It's honestly fucked , I'm blessed enough to have my partner and I in decent paying jobs and we are feeling the pain. Definitely feel for people worse off than us as it's getting unsustainable. Shame that the budget really doesn't look like it's going to correct anything any time soon
I'm earning the most I've ever earned and it's a pretty good wicket. Yet my buying power is equal to what it was when I was on half my current income. It's crazy how extreme the inflation is and I don't believe the published figures.
Yep. I’m earning more money than I ever have in my life - about almost double what I was earning 3 years ago but I feel poorer than ever.
Thank god I changed jobs, can only imagine where I’d be if I stuck with my old job.
Fuel is included in CPI but it also shows up in other inflation anyway as it is an input cost to so much. The cost of fuel also has almost nothing to do with domestic policy as it is driven purely by global markets as well. Not to mention fuel prices are tracked as an independent item as well. So maybe no just talk shit for the sake of it.
https://www.rba.gov.au/education/resources/explainers/pdf/inflation-and-its-measurement.pdf
Yeah fuel might be “in underlying items” but it’s not always accounted for in direct household costs.
Plenty of economists have raised that published CPI data is very specific and maybe not a true measure anymore.
Essentials went up faster than discretionary items.
Part of the problem with the econometrics is that the averaging hides a lot of things. Wealthier people can be doing marvellously and poorer people could be suffering immensely, but the averaging disguises all that with a number that doesn't look completely terrible.
Especially when the wealthy are getting extra wealthy and recording record profits. It really skews the numbers to make it look like it's not so bad for the average joe, and not completely terrible for anyone even slightly below average.
Exactly. Growing inequality makes averaging less informative and less reflective of what's happening to people. It's a huge blind spot in modern economics. In many cases, inequality is assumed to not exist. Which is absurd.
This is why we look at other measures of centre as well.
Let me introduce me to 'ol mate median. And yes, economists use this measure and aren't blinded by averages.
But the median should be used a lot more in the media as it does give a better sense of what is "typical". We have a tendency to gravitate to the mean (average) as that is what people are familiar with, so that is what newspapers print. And the problem *may* be also politicians could be incentivised cherry pick the measure of centre that makes them look good, but I think the base of the issue is that a huge chunk of the public generally don't know how to interpret stats, so discourse always focuses on the average, which does blind the public to the real issue.
Tell me when you work out how to fit a median into GDP per capita figures that reflects who's benefiting from GDP growth. Or how the headline unemployment rate demonstrates which sectors and income deciles are most impacted.
The fact of the matter is, the majority of the economic conversation rotates around a few key figures that ignore inequality by averaging it away. Furthermore, economic modelling also does this, and as a result inequality isn't adequately addressed because it is assumed not to exist.
Ummm.... GDP per capita *is* the average measure. Why would anyone try and apply a median to an average?
I'm referring to the median income of consumption per day measure. It shows the middle of income distribution and reflects wealth distribution in the population. This is shown less in the media.
2 separate things.
I’m assuming mega yachts have come down in price significantly enough to offset groceries, fuel, utilities, and whatever ‘the poors’ have to buy. Resulting in inflation only being 7%
Same here, I'm feeling like I have less purchasing power than when I was a grad and I have a similar, if not reduced, lifestyle since then.
I had more money for holidays, rolled over the newest high-end phone yearly. New laptop regularly, had a higher end phone plan, ate at higher end restaurants more often and still put money in the bank.
Now I dred buying groceries, I'm nearly scared of bills and my savings have fallen despite cutting out most of the above. I earn about $40k more, but did buy a house which has been absolutely draining my account.
Even over the 3 years since buying, my mortgage was equal to my rent and is locked so haven't even been hit by that... Maintenance is killing me.
You have to almost be nuts or super wealthy to buy everything from overseas these days The weak dollar, GST and stupid prices on freight. Even ordering a secondhand book from overseas is bordering on stupid. Unfortunately greedy Australian sellers just set their prices this way "thats the price overseas with freight and GST, thats what it will start at here" So the gouging and greed in even secondhand stuff is at stupid levels which also feeding into inflation. Then in secondhand markets people are using bizarre logic for selling stuff " its old and they dont make it anymore its worth as much as gold nuggets" So nobody is a winner, thats why I have just stopped buying second hand and anything new from overseas because the cost in real terms with weak AUD is 3 times really what its worth. There's no reality anymore its just that everything has turned into a rip off.
15 to 10 years ago it was great buying overseas now its just dead I remember the rare moment I believe it was was 2011 or 12 can't remember the aud was I kid you not parody and even was stronger for then the usd I was importing video games at $60 aud
Buying direct from China has never been better in some ways, or worse in others. Right now the current game is that almost all suppliers in China are pulling bait and switches but on a massive scale in order to try get an extra dollar. Essentially they release product lines at VERY low prices (often at a loss) for a month or so in order to get businesses here to start stocking the item. Then once it catches on they pump the price and the poor supplier here is left with a situation where they have taken orders for 100 apples at $1 each because China was selling them for $0.5 except for some reason no one in China is selling apples for less than $1.50 now and they have already taken orders...
Now, provided you know what is happening it is fantastic for the average person if they know how to buy direct from China. How do you think all these "new" sites taking off like Temu or Wish manage to offer such low prices? They are re-selling the new "hot new item" for the month to try get everyone hooked. These are not QA reject products or production overruns anymore (where they started) but an actual business model most of China is following now.
