Australian Politics Forum - We are better off than we think

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We are better off than we think
Sep 7^th, 2011 at 9:02am

You would not believe it if you listened to our politicians, but household fuel and power bills eat up no more of our wallets than they did six years ago. And petrol eats up less.

The only comprehensive survey of household spending - conducted once every six years by the Bureau of Statistics - finds domestic fuel and power accounted for 2.6 per cent of household spending in 2009-10, 2.6 per cent in 2003-04 and 2.6 per cent two decades earlier in 1988-89.

Petrol, another impost about which we often complain, costs us relatively less, accounting for 3.09 per cent of spending, down from 3.36 per cent.

Household income has climbed 50 per cent since 2003-04, way ahead of prices which have climbed 19 per cent.

We have not spent all the extra income, we have tucked some away. Spending grew 38 per cent.

Most of the staples cited as causes of concern at the last election are easier to buy. During a pre-election debate, Tony Abbott said he was worried about the price of groceries, particularly bread. Bread accounts for less of our spending than it did, sliding from 0.67 per cent to 0.57 per cent; food has slipped from 17.1 to 16.5 per cent.

The big unavoidable expense that is costing us more is housing, whether paid for by a rent or mortgage. Housing now accounts for 18 per cent of total spending, up from 16 per cent six years ago and a new record high. School fees are also biting harder along with childcare fees.

Other increased spending reflects changed lifestyles. We are spending more of our wallet at cafes and restaurants than six years ago, up from 2.1 per cent to 2.6 per cent. We spend more at hairdressers, and more on pay TV and internet connections.

Lower prices mean we are spending much less on clothes and shoes - down from 4 per cent to 3.6 per cent and also much less on household furnishings.

While alcohol is just as important to us as before - accounting for 2.6 per cent of our budgets, the same proportion as household energy - tobacco is much less important, slipping from 1.3 to 1 per cent of total spending.

http://www.smh.com.au/business/spending-survey-shows-we-are-better-off-than-we-think-20110906-1jw1z.html

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Please delete Gold Member Offline Please delete this smacking PROFILE Posts: 2936	Re: We are better off than we think Reply #1 - Sep 7^th, 2011 at 9:03am "You would not believe it if you listened to our politicians" OR the partisans on here with a barrow to push.
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Doctor Jolly

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Re: We are better off than we think
Reply #2 - Sep 7^th, 2011 at 9:11am

Please delete wrote on Sep 7^th, 2011 at 9:02am:

The big unavoidable expense that is costing us more is housing, whether paid for by a rent or mortgage. Housing now accounts for 18 per cent of total spending, up from 16 per cent six years ago and a new record high. School fees are also biting harder along with childcare fees.

Both school costs and housing were fuelled by the Howard governments push to private education, and housing boom fuelled by first home owners grants and tax cuts.

Luckily the schools issue is being slowly addressed, and the GFC has stalled house price growth.

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Andrei.Hicks

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Re: We are better off than we think
Reply #3 - Sep 7^th, 2011 at 9:13am

Doctor Jolly wrote on Sep 7^th, 2011 at 9:11am:

Please delete wrote on Sep 7^th, 2011 at 9:02am:

The big unavoidable expense that is costing us more is housing, whether paid for by a rent or mortgage. Housing now accounts for 18 per cent of total spending, up from 16 per cent six years ago and a new record high. School fees are also biting harder along with childcare fees.

Both school costs and housing were fuelled by the Howard governments push to private education, and housing boom fuelled by first home owners grants and tax cuts.

Luckily the schools issue is being slowly addressed, and the GFC has stalled house price growth.

We want house price growth though don't we?
I have a house in Melbourne still - why would I not want that to increase in value???
Same for anyone else who owns a home.

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Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination - Oscar Wilde

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longweekend58

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Re: We are better off than we think
Reply #4 - Sep 7^th, 2011 at 9:19am

Doctor Jolly wrote on Sep 7^th, 2011 at 9:11am:

Please delete wrote on Sep 7^th, 2011 at 9:02am:

The big unavoidable expense that is costing us more is housing, whether paid for by a rent or mortgage. Housing now accounts for 18 per cent of total spending, up from 16 per cent six years ago and a new record high. School fees are also biting harder along with childcare fees.

Both school costs and housing were fuelled by the Howard governments push to private education, and housing boom fuelled by first home owners grants and tax cuts.

Luckily the schools issue is being slowly addressed, and the GFC has stalled house price growth.

Id love to see you try and justify that rather silly claim.

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AUSSIE: "Speaking for myself, I could not care less about 298 human beings having their life snuffed out in a nano-second, or what impact that loss has on Members of their family, their parents..."

