific, over 80% of our cases are from Europe, Americas and Cruise ships.

    Considering Europe was already bankrupt from the last GFC that America caused, and America are our puppet masters, and our border force let in the Rubby Princess, the only thing left is to blame ourselves and take responsibility.

  • Its simple, you and me, by increased medicare levy and GST…

    • Doesnt GST revenue go to the states and not the feds?

  • +11

    God this is honestly the most disgustingly selfish thing I've seen in weeks - and it's been a hard few weeks.
    Everyone worrying about their individual wealth, retaining their position in the classist hierarchy we get all frothy over in Australia. Heaven forbid we find some solidarity with one another. Big shock that your edit is typical dehumanising racist nonsense. You must be incredibly tedious to know in real life.

    • -6

      Personally attacking me i basically admitting you know i have a point…it is like debating 1-0-1

      If you are saying that i care about my personal wealth well then yes i do… and i care about my wealth more then other random ppls and im sure the feeling goes vice versa…

      ANYWAY

      But i will point out "Everyone worrying about their individual wealth" well then why have ago at me? if as you say 'everyone' then i dare say you think everyone is 'tedious in real life'

      Thus i leave you with these words of wisdom if everyone you meet is an a-hole then chances are they arent the A-holes ;)

      Have a happy easter

      • -2

        Think China should pay money to countries affected

        • Refer to Trump's Tweet yesterday. He is still trying to cast blame for the H1N1 Swine Flu that "supposedly killed 17000 people" that originated from the US. He is trying to blame the American Inspector General for the H1N1 Swine Flu. Literally, 2020 will be known as the year of pass the fking blame.

          https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/12475453587056640…

          You guys understand how general politics works though, right? Try to divert the anger from the general public onto ANYONE else to divert blame from your own inaction for the benefit of election time.

          • @CalmLemons: It is never Trump's fault. He is just the messenger.

      • I "attacked" you, because your attitude represents the worst aspects of humanity. The base level thinking it takes to start blaming others when things get hard deserves to be "attacked" and ridiculed. Grow up.

  • Government should not bail out banks and airlines. They should invest and temporarily take part ownership in these businesses so that when all of this is over, they are able to recuperate their money back through a sale of shares. The market will bounce back so the government can also use these profits to pay off welfare debts. This will never happen as our politicians are already bought out by said industries.

  • +1

    One thing that's become clear to me is that people just havent been encouraged to save. Are so many people living hand to mouth?

    • +8

      People? How about business? Lose one day and they're bankrupt lol

      • +1

        That is because they have leveraged up. Including a lease on that fancy car that needs to be paid.

        I find it quite interesting that everyone flocks to the person who drives the expensive car believing they are a great business person (not realising it is the first to go when business dries up) while the person driving the 10 year old Toyota must have something wrong with them.

        I'd rather give my work to a trades person with a 10 year old ute than one with a flashy new hilux. Because either the 10 year old ute tradie is giving away some extra or his got enough of a cash buffer he doesn't have to cut corners on you so he can meet all his car / mortgage / card payments.

    • +3

      Don't know what the figures are but I'm sure that the number isn't insignificant.

      Some people don't know how to manage money. Like landlords who — when their tenant suddenly can't pay rent — can't cover the mortgage themselves for a period of time whilst they look for another tenant.

    • There is no accolade in saving, everyone just thinks you are stingy because that day will never come.

      People have basically learnt to leverage up, get all the gains and if things go wrong run to the government for a bail out.

      CEOs have been paying themselves massive amounts. When the economy tanks and their companies go under then run to government for a ball out not mentioning their multi million annual salaries.

  • +1

    Of course it's you and your children, it's sad but it's true.

  • It can be Funded by printing money but so called Expert will force Govt. barrow money by mortgaging citizen

  • While not being a scummo supporter, I am glad he eventually took a consultative approach and worked with unions and businesses. Were this action not taken, we’d still all be ‘paying’ for it, just in a much harsher way with lots more long term suffering.

    • WE raise taxes, USA Texas with guns at commoners :)

  • Whoever brought the virus into human society

    • Bats?

      • What? Bats are innocent! If Bats are to be blamed, why don't you blame immune system?

  • +1

    who would pay for it if the government didn't do this and the country fell into economic ruin? That would cost more than the stimulus.

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