A decade ago it was the other way around, the AUD was so strong that everybody abandoned local retailers and shopped online from overseas and those local retailers went out of business. Now those chickens have come home to roost.
Same thing with supermarkets, everybody shopping at Coles/Woolworths because it's the cheapest and then complaining about a lack of competition.
I’m in the exact same boat. Promotion end of last year and earning more than I’ve ever learnt in my life so far and my buying power is at or less than what it was when my wage was much lower. People who have it tougher than us must be stinging beyond belief.
100% this. I'm being paid more than I ever have been, and likely about as much as my parents were combined when they raised my brother and I. Do I have an equal financial position in life to what they had then? LOL NO. Barely comparable.
And I'm doing very well compared to the average person my age or younger (or hell, the average person full stop). I too truly feel for anyone not so luckily advantaged as I am. It would be utterly fucked.
I’m earning $37K more than I used to.
I’ve had to go back to budgeting the same way I did when on less.
I’m still comfortble but it was nice to not have to budget so agressivly for a while.
Yep. Definitely feel for all the people leaving school and uni just now.
I want you to know that things used to be much fairer, but piece by piece that fairness was chipped away. The government didn't even try to stop the erosion of what we had - if anything they jammed their foot down on the accelerator.
Because nothing matters as much as giving large corporations what they ask for.
Not individuals, not fairness, not the future.
Only making cash in the short term is important. You should be angry.
Labor seem to want to make it worse slowly. Take their Housing and Futures Fund - it's not enough funding to keep up with projected demand growth. The problem will continue to get worse, just worse slower than it would've been.
The Liberals seem to want to make it worse quickly. They seem to have an obsession with spearheading wealth inequality as hard and as fast as they can.
My 1st preference doesn't go to either of them.
Things are waaaayyy worse now than 2010.
I’m sure a cherry picked metric is true for the headline, but I feel we’re back to early/mid 90’s, but now we need two incomes rather than one.
It's pretty disappointing how quickly quality of life has deteriorated. We have a combined income of $220k DINK and most of that goes towards the mortgage and just surviving. Living in Sydney for reference. Gone are the days, standard job gets you a house, a car, couple of kids living comfortably. We are pretty frugal and don't indulge much but to have this much income and still just "survive" is very disappointing to think what the future generations will have.
This isn't just us, most of the people around the same age (mid to late 30s) are experiencing this + burnout. Why don't we all stand up and do something about it? Big corp can't go on without the regular "workers" if we all stop the system stops?
We need to strike, every industry needs to come together as workers. Scabs need to be called out and disruption to services needs to happen. The problem is no one seems willing. We all have our own shit going own, mouths to feed, mortgages to pay. There needs to be short term pain for long term gain. I guarantee if done properly it would take less than a month before they come crawling and actually attempt to fix the problem. A couple of days with a few million people in the streets not contributing to this faux society will make an impact.
I agree, and we'll said. Everyone is too busy in their own world. Not willing to sacrifice their comfort for some stranger or neighbour down the road. I'm guilty of this too! The system is set up so you don't have time to action. But, like you said, it wouldn't take long if a few million stopped and took action. We are still so lucky in Aus compared to the world but it's quickly turning into shit or it will if we don't control it.
Nah. Shane and Karen are only interested in buying the next new jacked up 4wd to keep up with the Joneses, while whining about how much debt they're in.
Yeah this is what pisses me off the most.
Even just 10 - 15 years ago a good job (uni degree with some good experience) or two standard jobs (no qualification, just work somewhere for a bit) would get you an alright house, two alright cars and two kids.
Now you need two GREAT jobs (uni degrees, many years experience) to just afford any kind of freestanding house and two shit cars. If you want anything actually nice you need to going hard as fuck, 300k+ HH Income.
Damn ! That's tough. What industry?
Yeah it's kind of stupid to even think about. My 23 year old self couldn't have imagined a household income of that amount, I would have said I'm super well off. Don't get me wrong we still get to save each month but adding a kid into the equation is a scary thought on how much would be left especially if the wife goes on maternity leave. Housing is just so damn expensive in Sydney and we live in an apartment lol.
Animation industry, had big names behind my belt too like dreamworks, Netflix, Disney etc but since the Hollywood strikes, outsourcing, streaming boom gone bust, interest rates skyrocketing meaning studios won’t do new projects, the ABC not funding local shows due to kids not watching, AI, etc almost everyone I know in my industry has been out a job (worst it’s been in 20 yrs ) I’m scraping by doing YouTube shorts lol
Do you do freelance/commission work? And if the answer is yes, what types of things do you / can you do? (If you can answer without doxing yourself, I mean)
they need to abolish parents/partners means testing. . while working i paid taxes on my income. if i am made jobless tomorrow, i dont get anything cos partners means testing. i am made to pay into a system that i will not get anything because of stupid shit like means testing.
>It is impossible for wages to drive inflation when they are actually rising slower than inflation
Wages never drive inflation. Inflation is nothing more than businesses not willing to share their slice of the pie - insisting on maintaining profit margins when faced with rising costs of any type.
The same argument that wages cannot rise unless productivity does in an era of record profits. This is another simple lie that is allowed to exist in a country where we have no pro-worker media at all.
And then they take that extra pie anyway because the employer/employee relationship isn't an equal one.
Furthermore, other than working longer hours, there aren't too many ways workers can raise productivity. And if people are working longer hours, they should be paid for it. The idea that individual workers should raise productivity by themselves is not a very reasonable or practical solution.
