17 May

Some fun facts about welfare. - far and away the largest welfare cost is the aged pension - unemployment benefits are one of the smallest welfare costs and will remain stable for at least the next 4 years - welfare fraud runs at about 0.03% of all claims - in the last 20 years the proportion of the adult population receiving some form of benefit has dropped from 34% to 27% - childcare costs is one of the biggest growth categories, but is still tiny compared to the aged pension. And is a cost that is being borne disproportionately by the taxpayer, and not by business, and is mostly necessary because both parents have to work to survive, and housing is unaffordable due to other massive tax breaks to property investors (business welfare) - tax exemptions for baby boomer super are now already larger than the cost of the aged pension (over $40 billion per year), are still climbing, and flow overwhelmingly to the wealthiest boomers. Next time you see a politician try to convince you the country is going broke because of drug-taking people on the dole, imagine them rotating on a spit over an open fire. Works for me.