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Dsmithy70

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Re: We are better off than we think
Reply #5 - Sep 7^th, 2011 at 9:28am

And the companion piece to this:

Politics of self-interest feeds the inner beast

Barring the start of World War III, we may never hear an Australian politician repeat John Fitzgerald Kennedy's unforgettable line, ''Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country''.

Nobility be hanged. There was a time when our leaders saw it as their job to bring out the best in their followers. These days, they see their best chance as pandering to our dark side - our fears, our weaknesses, our selfishness.

These days, self-centredness not only comes naturally, it's officially encouraged.

On what basis should you decide which politician to support? The one that's offering you the best deal, of course.
Why do our leaders have such a low opinion of our motivations? Perhaps for the same reason people who lie a lot always expect other people to be lying. Despite their protestations to the contrary,

most politicians seem motivated less by a burning desire to make the world a better place than by ambition for personal advancement. They simply assume we are like they are.

Then there's the influence of economists. The doctrine of economic rationalism not only assumes self-interest to be normal and altruism to be non-existent, it sanctifies self-interest as a civic virtue.

Adam Smith, founder of modern economics, said a lot of noteworthy things, but few are quoted more than this: ''It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our necessities but of their advantages.''

Be as selfish as you like because selfishness is what makes the economy work.

But here's a balancing quote from the great man that's much less often repeated: ''How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it, except the pleasure of seeing it.''

There are two sides to our nature; we do have our ''better angels'' as Abraham Lincoln put it, but at present our lesser selves are in the ascendancy.

Perhaps another influence on the politicians is their resort to the techniques of marketing to further their pursuit of power. Marketers have no hesitation in appealing to our envy, lust or greed.

In their world, use of the word ''indulgence'' is taken to be enticing, not a condemnation. ''You deserve it'' and ''because you're worth it'', advertisers assure us. My favourite is an ad for a cinema candy bar: ''in the dark, no one can see you''. Go ahead, guts yourself.

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REBELLION is not what most people think it is.
REBELLION is when you turn off the TV & start educating & thinking for yourself.
Gavin Nascimento

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Dsmithy70

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Re: We are better off than we think
Reply #6 - Sep 7^th, 2011 at 9:30am

Marketers use focus groups to test products and make sure they're giving the customers exactly what they want.

Politicians use them to make sure they're telling voters exactly what they want to hear.

At least since John Howard's last days, people in focus groups have been complaining about the rising cost of living. Really? That's a new one.

When the most people can do is complain about the cost of living it's a sign they've got nothing bigger to worry about.

I suspect it's the product of our having gone 20 years without a severe recession. When you're worried about keeping your job, you don't complain about the cost of living.

And yet both sides of politics are perpetually echoing back to the electorate their professed concern about how tough times are. Tony Abbott's remarkably successful scare campaign against the carbon tax -

it's actually not half as bad as the goods and services tax,

and certainly far less disruptive than the effect of the high dollar on manufacturing and tourism - preys on people's worries about the cost of living.

When Howard was introducing the GST a lot of people's attitude was: ''I don't like the sound of it one bit, but if you're insisting on it I suppose it must be in the best interests of the country.'' Much the same could be said of the carbon tax, yet far fewer people are saying it - nor are they being encouraged to think that way.

As it's understood by scientists, our preoccupation with our own interests usually extends to the protection of our own family. But there seems little sign of concern for the wellbeing of our children and grandchildren in the carbon tax debate.

We've been encouraged to focus only on our immediate worries about balancing the household budget.

But for unbridled selfishness there could surely be no more egregious example than the success the licensed clubs have had in stirring their members' opposition to the Gillard government's reluctant championing of compulsory pre-commitment on poker machine use.

If ever there was an action that could be said to be ''un-Australian'', it's profiting from the addiction of gamblers and all the misery caused to them and their families. The killer statistic is this: according to the Productivity Commission, about 15 per cent of regular poker machine users contribute about 40 per cent of all the money put through pokies.

So the whole edifice of the licensed club industry rests heavily on the exploitation of a small minority of their own members. All the cheap meals and shows, all the grants to local sporting groups - much of that money is coming from the pockets of the spouses and children of problem gamblers.

But those fighting to keep their cheap meals mustn't feel guilty. You're only doing what our politicians, economists and advertisers urge you to do: putting your own interests ahead of other people's, including the less fortunate.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/politics-of-selfinterest-feeds-the-inner-beast-20110906-1jvs4.html#ixzz1XDZX5HJg

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REBELLION is not what most people think it is.
REBELLION is when you turn off the TV & start educating & thinking for yourself.
Gavin Nascimento

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longweekend58

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Re: We are better off than we think
Reply #7 - Sep 7^th, 2011 at 9:51am

Dsmithy70 wrote on Sep 7^th, 2011 at 9:30am: