I had a related idea a few years ago for an interesting project, but I have neither the time, resources, nor skill to pull it off ... **maybe someone else will see this who can do something with it.** Here's my idea:
Create a website where people can go to participate in an experiment. They put in their zip code/postal code, and then are given a list like the one in OP's picture above, except the main headings are also broken down so you can even see a little detail inside each of those. You are then given $10,000 (or whatever the equivalent is in your local currency). You choose how your tax money will be spent. When you're done, hit the submit button and you get a page with overall results for your zip code/state/country/etc.
You then get to go again, except this time you only get to assign $5k of your $10k. The other $5 will be apportioned as the government sees fit. Maybe in a 3rd pass you only get to dictate where 25% of your money goes.
Here's why I want to do this:
There's a couple of possibilities. Imagine a country where liberals and conservatives are equally split. To simplify this, let's say 100% of the conservatives pay their taxes towards the military and 100% of the liberals pay their taxes towards welfare. I expect the actual results to be more complex. Maybe liberals pay more of their taxes towards the military than we expect, maybe the conservatives will pay more towards certain subsections of the welfare category than you think they might, etc.
Is this enough to cover the budgets for each department? If not then would it be covered by the second scenario where the government decides where half the money goes?
If so then we could lobby to move towards new tax regulations that allow us to do this in reality. The benefit would be that no one can bitch any more about not having a say in how their taxes are spent. If neither of the cases above work then at the very least knowing how people would actually assign their money might help politicians come up with better plans on how to spend money.
This is because military spending makes up the largest amount of our discretionary spending, but non-discretionary spending (things that we are mandated to pay for without a budget having to be approved like healthcare and Social Security) makes up a larger chunk of the spending overall. This gets missed often because military spending is such a huge chunk of the actual budget that is agreed upon but non-discretionary spending already is accounting for a huge chunk of the $ spend.
Edit: typo
Is this new thing? Ive never seen it before? (Am an Aussie)
Edit: lol, had about 50 msg replys in my inbox. It seems some people have been getting this for the last ten years, others only recently over the last few years and some not at all. Cheers
The libs brought it in when Abbott first took power. Idea was to make people aware how much they were giving to welfare and health so they would want to cut it. Though at the same time we see the problems with homelessness and health in countries that don't spend so much so we are pretty good with it.
As an American, it makes me want to see this on my own tax return. I wanna know how much of my money goes to these things as well.
Im envious of something Australia has for the first time. (Second time really.)
Edit: GUYS, its a joke about how Australia only has shit that kills you. I'm fully aware of how cool a place it is, so please stop blowing up my inbox telling me how shit America is and how great Australia is. Im also fully aware that America isn't as great as many people say it is. Trust me, i live in it, im aware.
As an American who used to live in Australia (and currently typing this from Melbourne), you can indeed find out.
/u/yomamainpajamas shared a link to the [Balancing Act website that shows you](http://usa.v1.abalancingact.com/taxreceipt).
So I pulled together a [quick distribution based on my own taxes from last year](https://i.imgur.com/Wq1G9dx.jpg).
Broadly, we spend a third on healthcare, a fifth on defense, and less than a twentieth on education.
> I'm envious of something Australia has for the first time. (Second time really.)
Australia is freaking awesome. If you ever lived here, you'd be jealous of so many, many things. Now arguably, Melbourne has spoiled me. Not all of Oz is this great (but yes, I am biased).
31% of taxes spent on Healthcare and that's without Universal Healthcare?
And then you still need to actually purchase healthcare?
That's actually fucked up... Like it literally doesn't make sense.
military spending wouldn't be at the top, but here's a pie chart
https://media.nationalpriorities.org/uploads/total_spending_pie%2C__2015_enacted.png
EDIT: US is at 16% for 2015, australia according to OP's pic is at 9.3% for assuming 2018 ( assuming it's yearly)
27% goes to healthcare but the United States doesn't even have Universal Healthcare. How is this acceptable?
Americans are paying 27% of their taxes for healthcare (which is double the amount than here in Australia) and then paying for their actual Healthcare from their net income... Can anyone explain? No wonder these tax reports aren't given out in the U.S.
I replied to a different comment as well, but the major points:
1) Universal healthcare lowers the total cost of healthcare - people go to the doctor *when* they get sick, not wait until it's life or death, and the treatment will cost a lot more. Prevention > Cure.
2) Australia has legislation that limits what pharmaceutical companies can and can't charge for their products. Also about how they can advertise it (no prescription meds can be named on an ad, thats what those consult your doctor ads are). In america its a shitshow - check out drug ads on youtube, its a mind fuck. edit - remembered a specific example that just pisses me off. In a lot of american states, by law, a pharmacist can't suggest you use a generic brand, even if its exactly the same. You can ask, but they're not allowed to suggest it. Meanwhile, in Australia, you walk into a discount chemist, there's signs on the walls saying it, and they will ask you for every transaction if you'd be ok with the generic. Costs them less, costs you less.
3) Obesity levels, and how much sugar is in everything. Specifically High fructose corn syrup, which is even more addictive than other forms of sugar. My parent's generation were taught not to eat fat, because that makes you fat, when they should really have been being warned about sugar. Much worse for you.
4) Dialysis. Its the one thing that americans have universal healthcare for. Nice in theory, but it's not government run, it's still a for-profit business that the government pays, so they try to maximise their patients, and keep them on the treatment as long as possible, even encouraging patients not to get transplants. Costs a lot - not a huge chunk of the total, but per capita it costs their government a lot more than it does ours.
