Yes.

I used to have a half-interest in Austrian Economics. The idea that utility is unquantifiable always made me slightly uncomfortable with the seemingly-quantified way in which neoclassical microeconomics uses it. It had not occurred to me that whilst the simple charts and graphs we use imply ordinality they don’t necessarily imply cardinality. This made me feel a whole lot better. Utility functions are cool again!

There are other principles that are soundly destroyed in that piece (how Austrians address continuity etc.) that I hadn’t really considered (perhaps that’s a signal that I should be thinking more critically about what’s being taught to me?). In any case, it’s a good read if you want a perspective on some aspects of Austrian economics, and how they differ (or surprisingly, don’t differ) from neoclassical microeconomics.

For example: $950 is a lot to pay for shoes. The shoes are very fucking expensive (and yes, I did notice that was a sale price). At the same time, $950 is not a lot to pay for a computer.

$100000 is a lot to pay for a car (#1 on that list as I write this: an Elfin MS8 Streamliner), but not so much for a house. (Apologies if you’re reading this after that link breaks. It’s probably for the best.)

All of this seems rather obvious, doesn’t it? Well, you’d be surprised at how many people just don’t get it. There are people who think their $1000 computers should be more capable (or have more extras included). People who think you’re always there to answer their questions, or do them favours – for free (yes, everyone’s time has a value). People who just don’t get that if you want something, you’ll have to give something up for it – and a lot of the time that thing is money.

So, how do you avoid this? It’s quite simple, really. To ascertain the value of a product, do some bloody research. Open your eyes. Look at a competitor’s products and see what they cost. Look at where the product you’re thinking of fits into the range in terms of quality, price and value. Most of all, be honest about how cheap you are. There’s nothing wrong with that – if something costs 50% as much, but lasts 80% as long, it’s still a good buy. But acknowledge that you’re getting something worth less than a similar product and don’t expect as much from it.

Since I was playing around with different exposure settings in my camera, I came home with a bunch of over- and under-exposed pics and decided to dabble in the black arts of High Dynamic Resolution images. Check out the two after the break and let me know what you think.

This is stupid, I know. It’s facebook, spilling over into the internet-at-large. But I was curious, so I did the quiz. Suffice to say I have learned my lesson about taking internet quizzes. (No, I really haven’t).

If this was correct, a person earning $85,000 would take home $51,000, and a person earning $75,000 would take home $52,500. Why on earth would anyone accept a salary in between those two figures? I’ll tell you why. Because that’s not how the system works.


So, how much tax do you really pay? Simplified, your tax payable is equal to income tax minus deductions. Deductions are an individual thing, based on assets, income, dependents, all kinds of things. I’m not going to go into that here. But I will show you how to calculate your income tax.

First of all, you need to understand that your income gets divided up into brackets and each bracket is assigned a tax rate. In Australia, the lowest tax bracket is $0 to $6000, upon which you are not taxed at all. The next bracket starts at $6,001 and goes up to $34,000. This bracket carries a tax of 15%. The last three brackets of $34,001 – $80,000, $80,001 – $180,000 and $180001+ carry taxes of 30%, 40% and 45% respectively.

To calculate your tax, you start with your total gross income. Up to the first $6,000 you’ll pay no tax. For every dollar above $6,000 up to $34,000 you’ll pay just 15% on. Did your income exceed $34,000? By how much? Between $34,001 and $80,000, you’ll have to pay 30%. And so on, and so forth. Money within a bracket is only ever taxed at that bracket’s rate.

I’ve taken the liberty to produce a simple Excel spreadsheet to calculate income tax in Australia. You can download it here. Just enter your taxable income in the top left box and the spreadsheet will tell you how much tax you’re paying inside each bracket. There is a total in the bottom right.

I’ve also included an Effective Rate box. The Effective Rate is is the average rate of tax you’re paying per dollar. For people whose income is reasonably steady, this should give you a far better idea of how much of your weekly paycheck you will have to give up as tax.

I leave it to the reader to figure out their own deductions, payable levies and the like.