The Social Security Must be equal.

WELCOME TO BRISBANE AFFORDABLE RENTALS, YOU ARE INVITED. IN THIS BLOG, WE WILL DISCUSS RENTAL PROBLEMS THAT WE MAY INCOUNTER WHEN RENTING, AND THE PROBLEMS OF RUNNING AFFORDABLE RENTALS. WE WILL ALSO DISCUSS, WHAT THE GOVERNMENT CAN DO TO HELP THE RENTERS PAY THEIR RENT, AND THE OWNWES RUN A BETTER AFFORDABLE RENTAL SERVICE TO THE COMMUNITY. 

Anyhow, the farmers' problem in this article is similar to the rental problem that we have today, because the social security system can help both, if the assets test is modified. So, we are writing several articles, where we will talk about the rental problems and the Social Security System. 

This blog can be found at this link, http://affordablerentals.blogspot.com/))

And here are other links to our internet articles

http://menfranco-re.blogspot.com/, http://manneedsgod.blogspot.com,  http://menfranco.blogspot.com, 

http://ifyoubelieveingod.blogspot.com/, http://genzanoit.blogspot.com/, 

https://sites.google.com/site/prayersofreconciliation/,https://sites.google.com/site/menfrancoreconciliation/

This article can also be found at this link, The Australian Social Security Must Be Equal. 

In the Centrelink office, people waiting to be called. 

This photo shows people in the Centrelink office, they go there to apply for their pension, their unemployment benefit, or other benefit that people can receive from the government. In this article here, we want to point out that, ther are some anomalies that need to be fixed. 

Welcome to article, The Australian Social Security Must Be Equal. 

Dear readers, we are writing about social issues that effect our way of life, and this is blog, No. 5. 

In this article, we are looking for a better social security system, where everybody gets a minimum payment, which is equal to the minimum pension or unemployment benefit.

Dear readers, we believe that the Australian Social Security System must be equal for everybody, but it is not, as we have said in our previous articles, starting with, Farming Today Is Still a Risky Business, then, Australian Social Security, then, The Australian Parties, then, Australia can do better than this, and then, The Assets Test Dilemma, now in these articles we were talking about how the Australian Social Security System works and helps people. So, we have found that the Australian social security system, is good but not perfect, since some people cannot receive it for one reason or another; therefore, the social security system needs to be changed, to fix these unforeseen failures to help. Australia cannot claim to have a good social security system, when it fails to deliver help to those that need help.

Having said that, we need to study the situation and come up with an answer for this social problem, because, the Australian Social Security system, must be equal for everybody. We believe that everybody in the community must be given a minimum of help, when they need help. So, we are going to write and suggest our views, hoping that somebody important reads them and does something about it.

Now, what we want to write here is not going to be popular, because it criticises the existing social security system. Anyhow, we believe that they need to avoid what is happening to the farmers, so, they must put in place a better system, where people in need are helped, even if they own properties. 

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Talking about the ideal social security setup

What we are writing hereunder is an idealistic way for the social security system to adapt, if they can. I said if they can, because it is unlikely that this system can be approved now, because Australia cannot afford it today, however, it is important that something like this exists. We hope that future politicians, start working on this idealistic social security system that we are talking about.

We believe that Australian citizens and residents, should be granted from the government an amount of money that is equal to the minimum government unemployment benefit or pension, it would be like receiving a small wage from the government. Now, we believe that this is what is needed in Australia, and we believe that one day can be done, if we can organise ourselves to achieve that, after all Australia is a rich country, so, we should be able to do that. Now let us see how this will affect the community and which group of people will benefit from this change.

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The people that can benefit from the change.

The people that will benefit from this change, are those people that today don’t receive any payment from the government, and those people that don’t receive enough, so, they are forced to live below the poor threshold. In this case the poor threshold is set, as equal to the minimum government pension that today is about, $900 per fortnight for a single person, or $700 each for a couple. This is the minimum of money that people need to live, and we believe that it must be equal for everyone.

As things stand today, there are people that must live with less than the minimum government pension, because of the anomalies in the system. One of those anomalies is caused from the assets test, where the pensioners receive a smaller pension, the rest of their earnings is supposed to come from their assets, which are supposed to earn about 7.8 %; but most of the rental properties, can only earn at most 2%, as we have shown you in our previous article, The Assets Test Dilemma, where a house valued at $650,000 did only make $8500 in a year, which is about 1.3%. So, we believe that the assets test on afforable rental properties must be set accordingly, if the government believes that we need mums and dads to invest in rental properties and keep the Australian real estate going.