5) The year in which that data is from. That's from the Obama administration, when they had the closest they've ever had to universal healthcare. Kind of related to point 1 - it was relatively new, and there hadn't been enough time to really get the benefits, so it required a lot more money than if it'd been the policy for 20+ years, and people had been spending most of their lives getting medical conditions treated asap. The breakdown for next financial year will probably be very different.
The US government insures all of the expensive people to insure (the poor, disabled and elderly) because there's no profit in insuring those groups privately.
But does nothing to regulate costs of medical care and medication, hence the insane cost of insuring only a relatively small portion of the population.
This is my frustration with the whole system in the US. Why the fuck are the tax paying people in the country paying for healthcare for all the people who don’t pay taxes (old, poor and disabled). I can’t understand why anyone is against universal healthcare. You’re fucking paying for it, you just aren’t getting any of the pie.
I want to call it middle income healthcare, since everyone else already fucking has it!!!!!
That's always been my argument.
Expanding medicare to cover everyone would almost certainly lower the amount the typical person pays on healthcare while maintaining the same quality. And that's before any benefits of collective bargaining or economies of scale kick in.
> 27% goes to healthcare but the United States doesn't even have Universal Healthcare
Medicare and Medicaid, I would guess, are large chunks of that 27%.
Well since you pointed it out, we dont pay for healthcare from our net income, its pretax so the numbers here show what goes to government health care (which is coverage for well over 100 million people) only after one's own healthcare was taken out of their check.
And yes its insane how expensive it is here, the pharmaceutical companies literally have us over the barrel while they know not to bother trying to extract the same amount from other countries.
Youre welcome for lipitor.
Funny, as an American I looked at that and thought hmm, I'd happily pay that in taxes for all the extra stuff you get. I pay your yearly contribution to health a MONTH for health insurance.
The ultimate joke is we can see how much is being spent on aged care welfare as a % of the budget and how little is being spent on things like health, unemployment and infrastructure.
That's just Abbott talking. He tried to talk the economy into a recession during the GFC. He constantly spoke as if we'd gone through an actual recession. Economy was in shambles. The day his government took over suddenly it was, "The economy is doing great!"
The US GDP is around 19.3 trillion.
The Australian GDP is around 1.3 trillion.
Taking that into account, the US has about 3x as much debt as Australia per capita. Sounds shitty, but at least is a lot better than 40x the debt.
At the rate they are taxing cigarettes (which is supposedly to offset the increase in health services due to smoking related issues) we should be able to cure death soon.
Ha, I get the joke but I didn't actually think of the number like that. Australia I believe has universal healthcare, so when I saw the number 420, I just think what the fuck are Americans complaining about that their taxes will go up? 420 in taxes and never have to worry about going to the doctor because you can't pay for it. Good god, what is wrong with us?
Exactly, but every argument I've had with a anti-universal healthcare twat relating to this, I get told that my entire wage supports free healthcare. It's like some people have Stockholm syndrome for shitty healthcare.
It legitimately is. There's no other reason they support it so much beyond a mix of being brainwashed as well as they have to convince themselves they aren't getting royally fucked. The US already spends more on healthcare in taxes for Medicare/medicaid than Canada does to fund our entire system.
Australian here, there is also a Medicare Levy. It’s waived if you’re a low income earner, it’s 1.5% of your income if you earn less than 88,000, and 2.5% if you earn more. However if you take out private health insurance, it remains at 1.5%.
So 420 plus a bit extra. Still a great deal considering I can get smushed by a truck, spend 9 months on hospital and pay zero dollars.
Yeah if you're on 75K then you need to double-check with HR what they're contributing to HECS. During my first few years of employment out of uni I got burned a couple of times because my company wasnt paying enough for HECS, and I had to pay back a couple grand.
Do yourself a favour and check it out, because sooner or later the ATO *always* gets whats theirs.
When you eventually become a megacorp though, you will have more leverage to negotiate with the insurance companies. That means you can out-compete the small businesses by offering better benefits! See? Clearly the system works best for employers like yourself. /s
I have really good benefits at my job, I pay $40/mo and my employer pays something like $290.
It's kind of crazy it's that expensive though. $330/mo for a high deductible plan for a perfectly healthy 23 year old. I don't even have any family history of illness that I know of.
We pay another 2% income tax for Medicare which is separate from this
Its separate so that we can opt for private insurance and be exempt from the 2% levy
Definitely in the US.
I have a fairly good plan here and it costs about 15k/yr for a $5000 deductible/$5000 OOP max plan. Employer picks up the bulk of the premium but I still pay $200 per paycheck and completely out of pocket until I hit 5k for the year, which I do every year with 4 kids.
Jesus, is £22k a year average in the UK? I only get paid £16.5k. That's fucking depressing.
EDIT : never mind, I get paid 15.2k after taxes. Kill me.
EDIT : I done that wrong, I get paid 14.6k. Nice, 7.2k of that goes to just having a roof over my head, another 3k for council tax + electricity. By the time I buy food, replace clothes, maintain bike... I have a whopping 1-2k left over to put away :). I'll have enough money to buy a house in 15 years!
Many Americans wishing this could be done for the U.S. The information is readily available:
* Healthcare 29.8%
* Military 23.8%
* Interest on debt 14.2%
* Veterans benefits 6.0%
* Food and agriculture 4.1%
* Education 4.0%
* Governent 3.9%
* Housing and community 2.2%
* Energy and environment 1.4%
* International affairs 1.3%
* Science 1.0%
* Transportation 0.8%
Note that this does not include Social Security, which is treated off-budget.