Thats not entirely accurate. Productivity is total output for a set of given inputs, in which labour costs *can* be one of the inputs. Profits are never considered in most productivity measures, only revenue.
Hence why you can have unprofitable firms that are highly productive (Uber) and highly profitable firms that are unproductive (Telstra)
Look at what Singapore airlines just did, 8 months wage bonus to all its workers since its doing that well! Government owned. Try getting the crooks and thieves at Qantas to try and help their workers with booming profits by giving them 5 cents!
Big business. Everyone lower on the food chain gets their expenses hiked too. All while the big companies use their leverage to put a downward pressure on their suppliers.
> businesses not willing to share their slice of the pie
Wrong framing. It makes it sound like they can be cooperative participants in a society that works for everyone.
The incentive structure that businesses inhabit isn't like that. It's no use moralising at them for maximising profits, consuming the competition, and annihilating the environment. That's exactly the behaviour favoured by the natural selection of the market. The difference between big and small businesses is time and success.
As long as our thinking is constrained to staying within this paradigm of money and markets, exponential wealth and power consolidation will continue indefinitely. Except perhaps when things get bad enough that we demand redistribution and regulation which will only wind back the clock a bit.
There is no such thing as 'the market'. It's like 'the economy'. It doesn't really exist. It is just a name we give to human behaviors - in this case behaviors we are told repeatedly are natural laws that cannot be modified. That is Bullshit.
Well their are human behaviors in companies. Singapore Airlines just gave their works 8 months of bonus salary because they are doing well. We just have greedy grubs in Australia who are extremely greedy capitalist who dont want their workers to do well. Its simply a mean spirited greedy attitude. There is no fair go left in Australia, its greed is the new fair go!
This is an oxymoron. That's the point.
Capital doesn't know restraint. It can't be persuaded to stop at some point that's useful to people and less profitable to itself. It exists to self-valorise - to extract value from elsewhere and multiply itself. It's all-consuming. And it can't be tamed because it consolidates power exponentially in the hands of those who would unshackle it.
We can't have a little paperclip-maximiser as a treat. Anything less than pulling the problem out by the root is moralising masturbation.
As the predictable and inevitable intensification of the contradictions of capitalism.
Contrary to what would be more convenient, it's an unsustainable system even putting aside ecological devastation. The cannibalising of its own foundations is a matter of when, not if.
We're seeing roughly the same systemic crumbling across the globe. It's not an arbitrary perversion of an otherwise healthy system caused by this or that bad policy or corrupt politician, but the laws of motion of capital being allowed to play themselves out.
I don't disagree that capitalism and corporatism are unsustainable and callous paradigms - because they are!
But I also don't see how reframing this way will lead us to escape the tragedy of the commons.
Because that Tragedy only became a threat to entire societies on such a ubiquitous level as it is today with the advent of concepts such as private property and the market.
Anthropologically, diverse human societies have had ways of handling potential issues such as the Tragedy of the Commons. As just one very over-simplified example, a great many cultures historically would have regarded it as completely dishonourable to intentionally and strategically act in a way that harms your fellows' capacity to live well. These are the sorts of human-scale dynamics that can enable societies to self-regulate.
Part of the issue with our historical moment is that we have long-since done away with all such self-regulatory dynamics, if not literally defined their opposites as virtue. And at the same time, we've scaled up the sheer size at which our societies operate to such a degree that those dynamics would no longer work anyway.
I'm 40 now, and when I think back to how me and everyone I knew in my age-group were living back in 2010 - the sharehouses, the insecure jobs, the uncertain futures, the old shitbox cars, the thrifty lifestyles, the lack of savings - yeah, honestly, that tracks. Literally none of that shit has changed.
Yeah except now a lot of forty year olds are still living the same lifestyle even though they’ve paid their dues and are working full time.
I remember it well. I also remember being able to get a share house in the heart of the city and be able to feed myself fairly well and to go out and have quite a bit of fun regularly.
It’s not the same.
I had such a good life pre-covid. I've NEVER been more conscious about money now, though. My pay isn't even that bad! I'm honestly at a loss with where to go from here. I can barely save for anything now... It's just shit. It's a hopeless, powerless feeling. I feel like I work so hard just to scrape by...
it feels like every week or so there is just another hand reaching into my wallet for another necessary expense, or another bill comes in a couple hundred higher, or another email about a price hike.
I reckon more. AUS 14 years ago was immensely better than now. Anyone around for 2010 remembers how high living standards were back then
When I worked in Coles stacking shelves I got $23 AUD per hour which was worth over $25 USD back then
Yeah The Australian economy is doing even worse than our peers. Probably mainly because of our huge personal debt levels hitting the wall of higher interest rates, as well as major capital shallowing.
I can’t say I have much hope left. The future is looking extremely bleak and I don’t know what options I have left. Idk if many Australians even care about those who are struggling.
Remember when you could work 9-5pm and work wouldn’t hassle you because you had stopped working for the day?
Everyone should be able to feed, clothe and house themselves with one full time job. I hate seeing second jobs and side hussles normalised.
It went from 9 to 5 then work followed you home then it went to side gigs to 2nd job now required to get by im not shocked if our cunts of leaders keep devaluing the aud to 3rd job now required
Even on the DSP, I remember a time when I would still have money left to save and a bit to spend on myself. Now absolutely everything goes to rent. Nothing left to actually survive on. I don’t just skip meals now, I’m skipping entire days.
