John Quiggin

“People who dare comment around here tend to be pretty smart, so I was hoping for some help.”

People who comment here are for the most part not above average intelligence, they are instead expressive and opinionated. But I think you already knew this.

Benno, my final word shall be that I never actually believed that Sheehan should be committed, either. However, there is just no remotely logical link between a single game of soccer, John Howard and patriotism. People who get paid to write for broadsheets should be required to make sense, unless they are being paid to be funny.

As a veteran Sheehan watcher, I’m afraid I have to pronounce all of the above analysis as amateurish. What you need to know is that all Sheehan columns are essentially about Paul Sheehan: what a thoughtful fellow he is; how cosmopolitan and yet how quintessentially Australian; what a key place he occupies in the intellectual life of this country and the English-speaking world for that matter; and above all how, Zelig-like; he’s always there in the thick of the action at key turning points in history. This soccer piece is indistinguishable from the mass of Sheehan columns. Hey! It’s Paul Sheehan here, and what I don’t know about soccer isn’t worth knowing. And though you wouldn’t know it to look at me, I’m as passionate as the next man on this topic, so you just sit back and listen to what I have to say. Naturally, I was there in ’74 when it all started…blah, blah, blah… Any actual argument he makes is likely to be an afterthought, so I wouldn’t expend too much effort in trying to make sense of it.

QUOTE: a little googling reveals that In 1969/70 there were 29 tax rates in the income tax scale and the top rate was 68.3675 per cent.

RESPONSE: and what percentage of the population fell in that bracket? Also there were plenty of ways to avoid the top rate using fringe benefits etc. My current marginal tax rate is ~80% so it doesn’t sound so bad.

Can you share the URL where you sourced the data from. I did have the data in some photocopied notes from a few years ago however since I moved house I don’t know which of the boxes I might find it in.