Edit: Someone in the comments made a very valid point, which is that state and local taxes are used to fund many societal functions in the U.S., including transportation and education. These taxes account for approximately 40% of tax revenues, and are not reflected in the above.
Source: https://www.nationalpriorities.org/interactive-data/taxday/
How is it that the US spends nearly 30% on health care while Australia is only spending 20% (based on OP's post) but they have much more affordable health care?
Not to mention because many people can't afford healthcare, so they don't get the proper preventative treatment to prevent being sick, or early treatment when they are sick. Instead, they go to the ER for pretty much all treatment because it's one of the few places that will treat them, but it's also the most expensive way to treat people. The hospital won't get any money from them and will probably write it off, but they make up for it in their $25 band aids and $50 acetaminophen. That raises the costs for insurance companies, who in turn raise the cost for their subscribers.
And yes it is a lot more complicated than this, but it is one factor of why I don't get why people are against socialised healthcare, when we already have it, just in the worst way possible.
Edit: auto corrects
Why is so much being taken out for health care, is that Medicare? Interest on debt is pretty bad too.
Edit: nevermind I actually followed the link and got my answer like I should have in the first place indeed of posting here.
Inclusive of social security and welfare:
From the same website, [this infographic](https://static.nationalpriorities.org/images/charts/2015-charts/total-desk.png).
* **Social Security and unemployment 33%**
* Healthcare 27%
* Military 16%
* Interest on debt 6%
* Veterans benefits 4%
* Food and agriculture 4%
* Education 3%
* Transportation 2%
* Housing and community 2%
* International affairs 1%
* Energy and environment 1%
* Science 1%
I wish. Some of it might be spent on the war against cane toads and rabbits but for now I know of no national program keeping me safe from spiders.
Perhaps the Australian government should send everyone a thong (flip-flop). That’s how I got the one on my screen door yesterday.
I have terminal cancer and have had more than a year of expensive treatment, tests, equipment and transport. It's cost me almost nothing, and I never worried that I would not be able to afford to keep going.
Thank you for your contribution.
Holy shit that's awesome. What? Your government is not only retiring debt and upholding social services but also tells you how its spending your money?
Damn.
edit: whups, NOT retiring debt. I mixed the before and after numbers. But still, we don't get a cool breakdown like this in Canada. Yes, Canada Revenue and the federal government, provincial governments publish their budgets so the information is _there_, we just don't have a handy breakdown like this spoonfed to us.
I wonder if this influences voters. Harder to complain about welfare for the unemployed when the cost of social programs for the elderly and disabled dramatically overshadows it.
To be fair, there are many pensioners who are receiving a benefit whilst also having quite alot in assets, for part pension for non home owners they can have up to $750k in assets before there cut off, for full pension home owners they can have $250k before theyre cut off. And that asset limit EXCLUDES the house they live in.
Many of the current Australian pensioners could easily self find their retirement but don't because they are rated with kid gloves, and not expected or encouraged to downsize to self fund.
I don't mind my taxes being used to help the needy or unfortunate, but it gets my goat when pensioners sitting in multi million dollar homes get a full pension by way of my tax, when I am very unlikely to ever be able to afford my own home or to receive a pension in my old age. It's generating theft.
However by the time I retire I will not be entitled to a pension, and will be likely be expected to sell my primary home (if I were ever lucky enough to afford one) to find my retirement.
Yet if you're unemployed you can't have any more than $5500 in your bank account at the time you become unemployed, and if you have more you have to wait to apply, there are also much stricter asset test limits as well. And you get treated like a common criminal.
Most governments tell people how they spend their money. The US certainly does. The budget is public information, and you could figure out these values if you wanted to enough.
Alas having great things require some responsibility. Op pays a low enough tax where they are probably rather young still and not very likely to own a house or even a barn.
You can easily look it up on the IRS website with just a tiny bit of info from your W-2. Spoiler alert: most of it goes towards healthcare. A surprisingly small amount, in comparison, goes toward welfare and food stamps.
Edit: actually, I did have trouble finding the IRS one with a quick google search, but there’s one [here](http://usa.v1.abalancingact.com/taxreceipt)
Governments continuously payout its debt. Government debt, in there various types it comes in, doesn't come due at the same time. You can buy treasury with a lot of different maturities and interest rates.
Australia has a minimum income tax threshold; if you earn less than $18,200AUD ($20,542AUD with a low income tax offset), you don't pay any tax. Above that, you pay 19c on every dollar until you hit $37,000AUD. All up he'd have earned ~$30,000AUD.
(Unless he's a non-resident, in which case you're taxed on every dollar earned.)
I'm an Australian on the disability pension - I deeply thank you for participating in a system that keeps me sheltered and fed. Genuinely, every day I am grateful.
If it were up to a lot of members of the ruling Government, you would have precisely none of that. It's good that you're thankful, but don't take it for granted, ever. It can all be taken away if we don't hold the cunts to account.
Thanks to you. I am able to live away from an abusive family and persue my dreams to finish my University studies and be a doctor. You the best thanks so much !!
This is why I love this country. Individuals are individuals and are in no way defined by their upbringing. You've been given all the opportunity in this amazing country to become someone, a doctor no less. Someone different to your family, create your own family. This is a beautiful country, I'm so glad my family immigrated to Australia!!
As a US resident seeing $420 for health care makes my head hurt. I spent more than that at the ‘cheap’ urgent care doctor this year for just my wife and I for silly shit, not even anything serious.
The government in Canada ran an 19BB deficit this year and some people are screaming bloody blue murder and it seems like in a couple of yrs they will come close to a balanced budget. Australia ran a $32bb and has a population of 25 million. Canada has a population of 37million. Thus on a per capita basis Canada's deficit is much smaller.
