Mega Thread The Random Thoughts Thread Part 1

[Janus]

Our man Janus, gives hope to Port supporters by day with analysis and unbridled positivity, solves national economic and political problems by night and still find time to get on the tools and fix the hot water conundrum.

Lol - the first two are just opinion. The last is actually fact cause I'm an electrician

 

[raman]

Hot water systems work on J tarrif, which the electricity company charges at a cheaper rate because the water is heated up late at night when most people are sleeping.

It sounds to me as though either the tank you have is too small for your hot water consumption, or an element is fried - there are two in most hot water systems. So you're getting only half your water heated up.

Isn't J tariff an optional setting that you can change?

 

[Janus]

The surplus doesn’t mean anything, like I said.

Banks have plenty of money to lend or give away, and they would all be in massive amounts of debt. Debt is just another form of income if you manage it correctly.

I’m being pretty lazy, but I did at least take the time to find a blog that might help convince you of this.

http://www.economicshelp.org/blog/14011/debt/effects-of-a-budget-surplus/

Err, banks have plenty of money because they do fractional reserve lending - they only have to have 10% in real money of the money they lend out. So 100k becomes 1 million. They aren't in debt at all.

Governments aren't allowed to do this because they aren't a bank.

Running a surplus or being in debt is being here nor there. I didn't even mention a surplus - I spoke of the Future Fund, which is something completely different.

There is such a thing as good debt if you're nation building because it increases productivity. I said the BER was a great idea, didn't I? But giving $800 to people when $500 would have worked just as well? That's not good debt, that's just vote buying.

 

[Janus]

Isn't J tariff an optional setting that you can change?

Nope - that's why in old houses they had two meters. Why would you want to change it? It's cheaper power. The boost button is just using M tarrif to heat the water - you're talking 36c a kilowatt instead of the 16c that J tarrif runs at (I can't be bothered looking at the exact figures but the difference is substantial).

If you were dodgy and wanted to harvest some tomatoes hydroponically, you would rig the lighting system to the J meter so you'd get cheaper power and run a gas hot water service. You could try to bypass the meter but that way is better because it mimics the same amount of power consumption These days, people just use solar panels and storage solutions to keep off the grid.

Not that I would know anything about that.

 

[Janus]

The thing is, yesterday, we didn't even use any hot water and when it came to do the dishes there wasn't any hot water and the hot water we do have is absolutely scalding, which can be a sign that the system is faulty.

Surely a 125L system will do three showers and a sink full of dishes.

Yeah I'd definitely check the elements and maybe the thermostat as well. It might even be cheaper just to get a new tank. How old is it?

 

[LFC2010]

no #malcom, you won't be forming a majority government...

That speech wreaked of pure arrogance, no wonder there were some big swings in the voting.

 

[Janus]

No one runs the economy.

You know what I meant. It's easier than saying "Setting tax rates, subsidies and tarrifs to help encourage the RBA to keep interest rates and inflation in check while spending those generated dollars to stimulate growth and jobs in the private sector with public projects."

 

[Peck]

That speech wreaked of pure arrogance, no wonder there were some big swings in the voting.

The weirdest part is how he went all in on “we will win the majority”.

If it doesn’t happen he is going to look really bad, I mean I guess he is going to look bad even if he hadn’t claimed a victory, but it doesn’t look like the best overall move to me. He must be under a lot of pressure.

 

[edgie]

Lol - the first two are just opinion. The last is actually fact cause I'm an electrician

Janus is the #realtradie





Sent from my Lumia 800 using Tapatalk

 

[Peck]

Err, banks have plenty of money because they do fractional reserve lending - they only have to have 10% in real money of the money they lend out. So 100k becomes 1 million. They aren't in debt at all.

Governments aren't allowed to do this because they aren't a bank.

Running a surplus or being in debt is being here nor there. I didn't even mention a surplus - I spoke of the Future Fund, which is something completely different.

There is such a thing as good debt if you're nation building because it increases productivity. I said the BER was a great idea, didn't I? But giving $800 to people when $500 would have worked just as well? That's not good debt, that's just vote buying.

This is all I was saying. You essentially said “the money for the stimulus came from howards surplus” I understand you may have meant something different, but I think its important that people understand that a budget surplus doesn’t equate to good economic managememt.

Howard deserves no credit for Australia surviving the GFC.

 

[bomberclifford]

I don't have a problem with Turnbull's speech last night. It was aimed more at his internal nemeses than other parties. He's pissed off and making a statement.

I also think this (non)result is exactly what was needed right now.

The LNP were running with a mandate which was driven by the far right but they only won in 2013 because the electorate had had enough of the shambolic Rudd/Gillard/Rudd govt. They were heading in a direction that the electorate didn't like and have been reigned back in.

