The Angry Exile: That's the way the money goes.

The Hangman

Into our town the Hangman came,
Smelling of gold and blood and flame.
And he paced our bricks with a diffident air,
And built his frame in the courthouse square.
The scaffold stood by the courthouse side,
Only as wide as the door was wide;
A frame as tall, or little more,
Than the capping sill of the courthouse door.
And we wondered, whenever we had the time,
Who the criminal, what the crime
That the Hangman judged with the yellow twist
of knotted hemp in his busy fist.
And innocent though we were, with dread,
We passed those eyes of buckshot lead --
Till one cried: "Hangman, who is he
For whom you raised the gallows-tree?"
Then a twinkle grew in the buckshot eye,
And he gave us a riddle instead of reply:
"He who serves me best," said he,
"Shall earn the rope of the gallows-tree."
And he stepped down, and laid his hand
On a man who came from another land.
And we breathed again, for another's grief
At the Hangman's hand was our relief
And the gallows-frame on the courthouse lawn
By tomorrow's sun would be struck and gone.
So we gave him way, and no one spoke,
Out of respect for his Hangman's cloak.
The next day's sun looked mildly down
On roof and street in our quiet town,
And stark and black in the morning air
Was the gallows-tree in the courthouse square.
And the Hangman stood at his usual stand
With the yellow hemp in his busy hand;
With his buckshot eye and his jaw like a pike
And his air so knowing and business-like.
And we cried, "Hangman, have you not done
Yesterday, with the foreign one?"
Then we fell silent, and stood amazed,
"Oh, not for him was the gallows raised."
He laughed a laugh as he looked at us:
"Did you think I'd gone to all this fuss
To hang one man? That's a thing I do
To stretch a rope when the rope is new."
Then one cried "Murder!" and one cried "Shame!"
And into our midst the Hangman came
To that man's place. "Do you hold," said he,
"with him that was meant for the gallows-tree?"
And he laid his hand on that one's arm.
And we shrank back in quick alarm!
And we gave him way, and no one spoke
Out of fear of his Hangman's cloak.
That night we saw with dread surprise
The Hangman's scaffold had grown in size.
Fed by the blood beneath the chute,
The gallows-tree had taken root;
Now as wide, or a little more,
Than the steps that led to the courthouse door,
As tall as the writing, or nearly as tall,
Halfway up on the courthouse wall.
The third he took -- we had all heard tell --
Was a usurer, and an infidel.
"What," said the Hangman "have you to do
With the gallows-bound, and he a Jew?"
And we cried out, "Is this one he
Who has served you well and faithfully?"
The Hangman smiled: "It's a clever scheme
to try the strength of the gallows-beam."
The fourth man's dark, accusing song
Had scratched our comfort hard and long;
"And what concern," he gave us back.
"Have you for the doomed -- the doomed and Black?"
The fifth. The sixth. And we cried again,
"Hangman, Hangman, is this the man?"
"It's a trick," he said. "that we hangmen know
For easing the trap when the trap springs slow."
And so we ceased, and asked no more,
As the Hangman tallied his bloody score.
And sun by sun, and night by night,
The gallows grew to monstrous height.
The wings of the scaffold opened wide
Till they covered the square from side to side;
And the monster cross-beam, looking down,
Cast its shadow across the town.
Then through the town the Hangman came,
Through the empty streets, and called my name --
And I looked at the gallows soaring tall,
And thought, "There is no one left at all
For hanging, and so he calls to me
To help pull down the gallows-tree."
So I went out with right good hope
To the Hangman's tree and the Hangman's rope.
He smiled at me as I came down
To the courthouse square through the silent town.
And supple and stretched in his busy hand
Was the yellow twist of the hempen strand.
And he whistled his tune as he tried the trap,
And it sprang down with a ready snap --
And then with a smile of awful command
He laid his hand upon my hand.
"You tricked me. Hangman!," I shouted then,
"That your scaffold was built for other men...
And I no henchman of yours," I cried,
"You lied to me, Hangman. Foully lied!"
Then a twinkle grew in the buckshot eye,
"Lied to you? Tricked you?" he said. "Not I.
For I answered straight and I told you true --
The scaffold was raised for none but you.
For who has served me more faithfully
Then you with your coward's hope?" said he,
"And where are the others who might have stood
Side by your side in the common good?"
"Dead," I whispered. And amiably
"Murdered," the Hangman corrected me:
"First the foreigner, then the Jew...
I did no more than you let me do."
Beneath the beam that blocked the sky
None had stood so alone as I.
The Hangman noosed me, and no voice there
Cried "Stop!" for me in the empty square.