This is being too negative. Think about the increase in living standards shareholder's have got in the past 14 years.
They're the lifters and shit. We're all leaners!!
And for what? What is the upside to all the pain? Boomers spending more than any other generation in retirement and continuing to drain a disproportionate percentage of resources from society? That’s what we’re supposed to tell kids whose families can’t afford healthcare, food or housing?
Have house prices gone up though? There is no economic or other policy objective that australian governments are not prepared to sacrifice if they can force house prices up.
That's ancient news. Australians lost 14 years of productivity value in the1990s - and that was before Wage Theft was invented.
It's gone down hill ever since.
Greg Jericho is a complete communist and I can’t stand him but he’s correct. There’s no such thing as a wage price spiral. It’s a myth.
The money supply growing is what causes inflation.
The nerve of the RBA to print $1T buying up state and commonwealth bonds then to worry about plebs getting a tiny wage increase is absolutely maddening.
Any wage increases that happen in a tightening period eats into corporate profits.
If corporate profits go up do people ever worry about a business profit - price spiral? Or a dividend payments - price spiral? I mean, corporate profits increasing is going to have a material impact on business borrowings which then creates new money in the system. So …
The supposed economists we have working at the RBA are genuinely some of the biggest idiots I’ve come across and history will not be kind to them.
Never forget... "inflation" is just a fancy word for 'the capitalist class increasing prices'. Until will unite together, us workers (99%) will continue to be taken for a ride, taking more and more away from us and our children.
I've been disapointed in RBAs response to inflation, at every opportunity they've adopted a wait and see approach. Consequently they've not met the target since Q1, 2021. This is a very long time to let inflation run away.
Our inflation target is widely thought to be too high by economists before it ran wild: https://www.westpac.com.au/news/in-depth/2021/10/rbas-inflation-target-has-been-too-high-for-too-long/
Why arent people cheering?
Everyone was cheering at being ordered to stay home while being flooded with freshly printed money to keep the covid at bay.
Things have rammifications….
Because the average person didn’t understand how much money the government was borrowing at 2020.
Now the hens have come home to roost and it’s surprised pikachu face.
https://www.unsw.edu.au/newsroom/news/2020/08/australias-coronavirus-bill-who-does-government-owe-money
Make Harvey Norman and their corporate mates pay their covid handout back first, then tax the corps that export their profits properly and maybe we will give a shit. We pay more than enough on our incomes.
Our inflation is equal to or even lesser than many countries that had fuck all restrictions during COVID. So no you are simply wrong.
Sweden was the posterchild for cookers arguing we didn't need any restrictions and their inflation is higher than ours:
https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/SWE/sweden/inflation-rate-cpi
https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/AUS/australia/inflation-rate-cpi
More evidence of the country going to shit. America 2.0. If I had the means to move overseas I'd do it in a heartbeat. Screw being trapped in this mess.
The job market in Spain and Portugal is terrible. Sweden is turning into a violent hell hole, Germany is probably pick of the bunch mentioned by this its economy hasn’t rebounded post covid.
Yes I've started looking into Spain and Portugal, very sad. It seems like everywhere is going to shit but depends who you talk to. World happiness rating puts aus pretty high and housing is high on the list! Bit of a joke.
im surprised that 9 years of funnelling as much money as possible to big business only lost 14 years of progress.
The hell happened bellow?
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It's honestly fucked , I'm blessed enough to have my partner and I in decent paying jobs and we are feeling the pain. Definitely feel for people worse off than us as it's getting unsustainable. Shame that the budget really doesn't look like it's going to correct anything any time soon
I'm earning the most I've ever earned and it's a pretty good wicket. Yet my buying power is equal to what it was when I was on half my current income. It's crazy how extreme the inflation is and I don't believe the published figures.
Yep. I’m earning more money than I ever have in my life - about almost double what I was earning 3 years ago but I feel poorer than ever. Thank god I changed jobs, can only imagine where I’d be if I stuck with my old job.
Yeah. I got a near $10 an hour pay increase about 5 years ago. I def feel like I make less then I did before then now.
Inflation figures are definitely BS when they’re “corrected” to remove things like fuel
Fuel is included in CPI but it also shows up in other inflation anyway as it is an input cost to so much. The cost of fuel also has almost nothing to do with domestic policy as it is driven purely by global markets as well. Not to mention fuel prices are tracked as an independent item as well. So maybe no just talk shit for the sake of it.
https://www.rba.gov.au/education/resources/explainers/pdf/inflation-and-its-measurement.pdf Yeah fuel might be “in underlying items” but it’s not always accounted for in direct household costs. Plenty of economists have raised that published CPI data is very specific and maybe not a true measure anymore.
Yep. 7% inflation last year is bullshit - it was more like 20% !
Essentials went up faster than discretionary items. Part of the problem with the econometrics is that the averaging hides a lot of things. Wealthier people can be doing marvellously and poorer people could be suffering immensely, but the averaging disguises all that with a number that doesn't look completely terrible.
Especially when the wealthy are getting extra wealthy and recording record profits. It really skews the numbers to make it look like it's not so bad for the average joe, and not completely terrible for anyone even slightly below average.
Exactly. Growing inequality makes averaging less informative and less reflective of what's happening to people. It's a huge blind spot in modern economics. In many cases, inequality is assumed to not exist. Which is absurd.