You see, people believe to invest in rental properties, but soon they will become aware that to own a second house, can be a problem when they apply to receive their pension, because the assets test will reduce their pension more than what they can earn from them. 

My views are that the assets test on rental properties, must be set at a level, where it is possible for the owners, to earn at least as much as they loose from the pension. Now my views are that the assets test on rental properties should be one third of what they are now, so that the pensioners will lose one dollar per thousand, instead of three dollars per thousand. But even this might not be enough, you see if you have a property valued at one million dollars, you cannot receive any pension. The question here is; will this property earn the owner about $24,000 per year net. I don’t think so. Anyhow, these are our views.

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The property owners’ other problems. 

As we have said in our previous articles, to own a rental property is a problem and not a benefit, because people lose their pension or unemployment benefits, so, to own a second property is not the way we should plan for better retirement, since the assets test reduces the pension payments 3 times as much as you can earn from your properties.

But there are more negative things in owning a rental property, the worst of all is the land-tax. The land-tax in Queensland is $1.7 per thousand, this means that if you have land valued it one million dollars, every year you must pay $17,000 to the government just because you own this land. They don’t give you anything at all, you just must pay, because they need the money.

Some people still believe in owning properties, because their price go up all the time, so, they think that they are better off having properties, you see, they don’t realize that there is this gain tax that will take away all their earnings and more, let me give you this example.

You own a rental house that you have bought several years ago for $250,000, which was the right market price, today you must sell the rental house, because you need to move to another town, where houses are about the same value, so, you think that it will be easy; you sell the house for $650,000 and you buy another one about the same price. But that is not going to happen, because the $400,000 dollars that you have gained is taxable. This is called the gain tax, which may well be around $100,000, it is hard to be more specific. So, in this case you may lose $100,000 dollars because of the gain tax.

The figures in this article, might not be correct, but they are close enough to what they are supposed to be for showing our views.

This is all I can say today; this setup is not fair for anybody that owns properties, because those properties in the assets test, cannot earn half the money that they will receive from the government pensions or other benefits, if they had no properties. So, for them it would have been better to have no properties; since the assets test affects the pension and other benefit adversely, starting from the farmers, as we have said in, Farming Today Is Still a Risky Business.

So, people are discouraged to own properties and to save for rainy day, THAT IS THE REASON WHY TODAY THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH AFFORDABLE RENTAL PROPERTIES. We believe that the ASSETS TEST MUST BE ABOLISHED, Or reduced and be set in a way that gives the property owners a chance to earn at least as much money as they lose, from the government benefit. It is not fair that people lose money because they have worked hard and saved money.

Anyhow, we believe that everybody should be treated in the same way from the goverment social security system. But they are not, and that is why there are problems, starting with the rental market.

I hope that somebody in the government reads my articles, and then thinks what can be done to make them fair, for those people that have worked hard.

See you in next article, Australia Rental Affordability Issues.. 

To see more klick on this link, The Australian Social Security Must Be Equal. 

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The Assets Test Problem.

WELCOME TO BRISBANE AFFORDABLE RENTALS, YOU ARE INVITED. IN THIS BLOG, WE WILL DISCUSS RENTAL PROBLEMS THAT WE MAY INCOUNTER WHEN RENTING, AND THE PROBLEMS OF RUNNING AFFORDABLE RENTALS. WE WILL ALSO DISCUSS, WHAT THE GOVERNMENT CAN DO TO HELP THE RENTERS PAY THEIR RENT, AND THE OWNWES RUN A BETTER AFFORDABLE RENTAL SERVICE TO THE COMMUNITY. 

Anyhow, the farmers' problem in this article is similar to the rental problem that we have today, because the social security system can help both, if the assets test is modified. So, we are writing several articles, where we will talk about the rental problems and the Social Security System. 

This blog can be found at this link, http://affordablerentals.blogspot.com/))

And here are other links to our internet articles

http://menfranco-re.blogspot.com/, http://manneedsgod.blogspot.com,  http://menfranco.blogspot.com, 

http://ifyoubelieveingod.blogspot.com/, http://genzanoit.blogspot.com/, 

https://sites.google.com/site/prayersofreconciliation/,https://sites.google.com/site/menfrancoreconciliation/

This article can also be found at this link, The Assets Test Problem.

In this article we will be talking about affordable rentals. What you see in this photo, is a typical house for rent, let us say in Brisbane. It could be rented between $400 to $500 per week, this sounds good for the landlord, but there a lot of expences that the owners must pay to the local authorities and to the Queensland government, as we will show you hereunder.  

