Today our minister of economic affairs will go to parliament to answer questions posed by our elected representatives. We'll hear a lot of rhetoric and grandstanding. "The People" will be said a lot, because "we" apparently "want to know". There's lots of stuff I would like to know! But let's try to elevate the level of the discussion somewhat and not stray into personal attacks and being negative.
Several reports have been published by the economic affairs department that pertain to the state of the economy in recent times. One was an economic outlook 2012-2013 commissioned by government. One was an outlook 2012 -2013 prepared by government and one is the first half 2012 economic indicators report. I have provided the links below.
I don't think these reports have received the adequate attention from parliament or the respective ministers. Considering the talk of increased taxes, national health care and considering the Audit Chambers reports on the financial state of affairs I feel that these to reports should get a closer look.
First off, the commissioned report indicates that we can expect at best 0% growth. Our locally produced report indicates 5% growth. This may not seem like much but based on GDP as per the report of 1800 Million Nalfs per year that amounts to 89.5 Million Nafls, this difference is equal to 21% of governments budget and amounts to a difference Nafl 1830.00 per capita. Imagine what you could do with an extra $1000. I'm surprised these reports are published side by side with such a glaring difference. Did economic affairs read the reports?
Our governments budget of 420 million Nafls, equates to Nafl 10,244.00 per person. ( yes ten thousand guilders ) This is based on a population of 41000 as per these same reports. It would be nice to receive the census figures almost 2 years after the census was done. This number means that for the 41000 people living here ( again as per their own reports) Each person needs to produce Nafl 10244 FOR government. This in a combination of Taxes, Labor, price inflation etc etc. Call it what you like, it is taken from your productivity
On to economic indicators and specifically TOT. the economic indicators report shows that roughly 72 million guilders was collected in TOT over the first six months. This is Nafl 1756.10 per person. Taking some liberties with the numbers. i.e. first 6 months of the year are better than the second half. Lets say there will be 100 Million in TOT collected for 2012. Lets move to GDP again taking some liberties we can find that consumer spending makes up about 1400 million of GDP. As per the same reports allocation expenditure I think we can probably say about half that amount is subject to TOT due the component of items not subjected to TOT. that leaves about 800 Million.
100 million in TOT equals 13% of that 800 Million in consumer spending. This means that for every dollar the consumer spends on a TOT item or service, government collects 13 percent. That means that if something should cost $ 1.00 in a free and open market, here its will cost $1.13 I feel that this number may actually be higher, and I refer to ex-ministers Shigemoto's comments in May, that replacing TOT with VAT would lead to a much higher percentage ranging 10% to 22%.
So next time you are standing at a register and wondering why things are SOOO expensive. Think about the 10000 guilders you need to supply to government this year. Think about the math and think about what you are paying for. It is not price gouging by greedy merchants! It is government spending that needs to be financed. Government spending in and of itself is not a bad thing, as long as we receive fair market value. But in our specific case, How is your road? How is your hospital? Do you feel that you and your property are safe? Does your future look bright? Do you think any of our representatives would make those salaries in the private sector?
Today our minister of economic affairs will be bickering with parliament about the harbor board. All indications are that tomorrow alone our government will overspend the budget by about 82000 nafls.
Our minister of finance is looking at ways to increase revenue without considering reducing the budget.
Taxation and redistribution of resources should not be political. It is not financial in the sense that it can be influenced by bookkeeping, you can probably make it look pretty for a little while but you cannot fix a broken system by cooking the books. Taxation should be treated as purely economical. It concerns all of us, our well being and our potential for growth. It concerns the value of our money, how we spend our money, how we invest our money and what we can expect as returns in the future. We are allocating scarce resources and need to do this diligently with an eye for the future and our next generation's future.
Maybe today one of our parliamentarians will ask our minister of Economic affairs some real questions pertinent to the economic survival of the 41000 people paying for their time.
Another Concerned SXMer
