Stop complaining: Cost of living is fine.

Discussion in 'Australia, NZ, Pacific' started by MegadethFan, Feb 15, 2012.

  1. Adultmale

    Adultmale Active Member Past Donor

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    I am not going to waste my time talking to a fool who doesn't know what he is talking about.
     
  2. aussiefree2ride

    aussiefree2ride New Member

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    That`s nothing like what I said, didn`t take you long to get confused.
     
  3. MegadethFan

    MegadethFan Well-Known Member

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    haha, yeah that's a perfectly reasonable response :rolleyes:
     
  4. MegadethFan

    MegadethFan Well-Known Member

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    So what was it you said?
     
  5. aussiefree2ride

    aussiefree2ride New Member

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    That`s what I said.
     
  6. aussiefree2ride

    aussiefree2ride New Member

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    Under the circumstances, it is.
     
  7. MegadethFan

    MegadethFan Well-Known Member

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    So what is the point you were trying to make through that argument?
     
  8. MegadethFan

    MegadethFan Well-Known Member

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    What circumstances are those?
     
  9. aussiefree2ride

    aussiefree2ride New Member

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    That housing prices do have a big effect on the cost of living. Then you tried to make out that I said that housing prices were an absolute indicator.
     
  10. aussiefree2ride

    aussiefree2ride New Member

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    These ones, that`s them.
     
  11. MegadethFan

    MegadethFan Well-Known Member

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    Sure but they were factored in to the info I gave, so I dont see your point here.

    Ok, sorry for misunderstanding your point. But it seems like your comment was rather pointless now.
     
  12. MegadethFan

    MegadethFan Well-Known Member

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    Which ones?
     
  13. aussiefree2ride

    aussiefree2ride New Member

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    The futulity of trying to communicate with a confused mind.
     
  14. MegadethFan

    MegadethFan Well-Known Member

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    1. How is it futile?
    2. How am I confused?
     
  15. aussiefree2ride

    aussiefree2ride New Member

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    Anyone who can remember when an Australian family could live comfortably on one wage knows that the real cost of living has risen, not fallen in recent years. For example,the cost of essential white goods has fallen, so has the longivity of these items. How often do you see a 30 year old fridge in a kitchen now?

    If a `study` takes a selective / deceptive approach, it`s possible to convince the gullible of anything.
     
  16. Recusant

    Recusant Active Member

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    This is amusing. The Liberal voters seem concerned for people's job security and keeping a local manufacturing industry. Amusing.
     
  17. Adultmale

    Adultmale Active Member Past Donor

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    Please tell us why you find those things so amusing.
     
  18. axialturban

    axialturban Well-Known Member

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    Propoganda metaprogramming is a shell program around a core singular faith, in the labor movement the core belief is the business management is out to screw everyone and the Liberals are their political arm... the shell programming is the propoganda phrases and lies that are spun out of the ALP and Union machines. When the shell programming is presented with contradictory information all they can do is revert to animal instincts usually some sort of bullying, such as rallying like minded drones in a chorus of sarcastic commentary about some perceived hypocrisy - not actually realizing the hypocrisy is only within their own shell programming and not really reflective of the real world.
     
  19. Adultmale

    Adultmale Active Member Past Donor

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    I sort of already knew that, it is pretty obvious in their mindless spewing of Labor slogans and rethoric.
     
  20. aussiefree2ride

    aussiefree2ride New Member

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    Well put, the standard list of childish reactions to any confronting facts, don`t Union/ALP supporters any good in the long run. They may run and hide from the truth, but the truth always catches up eventually.
     
  21. verystormy

    verystormy Active Member

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    Of course house prices have an impact on cost of living. For the majority of people a mortgage or rent will be the single biggest thing they have to pay out each month.

    House prices in Australia have become a massive bubble and anyone that watched the US prior to 2008 can see what is on the horizon for Oz.

    They are now unsustainable. It has been recognised for years that people can not afford a mortgage more than 3x there salary. In Perth the average salary is around $65k. The average house price is around $450k. The market has priced itself out of operation.

    I havent been in Australia long enough to see how much things have gone up, having arrived in 2008. But i can say that comming from the UK we find Australia incredibly expensive.

    I am lucky and earn a very good income, but i dont know how families earning less than $100k a year survive.
     
  22. axialturban

    axialturban Well-Known Member

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    If you cannot afford a mortage or rent, then live further out and commute for a couple of hours each way. Property really kicked off in about 2002/2003, and slowed up to peak around 2007 with many things doubling or tripling in 4 years. It was starting to get a bit silly then but generally speaking its being settling slowly down since 2009 except for the parts of Sydney and Melbourne which remain strong due to high population density/demand. I've noticed government salaries increase by perhaps 25% over the same time where houses now are about 50% higher so I do not think thats too bad, especially given there is also a lot more unit's (cheaper then houses) available now which might reflect a switch from old habits of fenced yard to new habits of communal living.
     
  23. Recusant

    Recusant Active Member

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    Because the ideology of free markets has no such concerns, this is the ideology that the Liberal Party pretends to believe in. Their application of such a system is nowhere near 100% (thankfully), but their purported belief in it makes their actions lean closer to it.

    Whilst decimating wages may make us more competitive, it will negatively affect the standard of living for most people in the country. The return to feudal era economics is not in the interests of most people, but it certainly is in the interests of the few.

    I think that most of the whinging going on in this thread is what my friend calls "first world problems". It's his way of mocking them, and to a point i agree. There are certainly genuine hardships, and there are also a lot of people simply not willing to sacrifice also. There's a lot that could be done, but to do "too much" simply is not in line with Liberal party ethos. The Labor party is marginally better, and i think both are as they are because of middle-class whingers who refuse to be patient in their "wealth building"; they demand cheaper everything with less tax and more handouts and massive awesome roads. Look at the short-sighted selfishness of the vast bulk of people who buy Woolies/Coles $1 milk when they could easily afford more.

    Further, the welfare systems that the Libs despise (that's the ones for the poor) is what protects people in genuine hardship from being in an even worse situation and some programs may even help them get back up. We could put a tonne more into that, and much less into roads or stupid baby bonuses - but we don't because middle Australia wants $1 milk (that's a metaphor).

    Both parties seem hell bent on continuing middle-class welfare and the Libs love their upper-class welfare. Funds that could be redirected to helping the poor. They could even (god forbid), build and own things that would ease the cost of living; like an oil refinery or two (not that i advocate it). They could also regulate the cost of things, or the amount of profit that can be made on some things. Make no mistake, the means testing of private health tax give-aways is for the upper-middle class - not the 75%. The Liberals oppose this means test as they tend to with most others. As an astute young person in the audience said when he demolished the Liberal sitting on the show: why not remove the means test for education benefits then?

    A Liberal voter cannot blame any government for cost of living except in relation to the shared belief in lowering tax revenue and regulation, which would lower wages for most (many, many examples worldwide of this such as Chile & Argentina). It may also cut costs of living (relatively or absolutely), but inflation figures for Chile and Venezuela's period of de-regulation did the opposite. Should i cite evidence? I doubt you'd read it, and if you did you would continue to believe whatever it is that you want to believe (oooh, that sounded very Matrixy). For memory, both countries are covered by Noami Klein in "The Take" (documentary) and "The Shock Doctrine" (book). Knock yourselves out :)

    On the plus side (depending on your perspective or status), if the Liberals got in and had control for a couple of decades, our economy and social equity would probably look a lot more like our Asian neighbours. Some of them actually seem to believe in the trickle down myth.
     

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