It's also worth noting that Turnbull didn't lose an election that Abbott would have won, he kept them in it. A far right leaning coalition with Abbott as its face would have been slaughtered. Even long time Lib voters didn't want Abbott.


Highlights for me:
The ousting of the toxic Mirabella
The elevation of Linda Burney
The finale of the poster boy for The Peter Principle, Jamie Briggs
The melts from Bolt, Jones, Credlin.
Doing my civic duty via Postal Vote and seeing all the butthurts on social media about lining up for an hour.


IMO, whoever gets in, should immediately legalise same sex marriage. Fix it, get it out of the way, deal with the blowback from the conservative religious nutters by reminding them of the separation of Church and State. They don't 'own' the institution of marriage and have no right to use their power base to control it. If a cynical atheist like me can access the privilege of being married, without any involvement from any religious authority, why the hell can't Adam & Steve/Adele & Eve?

Even if you wanted to look at it from a clinical strategy perspective, it would also put a large dent in the growing Green support. (applicable to both ALP and LNP)

It's so mind-numbingly simple.

 

[bomberclifford]

This is all I was saying. You essentially said “the money for the stimulus came from howards surplus” I understand you may have meant something different, but I think its important that people understand that a budget surplus doesn’t equate to good economic managememt.

Howard deserves no credit for Australia surviving the GFC.

The reason the money was there for the ALP to hand out in their "please vote for us" showbag was because it wasn't spent by the previous government. If the stimulus package was the key tactic that enabled Australia to navigate through the GFC with minimal damage, then the fact that the money was available was a crucial part of being able to implement it. The fact that any government was putting money away for future cash requirements should be lauded.

Regardless of your political leaning, this should be obvious.

 

[LukeSA]

Yeah I'd definitely check the elements and maybe the thermostat as well. It might even be cheaper just to get a new tank. How old is it?

The property manager said it's 18 months old but it looks like water has been leaking out of cylinder as there are water stains around the rim.

 

[Duck Farmer]

You know what I meant. It's easier than saying "Setting tax rates, subsidies and tarrifs to help encourage the RBA to keep interest rates and inflation in check while spending those generated dollars to stimulate growth and jobs in the private sector with public projects."

The economy is a complex, dynamic, chaotic, non-linear system that cannot be reduced to or controlled by simple parameters like tax rates, subsidies, tariffs etc. The government can tweak a parameter or adjust fiscal policy but there is absolutely no guarantee of a predictable outcome and an almost certain chance of unintended consequences. An independent central bank like the RBA can try the same with monetary policy but with much the same effect.

Even if you believe the government or RBA has the levers in place to run things, the Australian economy is less than 2% of the global economy of which they have absolutely no control over.

Saying the government runs the economy is at most one small step beyond saying the BOM runs the weather.

 

[raman]

Gee thanks TSW, I might actually have to watch this shit now.

 

[bomberclifford]

Gee thanks TSW, I might actually have to watch this shit now.

I thought he'd been quiet lately. I'll be tuning in.

 

[xflamedancer]

#Janusforpm
#bombercliffordfordeputy
#rehfortreasurer
#lockhartroadministerforforeignaffairs
#nationfixed

 

[charcolechaddy]

I don't have a problem with Turnbull's speech last night. It was aimed more at his internal nemeses than other parties. He's pissed off and making a statement.

I also think this (non)result is exactly what was needed right now.

The LNP were running with a mandate which was driven by the far right but they only won in 2013 because the electorate had had enough of the shambolic Rudd/Gillard/Rudd govt. They were heading in a direction that the electorate didn't like and have been reigned back in.

It's also worth noting that Turnbull didn't lose an election that Abbott would have won, he kept them in it. A far right leaning coalition with Abbott as its face would have been slaughtered. Even long time Lib voters didn't want Abbott.


Highlights for me:
The ousting of the toxic Mirabella
The elevation of Linda Burney
The finale of the poster boy for The Peter Principle, Jamie Briggs
The melts from Bolt, Jones, Credlin.
Doing my civic duty via Postal Vote and seeing all the butthurts on social media about lining up for an hour.


IMO, whoever gets in, should immediately legalise same sex marriage. Fix it, get it out of the way, deal with the blowback from the conservative religious nutters by reminding them of the separation of Church and State. They don't 'own' the institution of marriage and have no right to use their power base to control it. If a cynical atheist like me can access the privilege of being married, without any involvement from any religious authority, why the hell can't Adam & Steve/Adele & Eve?

Even if you wanted to look at it from a clinical strategy perspective, it would also put a large dent in the growing Green support. (applicable to both ALP and LNP)

It's so mind-numbingly simple.

Great post , so agree with your gay marriage statements FFS show some leadership and make the call then channel the money into mental health or ice addiction.

