These are two photos of the bike down by the river in two seperate spots in Applecross, about 10~ minutes ride from my house. Took them on Sunday after a very enjoyable lunch with Pip and Kiata

Had a chance this evening to fish out the cables for the video camera and it is currently ripping all the video footage off onto my computer. Over the next few evenings I hope to get some of it edited and in a form worth watching.

Being back in Perth comes the processing of hundreds of emails. Thankfully there are a few funny non-work related emails in there… like this one:

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that’s what they decided to do.

The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. ‘Since you are all such good customers,’ he said, ‘I’m going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20.’ Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free.

But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his ‘fair share?’ They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody’s share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.

So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man’s bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so:
The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.
‘I only got a dollar out of the $20,’declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man,’ but he got $10!’
‘Yeah, that’s right,’ exclaimed the fifth man. ‘I only saved a dollar, too. It’s unfair that he got ten times more than I got’ ‘That’s true!!’ shouted the seventh man. ‘Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!’
‘Wait a minute,’ yelled the first four men in unison. ‘We didn’t get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!’ The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn’t show up for drinks so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn’t have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, ladies and gentlemen, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics
University of Georgia

For those who understand, no explanation is needed.
For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible.

Really wanted to share this with you all. It has been sourced from my good friend Matthew Prouse at Prouse Family Accountants - they do all my tax stuff and I know I couldn’t do it half as well without them!

In hindsight the 8:45AM flight from Brisbane was a bad idea. It has meant a 5AM start and a 1.5hr train journey. Let’s hope I catch up on some sleep on the plane.

Attached are some photos from my time in Queensland. As you can see the weather left a bit to be desired!

That is all from me for now. Wrote this post from my iPhone

It was great fun hanging out with Emma & Cai. Their friend Ben was also staying and we took their dog Millie down to the local park to kick a footy around. Despite not having played footy since about the age of 7~ I managed to get one or two kicks going in the right direction. At the end of the park was a steep slope that ended in a stream. No prizes for guessing who managed to get the football wet twice

We spent the evening watching the box. Cai has a great selection of movies and TV Shows. Around 2AM we crashed and we all had a bit of a sleep in. Em & Cai are awesome people and it was great fun getting to know them both better. Will definitely be heading that way if another invite makes itself available.

The drive back on Sunday was a lot more eventful than the drive up on Saturday. About half way back the rain really set in. It was the sort of rain where you have the windscreen wipers on their max setting and you are still slowing down because you can’t see anything! This photo shows the grey sky and drizzle as the rain first sets in:

Rain coming in

This photo shows how low the visibility was. Both my car and the car in front had our lights on yet you can barely see the car in front!

The Rain Gets Serious

Despite the weather I made it home safely where the fire was burning warmly. This weekend I am off to Brisbane with the Blackburns for The Mental Toolbox. Will hopefully get another blog post out soon

This morning I’ve been unpacking from the trip, put through a load of washing and I’m right into my work. It is a lovely warm day, especially with the fire going. Below is a shot of the front yard from the window that my desk looks through.

View from my Gundaroo Desk (26 August 2008)

Melbourne is living up to its reputation for all the seasons in one day. The two snaps below (Forgive the poor quality) show the weather at its finest. Hopefully the sun will come out sooner or later.

Flemington Race Course

Lloyd at the Flemington Race Course

Looking forward to getting more blog posts up and out there for you in the coming days and weeks. In the meantime it would be fantastic if you took the time and subscribed to the blog. It will take care of emailing you as new information is posted so you don’t need to worry about missing anything

What I am hoping to do is share snippets from my personal life along with the lifes lessons I am learning along the way.

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