Maurice Ogden

Friday 31 July 2009

That's the way the money goes.

Via Thoughts On Freedom, a handy website that shows anyone their tax dollars at work in terms of their own approximate tax contributions. Interesting for Aussie tax payers or anyone wanting to compare figures here to elsewhere. It's broken down into quite some detail. Let's say for the sake of argument and simplicity that someone $100,000 income for this tax year - it says they will pay $25,450 in income tax, which will be spent roughly as follows:

$8,157 Social security & welfare

$2,945 Assistance to the aged

$2,207 Income support for seniors
$464 Residential care
$94 Veterans' community care and support
$63 Community care
$54 Mature age income support
$36 Flexible aged care
$12 Allowances, concessions, and services for seniors
$4.21 Aged care workforce
$3.24 Other aged care spending
$2.93 Ageing information and support
$2.33 Dementia
$2,211 Assistance to families with children

$1,311 Family Tax Benefit
$398 Parents' Income Support
$233 Child care fee assistance
$110 Baby Bonus payments
$91 Child support
$29 Support for the child care system
$14 Family support
$13 Family relationship services
$8.80 Other assistance to families with children expenses
$3.24 Early childhood education
$1,259 Assistance to people with disabilities

$870 Disability support pension
$310 Income Support for Carers
$53 Disability employment services
$24 Services and support for people with a disability
$2.63 Other assistance to people with disabilities expenses
$663 Assistance to the unemployed and sick
$515 Assistance to veterans & their dependants
$288 Administration expenses
$159 Assistance to Indigenous Australians not specified elsewhere
$118 Other welfare programs

$4,472 Payments to State & Territory Governments

$3,317 Non-earmarked payments to states & territories
$845 National healthcare specific purpose payments
$115 Payments to states & territories for aged care purposes
$115 Payments to states & territories for National Skills and Workforce Development
$68 Payments to states & territories under the National Disability Agreement
$11 Payments to states & territories for child care

$3,010 Health

$1,597 Medical services and benefits

$1,129 Medical benefits schedule
$310 Private health insurance rebate
$72 Veterans' medical benefits
$55 Other medical services expenses
$22 Primary care practice incentives
$9.48 Medical indemnity
$743 Pharmaceutical services and benefits

$410 Pharmaceutical benefits for Centrelink concession card holders
$117 Pharmaceutical benefits for non-concession card holders
$92 Other pharmaceutical benefits expenses
$66 Pharmaceutical benefits specifically for highly specialised drugs
$34 Repatriation Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (for veterans and their dependants)
$25 Essential vaccines
$346 Health services
$127 Hospital services
$126 General health administration
$48 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health

$2.48 Administration expenses
$1.96 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health
$0.53 Medical services and benefits
$0.45 Health services
$0.38 Pharmaceutical benefits and services
$23 Health care agreements

$2,535 Education

$647 Government schools
$604 Higher education
$475 Non-government schools
$434 Specific school funding (including grants, specific education programs, infrastructure spending)
$251 Payments to students

$177 Tertiary Student Assistance (including AUSTUDY)
$58 Higher Education Loan Program (HELP)
$71 Vocational and other education

$53 National Training System
$16 Adult English Migrant Program
$2.86 VET Higher Education Loans Program
$54 General administration expenses