Welcome to our article, The Assets Test Problem. 

How the assets test punishes property owners.

Dear readers, we are writing about social issues that effect our way of life, and this is blog, No. 4. 

Now let me explain, sometimes the assets test prevents people in need to receive help from the government. Anyhow, we started to write these articles about what is happening in Australia, when we saw that the farmers were having problems to survive, because of the drought, so, we thought that the Australian government should help. But they cannot help the farmers, because they own properties and the assets test exclude them from government help. In a parallel way, this is what happens to other property owners that are excluded also, and we think that this is not right. This is what we are going to write in this article.

I believe that we have suggested that the farmers, with some government help, need to make something like a collective farming association, where all the farmers can pool a percentage of their farming products and money, which should be tax free from the government, then this pool can be used to help each other when they need help.

We hope that somebody high up reads our suggestion and then do something about it, we hope they do. We also noted that the farmers cannot ask help from the government, because they are self-employed and because they have properties, so, their property are assets that stops them from receiving help from the government.

We believe that, the assets test is a real problem, because it is hard to know, at what level is the right level to apply, as we will see as we continue to write about it; but that is only part of the farmers problem, because also they cannot ask any government assistance since they are self-employed. But when one cannot make money for a long time, and here in the case of the farmers we are talking about years, I think that it would be fair to help them. But the farmers are not the only people that are affected from these government rules of the assets test, because there are other groups of people that are affected adversely as well.     

Anyhow, today in this article, beside talking about the farmers, we are going to talk about the assets test for other groups, and above all we are going to talk about the assets test, how it affects rental property owners in a more detailed way than we have done in our other articles, and then, about other unfair government taxes levied on properties. 

The assets test punishes rental properties owners. 

The assets test is a problem for the pensioners, because it does not consider, if it is possible to earn the same amount of money that will be cut off the pension. The main problem here is that, when the treasurer makes the budget, he doesn’t even look at this possible outcome, he just wants to save money and cut the pensions. In fact, nobody is thinking about this negative issue of the assets test. I would say that the entire population thinks that people that own any rental property are rich people, so, they don’t need the government pension, when rental houses are a real problem with pensioners that own one rental house only, because if they get a government pension, the pension will be cut off so drastically that they would have been better off, if they didn’t have the house at all. I believe that the assets test on rental properties, is set three time as much as it should be for the small property owner to break even, and this is what I am going to show you in this article, where I will make it clear with an example.  

Anyhow, before I write about that, I am going to suggest that to fix this injustice about today assets test, which discriminate heavily against the small rental property owners, because it puts them financially in a disadvantaged position, the only thing that comes to my mind is that whoever makes these budget and laws, must keep in mind that he should give these properties owner a fair go, if he wants to keep the Australian economy going the best way possible, and I can say here, that this is the reason why today there are not enough affordable properties for rent. 

I believe that the aim of any budget, is to achieve the best benefit for the country, I believe that to achieve you need people that are self-starter and work hard, like the small property owners that have worked hard during their lives and have paid their taxes on what they have earned. They saved some money and invested it on a second house, hoping that when they would retire, they could be better off financially, but it did not work the way they wanted, because of the unfair assets test changes that the Australian government has made recently. You see, these self-starter people need to believe that if they work hard, they will be better off in the future.

Here I can only say; what is wrong with the people in Canberra? Don’t they see that they are killing the will of the people that want to progress by working hard? This is the second most important group of people that work physically hard; the first group is the workers that work for a wage. This first group of people politically belongs to the Labour Party, these people are happy to work for a fair wage, and if they own their house they live in, so, they are not self-starters.

The second group of people, the small property owners that are usually hard-working people and self-starters can belong to both parties; so, if the coalition wants more votes from this group and stay in government, they need to fix the mistakes they have made, when they changed the assets test in a way that punishes severally anyone that gets a government pension. I say punishes them severally, as I am going to show you, how the assets test and other things discriminate against the pensioners, so, it makes life very hard for them, and they would be better off, if they had no rental properties to rent. Anyhow, read my views about how the assets test discriminate against the small property owners, in the example I am writing hereunder.

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The assets test punishes small property owners. 

Now let us talk about how today assets test discriminate and punishes financially the small property owners. To show you that, hereunder we have written an example. So, we have chosen a couple that we call Mr. and Mrs Smith, they are both pensioner and receive a government pension. The figure that appears in this example are all rounded figures, but they are close to the real figures.

Now, let us write this example.

