Comments for Alister Air

Comment on Price discrimination and the Apple iPad by Tom

Tom — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 04:07:41 +0000

Tom…

[...]Alister Air » Price discrimination and the Apple iPad[...]…

Comment on The case for plain packaging of tobacco by Alister

Alister — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 06:48:12 +0000

Fires are costed in the 2004-2005 data at $63 million. Adjusting for CPI (which would be too low) brings it to $71M in 2009. A more detailed assessment would be to adjust for construction and insurance price increases, which would make the cost slightly higher.

Comment on The case for plain packaging of tobacco by Alberto Rosso

Alberto Rosso — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 06:41:45 +0000

Another set of costs related to smoking and which don’t appear to have been calculated are those related to fires. Many fires are caused by careless discarded cigarettes and there are still, incredibly, deaths recorded each year of people who fall asleep whilst smoking.

Comment on The payroll tax/job creation myth abounds by Alister

Alister — Thu, 19 May 2011 14:22:06 +0000

Something to remember is that abolition of payroll tax only creates theoretical jobs at the margins. There needs to be enough employers at the margins who might be able to employ another worker to match the job losses in the public sector that would accrue from the $4.7B removed from state revenue. I’d submit that this is unlikely. Any employer large enough to have a significant enough saving to create a job from the abolition of payroll tax has already built those costs into their margins now. And small employers don’t save enough money for it to matter.

Comment on The payroll tax/job creation myth abounds by Hugh

Hugh — Thu, 19 May 2011 13:32:51 +0000

Just to play devil’s advocate here, surely the tax saved doesnt need equal a whole job? To use your example, if I’m employing 10 people at $50k net each, the cost of employing an 11th person at $50k actually becomes $76,950 because I’ve hit the tax trigger. If I can only afford $50k, or even $70k, I won’t employ that 11th person – but I would if I didn’t have to pay payroll tax.

Comment on On equality of opportunity by Club Troppo » Missing Link Friday – Inequality edition

Club Troppo » Missing Link Friday – Inequality edition — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 23:26:25 +0000

[...] bloggers soon joined the debate. Both Ilya at Beats and Pieces and Alister Air link to Paul Krugman’s recent New York Times column on economics and morality. Krugman [...]

Comment on On equality of opportunity by Matt C

Matt C — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 23:46:44 +0000

Good post, Alister!

Comment on The last lament of a dying retailer by Alister

Alister — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 00:25:26 +0000

I think perhaps that lowering the threshold isn't the real issue. Doing so to "fund schools and hospitals" has less meaning than one might prefer, as such services are funded from consolidated revenue. One less F35 would get you a lot of useful funding for social services. Increases to tax rates aren't the only way to fund things we care about. My main point is that when I next buy a fridge, I don't need to see it (they're all the same, as far as I'm concerned, or where they're not the differences are obvious enough such that photos and text give me the information I need). I can physically go into a Harvey Norman, find a sales person, pay, and then pay more for delivery, or handle the whole transaction online for less money, saving close to $1,000. Retailers like Harvey Norman are dead unless they change, and the sooner either of these two things happen, the better off we'll all be.

Comment on The last lament of a dying retailer by Colin

Colin — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 00:11:55 +0000

Some good points here – I hadn’t considered the CNY exchange rate which is slightly less significant as you say. The bigger point, as you say and as comments I’ve received confirm, is that people see the bigger retailers as adding no value whatsoever, just dodgy service and inflated prices.

I’ll take this post as a condemnation of the Greens’ new policy to lower the threshold to $100 to fund “schools and hospitals”…

Comment on Lagrange method by Alister

Alister — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 04:04:28 +0000

I’ll give it a try over the weekend.