Tuesday 27 February 2007

poor little rich people

i hate election time. there's a state election coming up on the 24th of March and so the ABC news is full of stories about what the leaders of each party are up to.

their second story tonight showed the opposition leader, peter debnam, who was today in western sydney 'highlighting the plight' of those struggling with high land taxes. they interviewed a woman who owns four properties in NSW and a fifth in QLD, who was complaining that she had to sell a property because the land taxes were just too high.

oh, my heart bleeds for you.

i'm sorry for the sarcasm, but honestly, how can that be considered a 'plight' when there are so many people who can't even afford one house, let alone five? are we supposed to feel sorry for property investors who are 'forced' to put rents up because they can't afford their mortgages? when those of us who are renting, and paying out huge proportions of our wages to do so, have no other option, and when so many people can't even afford to rent? how can people muck around with other peoples' homes, as though they are just renting for the hell of it?

i know my understanding of the market and economics is woeful at best, but surely housing is a basic human right. wouldn't it be great if our society was geared around the concept that everyone had to have one place to live that was theirs, before anyone else could have more than one property? (yeah, okay, you don't need to tell me why that wouldn't work or that i'm secretly a communist...i just think it would be fairer than wealthy people (who consider themselves hard done by) bitching about land tax for no good reason)

i'll stop ranting now. it makes me mad, but it also makes me grateful that i belong to a loving God who will always look after me. it doesn't mean he'll have me living in a 3 storey mansion, but i've never wanted for food or a roof over my head.

No comments :

Post a Comment