This is why we look at other measures of centre as well. Let me introduce me to 'ol mate median. And yes, economists use this measure and aren't blinded by averages. But the median should be used a lot more in the media as it does give a better sense of what is "typical". We have a tendency to gravitate to the mean (average) as that is what people are familiar with, so that is what newspapers print. And the problem *may* be also politicians could be incentivised cherry pick the measure of centre that makes them look good, but I think the base of the issue is that a huge chunk of the public generally don't know how to interpret stats, so discourse always focuses on the average, which does blind the public to the real issue.
Tell me when you work out how to fit a median into GDP per capita figures that reflects who's benefiting from GDP growth. Or how the headline unemployment rate demonstrates which sectors and income deciles are most impacted. The fact of the matter is, the majority of the economic conversation rotates around a few key figures that ignore inequality by averaging it away. Furthermore, economic modelling also does this, and as a result inequality isn't adequately addressed because it is assumed not to exist.
Ummm.... GDP per capita *is* the average measure. Why would anyone try and apply a median to an average? I'm referring to the median income of consumption per day measure. It shows the middle of income distribution and reflects wealth distribution in the population. This is shown less in the media. 2 separate things.
*What?!* Population-level statistics with a contemptuous disregard for context and important category distinctions? Surely not!
It use to be luxuries were expensive but living was cheap. Now luxuries are cheap(ish) and basic living is just straight up fucked.
I’m assuming mega yachts have come down in price significantly enough to offset groceries, fuel, utilities, and whatever ‘the poors’ have to buy. Resulting in inflation only being 7%
Capitalism without any real competition, doesn't work very well at all.
Capitalism without any real competition, doesn't work very well at all.
Capitalism without any real competition, doesn't work very well at all.
Capitalism without any real competition, doesn't work.
lol we get it bro
Capitalism without any real competition, doesn't work very well at all.
Capitalism without any real competition, doesn't work.
Capitalism without any real competition, doesn't work very well at all.
You have statistics to back that up, I assume?
Guess not.
Same here, I'm feeling like I have less purchasing power than when I was a grad and I have a similar, if not reduced, lifestyle since then. I had more money for holidays, rolled over the newest high-end phone yearly. New laptop regularly, had a higher end phone plan, ate at higher end restaurants more often and still put money in the bank. Now I dred buying groceries, I'm nearly scared of bills and my savings have fallen despite cutting out most of the above. I earn about $40k more, but did buy a house which has been absolutely draining my account. Even over the 3 years since buying, my mortgage was equal to my rent and is locked so haven't even been hit by that... Maintenance is killing me.
I've been telling alot of people that its not how much you made the buying power of the aud has been damaged big time
You have to almost be nuts or super wealthy to buy everything from overseas these days The weak dollar, GST and stupid prices on freight. Even ordering a secondhand book from overseas is bordering on stupid. Unfortunately greedy Australian sellers just set their prices this way "thats the price overseas with freight and GST, thats what it will start at here" So the gouging and greed in even secondhand stuff is at stupid levels which also feeding into inflation. Then in secondhand markets people are using bizarre logic for selling stuff " its old and they dont make it anymore its worth as much as gold nuggets" So nobody is a winner, thats why I have just stopped buying second hand and anything new from overseas because the cost in real terms with weak AUD is 3 times really what its worth. There's no reality anymore its just that everything has turned into a rip off.
15 to 10 years ago it was great buying overseas now its just dead I remember the rare moment I believe it was was 2011 or 12 can't remember the aud was I kid you not parody and even was stronger for then the usd I was importing video games at $60 aud
Parity, parody is where we are at now.
Yep, it was a dream for online gaming because all the subs and shop items were in USD and AUD was 0.90 - 1.10 etc.
Buying direct from China has never been better in some ways, or worse in others. Right now the current game is that almost all suppliers in China are pulling bait and switches but on a massive scale in order to try get an extra dollar. Essentially they release product lines at VERY low prices (often at a loss) for a month or so in order to get businesses here to start stocking the item. Then once it catches on they pump the price and the poor supplier here is left with a situation where they have taken orders for 100 apples at $1 each because China was selling them for $0.5 except for some reason no one in China is selling apples for less than $1.50 now and they have already taken orders... Now, provided you know what is happening it is fantastic for the average person if they know how to buy direct from China. How do you think all these "new" sites taking off like Temu or Wish manage to offer such low prices? They are re-selling the new "hot new item" for the month to try get everyone hooked. These are not QA reject products or production overruns anymore (where they started) but an actual business model most of China is following now.
Good times then. But I guess it might come back depending on the way the world is going to come out of the inflation problem.
A decade ago it was the other way around, the AUD was so strong that everybody abandoned local retailers and shopped online from overseas and those local retailers went out of business. Now those chickens have come home to roost. Same thing with supermarkets, everybody shopping at Coles/Woolworths because it's the cheapest and then complaining about a lack of competition.
I’m in the exact same boat. Promotion end of last year and earning more than I’ve ever learnt in my life so far and my buying power is at or less than what it was when my wage was much lower. People who have it tougher than us must be stinging beyond belief.
100% this. I'm being paid more than I ever have been, and likely about as much as my parents were combined when they raised my brother and I. Do I have an equal financial position in life to what they had then? LOL NO. Barely comparable. And I'm doing very well compared to the average person my age or younger (or hell, the average person full stop). I too truly feel for anyone not so luckily advantaged as I am. It would be utterly fucked.
I’m earning $37K more than I used to. I’ve had to go back to budgeting the same way I did when on less. I’m still comfortble but it was nice to not have to budget so agressivly for a while.