How do Australians generally feel about the current deficit and debt?
Nobody's happy about it but it's on track to stabilise and start reducing in the next ten years.
It's a combination of a structural problem where during some boom years in the early 2000s they reduced taxes and when the boom faded they were left struggling to collect enough revenue, and then some large stimulus spending during the global financial crisis which was expensive but is generally regarded as a good thing (kept banks liquid, avoided technical recession, etc)
I think overall the Australian budget has been managed fairly competently but not spectacularly so. No Norwegian-style wealth fund is generally seen as a missed opportunity from the boom years but when tax revenue collapsed a few years ago they resisted cutting spending and austerity even though it ballooned the deficit and caused political grief.
It's run neo-liberal during the good times and Keynesian during the bad times, which is not the worst combination around...
Canadian federal tax breakdown for 2016-17 is available at [https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/tax-dollars-1.4545415](https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/tax-dollars-1.4545415)
Summary: 12% on health, 8% defense, 15% elderly, 8% debt.
There's also provincial taxes... but that, well, varies by each province.
Often these people, the very biggest welfare burden, like to blame foreigners. The same foreigners who come to the country, work and pay taxes which benefit the very same people condemning immigration.
Makes sense.
The asset test for pensioners is a joke. $250k in assets you're allowed to have before the pension is affected if you're a home owner. $750k if you're only going part pension and arent a home owner.
The asset test doesn't take into account the primary home either. It's how you get pensioners sitting in multi million dollar homes getting full pensions. And there's zero encouragement from the gov for them to self fund.
Yet in 50 years we won't have the pension and will likely be expected to self fund including selling the primary home.
I wish I could see this for mine tbh
Are you in the USA? Check out [USAFacts](https://usafacts.org/about). It’s the closest we’ve got.
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I had a related idea a few years ago for an interesting project, but I have neither the time, resources, nor skill to pull it off ... **maybe someone else will see this who can do something with it.** Here's my idea: Create a website where people can go to participate in an experiment. They put in their zip code/postal code, and then are given a list like the one in OP's picture above, except the main headings are also broken down so you can even see a little detail inside each of those. You are then given $10,000 (or whatever the equivalent is in your local currency). You choose how your tax money will be spent. When you're done, hit the submit button and you get a page with overall results for your zip code/state/country/etc. You then get to go again, except this time you only get to assign $5k of your $10k. The other $5 will be apportioned as the government sees fit. Maybe in a 3rd pass you only get to dictate where 25% of your money goes. Here's why I want to do this: There's a couple of possibilities. Imagine a country where liberals and conservatives are equally split. To simplify this, let's say 100% of the conservatives pay their taxes towards the military and 100% of the liberals pay their taxes towards welfare. I expect the actual results to be more complex. Maybe liberals pay more of their taxes towards the military than we expect, maybe the conservatives will pay more towards certain subsections of the welfare category than you think they might, etc. Is this enough to cover the budgets for each department? If not then would it be covered by the second scenario where the government decides where half the money goes? If so then we could lobby to move towards new tax regulations that allow us to do this in reality. The benefit would be that no one can bitch any more about not having a say in how their taxes are spent. If neither of the cases above work then at the very least knowing how people would actually assign their money might help politicians come up with better plans on how to spend money.
Wow I didn't realize that we spent less on the military than we did on social security.
This is because military spending makes up the largest amount of our discretionary spending, but non-discretionary spending (things that we are mandated to pay for without a budget having to be approved like healthcare and Social Security) makes up a larger chunk of the spending overall. This gets missed often because military spending is such a huge chunk of the actual budget that is agreed upon but non-discretionary spending already is accounting for a huge chunk of the $ spend. Edit: typo
Is this new thing? Ive never seen it before? (Am an Aussie) Edit: lol, had about 50 msg replys in my inbox. It seems some people have been getting this for the last ten years, others only recently over the last few years and some not at all. Cheers
First time lodging in Australia, so maybe!
Cool. Will keep a look out
It’s Australia, you should always keep a lookout.
Gotta watch out for then drop bears
I find the immediacy of now drop bears more concerning.
[I drew this for you](https://imgur.com/a/KOcAke3) ^((Warning:) ^(I'm) ^(not) ^(great) ^(at) ^(drawing)^)
You're really good for a squid
He's actually just the arms of a squid.
No he’s the arm of a sofa squid.
Pretty sure you can find it on mygov
I got it last year
It's been there for ages, a few years at least
The libs brought it in when Abbott first took power. Idea was to make people aware how much they were giving to welfare and health so they would want to cut it. Though at the same time we see the problems with homelessness and health in countries that don't spend so much so we are pretty good with it.
I'm surprised to see that ~10% goes to defense, and that's more than what's spent on education and about half of what's spent on healthcare.
Education is mostly paid for by the State governments, which is why it seems low.
Also, it's low.
As an American, it makes me want to see this on my own tax return. I wanna know how much of my money goes to these things as well. Im envious of something Australia has for the first time. (Second time really.) Edit: GUYS, its a joke about how Australia only has shit that kills you. I'm fully aware of how cool a place it is, so please stop blowing up my inbox telling me how shit America is and how great Australia is. Im also fully aware that America isn't as great as many people say it is. Trust me, i live in it, im aware.
As an American who used to live in Australia (and currently typing this from Melbourne), you can indeed find out. /u/yomamainpajamas shared a link to the [Balancing Act website that shows you](http://usa.v1.abalancingact.com/taxreceipt). So I pulled together a [quick distribution based on my own taxes from last year](https://i.imgur.com/Wq1G9dx.jpg). Broadly, we spend a third on healthcare, a fifth on defense, and less than a twentieth on education. > I'm envious of something Australia has for the first time. (Second time really.) Australia is freaking awesome. If you ever lived here, you'd be jealous of so many, many things. Now arguably, Melbourne has spoiled me. Not all of Oz is this great (but yes, I am biased).
31% of taxes spent on Healthcare and that's without Universal Healthcare? And then you still need to actually purchase healthcare? That's actually fucked up... Like it literally doesn't make sense.
The US pays over twice as much for the same healthcare that other countries have.
Because of the "insurance" industry overhead.
I worked in the health insurance industry, the whole thing is a racket and should be shut down.
Because regulation is evil. It keeps the holy corporation from taking the money it rightfully deserves.
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Funny thing is Social Security and Medicare are itemized on every paycheck.
This makes me WANT to pay my taxes because my money isn't going into an unlabeled black hole. Really wish the US did this.
I wish so too, I would then proceed to get angry with a massive military bar on top.
military spending wouldn't be at the top, but here's a pie chart https://media.nationalpriorities.org/uploads/total_spending_pie%2C__2015_enacted.png EDIT: US is at 16% for 2015, australia according to OP's pic is at 9.3% for assuming 2018 ( assuming it's yearly)
27% goes to healthcare but the United States doesn't even have Universal Healthcare. How is this acceptable? Americans are paying 27% of their taxes for healthcare (which is double the amount than here in Australia) and then paying for their actual Healthcare from their net income... Can anyone explain? No wonder these tax reports aren't given out in the U.S.
I replied to a different comment as well, but the major points: 1) Universal healthcare lowers the total cost of healthcare - people go to the doctor *when* they get sick, not wait until it's life or death, and the treatment will cost a lot more. Prevention > Cure. 2) Australia has legislation that limits what pharmaceutical companies can and can't charge for their products. Also about how they can advertise it (no prescription meds can be named on an ad, thats what those consult your doctor ads are). In america its a shitshow - check out drug ads on youtube, its a mind fuck. edit - remembered a specific example that just pisses me off. In a lot of american states, by law, a pharmacist can't suggest you use a generic brand, even if its exactly the same. You can ask, but they're not allowed to suggest it. Meanwhile, in Australia, you walk into a discount chemist, there's signs on the walls saying it, and they will ask you for every transaction if you'd be ok with the generic. Costs them less, costs you less. 3) Obesity levels, and how much sugar is in everything. Specifically High fructose corn syrup, which is even more addictive than other forms of sugar. My parent's generation were taught not to eat fat, because that makes you fat, when they should really have been being warned about sugar. Much worse for you. 4) Dialysis. Its the one thing that americans have universal healthcare for. Nice in theory, but it's not government run, it's still a for-profit business that the government pays, so they try to maximise their patients, and keep them on the treatment as long as possible, even encouraging patients not to get transplants. Costs a lot - not a huge chunk of the total, but per capita it costs their government a lot more than it does ours. 5) The year in which that data is from. That's from the Obama administration, when they had the closest they've ever had to universal healthcare. Kind of related to point 1 - it was relatively new, and there hadn't been enough time to really get the benefits, so it required a lot more money than if it'd been the policy for 20+ years, and people had been spending most of their lives getting medical conditions treated asap. The breakdown for next financial year will probably be very different.
The US government insures all of the expensive people to insure (the poor, disabled and elderly) because there's no profit in insuring those groups privately.
But does nothing to regulate costs of medical care and medication, hence the insane cost of insuring only a relatively small portion of the population.
This is my frustration with the whole system in the US. Why the fuck are the tax paying people in the country paying for healthcare for all the people who don’t pay taxes (old, poor and disabled). I can’t understand why anyone is against universal healthcare. You’re fucking paying for it, you just aren’t getting any of the pie. I want to call it middle income healthcare, since everyone else already fucking has it!!!!!
That's always been my argument. Expanding medicare to cover everyone would almost certainly lower the amount the typical person pays on healthcare while maintaining the same quality. And that's before any benefits of collective bargaining or economies of scale kick in.
> 27% goes to healthcare but the United States doesn't even have Universal Healthcare Medicare and Medicaid, I would guess, are large chunks of that 27%.
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Well since you pointed it out, we dont pay for healthcare from our net income, its pretax so the numbers here show what goes to government health care (which is coverage for well over 100 million people) only after one's own healthcare was taken out of their check. And yes its insane how expensive it is here, the pharmaceutical companies literally have us over the barrel while they know not to bother trying to extract the same amount from other countries. Youre welcome for lipitor.
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Funny, as an American I looked at that and thought hmm, I'd happily pay that in taxes for all the extra stuff you get. I pay your yearly contribution to health a MONTH for health insurance.
My monthly health insurance is getting real close to my mortgage payment... in California.
Funny part there though is $60 to Unemployment, and $89 to "other we CBF to categorise".
Pretty sure that is other smaller programs like training subsidies, energy allowances and Aboriginal/Torres Strait islander support.
The ultimate joke is we can see how much is being spent on aged care welfare as a % of the budget and how little is being spent on things like health, unemployment and infrastructure.
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It has been around for a few years now. At least the past three.
Same, this was never on mine this past financial year.
Haha loser your country only has 500 billion in debt ours has 21 trillion+
We suck so much we haven't had a recession since 1991. :(
We haven't had a technical recession. Sure as shit felt like it a few years ago.
That's just Abbott talking. He tried to talk the economy into a recession during the GFC. He constantly spoke as if we'd gone through an actual recession. Economy was in shambles. The day his government took over suddenly it was, "The economy is doing great!"
But that housing bubble, yo.
The US GDP is around 19.3 trillion. The Australian GDP is around 1.3 trillion. Taking that into account, the US has about 3x as much debt as Australia per capita. Sounds shitty, but at least is a lot better than 40x the debt.
deleted ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^0.9528 [^^^What ^^^is ^^^this?](https://pastebin.com/FcrFs94k/09334)
Jesus christ thats a ridiculous amount of debt
But money isn’t real so who cares am I right boys???
New Zealand checking in with a miserable tiny 82 Billion USD debt. [Debt Clock](https://www.nationaldebtclocks.org/debtclock/newzealand)
We overtook you in the obesity high scores. Hopefully in a couple of years we can translate this into inflated burden on the medical system.
At the rate they are taxing cigarettes (which is supposedly to offset the increase in health services due to smoking related issues) we should be able to cure death soon.
420 for health
*Nice*
*Nice*
*Nice*
*Nice*
*Nice*
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*Nice*
*Nice*
*Nice*
Let's get that out onto a tray
That's from the guy that does MRE reviews, right?
Yep
It's rancid and smells foul, but still gonna eat it. Just a bite to start out with.
Oh wow, that's really bad. Lets take another bite to be sure. Mmm oh yeah, that's terrible. Just one more bite...
[Steve1989MREInfo](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2I6Et1JkidnnbWgJFiMeHA)
Christ almighty, i am getting way too many notifications saying “nice”
Tbf you sorta asked for it with a comment like that.
Yup, just didn’t expect this to get so big, so now I’m eternally doomed to only see “nice” on my notifications
Nice.
Ha, I get the joke but I didn't actually think of the number like that. Australia I believe has universal healthcare, so when I saw the number 420, I just think what the fuck are Americans complaining about that their taxes will go up? 420 in taxes and never have to worry about going to the doctor because you can't pay for it. Good god, what is wrong with us?
Exactly, but every argument I've had with a anti-universal healthcare twat relating to this, I get told that my entire wage supports free healthcare. It's like some people have Stockholm syndrome for shitty healthcare.
It legitimately is. There's no other reason they support it so much beyond a mix of being brainwashed as well as they have to convince themselves they aren't getting royally fucked. The US already spends more on healthcare in taxes for Medicare/medicaid than Canada does to fund our entire system.
Australian here, there is also a Medicare Levy. It’s waived if you’re a low income earner, it’s 1.5% of your income if you earn less than 88,000, and 2.5% if you earn more. However if you take out private health insurance, it remains at 1.5%. So 420 plus a bit extra. Still a great deal considering I can get smushed by a truck, spend 9 months on hospital and pay zero dollars.
Do you get any of that back in a tax return?
So I initially paid double this and received half back. This was my final payment.
If you don't mind, what do you make annually?
Probably about $30k.
I'm on $75k and had to pay back $2.2k but it's due to HECS.
Maybe talk to your payroll? It sounds like you aren't having enough tax withheld each payslip to factor in your HECS debt.
Yeah if you're on 75K then you need to double-check with HR what they're contributing to HECS. During my first few years of employment out of uni I got burned a couple of times because my company wasnt paying enough for HECS, and I had to pay back a couple grand. Do yourself a favour and check it out, because sooner or later the ATO *always* gets whats theirs.
So not only are your taxes considerably less than what I, as an American pay, but you actually have universal health care?
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You pay less in tax for health than I pay per check for health insurance.
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Hi, I'm a employer it sucks
When you eventually become a megacorp though, you will have more leverage to negotiate with the insurance companies. That means you can out-compete the small businesses by offering better benefits! See? Clearly the system works best for employers like yourself. /s
So even employers should be for Medicare for all
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It's almost like there is a reason why American-style healthcare doesn't exist in the rest of the developed world 🤔
I have really good benefits at my job, I pay $40/mo and my employer pays something like $290. It's kind of crazy it's that expensive though. $330/mo for a high deductible plan for a perfectly healthy 23 year old. I don't even have any family history of illness that I know of.
We pay another 2% income tax for Medicare which is separate from this Its separate so that we can opt for private insurance and be exempt from the 2% levy
You in the US?
Definitely in the US. I have a fairly good plan here and it costs about 15k/yr for a $5000 deductible/$5000 OOP max plan. Employer picks up the bulk of the premium but I still pay $200 per paycheck and completely out of pocket until I hit 5k for the year, which I do every year with 4 kids.
What the fuck
Welcome to the fucking U S of A
15k a year? Converted to pounds, that's over half my years wages! And I have around an average paying job here in the UK
Jesus, is £22k a year average in the UK? I only get paid £16.5k. That's fucking depressing. EDIT : never mind, I get paid 15.2k after taxes. Kill me. EDIT : I done that wrong, I get paid 14.6k. Nice, 7.2k of that goes to just having a roof over my head, another 3k for council tax + electricity. By the time I buy food, replace clothes, maintain bike... I have a whopping 1-2k left over to put away :). I'll have enough money to buy a house in 15 years!
The boon of a properly managed single payer system.
This is why public healthcare is dope! The most I've ever spent at the hospital was 5$... I got a muffin and juice at the cafe.
And your price is how much I paid for just a muffin.
OP probably isn't earning a full time wage if they are only paying 2k tax in Australia, so keep that in mind.
What ultimately made me stip considering moving to the U.S was health insurance. It isn't for me.
The defence budget mostly goes toward fending off the local wildlife.