Mr Don Smith and his wife are both on government pensions, but today they don’t get much pension, because of the assets test. The Smith couple thinks, and I believe that, the only way one could describe today assets test is that whoever made these laws are cruel people, because the assets test discriminates against those small property owners that own a house for rent, since it is not possible to live on the money that their property can earn, so, let us see how it works. One of the problems exist because of the deeming setup, where the government calculate that people can earn $3.00 per fortnight per every thousand dollars you have in the bank, or anywhere else including properties. In fact, owning properties is the worst thing you can have, because it affects the owners in a disadvantaged way, like the Smiths that we are talking about here. 

The house they rent is valued at $850,000, plus a few more belongings their assets test are nearly 900,000 dollars so, they only get about $100 per fortnight each, because of the assets test.

Now, if they didn’t have their rental property, they would get the full pension, which would have been, $802 each per fortnight each.

Now, let us try to calculate how much the Smiths can earn from their rental property in Brisbane. This property is an old three-bedroom house, on a large block of land that is valued at $650,000, this house is rented at $500.00 PW, so, if they are lucky and the house is rented the entire year, they would collect $26000 this is before expenses.

Now, what are the average expenses for this house; The Brisbane City Council rates are $600.00 per quarter; the Urban Utilities average $450.00 per quarter; this will come to $4200.00 per year; the insurance is $1200.00 per year, the land tax (this may vary, but let us say that they have to pay it fully in this example) so, the tax can be up to 11000; maintenance can vary, but let us say $1500.00, then there is the fee for the real estate agent say $1500.00 per year.

Let us add this numbers up. So, $4200 to Brisbane city Council rates and water +1200 insurance+11000 Queensland government land tax +1500 maintenance+ 1500 to real estate agent letting fee, it = $19,400

Calculate total net earnings for the year, is $26000 income-19400 expenses=$6600

The Smiths have made $6600 net in one year. Do you think they can live on that? Here some people may say that not everybody pays the land-tax, but even without the land-tax, the Smiths will only earn $17,600.00 from their rental property.

This is a lot less than if they were on the government pension, which would have been nearly $41,700.00 for both.

But now they only get 23,000.00 at the best, and all the trouble to rent their property.

I believe that these negative things must not happen, it is not right when you have worked hard to put yourself in a better financial position, then suddenly you find yourself worse off. Because some government idiots have made this huge mistake. This is the reason why today there are not enough rental properties for rent. And if they want the private investor to help them, they must remove the assets test from affordable rental properties. 

Well, somehow, I have had my say, and I hope that it is clear enough what I have said. So, see you in my next article, which will be about, The Australian Social Security Must Be Equal. 

To see more click on this link, The Assets Test Problem. 

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The Australian social security.

WELCOME TO BRISBANE AFFORDABLE RENTALS, YOU ARE INVITED. IN THIS BLOG, WE WILL DISCUSS RENTAL PROBLEMS THAT WE MAY INCOUNTER WHEN RENTING, AND THE PROBLEMS OF RUNNING AFFORDABLE RENTALS. WE WILL ALSO DISCUSS, WHAT THE GOVERNMENT CAN DO TO HELP THE RENTERS PAY THEIR RENT, AND THE OWNWES RUN A BETTER AFFORDABLE RENTAL SERVICE TO THE COMMUNITY. 

Anyhow, the farmers' problem in this article is similar to the rental problem that we have today, because the social security system can help both, if the assets test is modified. So, we are writing several articles, where we will talk about the rental problems and the Social Security System. 

This blog can be found at this link, http://affordablerentals.blogspot.com/))

And here are other links to our internet articles

http://menfranco-re.blogspot.com/, http://manneedsgod.blogspot.com,  http://menfranco.blogspot.com, 

http://ifyoubelieveingod.blogspot.com/, http://genzanoit.blogspot.com/, 

https://sites.google.com/site/prayersofreconciliation/,https://sites.google.com/site/menfrancoreconciliation/

This article can also be found at this link, Australian Social Security  

The Australian Social Security System is a great government system that helps people in need. Their staff are very patient people, and they do a great job with a smile if you need help. But they can only help those people that qualify. And under the present laws lots of people don't qualify. 

Anyhow, there are a lot of people that go to the Centrelink office, like you see in this photo above, they want to see what help they can get from the government, when they have financial problems. But they need to belong to certain groups to qualify for help, they can be unemployed and looking for work, they can be sick people, they can be pensioners to see what bension they can get from the government, and many other groups, but certain groups do not qualify, as we will dicuss hereunder. 

Welcome to our article, Australian Social Security  

Dear readers, we are writing about social issues that effect our way of life, and this is blog, No. 3. 

