Yesterday was the school centenary and the weather did a display of turbulence for them that was appropriate to the changes over the last century, if less than wonderful for the organizers. Anyway we went up there and had some tea and cake, and bought two mutton chops which were the same vintage as the school but less cheerful about it. Sad. The island lamb is usual very good.
I see I am officially one of Australia's poorest 20% who earn 1% of her income(which is odd, seeing as we live frugally, but well) and Families minister Jenny Macklin proposes to spend 30 million to help me budget and give me a low interest loan to buy a new energy efficient fridge and a dryer to make up for the extra costs to me of the carbon tax. It's provoked rage about handouts to bludgers. Hmm. Well, speaking as a bloke who hasn't had any state handouts and isn't about to start, and has had to learn a bit about budgeting here is some free advice for Jenny Macklin. The place to start is not wasting 30 mill in the first place, because the the only piece of advice we poor blokes need is 'avoid debt of any kind'. All this will do is bump up the prices of fridges and dryers, and it's going to take many years of 'savings' to cover the expense of new things we do not need. Our freezers are - bar 1 - old and probably inefficient. But they were also second hand and dirt cheap. The cost of the extra power they use would take thirty years to pay the difference - by which stage they will have died.
Alas simple folk poorboy econ 101 is not a strong subject for far too many in power, and those they convince to give them their votes. Oz seems to have gone daft of late with the sillies running the gov't.
ReplyDeleteNot that y'all have a lock on them, of course...
One of the things going here is the Chevy Volt. A P.O.S. compact car but very electric so it runs $45,000.
The Gov't will give you a $7500 tax break to buy one, and they subsidize Chevy as well as even at $45.000 they cannot make profit on the thing. Some of the local and State gov'ts are also tossing in taxpayer money to entice folks to buy one.
Best thing....it will have No market for a used one.
The Battery will last "Up To 10 Years"(maybe).
It depreciates massively and in a few years will only be worth $10-15,000....but may need new batteries....at a cost of $20-30,000
Yep, it will literally cost right at or equal to the price for a new one to buy a used one and get it back up to snuff.
Our gov't think this is a economically viable and ecological sound method of running a car company that they took control of when it was crumbling under it's union driven overhead and poor management. The Gov't appointed management is certainly not any better.
Then again. Our Gov't once took over a Brothel in Nevada and managed to lose money.
Heaven help us if the government takes over the breweries ;-/
ReplyDeletecertain jokes about bottle parties and breweries do come to mind, do they not?
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