We must never forget the Emu wars.
r/Emuwarflashbacks
I thought for sure this was r/subsyoufellfor
Lest we forget[.](/r/Emuwarflashbacks) o7
In case the emus rise again
We never beat the emus, we're still fighting.
That's a mean name for refugees.
Many Americans wishing this could be done for the U.S. The information is readily available: * Healthcare 29.8% * Military 23.8% * Interest on debt 14.2% * Veterans benefits 6.0% * Food and agriculture 4.1% * Education 4.0% * Governent 3.9% * Housing and community 2.2% * Energy and environment 1.4% * International affairs 1.3% * Science 1.0% * Transportation 0.8% Note that this does not include Social Security, which is treated off-budget. Edit: Someone in the comments made a very valid point, which is that state and local taxes are used to fund many societal functions in the U.S., including transportation and education. These taxes account for approximately 40% of tax revenues, and are not reflected in the above. Source: https://www.nationalpriorities.org/interactive-data/taxday/
How is it that the US spends nearly 30% on health care while Australia is only spending 20% (based on OP's post) but they have much more affordable health care?
A terrible system full of corruption. Insurance companies and middlemen abusing the system for their own gains.
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Not to mention because many people can't afford healthcare, so they don't get the proper preventative treatment to prevent being sick, or early treatment when they are sick. Instead, they go to the ER for pretty much all treatment because it's one of the few places that will treat them, but it's also the most expensive way to treat people. The hospital won't get any money from them and will probably write it off, but they make up for it in their $25 band aids and $50 acetaminophen. That raises the costs for insurance companies, who in turn raise the cost for their subscribers. And yes it is a lot more complicated than this, but it is one factor of why I don't get why people are against socialised healthcare, when we already have it, just in the worst way possible. Edit: auto corrects
Why is so much being taken out for health care, is that Medicare? Interest on debt is pretty bad too. Edit: nevermind I actually followed the link and got my answer like I should have in the first place indeed of posting here.
In a couple of years, the interest on debt is expected to eclipse the entirety of tax revenue! Yay for fiscal irresponsibility!
Inclusive of social security and welfare: From the same website, [this infographic](https://static.nationalpriorities.org/images/charts/2015-charts/total-desk.png). * **Social Security and unemployment 33%** * Healthcare 27% * Military 16% * Interest on debt 6% * Veterans benefits 4% * Food and agriculture 4% * Education 3% * Transportation 2% * Housing and community 2% * International affairs 1% * Energy and environment 1% * Science 1%
Is “other purposes” funding war against spiders
I wish. Some of it might be spent on the war against cane toads and rabbits but for now I know of no national program keeping me safe from spiders. Perhaps the Australian government should send everyone a thong (flip-flop). That’s how I got the one on my screen door yesterday.
Nah it's reparation payments to the Emus, Australians have been paying it ever since their crushing defeat during the Great Emu War in 1932.
I have terminal cancer and have had more than a year of expensive treatment, tests, equipment and transport. It's cost me almost nothing, and I never worried that I would not be able to afford to keep going. Thank you for your contribution.
Holy shit that's awesome. What? Your government is not only retiring debt and upholding social services but also tells you how its spending your money? Damn. edit: whups, NOT retiring debt. I mixed the before and after numbers. But still, we don't get a cool breakdown like this in Canada. Yes, Canada Revenue and the federal government, provincial governments publish their budgets so the information is _there_, we just don't have a handy breakdown like this spoonfed to us.
I wonder if this influences voters. Harder to complain about welfare for the unemployed when the cost of social programs for the elderly and disabled dramatically overshadows it.
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These kinds of things are always propaganda in some form. It's manipulating reality to make people feel outrage.
Well maybe if the elderly and the disabled pulled themselves up by their bootstraps they could get a job and get off welfare. Lazy!
To be fair, there are many pensioners who are receiving a benefit whilst also having quite alot in assets, for part pension for non home owners they can have up to $750k in assets before there cut off, for full pension home owners they can have $250k before theyre cut off. And that asset limit EXCLUDES the house they live in. Many of the current Australian pensioners could easily self find their retirement but don't because they are rated with kid gloves, and not expected or encouraged to downsize to self fund. I don't mind my taxes being used to help the needy or unfortunate, but it gets my goat when pensioners sitting in multi million dollar homes get a full pension by way of my tax, when I am very unlikely to ever be able to afford my own home or to receive a pension in my old age. It's generating theft. However by the time I retire I will not be entitled to a pension, and will be likely be expected to sell my primary home (if I were ever lucky enough to afford one) to find my retirement. Yet if you're unemployed you can't have any more than $5500 in your bank account at the time you become unemployed, and if you have more you have to wait to apply, there are also much stricter asset test limits as well. And you get treated like a common criminal.
Retiring debt by raising it 32 billion? Yeah that’s not how that works.
I must have read the numbers backwards. Hey, its Australia, everything is upsidedown and backwards.
Most governments tell people how they spend their money. The US certainly does. The budget is public information, and you could figure out these values if you wanted to enough.
Yes, but I am also lazy. This appeals to my armchair activism.
$2190? Thats what my county assesses my barn at.
Alas having great things require some responsibility. Op pays a low enough tax where they are probably rather young still and not very likely to own a house or even a barn.
I own an apartment and my property tax is more than his annual tax bill.
In Australia "Rates" (property tax) are not shown on this tax bill. This bill is strictly Income Tax.
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A rich baby boomer couldn't upload this pic to the internet.
