This paragraph by Haruki Murakami hits very hard:
“Once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.”
Kanye West locked himself in his room, making five beats a day for three summers straight.
Sit in your room and create, and eventually you'll be invited into new rooms.
This is fundamentally why we run a profitable business. Because as long as we're profitable, we can sustain. And when you sustain, you have more opportunities for these magic moments. I've found no better way to bump into more magic than to simply be available for it. There's nothing better than that moment of insight, of catching a glint, of seeing a meh transform into an oh wow, we're on to something.
"Labor has misjudged the depth of the backlash...facing a revolt on multiple fronts: by start-up entrepreneurs, small businesses, wage earners who are also asset owners, self-reliant young people, along with parents facing a de facto death tax" https://t.co/27Td5WGjxH
Underlying the budget debate is a debate about what sort of a country we want to be.
Firstly do we want to be a country where most young Australians can afford to buy a house, or can afford to pay their rent.
I think the answer from just about all of us is yes. State and Federal Governments have let young Australians down over the last 30 years; buying your own house has become an impossible aspiration for millions of (mainly younger) Australians.
In that context budget changes to CGT and negative gearing as they relate to residential property should be welcomed. Truthfully they aren’t going to help as much as we would all like as the fundamental issue in Australia is lack of supply and, by the Government’s own admission, the budget does little to increase supply.
The second question is whether we want to be a society that encourages and incentivises hard work and entrepreneurship AND at the same time helps Australians who are doing it tough. I think the answer to the 2nd question should also be an unambiguous yes.
That is the fundamental problem with the budget. The rhetoric is all about Intergenerational fairness but the reality is that it takes from business builders in Australia and it doesn’t give something back to other Australians. The CGT changes will just discourage business building and job creation and the extra revenue will fall into a massive fiscal black hole.
A budget that reduces incentive for Australians to build businesses and employ people is a bad budget.
People can use whatever labels they like but if people think there is something wrong in advocating for wealth creation in this country then it just means they have a different vision for this country. My vision is the vision articulated by the Hawke Keating Government and then by the Howard Costello Government. That is the Australia I aspire for us to be.
The CGT hike for business builders will do nothing to increase prosperity or fairness unless your definition of fairness is reducing incentive for Australians to build successful businesses. Yes, if you build a successful business you will generate wealth for you and your family but you will also share that with the country via job creation, increased tax revenue and better products and services for Australians.
I am old enough to remember when we called that a win win.
Australia is a country where if you win $500k on an 8 leg multi on SportsBet you won't have to pay any tax, but if you sell your business for $500k you'll have to give the government half.
What are we incentivising here?
How fucking retarded do you have to be to run your country this way?
Yesterday’s Federal Budget was framed around fairness and intergenerational equity. That is a premise all of us should agree with. Younger Australians are being disadvantaged in many different ways: housing costs continue to spiral faster than incomes are growing, productivity growth is anaemic, and the next generation is set to inherit a debt burden it will have to repay.
The reality of the Budget is something quite different.
It significantly increased the tax burden on Australians trying to build businesses and create wealth for their families, their team members, and the country. That burden will fall disproportionately on younger Australians, because they are the ones starting and building those businesses over the next decade.
On the other side of the ledger, very little has been offered in return. Ending negative gearing on residential property may dampen price growth, but on the Government’s own numbers the Budget will deliver very few new homes. Supply is the root cause of the housing crisis, and the Budget does not seriously address it.
For startup founders, their teams, and small business owners, this Budget is a serious setback — and that cohort is disproportionately young. Incentives matter. Rules drive behaviour and behaviour drives culture. This Budget changes the rules in ways that will damage the economy and the future prosperity of Australians. Australia will be taxing capital gains at a higher rate than virtually any other developed country in the world. Our nearest developed neighbours Singapore and NZ tax capital gains at zero.
We might accept the sacrifice if it delivered us something. It hasn’t. The Budget will do almost nothing to create future prosperity and nothing to improve fairness. As a country, it is time to grow the size of the pie rather than simultaneously shrink it and fight over the slices.
The one genuine positive is the Government’s stated willingness to engage with the startup community on the doubling of CGT for founders and employees. The startup ecosystem will engage in good faith. The test now is whether the Government will too.