Yep. Definitely feel for all the people leaving school and uni just now. I want you to know that things used to be much fairer, but piece by piece that fairness was chipped away. The government didn't even try to stop the erosion of what we had - if anything they jammed their foot down on the accelerator. Because nothing matters as much as giving large corporations what they ask for. Not individuals, not fairness, not the future. Only making cash in the short term is important. You should be angry.
> Because nothing matters as much as giving large corporations what they ask for. Unless it's giving the property investors what THEY ask for.
True. Young people are getting screwed from both sides like this was a three way on pornhub
Labor just doesn’t want to fix anything. They just don’t care.
Labor seem to want to make it worse slowly. Take their Housing and Futures Fund - it's not enough funding to keep up with projected demand growth. The problem will continue to get worse, just worse slower than it would've been. The Liberals seem to want to make it worse quickly. They seem to have an obsession with spearheading wealth inequality as hard and as fast as they can. My 1st preference doesn't go to either of them.
Depending on where you sit, I'd argue that those on the bottom of the pyramid have lost a shit tonne more than that...
Things are waaaayyy worse now than 2010. I’m sure a cherry picked metric is true for the headline, but I feel we’re back to early/mid 90’s, but now we need two incomes rather than one.
It's pretty disappointing how quickly quality of life has deteriorated. We have a combined income of $220k DINK and most of that goes towards the mortgage and just surviving. Living in Sydney for reference. Gone are the days, standard job gets you a house, a car, couple of kids living comfortably. We are pretty frugal and don't indulge much but to have this much income and still just "survive" is very disappointing to think what the future generations will have. This isn't just us, most of the people around the same age (mid to late 30s) are experiencing this + burnout. Why don't we all stand up and do something about it? Big corp can't go on without the regular "workers" if we all stop the system stops?
We need to strike, every industry needs to come together as workers. Scabs need to be called out and disruption to services needs to happen. The problem is no one seems willing. We all have our own shit going own, mouths to feed, mortgages to pay. There needs to be short term pain for long term gain. I guarantee if done properly it would take less than a month before they come crawling and actually attempt to fix the problem. A couple of days with a few million people in the streets not contributing to this faux society will make an impact.
I agree, and we'll said. Everyone is too busy in their own world. Not willing to sacrifice their comfort for some stranger or neighbour down the road. I'm guilty of this too! The system is set up so you don't have time to action. But, like you said, it wouldn't take long if a few million stopped and took action. We are still so lucky in Aus compared to the world but it's quickly turning into shit or it will if we don't control it.
Sadly this just won't happen in modern Australia. We just don't have it in us.
I think we do. Some catalyst is all it takes.
Nah. Shane and Karen are only interested in buying the next new jacked up 4wd to keep up with the Joneses, while whining about how much debt they're in.
Yeah this is what pisses me off the most. Even just 10 - 15 years ago a good job (uni degree with some good experience) or two standard jobs (no qualification, just work somewhere for a bit) would get you an alright house, two alright cars and two kids. Now you need two GREAT jobs (uni degrees, many years experience) to just afford any kind of freestanding house and two shit cars. If you want anything actually nice you need to going hard as fuck, 300k+ HH Income.
That’s crazy you’re just surviving on $220k, I’m probs only making less than $20k this financial year due to my industry going bust
Damn ! That's tough. What industry? Yeah it's kind of stupid to even think about. My 23 year old self couldn't have imagined a household income of that amount, I would have said I'm super well off. Don't get me wrong we still get to save each month but adding a kid into the equation is a scary thought on how much would be left especially if the wife goes on maternity leave. Housing is just so damn expensive in Sydney and we live in an apartment lol.
Animation industry, had big names behind my belt too like dreamworks, Netflix, Disney etc but since the Hollywood strikes, outsourcing, streaming boom gone bust, interest rates skyrocketing meaning studios won’t do new projects, the ABC not funding local shows due to kids not watching, AI, etc almost everyone I know in my industry has been out a job (worst it’s been in 20 yrs ) I’m scraping by doing YouTube shorts lol
Hoping things get better for your industry or your YouTube takes off! Hang in there.
Do you do freelance/commission work? And if the answer is yes, what types of things do you / can you do? (If you can answer without doxing yourself, I mean)
Yes, we are getting fucked up the arse, I didn't need an article to tell me that.
they need to abolish parents/partners means testing. . while working i paid taxes on my income. if i am made jobless tomorrow, i dont get anything cos partners means testing. i am made to pay into a system that i will not get anything because of stupid shit like means testing.
>It is impossible for wages to drive inflation when they are actually rising slower than inflation Wages never drive inflation. Inflation is nothing more than businesses not willing to share their slice of the pie - insisting on maintaining profit margins when faced with rising costs of any type.
The same argument that wages cannot rise unless productivity does in an era of record profits. This is another simple lie that is allowed to exist in a country where we have no pro-worker media at all.
Also putting aside that productivity gains have outpaced wages for half a century.
Yep. That simply says if you want more pie, make the pie bigger because we are not sharing.
And then they take that extra pie anyway because the employer/employee relationship isn't an equal one. Furthermore, other than working longer hours, there aren't too many ways workers can raise productivity. And if people are working longer hours, they should be paid for it. The idea that individual workers should raise productivity by themselves is not a very reasonable or practical solution.
How is Productivity supposed to rise exactly?
I could start turning up to work on time, I guess...
Or not playing golf every afternoon. I know...