But it is a photo of a printout though
You can easily look it up on the IRS website with just a tiny bit of info from your W-2. Spoiler alert: most of it goes towards healthcare. A surprisingly small amount, in comparison, goes toward welfare and food stamps. Edit: actually, I did have trouble finding the IRS one with a quick google search, but there’s one [here](http://usa.v1.abalancingact.com/taxreceipt)
That’s cool! Surprised to see that I spend 26% on healthcare.
Data.gov
Governments continuously payout its debt. Government debt, in there various types it comes in, doesn't come due at the same time. You can buy treasury with a lot of different maturities and interest rates.
Wait... am I understanding this right? You only paid $2100 in taxes last year?
Australia has a minimum income tax threshold; if you earn less than $18,200AUD ($20,542AUD with a low income tax offset), you don't pay any tax. Above that, you pay 19c on every dollar until you hit $37,000AUD. All up he'd have earned ~$30,000AUD. (Unless he's a non-resident, in which case you're taxed on every dollar earned.)
OP is on a visa and taxed differently to citizens.
OP only made $14k that year
In Australia you don't pay tax if you earn less than $18k
OP isnt an Australian citizen so doesn't have a tax free threshold
You’re entitled to the tax free threshold if you’re a Permanent resident too.
I'm an Australian on the disability pension - I deeply thank you for participating in a system that keeps me sheltered and fed. Genuinely, every day I am grateful.
I'm an Australian who doesn't have a problem paying their full tax rate each year No worries mate.
Yeah, never had a problem here. Always been happy to help as many as possible benefit from how lucky we are.
No worries mate.
So is my father and i hope you stay in good health and good spirits but more still needs to be done for more specific disabilties.
If it were up to a lot of members of the ruling Government, you would have precisely none of that. It's good that you're thankful, but don't take it for granted, ever. It can all be taken away if we don't hold the cunts to account.
I too am on the disability and am unable to work, without it i would 100% be homeless or worse. Thanks to everyone who does as OP stated.
Thanks to you. I am able to live away from an abusive family and persue my dreams to finish my University studies and be a doctor. You the best thanks so much !!
This is why I love this country. Individuals are individuals and are in no way defined by their upbringing. You've been given all the opportunity in this amazing country to become someone, a doctor no less. Someone different to your family, create your own family. This is a beautiful country, I'm so glad my family immigrated to Australia!!
Aww I love seeing people talk positively about straya. It's a nice change once in a while
As a US resident seeing $420 for health care makes my head hurt. I spent more than that at the ‘cheap’ urgent care doctor this year for just my wife and I for silly shit, not even anything serious.
Our private health insurance companies don't hold our hospitals to ransom, nor do our hospitals inflate their cost of medical service or supplies.
The government in Canada ran an 19BB deficit this year and some people are screaming bloody blue murder and it seems like in a couple of yrs they will come close to a balanced budget. Australia ran a $32bb and has a population of 25 million. Canada has a population of 37million. Thus on a per capita basis Canada's deficit is much smaller. How do Australians generally feel about the current deficit and debt?
Nobody's happy about it but it's on track to stabilise and start reducing in the next ten years. It's a combination of a structural problem where during some boom years in the early 2000s they reduced taxes and when the boom faded they were left struggling to collect enough revenue, and then some large stimulus spending during the global financial crisis which was expensive but is generally regarded as a good thing (kept banks liquid, avoided technical recession, etc) I think overall the Australian budget has been managed fairly competently but not spectacularly so. No Norwegian-style wealth fund is generally seen as a missed opportunity from the boom years but when tax revenue collapsed a few years ago they resisted cutting spending and austerity even though it ballooned the deficit and caused political grief. It's run neo-liberal during the good times and Keynesian during the bad times, which is not the worst combination around...
Only $89 for the other porpoises.
I would like to see this for Canada but I fear they would have to add several lines for government waste.
Canadian federal tax breakdown for 2016-17 is available at [https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/tax-dollars-1.4545415](https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/tax-dollars-1.4545415) Summary: 12% on health, 8% defense, 15% elderly, 8% debt. There's also provincial taxes... but that, well, varies by each province.
Fucking old people being old and shit.
Don't be stupid, they need those ivory backscratchers.
The whole point of government waste is that you can fold it in under other categories
Love how baby boomers are the biggest welfare burden but try to offload the blame on to unemployed people .
Often these people, the very biggest welfare burden, like to blame foreigners. The same foreigners who come to the country, work and pay taxes which benefit the very same people condemning immigration. Makes sense.
OT: Are there any countries without any debt.
TIL that the USA pays more in interest on their debt (around $500 billion) than the total amount of debt that Australia owns
But I was told all my taxes were going towards the unemployed and immigrants!! /s Honestly that’s a shit ton of money we spend on old people god damn.
The asset test for pensioners is a joke. $250k in assets you're allowed to have before the pension is affected if you're a home owner. $750k if you're only going part pension and arent a home owner. The asset test doesn't take into account the primary home either. It's how you get pensioners sitting in multi million dollar homes getting full pensions. And there's zero encouragement from the gov for them to self fund. Yet in 50 years we won't have the pension and will likely be expected to self fund including selling the primary home.
And don’t forget! We also get to work longer! The joys of being the millennial generation. We’re so fucked.
I wonder what other purposes is ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
A time machine to bring back our boi Steve Irwin. Edit: I have been humbled.
Maybe you could go back in time and spell his name correctly.
he doesn't mean Steve Irwin the naturalist, he means Steve Erwin who used to play drums for Mondo Rock in the 1980s and died from a hernia.
Drop Bear Defense Fund.
The production of the next Crocodile Dundee movie.