Old Turku, Finland
If you are looking for a city called Shoalhaven City, forget it. It does not exist. The same for a city called Canterbury City. We are visiting a place named Nelson Bay which does exists but yet Port Stephens does not. Nelson Bay is also Port Stephens together with some other townships. Palm Beach has no palms and tasty cheese is often not tasty. Many a foreigner is left dangling to make sense of our fondness for the confusion caused by complications in naming things. I remember buying a house in Balmain but it was actually in Petersham because that was the Parish in which Balmain was situated but it was also in the county of Cumberland even though Balmain was also a Borough till at least 1906. (which was in the Cumberland County). To top it off, Balmain is part of Leichhardt Shire
I suppose, history leaves a stamp on land- titles and official documents and it takes a brave soul to modernise the running of a bureaucracy. Then there are places like Leichhardt near Balmain, but you would be wrong thinking it is the same as the electoral seat of Leichhardt which is 2500 kilometres away in the North of Australia.
It is no wonder someone asked; What’s in a name?
In the meantime Finland is addressing social inequality , by planning to pay every person a monthly income. Now there is a country that likes innovation and making things simple.
“To fight poverty and boost its own economy, Finland is planning to issue a check for $876 to every citizen, every month. The concept is called basic income, and the Finnish government is getting closer to finalizing its implementation this month.
The Finnish Social Insurance Institution (KELA) is drafting the plan to pay every one of its 5.4 million people $876 per month, tax-free, which would replace social support programs, such as welfare and unemployment benefits. Though a proposal from KELA isn’t expected until November 2016, a pilot stage is currently planned prior to full implementation of the program.
Basic income has been debated by economists for years, but Finland would be the first major nation to actually implement the model on a universal basis. The arrangement was initially popularized in the 1960s by Milton Friedman and would “provide payments from the state that would increase in inverse proportion to income.”
This could be the Finnish government’s answer to rising poverty and unemployment rates during a three-year recession, and it is certainly popular among Finns. In a recent poll by KELA, 69 percent of Finns support a basic income. Voters elected the Centre party this April, which campaigned in support of basic income, but the idea is popular among voters of almost all parties.”
I will just leave you with the following;
Our Dutch pension that includes a holiday loading is now higher than our Australian pension. I worked in Holland for about three years. I worked in Australia for well over fifty years (paying tax!) Because the Australian pension is means tested, it gets deducted by the value of savings, the family car, furniture, silver tea spoons, cash on hand, brass taps etc AND a deduction of the value of our Dutch Pension.
Can one believe how complicated and unfair this all is. We are not complaining and are living well. But what about those who pay rent or mortgage, have debts or living in struggle street?
Tags: Balmain, Borough, Cumberland, Finland, Holland, Kela, Leichhardt, Milton Friedman, Tax free, Turku
Oosterman Treats Blog 
December 10, 2015 at 8:02 am |
We are all about the ‘self made man’.
LikeLike
December 10, 2015 at 9:40 am |
It is pretty tough for those at the bottom scale of income. Incredibly, the fixing of the budget deficit is to be paid for by the pensioner.
The last treasurer, Mr Hockey told the old, feeble and infirm; “Your days of entitlements are over”. ” Get used to it”.
Now, that same Mr Hockey is the pin-striped Australian ambassador in New York and we can hear the Chandon-Brut corks popping while the pensioners are on luke-warm gruel… .
LikeLiked by 4 people
December 10, 2015 at 8:44 am |
Your opening section on names soon had me completely bamboozled, partly because I’d assumed that such anomalies wouldn’t have arisen yet in a comparatively ‘new’ country like Australia.
Where I live I often find that if I enter my address accurately
when completing an electronic form, the the form refuses to accept it until I make the deliberate mistake I now know it wants. It knows better than I do where I live. Apart from that, life is comparatively simple.
Finland. I have read about this but haven’t paid enough attention to it to know whether it’s a good idea or not. I hope it is, though there may soon be a lengthening queue of people applying for Finnish citizenship.
What do the True Finns make of it, I wonder?
The gulf between your Australian and Dutch pensions is astonishing.
You mave to sell your tea spoons to increase payments.
As for your last point, I don’t think I’ve ever known a worse time to be poor.
LikeLiked by 2 people
December 10, 2015 at 9:32 am |
The basic pension in Holland is paid to all, rich or poor and regarded as an entitlement for which a social tax is paid during employment and is paid on top of the income tax.
The Australian pension is means tested and available to those whose income and assets are below a certain threshhold.
When assets and income goes above that minimum, the government reduces the pension according to a somewhat complicated method of multiplications and subtractions. ( mainly subtractions)
It is also required from pensioners to inform the government whever a trip outside Australia is planned with dates of return etc. We are on our last teaspoon and share the stirring of our cup-o-tea with an Arnotts biscuit. 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
December 10, 2015 at 5:19 pm |
The concept of basic income is finding favour here too, Gerard. Adair Turner’s new book looks at it as one option. It will be fascinating to see if it works as envisaged.
LikeLiked by 2 people
December 10, 2015 at 9:16 pm |
Thanks for the reminder, Andrew, my husband has to have at least one surprise for Christmas.
LikeLiked by 2 people
December 10, 2015 at 9:21 pm |
Yes, Holland too is planning a UBI, with funding to come from a mix of revenues, preferably from the wealthy and VAT or GST. At the moment the administration of a potpourri of benefits costs almost as much as the benefits themselves.
The UBI would simply be less costly. However, overcoming the objections by the wealthy will be difficult. A green party in power or in a coalition with the more social minded moderates could perhaps achieve that.
I do hope I will witness that and shall strive to remain as healthy as possible.
One never knows though. People cark it so unexpectedly now-a-days and why would that exclude me?
Is any of us more deserving to longevity than anyone else? Positivity is the answer here and that’s what my dearest Helvi is always holding up.
LikeLike
December 10, 2015 at 9:26 pm
I think you have a good few years ahead yet, Gerard. Curmudgeons are renowned for longevity. I hope.
LikeLiked by 1 person
December 10, 2015 at 9:32 pm
That’s the kindest remark I have heard for a long time. Thank you, Andrew. I’ll give Helvi the good news.
LikeLiked by 1 person
December 10, 2015 at 5:27 pm |
I am fascinated by the state paying everyone an income and I’d like to know how it is financed. I used to dream, when I was at home bringing up children, of a state that paid a housewife for this dawn-to-dusk-to-dawn job. Re the cities; our house is run along these lines. My husband knows what I mean if I say something is in the dining room/book room/your study/the big room/the music room/the sitting room or the TV room (that’s three rooms), but no one else would.
LikeLiked by 2 people
December 10, 2015 at 9:31 pm |
An income for everyone has been bandied about through the years. It has to be possible if somehow the waves of wealth going to fewer and fewer people can be reversed and spread out to the general population.
There is a street in NYC where about a dozen super rich have real estate worth more than entire countries. They don’t live there but their wealth does, and keeps expanding to such a degree that when walking past you can actually hear the wealth heaving, growing and groaning.
It makes a sound like the rising of bread sometimes does . The wealth makes its own yeast and the rich know how to sour-dough their own wealth indefinitely.
Truly amazing.
LikeLiked by 1 person
December 10, 2015 at 8:53 pm |
The New Zealand Green Party has a platform plank of an Unconditional Basic income – if we ever manage to get into government.
LikeLiked by 1 person
December 10, 2015 at 9:35 pm |
Yes, NZ really got something going on the social conscience level. Here our new PM, Mr Malcolm Turnbull is disappointing. He is good at smooth talk and rocking backwards and forwards on his heels, holding court, but…is not changing anything. He likes the limelight and glows in the dark.
LikeLiked by 2 people
December 10, 2015 at 8:54 pm |
We propose to fund our UBI by eliminating wasteful and bureaucratic benefit and pension programs and increasing income tax on high earners.
LikeLiked by 1 person
December 10, 2015 at 9:36 pm |
Yes, That’s the ticket, Stuart. It will be interesting to watch. Should my parents have gone to NZ instead?
LikeLike
December 10, 2015 at 9:47 pm |
In the past, pensioners could get a modest return on savings, if they had any. Today, that is almost impossible with interest rates at 2 or 3 percent paid on savings at the maximum.
On shares the income is somewhat higher with the franking credits ( company tax paid on earnings) getting returned to those below the taxable income.
But,… the Australian pension gets reduced when the( nodding off) pensioner is canny enough in their old age to muck about with shares and manage to eek out an extra income.
There is a Government approved punishment lurking about here. What do you reckon?
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2015/dec/10/borat-tells-jimmy-kimmel-that-donald-trump-is-not-a-real-person-video
LikeLike
December 11, 2015 at 12:25 am |
The Henry George movement calls the UBI a “Citizen Dividend”.
It will be paid from the collection of unearned profit.
The accumulated wealth it is nothing but theft of the wealth created by the whole of the community. Land has only value because other people live there already and more want to live there too.
Some of our “dear” citizens speculate with our savings, at low interest, and skim off the increase in land value for themselves.
This increase in value belongs to all and, therefore, a citizen dividend can be paid from collecting the increase in the unimproved value of property and resources.
We’ll have to watch the Finnish experiment.
LikeLiked by 1 person
December 11, 2015 at 12:36 am
The biggest profit of all comes from the leasing out of vast tracks of land to individulas for mining. At least Norway kept a firm finger on the pulse on their oil felds. I believe they have the largest of all pension funds in the world. In fact every one, including the retired, are now millionaires in Norway. They can feast on fish fillets, blanched kale with pine nuts and mango jam, the same as our Gina Reinhart, Clive Palmer and Twiggy Forrest do.