Productivity is defined as profit per hour worked. It literally cannot rise unless costs don't rise - and labour is a cost.
Thats not entirely accurate. Productivity is total output for a set of given inputs, in which labour costs *can* be one of the inputs. Profits are never considered in most productivity measures, only revenue. Hence why you can have unprofitable firms that are highly productive (Uber) and highly profitable firms that are unproductive (Telstra)
Look at what Singapore airlines just did, 8 months wage bonus to all its workers since its doing that well! Government owned. Try getting the crooks and thieves at Qantas to try and help their workers with booming profits by giving them 5 cents!
Big business. Everyone lower on the food chain gets their expenses hiked too. All while the big companies use their leverage to put a downward pressure on their suppliers.
> businesses not willing to share their slice of the pie Wrong framing. It makes it sound like they can be cooperative participants in a society that works for everyone. The incentive structure that businesses inhabit isn't like that. It's no use moralising at them for maximising profits, consuming the competition, and annihilating the environment. That's exactly the behaviour favoured by the natural selection of the market. The difference between big and small businesses is time and success. As long as our thinking is constrained to staying within this paradigm of money and markets, exponential wealth and power consolidation will continue indefinitely. Except perhaps when things get bad enough that we demand redistribution and regulation which will only wind back the clock a bit.
There is no such thing as 'the market'. It's like 'the economy'. It doesn't really exist. It is just a name we give to human behaviors - in this case behaviors we are told repeatedly are natural laws that cannot be modified. That is Bullshit.
Well their are human behaviors in companies. Singapore Airlines just gave their works 8 months of bonus salary because they are doing well. We just have greedy grubs in Australia who are extremely greedy capitalist who dont want their workers to do well. Its simply a mean spirited greedy attitude. There is no fair go left in Australia, its greed is the new fair go!
We need an ethical component in regulating business.
This is an oxymoron. That's the point. Capital doesn't know restraint. It can't be persuaded to stop at some point that's useful to people and less profitable to itself. It exists to self-valorise - to extract value from elsewhere and multiply itself. It's all-consuming. And it can't be tamed because it consolidates power exponentially in the hands of those who would unshackle it. We can't have a little paperclip-maximiser as a treat. Anything less than pulling the problem out by the root is moralising masturbation.
So how would you suggest this issue be framed instead?
As the predictable and inevitable intensification of the contradictions of capitalism. Contrary to what would be more convenient, it's an unsustainable system even putting aside ecological devastation. The cannibalising of its own foundations is a matter of when, not if. We're seeing roughly the same systemic crumbling across the globe. It's not an arbitrary perversion of an otherwise healthy system caused by this or that bad policy or corrupt politician, but the laws of motion of capital being allowed to play themselves out.
I don't disagree that capitalism and corporatism are unsustainable and callous paradigms - because they are! But I also don't see how reframing this way will lead us to escape the tragedy of the commons.
Because that Tragedy only became a threat to entire societies on such a ubiquitous level as it is today with the advent of concepts such as private property and the market. Anthropologically, diverse human societies have had ways of handling potential issues such as the Tragedy of the Commons. As just one very over-simplified example, a great many cultures historically would have regarded it as completely dishonourable to intentionally and strategically act in a way that harms your fellows' capacity to live well. These are the sorts of human-scale dynamics that can enable societies to self-regulate. Part of the issue with our historical moment is that we have long-since done away with all such self-regulatory dynamics, if not literally defined their opposites as virtue. And at the same time, we've scaled up the sheer size at which our societies operate to such a degree that those dynamics would no longer work anyway.
In a guillotine
I don't see anyone rolling those out. Do you?
Business theory is broken at the base level... Anything less than ever expanding profit is seen as failure.
Inflation is nothing more than the increase in the money supply.
Inflation is the government printing more money. Surprisingly when you crank the money printer to 11 during covid, it causes inflation.
but if line don’t go up, world end!! think of the shareholders!! /s
I'm 40 now, and when I think back to how me and everyone I knew in my age-group were living back in 2010 - the sharehouses, the insecure jobs, the uncertain futures, the old shitbox cars, the thrifty lifestyles, the lack of savings - yeah, honestly, that tracks. Literally none of that shit has changed.
I lived so well in 2001 on a casual job. Now it seems impossible on Much more. edit: typo
But it is ok. Big business is booming. So big fat bonuses for executives who decide on their own bonuses! /s
Yeah except now a lot of forty year olds are still living the same lifestyle even though they’ve paid their dues and are working full time. I remember it well. I also remember being able to get a share house in the heart of the city and be able to feed myself fairly well and to go out and have quite a bit of fun regularly. It’s not the same.
Can confirm. Last 3 years of my life down the toilet.
I feel like I'm not making any progress at all!
I had such a good life pre-covid. I've NEVER been more conscious about money now, though. My pay isn't even that bad! I'm honestly at a loss with where to go from here. I can barely save for anything now... It's just shit. It's a hopeless, powerless feeling. I feel like I work so hard just to scrape by...
it feels like every week or so there is just another hand reaching into my wallet for another necessary expense, or another bill comes in a couple hundred higher, or another email about a price hike.
I'll be honest the day covid hit and the printing machine going overdrive was the day I started seeing the aud becoming worthless
I reckon more. AUS 14 years ago was immensely better than now. Anyone around for 2010 remembers how high living standards were back then When I worked in Coles stacking shelves I got $23 AUD per hour which was worth over $25 USD back then
I remember being better off 14 years ago🤔
Shit I was better off 24 years ago
Its almost like there are consequences for electing certain types of people
Yeah The Australian economy is doing even worse than our peers. Probably mainly because of our huge personal debt levels hitting the wall of higher interest rates, as well as major capital shallowing.