(This article was published the first time in 2018)

Dear readers, this is an old article from our Hub Pages articles, where we talk about the “Australian Social Security System”, that was failing to help the farmers. Anyhow, we are repeating this to compare it with what is happening today, so, let us see what we wrote then. We started by writing, why the Australian Social Security fails to help the farmers; then we will also discuss other things where they fail. But first let us discuss about the farmer, because as we have said in a previous article Farming Today Is Still a Risky Business, so, we want to work out, why the farmers don’t get social security payment from the government, like most other people do.

You see, today the Australian Social Security system is helping lots of people, but it is not helping the farmers, even though the farmers really need help from the government. Therefore, we want to know why this is happening, and then, we can suggest how to avoid this happening again. We believe that the Social Security system in Australia must help anybody that needs help, at least the name itself suggests that. So, we are going to investigate and talk about this issue, in this article and the following articles.

Anyhow, our views are based on what is happening in Australia today, about farming and the drought, so, the first question is; why the Australian Social Security system has failed to help the farmers. We believe that the Australian Social Security can do better than what it is doing now. So, let us see why the Australian social security is failing to help the farmers.

Now, what we are saying here is what we know, but, if you want to know more about the Australian Social Security system, you should follow these links, Social security in Australia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_security_in_Australia, Benefits and Payments - Australia.gov.au, and other links that can be found on the internet.

Anyhow, we believe that the Australian Social Security system that we call Centrelink, has failed to help the farmers, because it has not been planned to help them from the beginning, as we will explain as we go on writing these articles. Anyhow, we are talking about the drought and the farmers that are having a very hard time, so, we were saying that all this hardship can be minimized, if aids from the Social Security System was more readily available to the farmers, but it is not, so, the only thing that we can think about this failure, is why the social security has failed to help? Because it is not fair for the farmers, so, the present Social Security System needs to be fixed.

So, why the social security has failed to help? Once you ask that question and look for the reasons, you realize that in Australia not everybody is treated the same, from the current social security system. You see, people are treated different because they belong to different categories; there are: the-have and the-have-not; there are the workers that work for wages; there are the self-employed; there are the farmers, which we could say are self-employed, and others; anyhow, when people go to Centrelink the Social Security government agencies for help, the agencies do what they can according to where these groups of people belong, so, let us see some examples how this works.  

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Now, there are thousands of Centrelink offices like this in Australia. The federal government keeps them open to help those people that need to apply for unenployment benefits, sickness benefits, all sorts of government pensions, and other government issues. 

How the Social Security System works. 

Let us start from the working people; when people that work for a wage, become unemployed and they are not earning any money, they can go to Centrelink, where they can apply to receive the unemployment benefit from the government; this means that the government gives them some money, until they find another job to go to and can earn their living. This system is called Social Security unemployment benefits, or something like that, and it is good, it is like receiving a small wage to help you survive, so, it helps the workers when they don’t have a job and need financial help, which is good.

But the problem with this system is that all categories are not treated the same, which is not good. So, I believe that something needs to be done, to help anyone that needs help. You see, some categories may not receive help because they belong to a certain category, even if they earn no money and have no money, like the farmers today, this is the problem with the Social Security system of today.

You see, the farmers cannot turn to the government for help, because they are self-employed, and they are supposed to be rich, okay they are rich, because they own a lot of land, so, the assets test will exclude them from any government help; in this case there is no social security for the farmers. This is the reason why the social security system is failing the farmers, it is not set to help those people that cannot earn money even when they work hard, in the hope they can earn their living. Therefore, the Australian Social Security System needs to be changed. 

Because I believe that these people must be helped, because they are the backbone of the Australian economy, therefore, we cannot afford to lose them, so, the Social Security system needs to be adjusted to help them when they need help. They must be helped from the government, until the day that something else can replace the government help; like the collection of funds that we have suggested in our last article. Here we need also to say, that today farming is not regulated from the government, but some regulations may need to be placed; so that when things don’t work out, the government will be more willing to help the farmers.

Anyhow, we have worked out that today the farmers cannot be helped from Centrelink, because they are self-employed, and because they have too much property as assets. You see, the assets-test is the main problem here; but I believe that the assets-test in special cases should not override the income test completely, this suggestion does not apply only to the farmers, because the assets-test is also making life miserable to pensioners that own properties, when those properties cannot earn half the money the assets test believe they could.

So, in my views the assets test needs to be modified. Anyhow, we are going into details later, anyhow, it will become self-explained as we write more articles about it. We want to say now that there are issues that need to be fixed from the federal government. So, this farmer’s problem and the assets-test for pensioner, is going to be a real problem for the politicians, if they want to help the people that have voted for them at the elections.

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 Let us look at the political reasons. 

Anyhow, I want to point it out to you, that in our previous articles we have started to talk about the farmers problems, but slowly we found ourselves to talk about assets-test and politics. Now, what is happening at the Australian federal government level is not right, they need to work better what the people need, and how the people are affected when they make their budgets, I believe that this is one of the reasons why Australia is having problems today, some of these political people that become treasurers are heartless and careless, they have made many mistakes that has affected the public adversely, some of these mistakes need to be fixed, the public is not going to forget easily what they have done, so, they are going to run the risk of losing their next elections, on this issue alone. But let us compare what is happening now to the past. I believe that in the past it was better, at least this is the way I have seen it happen.

Anyhow, in the past as far as I know there was no assets test in the seventies, it was introduced later to stop people that were abusing the system, also because the government needed more money. Now, let us try to see and discuss some of the reasons that apply today, which takes us to see that the federal government is greedy, because they want more money. So, here we need to look at who are the people that make these decisions.

Of course, they are the politicians that we send to Canberra parliament to govern us, since the government is formed from the political parties. Now it becomes evident that it is what these political parties represent, believe and preach that are going to make the future laws and budgets that parliament will pass, to govern Australia. And believe me not everything that they will pass is garanted to work. 

Anyhow, this is a shortened version of our original articles, so, we will miss a couple of articles about the Australian politics, and The Australian Political Parties. So, we will go straight to the assets test promlem, since this applies to the rental sector, so, it is the main issue that we want to talk about, in the following articles, The Assets Test Dilemma, followed by The Australian Social Security Must Be Equal. then we will contine with newer articles. 

To see more click on this link, Australian Social Security  

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Farming is a risky business.

WELCOME TO BRISBANE AFFORDABLE RENTALS, YOU ARE INVITED. IN THIS BLOG, WE WILL DISCUSS RENTAL PROBLEMS THAT WE MAY INCOUNTER WHEN RENTING, AND THE PROBLEMS OF RUNNING AFFORDABLE RENTALS. 

Anyhow, the farmers' problem in this article is similar to the rental problem that we have today, because the social security system can help both, if the assets test is modified. So, we are writing several articles, where we will talk about the rental problems and the Social Security System. 

This blog can be found at this link, http://affordablerentals.blogspot.com/))

And here are other links to our internet articles

http://menfranco-re.blogspot.com/, http://manneedsgod.blogspot.com,  http://menfranco.blogspot.com, 

http://ifyoubelieveingod.blogspot.com/, http://genzanoit.blogspot.com/, 

https://sites.google.com/site/prayersofreconciliation/,https://sites.google.com/site/menfrancoreconciliation/

This article can also be found at this link, Farming Today Is Still a Risky Business. 

We want you to see this photo, to show you how hard it is to live in the farms when there is a drought. Look at this piece of land it is so dry, there is nothing left for the animals to eat, no farm animal can live here for long, unless you hand feed and water them manually. When things like this happen, it is very hard for the farmers to survive. So, it would be good, if the Social Security System would help them. 

Welcome to our article, Farming Today Is Still a Risky Business. 

Dear readers, we are writing about social issues that effect our way of life, and this is blog, No. 2. 

 (This article was published the first time in August 2018)

Australia farming and their present problems.

Dear readers, in our previous article we have talked about the farmers, and because they were doing well everybody was also doing well, but things change and today farmers are havung problems. So, let us see what they are, in this article, “Farming Today Is Still a Risky Business”. Today everybody is talking about the drought that is ruining farming and there is no end in sight. Now I want to say that I am writing this article for two reasons: One is to talk about the farmers problems that the drought is causing, and the failure of the government to help them; when they know that these things happen in Australia easily, because Australia is the driest continent on earth.

Now, this farmers problem gives me the opportunity to talk about the Australian government failure to help the farmers and other people, because they are in the same position as the farmer, according to the present, Social Security System, which I believe can be improved from the present government.

Now, let me explain, the farmers and some other people are cut off the Social Security System, because they own properties, so, the assets-test eliminate them to receive help, even when they need help like the farmers today. So, this article is going to be the first article, followed by several other articles about the Social Security System and Australian politician’s failure to help people in need.

We may argue that the farmers are rich people, so, they must be the last people to receive money from the government. Okay, you are right; but when the farmers reach a stage, where they cannot run their farms anymore, because they have no money; I believe that the government should step in and help them, even if it is a free loan, to be paid back when the farms produce enough, and they are able to pay back that loan. This is only a suggestion, and there are other ways that the government can help.  