 

[Janus]

The economy is a complex, dynamic, chaotic, non-linear system that cannot be reduced to or controlled by simple parameters like tax rates, subsidies, tariffs etc. The government can tweak a parameter or adjust fiscal policy but there is absolutely no guarantee of a predictable outcome and an almost certain chance of unintended consequences. An independent central bank like the RBA can try the same with monetary policy but with much the same effect.

Even if you believe the government or RBA has the levers in place to run things, the Australian economy is less than 2% of the global economy of which they have absolutely no control over.

Saying the government runs the economy is at most one small step beyond saying the BOM runs the weather.

So what you're saying is - the government can hit the accelerator and the RBA can hit the brake, but they don't create the fuel to make the car run, nor know how the engine actually works?

Cool. Exactly what I meant.

 

[Janus]

I don't have a problem with Turnbull's speech last night. It was aimed more at his internal nemeses than other parties. He's pissed off and making a statement.

I also think this (non)result is exactly what was needed right now.

The LNP were running with a mandate which was driven by the far right but they only won in 2013 because the electorate had had enough of the shambolic Rudd/Gillard/Rudd govt. They were heading in a direction that the electorate didn't like and have been reigned back in.

It's also worth noting that Turnbull didn't lose an election that Abbott would have won, he kept them in it. A far right leaning coalition with Abbott as its face would have been slaughtered. Even long time Lib voters didn't want Abbott.


Highlights for me:
The ousting of the toxic Mirabella
The elevation of Linda Burney
The finale of the poster boy for The Peter Principle, Jamie Briggs
The melts from Bolt, Jones, Credlin.
Doing my civic duty via Postal Vote and seeing all the butthurts on social media about lining up for an hour.


IMO, whoever gets in, should immediately legalise same sex marriage. Fix it, get it out of the way, deal with the blowback from the conservative religious nutters by reminding them of the separation of Church and State. They don't 'own' the institution of marriage and have no right to use their power base to control it. If a cynical atheist like me can access the privilege of being married, without any involvement from any religious authority, why the hell can't Adam & Steve/Adele & Eve?

Even if you wanted to look at it from a clinical strategy perspective, it would also put a large dent in the growing Green support. (applicable to both ALP and LNP)

It's so mind-numbingly simple.

This should happen...but it won't.

What will happen is that the ultra-conservatives in the coalition will view the result as a disaster because they moved toward centre and move the party even harder to the right to pick up all the xenophobic voters that Hinch, Hanson and Lambie picked up. You're right that people hated Abbott, but Liberals are ****ing dumb and won't see it that way.

If Labor wants to form government they'll suck Di Natale's **** by offering all the bullshit carbon pricing that does absolutely nothing for the environment instead of just giving incentives for huge polluters to do something about it.

The government - whoever it is - doesn't have the numbers to block the opposition in the House of Reps (the Greens will always side with Labor no matter what)...but the way the senate is now, everything has to go through the cross bench that consists of Pauline Hanson, Nick Xenophon, Derryn Hinch, Jacquie Lambie and Fred ****ing Nile.

Good luck passing anything through that mob. I'm glad I can say with my hand on my heart that I'm not responsible for the mess we're going to find ourselves in.

 

[Eddie Dingle]

This should happen...but it won't.

What will happen is that the ultra-conservatives in the coalition will view the result as a disaster because they moved toward centre and move the party even harder to the right to pick up all the xenophobic voters that Hinch, Hanson and Lambie picked up. You're right that people hated Abbott, but Liberals are ******* dumb and won't see it that way.

If Labor wants to form government they'll suck Di Natale's **** by offering all the bullshit carbon pricing that does absolutely nothing for the environment instead of just giving incentives for huge polluters to do something about it.

The government - whoever it is - doesn't have the numbers to block the opposition in the House of Reps (the Greens will always side with Labor no matter what)...but the way the senate is now, everything has to go through the cross bench that consists of Pauline Hanson, Nick Xenophon, Derryn Hinch, Jacquie Lambie and Fred ******* Nile.

Good luck passing anything through that mob. I'm glad I can say with my hand on my heart that I'm not responsible for the mess we're going to find ourselves in.

The Greens don't always side with Labor.

 

[Portia]

And Liberal and Labor are entirely capable of passing legislation together without a single other party touching it

 

[Portia]

Basically if you're going to accuse anyone of being myopic bill blockers, its the giant parties that won't work with each other because reasons.

 

[Janus]

The Greens don't always side with Labor.

Well they're not going to support anything the Libs put up because they are left while the Coalition is right. The fact that they will only support a minority Labor government shows they know which side their bread is buttered on.

The only time they didn't side with Labor is when they felt they weren't left enough.

 

[Janus]

And Liberal and Labor are entirely capable of passing legislation together without a single other party touching it

If they were actually mature and said "Look, we just both got our butts kicked by independents...lets find some common ground to get through this" I might agree. But they, like many, are beholden to party lines.