I’m a junky for Facebook. Right now, all I want to do is log in, see what I’ve missed while I’ve been gone all arvo and go to bed. But instead, I get this…something which should never be done to a junky!
Three Years February 19, 2009
My husband and I celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary yesterday. Three years seems like nothing but I guess its a lot further than many other marriages make it! And I’m still upset that I was so sick and the weather was so crap and we didn’t get our beach-side wedding in the gazebo. I seriously need to get over that!
We celebrated by going out to dinner to a lovely restaurant on the broadwater where we had bruschetta to start, fettucine boscaiola and veal mains, and a yummo sticky date pudding desert. It was nice to sit and eat together and not rush through our meals. Mum looked after Nicklas, and we got home just in time for him to get fussy and want a feed to go to sleep. Its times like those that I wish he was on the bottle!
I got a lovely Tiffany’s ring from Mike, and it matches the necklace he gave me on our wedding day. There wasn’t the same ordeal to actually get the present this time, but it is always fun getting jewelry! Especially in a little square blue box from Tiffany’s!
Bub is up from a short nap that I was hoping would be much longer. So best go.
Another Stimulus Package February 4, 2009
Our Prime Minister has proposed a $42B stimulus package that he wants to inject into the community in March/April. The proposal would give people who filed a tax-return last year and earned less than $80k a $950 one-time payment. It would also give low income families $950, and low-income families with school aged kids would receive $950 per child. Mike and I qualify for this payment under at least 3 different criteria, so I don’t know if that means we’d get $2850 or just the $950. It reads like each person earning under $80k would get it, so we should at least get $1900.
The hope is that people will go spend the money, keeping stores in business and people in jobs. But we just had one of these packages in December, right before Christmas, and it obviously failed to prevent the loss of thousands of jobs in the new year. So why will this work? Another part of the $42B package is government funded projects that will create jobs. But what about when those projects are over?
The package may not go through yet, as the opposition leader is rejecting the proposal. He would prefer to see income tax-cuts, putting more money in our pockets each week, rather than this one-time payout (that would essentially be the second-time payout). I hate to agree with him, as I can’t stand him, but that makes more sense to me, too.
When Australia goes into a $100B deficit because of all these government handouts, who will they use to fill the kitty again? Australians. By raising income tax, liquor tax, petrol tax, food tax…it might seem nice to get handouts now, but what about when they want it back? We’re also running the risk of coddling a nation who will think the government will bail them out every time things get rough.
The bottom line is that people need to be more responsible with their money, and not rely on the government for temporary bail-outs.
If only we’d won the $30M lottery last night!