$14 School student assistance
$1.28 Veterans' Children Education Scheme

$1,577 Defence
$1,336 General public services

$428 Financial and fiscal affairs
$369 Foreign affairs and economic aid

$278 Official development assistance
$73 Assistance to PNG and the Pacific Region
$66 Assistance to East Asia (including assistance to Indonesia for tsunami-related reconstruction)
$51 Other foreign affairs and economic aid expenditure
$42 Assistance to Africa, Central Asia, the Middle East, and other regions
$26 International deployment services
$25 Payments to other international organisations
$22 Emergency humanitarian & refugee programs
$18 Other, including AusAID departmental expenses
$16 UN, Commonwealth & other international organisations
$14 Passport services
$8.20 NGO Volunteer and Community Programs
$6.10 Consular services
$4.97 International agricultural research & development
$4.51 Public Information Services & Public Diplomacy
$230 Government-funded superannuation benefits
$193 General research

$87 Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
$63 Miscellaneous general research expenditure (including the Australian Research Council and the Australian Institute of Marine Science)
$26 Australian Bureau of Statistics
$17 Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation
$66 Legislative and executive affairs
$50 General services

$1,109 Other purposes

$511 Nominal superannuation interest
$471 Interest payments on public debt
$169 Local government assistance
$120 Contingency reserve
$6.85 Natural disaster relief

$684 Housing & community amenities

$552 Housing (including the First Home Owner Grant and social housing expenditure)
$90 Environment protection
$42 Urban and regional Development

$632 Fuel and energy

$382 Fuel Tax Credits Scheme (for commercial users of heavy diesel vehicles)
$161 Energy efficiency and climate change Action
$37 Resources related initiatives and management
$31 Energy related initiatives and management
$12 Other fuel and energy expenses
$6.32 Resources, Energy and Tourism departmental funding for fuel and energy
$3.01 Cleaner fuels scheme

$616 Other economic affairs

$175 Labour market assistance to job seekers and industry
$166 Other economic affairs not specified elsewhere (including the Export Markets Development Grants Scheme and other industry programs)
$112 Immigration (including settlement services for migrants)
$108 Vocational and industry training (including payments to apprentices and employers)
$41 Industrial relations
$13 Tourism and regional promotion (including Tourism Australia)

$413 Transport and communication

$295 Road transport
$40 Communication (not including the proposed National Broadband Network)
$26 Rail transport
$22 Sea transport (including the Australian Maritime Safety Authority)
$17 Other transport and communication expenses
$13 Air transport (including the Civil Aviation Safety Authority)

$294 Public order and safety

$227 Miscellaneous public order and safety

$102 Australian Federal Police
$82 Australian Customs and Border Protection Service
$31 Australian Security Intelligence Organisation
$66 Courts and legal services

$256 Agriculture, forestry, and fishing

$123 Natural resources development (including water programs in the Murray-Darling Basin)
$43 Rural assistance
$43 General administration
$14 Assistance to fishing, horticulture, and other agriculture
$12 Assistance to the cattle, sheep, and pig industry
$10 Assistance to the grains industry
$3.76 Assistance to the dairy industry
$3.76 Assistance to the wool industry
$3.31 General assistance not allocated to specific industries

$233 Recreation & culture

$109 Broadcasting

$44 ABC Television
$24 ABC Radio
$13 SBS Television
$7.07 ABC Analog Transmission
$6.32 Access to digital TV services
$6.10 Other broadcasting expenses
$4.82 SBS Digital Transmission and Distribution
$3.46 Broadcasting and Digital Television
$72 Arts and cultural heritage

$5.04 National Archives of Australia
$4.67 National Library of Australia
$3.31 National Museum of Australia
$2.93 National Gallery of Australia
$26 National estate and parks
$26 Sport and recreation

$126 Assistance to the mining, manufacturing, and construction industries

On top of that apparently you can add $3,999 for the budget deficit. Phew! And on top of that Tax Check says:

Note that income taxation provides only around half of total Federal Government revenue. Other major revenue sources include the GST, corporate taxes, excise taxes, superannuation taxes, tariffs, and so on. Thus total direct and indirect contributions to federal spending could potentially be multiple times higher than the values listed above, especially when an individual’s income is relatively low. In addition, beyond where categories have been distinctly labelled, no attempt has been made to account for independent revenue raising or spending by state or local governments.

Taxation by state governments I suppose, though I understood the GST revenue went to the states anyway. I'll look at this a line at a time and post thoughts in the next few days, but for now I'll just say that the ABC and SBS cost less than I thought.