Far from a nation of strivers, Australians see their future getting harder rather than easier
n closing one of the more egregious tax breaks for the mega-rich, the Albanese government is staring down the aspiration paradox: the proclivity of people to vote for the sort of life they wish they lived rather than the one they materially do.
In general, would you say that Australia is heading in the right direction or is it off on the wrong track? Howard showered his battlers with direct government payments, targeted “tax relief” and, as the economy benefited from the fruits of the Hawke-Keating economic reforms, constructed a new system of private capital underwritten by tax concessions for property, share and super accumulation.
Scott Morrison then deployed those unfair taxes against a demoralised Labor, forcing it to “rule out” any meaningful rebalancing and luring it into voting in support of even more regressive measures. These findings are significant. Super might be the first toe in the water, but it is an instructive test case of the sort of political battles Labor is going to have to win if it is to be a government worthy of its nomenclature.
A final table suggests that if it ever existed, the aspiration paradox might be past its use-by date.This slightly confusing table cross-references people’s current self-identified financial state of mind with their future expectations on retirement.
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