Thank you for calling the Australian Taxation Office's Personal Tax Inquiries Helpline on 132861. Unfortunately this service is not available at this current time. Please call our alternative phone number 132861. Thank you.
I thought I'd do a quick check of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) to have a look what the word "alternative" actually means. Perhaps not surprising was the first definition which states that an alternative is something "available in place of something else". Materially if the alternative phone number of 132861 is in place of 132861, does that constitute something else?
Alternative music or culture can also be said to stand in place of something else. That something else being whatever the mainstream culture happens to be, be it music, film, magazine, lifestyle or whatever; again, the thing standing in place of the other thing, can not by definition be the first thing.
We find alternatives in the world of economics. If the price of something like the price of butter goes down, then more people will buy butter meaning quantity demanded increases. Butter and margarine are substitutes because either one of them can be used instead of the other. Since the price of butter decreased, more people will buy butter over margarine, and the demand curve of margarine will shift in. In other words, if you can find a substitute for a good, then those two goods have to be compared as alternatives.
All of this makes me wonder whether or not the ATO have actually grasped the concept of an alternative. By offering the same thing as a stand in or substitute for itself, is it really an alternative? I mean its not like they've directed me anywhere else is it?
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