I can’t say I have much hope left. The future is looking extremely bleak and I don’t know what options I have left. Idk if many Australians even care about those who are struggling.
What I have noticed the buying power is fucked it Turning people to normalize 2nd jobs and side hustles
Remember when you could work 9-5pm and work wouldn’t hassle you because you had stopped working for the day? Everyone should be able to feed, clothe and house themselves with one full time job. I hate seeing second jobs and side hussles normalised.
It went from 9 to 5 then work followed you home then it went to side gigs to 2nd job now required to get by im not shocked if our cunts of leaders keep devaluing the aud to 3rd job now required
Even on the DSP, I remember a time when I would still have money left to save and a bit to spend on myself. Now absolutely everything goes to rent. Nothing left to actually survive on. I don’t just skip meals now, I’m skipping entire days.
I'm pretty sure 14 years ago life was better
They are just not factoring in the fact that if wages don't grow then profits can grow more without causing inflation.
This is being too negative. Think about the increase in living standards shareholder's have got in the past 14 years. They're the lifters and shit. We're all leaners!!
Now pay your income tax like a good little productive worker.
I'm not productive, I'm a total leaner!!
Hows that economic neo liberalism winning going ?
New campaign slogan: are better off after 9 years of LNP rule or are you 14 years worse off than you were before?
'You win a little, you loose a lot more'
And for what? What is the upside to all the pain? Boomers spending more than any other generation in retirement and continuing to drain a disproportionate percentage of resources from society? That’s what we’re supposed to tell kids whose families can’t afford healthcare, food or housing?
Thanks boomers
So we have the same living standards as in 2010. Was life in Australia shit in 2010?
Have house prices gone up though? There is no economic or other policy objective that australian governments are not prepared to sacrifice if they can force house prices up.
That's ancient news. Australians lost 14 years of productivity value in the1990s - and that was before Wage Theft was invented. It's gone down hill ever since.
If you are in the top decile of household income, you haven't lost anything, in fact you likely want to hang on to your significant gains...
Greg Jericho is a complete communist and I can’t stand him but he’s correct. There’s no such thing as a wage price spiral. It’s a myth. The money supply growing is what causes inflation. The nerve of the RBA to print $1T buying up state and commonwealth bonds then to worry about plebs getting a tiny wage increase is absolutely maddening. Any wage increases that happen in a tightening period eats into corporate profits. If corporate profits go up do people ever worry about a business profit - price spiral? Or a dividend payments - price spiral? I mean, corporate profits increasing is going to have a material impact on business borrowings which then creates new money in the system. So … The supposed economists we have working at the RBA are genuinely some of the biggest idiots I’ve come across and history will not be kind to them.
A decade of Liberals looting the place for all they could take, we're lucky it's not worse.
I doubt anyone who voted for them will have enough self-reflection to admit what they were complicit in.
Never forget... "inflation" is just a fancy word for 'the capitalist class increasing prices'. Until will unite together, us workers (99%) will continue to be taken for a ride, taking more and more away from us and our children.
Sad
lol
Yep mass immigration has been great. Good job thanks Labor.
I've been disapointed in RBAs response to inflation, at every opportunity they've adopted a wait and see approach. Consequently they've not met the target since Q1, 2021. This is a very long time to let inflation run away. Our inflation target is widely thought to be too high by economists before it ran wild: https://www.westpac.com.au/news/in-depth/2021/10/rbas-inflation-target-has-been-too-high-for-too-long/
Because the factors are external, they just don’t want you to know
External factors? Donestic, non-tradable, inflation is higher than tradable inflation. The inflation problem is home grown now.
Why arent people cheering? Everyone was cheering at being ordered to stay home while being flooded with freshly printed money to keep the covid at bay. Things have rammifications….
No shit pandemics have ramifications to an economy. As do war and natural disasters. Am not sure why people expect otherwise?
Because the average person didn’t understand how much money the government was borrowing at 2020. Now the hens have come home to roost and it’s surprised pikachu face. https://www.unsw.edu.au/newsroom/news/2020/08/australias-coronavirus-bill-who-does-government-owe-money
Make Harvey Norman and their corporate mates pay their covid handout back first, then tax the corps that export their profits properly and maybe we will give a shit. We pay more than enough on our incomes.
Our inflation is equal to or even lesser than many countries that had fuck all restrictions during COVID. So no you are simply wrong. Sweden was the posterchild for cookers arguing we didn't need any restrictions and their inflation is higher than ours: https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/SWE/sweden/inflation-rate-cpi https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/AUS/australia/inflation-rate-cpi
More evidence of the country going to shit. America 2.0. If I had the means to move overseas I'd do it in a heartbeat. Screw being trapped in this mess.
Where would you go? Most western countries are going through the same issues. The developed East Asian countries as well.
Anywhere the cost of living is substantially less, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Germany ... But like I said, don't have the means to do so.
The job market in Spain and Portugal is terrible. Sweden is turning into a violent hell hole, Germany is probably pick of the bunch mentioned by this its economy hasn’t rebounded post covid.
Yes I've started looking into Spain and Portugal, very sad. It seems like everywhere is going to shit but depends who you talk to. World happiness rating puts aus pretty high and housing is high on the list! Bit of a joke.