I believe that what is happening to the farmers today, it has happened before, so, I want to point out that this is the same old failure that most governments have. You see, what is happening in Australia now, brings back my life-time memories, which are two folds: one is that farming is a risky business, because the nature of farming is risky, since the weather and other things influence the outcome, as we can see from this drought that today is crippling the Australian farmers; the other is about how the government fails to help the farmers even today, when help is urgently needed.

I believe that today we are more advanced, so, these things should be easier to understand and control, if everything can be worked out and organized, before these things happen. Now, I may have started to write this article for the farmers, but there are other things and places that the government is failing to do the right things, so, I will be writing several articles, to point out what I believe can be done to fix them; but let us go back to talk about the farmers.

Anyhow, I want to compare what I know from my life experiences, to what is happening now in Australia. I must say that it is like when I was young, the Italian government wanted only to collect the land tax from us farmers, because we owned some land, even when the land did not produce anything; they still wanted the land tax, and that was hurting us farmers. You see, we old people will always go back and compare present happenings to the past and then have our say, therefore, let me tell you part of my life story, to compare the past with the present.

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Compare old and new farming problems. 

 When I was young, I have been working in our family farm in Southern Italy for twelve years, I gave up farming because we worked hard but made very little money. During the time that I was working in the farm, I remember two very bad years for us famers; one of this was in 1951 when we had a drought and the wheat and other crops completely failed. We harvested what we could, but there was no much in it; the second time was in 1960, this time was too much rain, we again harvested what we could with the same result, we made about twice as much as the seeds we used for sowing, now that is bad because a good harvest is ten times plus what you sow, at least that is what we believed then. Anyhow, also the farm animals did not do well, because there wasn’t enough good food to go around; so, these events made me think to give up farming, since it is too risky, and sometimes you work for next to nothing.

But not all farms were the same, so, let me explain, some people that had more land and more money than us, had enough money to keep going, but I could not do that because my family didn’t own enough land, so, I had to find another way to earn a living. For this reason, I migrated to Australia hoping for the best. In Australia I switched job and instead of farming, I worked in the building industry; but in the back of my mind, I always thought about the farmers and their risky business.

Anyhow, most people in Australia were and are thinking that farmers are rich people; well, some of them are rich and some are not, when everything goes well, it is okay, but they are still running a risky business, and their business can lose money easily.

Now, the worst part of running a business and losing money; it is when people think you are rich, and therefore, nobody cares about you, even if you are starving. As it happens, farmers are at the top of this disadvantaged list, because farming is very risky; you see, most time it depends from the weather, but the farmers have no control over the weather, then, they own a lot of land, (they might even be paying tax because they own this land, (like we did in Italy in the fifties) but I don’t know much about this issue). The farmers are self-employed, so, they don’t qualify for help from the government, because they are self-employed and because of the assets-test. I believe that the assets-test should not apply in special cases, if you cannot make any money even if you work hard to earn it, the assets-test should not apply. I believe that this is what is wrong with the assets-test today, they don’t consider if you can make money, from what you have? And how much money you can make from your assets. I belive that the ASSETS TEST must be changed, to be fair to people that need to be helped. We are going to say more about the assets-test later, where we will be talking about the assets test for rental property owners. To do all this, we are going to write several articles, so, we invite you to follow us.

Now let me go back to the farmers issues because life problems never come alone. You see, it is the federal government that can help the farmers, but the federal government is having trouble today, as we will explain.

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Life problems never come alone. 

Anyhow, I am writing what is happening to the farming people in Australia, because there is this drought problem. So, the farmers need help, it is too much for them to keep going the way it is. I believe that they are not being helped enough from the government when the government can do more to help them. But as it often happens, our lives problems never come alone; so, troubles can increase other existing troubles, even when they don’t belong to the original trouble.

Anyhow, what I am trying to say here is that the federal government must help the farmers, but today they have their own political problems, so, instead of trying to solve the farmers problem, the politicians fight each other, they want to elect a new Prime Minister, believing that it is the fault of the PM the reason that people are leaving their coalition party; they don’t see that it is the party policies that people don’t like, and one of this I believe it is the assets test, because it puts the farmers and other people in a disadvantaged position.

About the political scene, I believe that changing their leader is not going to solve their political problem, unless those people that will be in charge, change their policies. But that is not all, because also, what I am trying to say here is what, senator Richard Di Natale, is talking about in this video, click the link to view.

