The disruption caused by the pandemic, which was not unforeseeable, shows how foolish we’ve been in becoming so reliant on goods and services from overseas. One thing we can do as individuals is support local suppliers, even if overseas supplies seem superficially cheaper.
To that end:
and:
Among the great post C19 challenges will be that of paying down Government (and business) debt accrued in getting the country through C19. The most obvious and uniformly spread manner in which Government can collect increased revenue is through an increase in the level of GST. This would increase Government revenue directly, through increasing the level of the GST, and through the relative efficiency of the GST as a means of tax collection.
Hi @Mike5,
Welcome to the community.
There are many thoughts already in this topic about how things might look when we pop out the back of this current crisis and upheaval. Until we get there does anyone really know?
Increasing taxes EG GST if the nation is struggling to recover might not be a solution. It’s a tax on personal consumption. One impact typical of increased taxation on consumers is to reduce our ability to spend. Less spending, less demand, fewer businesses hiring staff. It’s worth considering when we do pop out the backend many businesses will need to restart. Under employment and unemployment will also be very high.
The ABC news service provided a interesting and informed vision of the likely impact on our future economy - Coronanomics.
Welcome @Mike5.
If I read Modern Monetary Theory right, government debt doesn’t matter (more or less). Then again, I think I strained a few neurons trying to get my head around MMT.
Money is a convenient abstraction. Sometimes, it’s a distraction.
GST is cheap to administer, but it’s indiscriminate. For that reason, it’s a neoliberal favourite. Neoliberals would rather costs be met by those who have least. They’d prefer a flat rate on everything. That was Howard’s original proposal. GST is nasty. Without the exemptions forced by the Democrats, it would be nastier.
That said, consumption taxes are the most difficult to evade. The old Sales Tax legislation was immensely complicated. It was complicated, in part because it tried to be fair (disregarding consequences of decades of lobbying by vested interests). I stand against any indiscriminate increase in GST. If the total of consumption taxation is to increase, then it must be carefully targeted.
COVID-19 might just be the nudge that tipped us over into something that was inevitable anyway.
The ‘diagnosis’ of a Pandemic must surely meet certain criteria set down by the WHO. As soon as those criteria are met then it must be called as such by WHO. Unfortunately in this case they were caught napping and were too slow to declare it as such.
Perhaps my idea of a world pandemic response team within WHO is a bit unrealistic but certainly every country needs to have a Pandemic Response Plan which is reviewed by the world team to ensure it doesn’t conflict with another country’s plan.
I agree that it’s difficult when certain country heads have large egos though!
Although some things will return to normal after the crisis is over the will be long term changes.
These changes will be those where there is an existing trajectory and the crisis is reinforcing that.
For example working from home.
People are being forced to experiment with this. The forced experimentation will accelerate development. For example Microsoft Teams seems to be a good business platform that seems to me to work better at video conferencing than Skype. It also supports other collaboration features. I have been having video conferencing with my staff (where they have been forced to isolate or simply because travel restrictions) and found that the newest software works surprisingly well.
Although after the crisis we will revert to some in office time. I don’t believe we will revert to five days a week in the office. I will certainly be arguing that I can maximise productivity by a blend of in office and at home work.
You are destroying the whole concept of comparative advantage! Of course, there have always been exceptions for national security and mates, but maybe countries will think about what is really important to them in a crisis.
While others have already pointed out the problem of getting countries to act in unison on anything, I suggest that there is a more fundamental problem with this idea. That is the fact that no two pandemics are ever going to be the same. This one was different from the first SARS, which was different from Ebola, which differed from Zika.
Having a single top-down response plan limits your options when the pandemic is not the one you were expecting.
The prospect invites some interesting observations:
There are potentially other opportunities in extending the same to education - potentially reducing in class contact and at school time by up to half. A consequence is many inner city and high urban density schools could service a greater number of students without expanding class rooms. School does not need to be 9-3 five days a week.Yes, the specter of good internet connectivity lurks in the background for those who missed out.
Not Missing, perhpas more complex in reach?
There is potential for change to reduce GHG emissions.
The ATO/Govt will need to revisit how it assesses deductions for working from home and capital gains on the family home.
Re-purposing of existing property reducing demand for new construction vs renovation and improvement.
I suspect globalism is going to be rethought as many countries are finding their critical supply chains are stressed or failing, and other countries are gazumping critical products from the open markets.
The US reportedly outbid an enroute face mask shipment heading to the German police, and the US government is trying to embargo shipping PPE from the US to Canada and Latin America. We have seen some reports of pallets destined for China, some fake news and some real, but most of our kit comes from China not goes to China.
Alliances will fracture when it becomes every country for itself, and when some countries are led by people far more interested in their personal ratings and egos than in others.
On other fronts, (not a Dr.) Donald J Trump speaks about his favourite potential treatment he has a hunch about, and what a surprise that Australia salutes and jumps like no other all while pivoting from a rational position whereby Clive was subject to scrutiny.
Throughout history has there ever been a plague where dodgy salesmen did not offer a miracle cure?
Disclaimer: I’m related to Millie Rooney.
[edit]
Overseas (e.g. Europe) you see public toilets that automatically disinfect themselves before each new customer. I wonder if we’ll see similar technology evolutions here. Image shopping trolleys that automatically disinfect their handles when you put the coin in the trolley-release slot.
Perhaps the world will be more tolerant. 
Maybe there’ll be less regulation. This article focuses on the US. Nothing similar could possibly happen in Australia. Victoria has not lifted its ban on gas exploration. Miners aren’t lobbying to be declared essential. That would never happen.
Re more people working from home: my son never wants to back to working in the office again. Not sure that will happen, as he works for a Japanese company who are not happy if they can’t actually see people working, even though the work is still getting done! Cultural differences.
Maybe the world will be free of extreme Capitalism:
Or not:
Conservatism is fundamentally about self and the short term. The epidemic is a risk to our Prime Minister’s interests within the current electoral cycle. He’ll do whatever it takes to leverage it to his advantage in the next election.
Amsterdam adopts a different perspective:
Light penetrates the Conservative dimness:
The question now is: what’s essential? What do we need to support what’s essential? There’s little point in having a capability if it depends on things beyond our control.
Remember when Australia had a car industry? We once even manufactured aircraft and computers. Treacherous ideologues took care of that.
This is from the “Canadian Prepper” YouTube channel. If you watch it, bear in mind that it’s somewhat paranoid and not focused on Australia. Some interesting insights nonetheless.
More on self-reliance. If a trading partner kicks up a stink about Australia supporting local suppliers, then perhaps we need to reconsider the value of the trading partnership.