LikeLiked by 1 person
December 11, 2015 at 5:23 am
You might be interested in this: http://qz.com/437088/utrecht-will-give-money-for-free-to-its-citizens-will-it-make-them-lazier/
LikeLike
December 11, 2015 at 5:26 am
Further to the subject this in Finnish http://www.kela.fi/ajankohtaista-henkiloasiakkaat/-/asset_publisher/kg5xtoqDw6Wf/content/perustulolla-on-vahva-kannatus?_101_INSTANCE_bXQwrAFx2FGH_redirect=%2F
LikeLike
December 11, 2015 at 7:23 am
Yes, it looks as if they are having a trial period. The Dutch have always been keen in trying out experiments in doing things better.
The social revolution came about in the sixties and seventies.
It coincided with migration to Australia from Holland stopping in its tracks.
Australia too used to be at the fore- front of social equality and innovation.
LikeLike
December 13, 2015 at 5:33 am |
Progressive and visionary. Fins are the vanguard of future social economics. I can’t wait to visit the country next year!
LikeLike
December 13, 2015 at 10:23 pm |
You will like Finland, especially their design and architecture. The language is tricky where adjectives and pre-positions etc become part of the verbs or nouns. That’s why the words are so long. The young all speak English!
LikeLiked by 1 person
December 14, 2015 at 3:28 am
That sounds great Gerard. I am not there for long but I do look forward to visiting Porvoo and the capital!! Can you recommend any particular Finnish dish I should try? I have already tried the cinnamon buns and loved them as we used to have access to a Finnish/Scandinavian bakery. Sadly it has now closed down.
LikeLike
December 13, 2015 at 11:47 pm |
Remove the superannuation concessions to the very wealthy and we could fund a healthy pension for everybody with change leftover for the unemployed under 30s. If we also ditch negative gearing, we could give every pensioner a new house.
Unfortunately, the ones who benefit the most from these tax concessions are the ones making the rules.
LikeLike
December 14, 2015 at 10:03 pm |
Yes, it is tricky. Holland too is trying a small group as part of understanding what it entails. Will an income to all lower poverty, and you are right; why pay those that are already well off? At the moment the rich are getting richer and they lower their tax by superannuation deductions which those with low income can’t do.
LikeLiked by 1 person
December 14, 2015 at 6:38 pm |
I’m a Finn but I’ve no idea what to think of the planned reform (It’s not decided yet). It feels like we’ll lose benefits (they are already very good) and at the same time give the wealthy some money they don’t need. Taxes here are so huge, everything is expensive, and unemployment depressing, so something needs to be done. Live Master of Something said, unfortunately it’s the ones who benefit the most who are making the rules. And as for the line for citizenship, that’s happening already with the refugees. Meanwhile, we normal citizens are working longer and longer days with less salary to pay excecutives bonuses… Hmm. It’s complicated. But I’m trying to stay optimistic! 🙂
LikeLike
December 14, 2015 at 10:09 pm |
Huomenta.
I don’t know the answer. I suspect many countries have problems of equal opportunities for all. Worldwide, the rich get richer and the poor poorer. I think Leonard Cohen sings along those lines.
Here in Australia welfare is not as generous as it is in most European countries but our climate is benign and we have plenty of sun.
LikeLiked by 1 person
December 16, 2015 at 3:45 pm
Yes, I’m envious of your climate! 🙂 I spent my childhood in Australia, actually, but somehow ended up in Finland now (how that happened, I’m still wondering!) And true, those problems are global and largely due to human nature. Have a great week!
LikeLiked by 1 person
December 15, 2015 at 12:35 am |
It is called The City of Shoalhaven.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Shoalhaven
LikeLike
December 15, 2015 at 12:56 am |
Yes, but why is an area called a ‘city’. A city is a large town. It is more like a shire than a city. But, then again, so many things remain a mystery.
LikeLike
December 15, 2015 at 2:42 am
This has something to do how they organise local governments in Australia. First there is the Shire, then the Municipality before such a place reaches city status. Perhaps you can study the Local Government Act. It is very complicated and, as you say, a mystery.
Did you know that the Sydney Olympics were not held in Sydney at all but in the City of Auburn! What a letdown.
LikeLike
December 15, 2015 at 3:59 am
And yet, the ‘city’ of Auburn is a small suburb of Sydney. Hardly a city!
LikeLike
December 16, 2015 at 10:43 am |
The lands department changed the name of my road eighteen months ago. It still isn’t picked up by google maps so no-one can find it. Not taxi drivers. Not telstra. Not service contractors. Not the motor registry office when I went to renew my licence. Not GPS locators in cars. I always have to give anyone the old name so they can find me. The ironic thing is that the reason they changed the name was so any ambulance would be able to locate it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
December 16, 2015 at 7:22 pm |
Yes, and it always takes a whole team of experts to make thing difficult and incomprehensible. They also change the bounderies of both state and federal seats.When it come to voting we find out we are not living in the same area as before. It is called gerrymandering.I think England has a lot to answer for.
LikeLiked by 2 people