Richard Di Natale flares up in the Senate - YouTube

OMG finally somebody is telling the truth. Wake up Australian politicians and think about the people that have voted for you first, it is your duty. Now, let us hope that this political problem is solved quickly, so that the politician can go back to work and solve the farmers problem, then solve the other problems. Anyhow, let me go back to talk about the farmers problem, since the farmer are neglected from the government.

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Farmers are neglected from the government. 

When we compare today farming to the past, today it is easier than it used to be, because of the progress we have made in farming; good farming practice helps everybody, the proof of how the farmers help is written in this article, Farming today compared to the old way, we wrote this article some time ago, and it explain the benefit that modern farming brings to the people. Because farming helps us all, a good government must care about the farmers; but today the farmers are neglected from the government.

Now, as we have said, today farming is still a risky business, when it should not be that risky. You see, we need the government to intervene and make laws that help the farmers when they need help. After all, it is the farmers that feed the people of Australia, because all the food is grown in the farms; so, it is necessary that the farmers are kept farming and continue to feed the entire population, if that cannot be done, then one day food can cost a lot more. So, let me explain how I see this farming situation.

Australia is a vast country, but at the same time it is the driest continent on earth, for this reason the Australian farmers must be organized in a way that they can survive, when a dry spell happens like it is happening right now. They cannot copy anybody else to solve their farming problems, when there is a drought or something else that affects farming, because nobody else has got a problem as large as Australia, so, we in Australia must be the first in the world to find a solution to this farming problem.

I believe that the Australian government must make laws, which will help the farmers survive and be able to bring their farm back to produce whatever they produce, when the drought is over. Now, here we are talking about the drought, but it should apply to other things as well, because farming has too many ups and downs, so, they need to be organized in such a way that when things go the wrong way, like the drought they are experiencing now; this new future set up that we are suggesting, will keep hardship to a minimum.

At this point of time, let us imagine what can be done, then make some suggestions.

 

We can suggest helping the farmers. 

Today the most important thing that the farmers must do is think how they can survive the drought, or anything else that puts their livelihood at risk. Here we must admit that most of the farmers are good at doing that, because farmers are practical people, but that may not be enough, to save all of them, as we can see from what is happening today. Therefore, we must think about a helping solution. Here we suggest that an organization that collect things from the farmers, when farming is doing well must be created, this is where the government can step in, by setting up a collective organization, which for instance collect every year a portion of the farms produce, or even some money when they are doing well, before taxing them to collect their tax. Then this government organization, will keep this tax-free reserve of food and money in reserve, which then, it can be freely distributed, when it becomes necessary to help those farmers in need.

Well, this only a suggestion that we have written here. But this thing is not even new; we are all familiar with the story in the Bible, when the Pharaoh of Egypt dreamed about the seven fat cows that then were devoured by the seven skinny cows. Joseph interpreted the dream that in the land of Egypt, there were going to be seven years of plenty, followed by seven years of famine. The Pharaoh got Joseph to organize a collection in the years of plenty, to be distributed on the years of famine, and thus Egypt survived the years of famine.

What happened in Egypt was a long time ago, and the earth seasons then were more regular than today, because they did not have global warming to deal with, this global warming is an extra problem that we have created ourselves, so, today and in the future, we must create things that can overcome this global warming problem. Meanwhile, we must be careful what we do; perhaps we should create more social security for everyone including the farmers. Now, let us talk about our present farming and other problems that we are having today. 

Australia is having problems. 

Anyhow, today what we want from the government cannot happen; because of what has happened in Canberra recently; since the federal government has had political problems; so, on the 24 of August 2018 they have replaced the Prime Minister; now the new PM. is Scott Morison, but he needs still to choose the other ministers and then swear them in, before they can talk about anything else. Anyhow, we can say here that today Australia is still the lucky country, because there are people that donate things, when people are in need; so, the farmer get some help that way. Thanks, God, for that!

Anyhow, meanwhile the farmers are praying for rain and praying that the people in Canberra will remember them, and then, do something about helping the farmers. Because, farming is a risky business even today, when things are easier to organize, for this reason, we need to look at the Australian security system to see who is responsible and what can be done.

I think I have said enough in this article, see you in our next article, where we will discuss about the Australian social security system that today is failing the farmers, but not only the farmers, because there are other people that can be served better. We believe that Australia can do better, if the Australian government can organize the resource better. 

I believe that we have said enough about this farmers problem, and the failure of the Social Security System, that is not helping them, and we will continue to write and publish more articles, hoping we can suggest something useful. 

So, see you in our next article, Australian Social Security  

To see more and the original article click on this link, Farming Today Is Still a Risky Business. 

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