Evan11 said:
while i realise this is joking and slightly sarcastic, it is this logic i am against. i think i am perfectly entitled to be against welfare, and personally (yes im going to put it out there) i think welfare should be revamped. I disagree that welfare is a social contract and i also disagree that the majority of people who receive welfare will more than pay it back. i think a lot of people rort the system. I also do not believe that the majority of people choose to be taxed so that their hard earned dollarrs (sorry bout the cliche) can go into welfare. i think that to say so is taking an overly optimistic (not that this is such a bad appraoch) view to human nature, and as much as i would like to believe in a communist philosophy where everyone is equal, i fail to see it as a fair system when people working harder than others do not get adequate benefits comparativley. if you would like guys, we can start a new thread re: the welfare debate, and im sure we can get some true god points flowing on either side. its a debate i would be very intersted in being a participant in. (btw apologies for rambling, poor grammar, spelling etc i was at a friends 18th)
Thats complete bullshit.
For the purposes of what im going to point out to you, im going to assume that Centrelink = Independent Youth Allowance (as that is what the majority of students that are receiving benefits are receiving them under).
Independent Youth Allowance students you around $10,920 p.a (max).
On this you also still pay tax (about $700).
Lets assume that a student receives this for the entirety of their studies (4 years as an example). So, they are receiving around $40,000 from the government.
After graduation, if they work earning the average grad salary of around $35,000pa, they will pay tax of around $5,000. Thats $15,000 repaid over 3 years. With pay increases over the next few years, this remaining $25,000 should be repaid within the next 4 years (at around $6,000 tax payable per year).
So basically, the transition from student to working in paid employment for 8 years earning the extremely conservative figure of $35,000 will ensure that the amount of money received through Centrelink is paid back.
Even if you were to fail at scoring a job, and you worked in retail for the rest of your life, you'd still pay back the government in less than a third of your full working life. Then the taxpaying ex-student has to look forward to roughly another 30-35 years of contributing taxes.
From a financial perspective, thats a pretty good investment by the government. They would be idiots not to provide support their future taxpayers to assist with them in their studies, and ultimately helping them in receiving a high taxable income.
What im saying is that you have no idea at all how the system works, because you're still so young. The numbers certainly dont support your view.
