According to recent ATO statistics, the rich account for an increasing slice of the tax haul in Australia.

The reality is the more rich people there are, the better it is for all Australians.

Not just from the trickle down effect, but because they’re paying a disproportionate share of taxes, which enables lower income earners to pay little tax yet access the services that the taxes of higher income earners fund.

In fact the top 10% of income earners (2009-10) pay a massive 45.3% of tax paid, which is up from 36.2% in 1995-96.

What’s more compelling is the top 10% only earned 30% of the taxable income yet paid 45.3% of the tax.

Meaning they’re paying a disproportionately high share of tax.

And the inverse of this means lower income earners get to pay a disproportionately low share of tax but tend to use government services such as health and education the most, whereas the wealthy tend to pay for private health and education.

Yet despite this there are some misguided socialists who claim the gap between the rich and poor is widening and a problem, when it simply isn’t true.

The gap is irrelevant. All that matters is that lower income levels in Australia get access to a sufficient standard of living and the opportunity to do better if they so choose.

In fact it’s effectively because there are rich or higher income earners who are more productive and efficient, that ensures lower income earners get such benefits.

Some people with good intentions think the key to a happy society is wealth distribution, which is effectively taking from the higher producers to subsidise the lower or non-producers.

However this thinking is misguided and dangerous. It’s also the core of what communism was about and history has proven it breeds poverty and destruction of the human spirit and thus attracts a lot of financially uneducated minds.

Because if the higher producers in society are demotivated by being over taxed and not appreciated, and as a result ceased being productive or simply left the country for a fairer system (known as brain drain), then lower income earners would in fact be worse off.

And so would the misguided socialists (even the ones with good intentions but poor financial intelligence) because there would be less money to redistribute.

There is no perfect system.

However ideas that are based in socialism (communism) where everyone should be equal in terms of income and wealth stem from envy and fooling the less financially intelligent in society into believing it’s not financial intelligence you need to produce and have more, it’s a system change. To take the wealth off those who “do” and give it to those who “don’t”… “But only if you vote for me to keep me in power”.

(At least Australians are smart enough to say, “We’ll take the cheque but it doesn’t mean we accept the bribe because we know the cheque will have to be paid back in higher taxes in the future”.)

The reality is when poor people, or lower income people, see higher income earners, they shouldn’t be envious or manipulated by the politics of envy pushed by a certain side of government, but in fact think, “Thank God they’re in our country because without them I’d be even poorer and possibly not even have a job or basic services”.

(Remember it’s never governments that create jobs – it’s businesses. Government jobs are funded by business and employee’s taxes. It’s always business that’s the catalyst for real job creation.)

And instead of being envious be inspired and think, “How can I become a higher producer for my country and in turn a higher income earner to contribute more to my country”? Thus increasing everyone’s wealth.

And of course they can, through improved skills, increased efficiency, better mindset motivation and improved financial intelligence.

There is no greater way to increase the wealth of a nation than to increase the motivation, education and efficiency of a country’s greatest asset; it’s people. And there’s no more important task.

The greatest challenge this country faces is the poor quality of education it’s people receive at school (a result of an out-dated 19th Century, socialised school system that has planted seeds of financial failure and a deluded form of socialism in the minds of the majority of Australians) which requires a lot of intense training to reshape Australian’s often unhealthy relationships around money, poor productivity and efficiency; to become more naturally driven, motivated, on purpose and more productive, seeing them add more value to their employer, starting a business, investing and overall adding value to the economy.

Happier wealthier citizens, isn’t that the goal? The goal isn’t to eliminate the gap between the rich and poor because that would destroy the wealth of a nation, and attempts to are dangerously counter productive.

There will always be a gap and the gap is a good thing.

It’s like a marathon. If the race leader is told to stop and wait till everyone catches up, will records ever be set?

Would anyone be inspired to train as hard if everyone had to be equal and run at the same pace, not get too far ahead of the less productive runners or less experienced…

The fact is humans are not equal.

You want the fast, professional runners sprinting ahead setting new records and inspiring the rest of us to do better.

But we also want to make sure those who are less competitive can still join the race and enjoy the marathon as much as possible; and the race organisers won’t pack up and go home until everyone has finished. Because those coming last in the race can still be equally inspiring for simply having a go.

And isn’t “having a go” meant to be part of the good Aussie spirit?

You see the gap between the rich and poor can widen all it likes, that’s not the problem, even though many make it out to be.

The front-runners should run as fast as they can, we need them to.

It’s just in society we ensure everyone else makes it too. Maybe not in the same style but at a pace they can sustain until better training, mindset and ability speeds up their performance.

You see the true measure of a financially successful society is how good a life the lower income earners have.

Do they have access to education, health, housing, and the opportunity to work?

Let’s not penalise the front-runners. Let’s use them to coach and assist the others to perform even better. They may not ever win a race but they can win the race that counts. Being the best they can be.

That’s why a 21st Century education system focusing on financial intelligence is the fastest and most inexpensive way to create a significance boost to Australia’s GDP and overall output, and also to a more harmonious society.

One where compassionate capitalism triumphs over misguided politics of envy and the often-good intentioned but poorly flawed theory of socialism that simply doesn’t work in reality.

We all benefit from wealth. In fact the poorest in society have the most to benefit from wealth.

If we want to share the benefits of wealth we need to increase the total wealth of our country.

That is keep the top producers motivated and happy to produce even more; ask them to help and share their skillsets and knowledge with the rest of us so as a team, as a country, we continue to progress together as one.

Jamie McIntyre is the founder of the 21st Century Group of companies and CEO of 21st Century Education. He is also bestselling author, successful entrepreneur, investor, sought after success coach, internationally renowned speaker and world-leading educator. www.jamiemcintyre.com

Jamie McIntyre is the founder of the 21st Century Group of companies and CEO of 21st Century Education. He is also bestselling author, successful entrepreneur, investor, sought after success coach, internationally renowned speaker and world-leading educator. http://www.jamiemcintyre.com

Author Bio: Jamie McIntyre is the founder of the 21st Century Group of companies and CEO of 21st Century Education. He is also bestselling author, successful entrepreneur, investor, sought after success coach, internationally renowned speaker and world-leading educator. www.jamiemcintyre.com

Category: World Affairs
Keywords: 21st century, Articles, ATO, Australia, Blog, tax, tax haul, wealthy