Grappler Truth Teller Feller wrote on Oct 15
th, 2019 at 1:02pm:
minarchist wrote on Oct 15
th, 2019 at 1:44am:
No rebates or subsidies to any private company should result in companies competing against one another to offer the best prices, therefore eliminating the need to nationalise anything.
If child care prices have only risen since subsidies have been introduced, the logical thing to do would be to eliminate all subsidies and lower taxes accordingly. Reducing regulations in the sector and making it easier for Au Pairs to be sourced from South East Asia should reduce prices overall.
Meanwhile, reducing or eliminating tax deductions on investment properties, as well as offering tax incentives to individuals who move to areas with a population of less than 200,000 and more than 150 km from Brisbane, Melbourne or Sydney, should stagnate prices in the housing sector. This would reduce the need for some families for both partners to work and thus reduce or eliminate the need for childcare in the first place.
This below in regard to your amazing belief in pure market forces..... haven't worked yet and never will, and it's all theory ... continue your education...
Oh - so you want those who can afford them to be able to access Au Pairs on the taxpayer dime? Pure market forces my arse.... you mean only for the proletariat .... they can take market forces up the kazoo but the well-off must receive help to get Au Pairs and so forth...
Where in my post did I suggest that Au Pairs should be funded by the taxpayer? Why would I make such a suggestion if I'm suggesting that we should eliminate childcare subsidies, which you are mostly in agreement with except for certain members of the community?
I don't know how familiar you are with how Au Pairs work, but provided that you follow the government's requirements you can hire an individual from overseas to work for you for a minimum of $8 per hour to look after your children. In exchange, you have to at least provide them with a free room, free food and access to amenities, with most providing additional benefits such as free wifi, a TV and DVD player for their room, access to a vehicle on days off, etc. Most people with go through an agency to ensure that the government requirements are met. Child care subsidies cannot be used to pay for an Au Pair.
Au Pairs are just not being used by the Upper Class, they are being used by working class families who find the cost of child care too expensive and find that Au Pairs are on par or cheaper than child care. Most Au Pairs are sourced from European countries, I can't recall the exact reasons but I do know that the Au Pair needs to have valid health insurance in place and a minimum amount of cash in their bank accounts ($5000 I believe) before they can come to Australia. If the cash requirements were lowered, more Au Pairs could be sourced from Asian countries.
While I agree that the free market should work in most circumstances, I recognise that in others it can't be expected to work with any benefit. I'm suggesting that we eliminate child care subsidies as the cost of child care costs didn't seem to be an issue prior to the 1990s when subsidies were first introduced. Granted, there were other factors in place that didn't require child care unless there was no other choice, eg most people had family, friends or neighbours within a short distance they could rely on for little or no cost to look after their kids while they were at work.
Quote:You're on the autism scale somewhere, aren't you?
I think you'll find that there are no peer reviewed papers demonstrating a link between Autism and a belief in free market economics. However, there are plenty of examples of nations that go down the toilet when they reject most of the principles of free market economics.