Whatever today's economic data shows about how close Australia is to recession the truth is we are already experiencing the biggest dive in living standards in half a century — and have been for two years, writes Peter Martin.
As far as I can tell we’ve been in a recession for a long time but nobody wants to admit it.
The reserve bank/etc are burying their heads in the sand and hiding behind external factors like the price of resources overseas that artificially inflate official figures… even though they have almost no bearing on the lives of people here in Australia.
I guess those exports are good for our superannuation but that’s about it. As a young person with a family I’m not worried about how much money I will have when I retire - I’m worried about how to pay for the roof over my head right now… and unless something changes soon there’s a good chance a lot of people will be draining their super to pay for housing. If too many people reach for that bandaid it will cause both short term and long term economic problems.
I’m not sure what needs to be done - but it seems to me like whatever it is, it’s not going to happen if we ignore the problem.
If I were to pick an answer though, I’d probably go with some kind of severe tax on anyone who owns a home that they do not live in. Something high enough to force those people to sell and drive housing prices down to something affordable on a typical income. Use the boost in tax revenue to increase welfare funding across the board.
We have been in a per capita recession for ages. The govt avoids a technical recession with mass immigration.
Think of “the economy” as “rich people’s yachts” next time you hear a politician or bobble headed reporter talking about something (like immigration) being good for the economy.
Immigration can be good for the economy. If it’s carefully controlled, planned and, used to increase the productive capacity of the nation. Right now it’s being used to bludgeon the bargaining power of labour and inflate the housing bubble.
As far as I can tell we’ve been in a recession for a long time but nobody wants to admit it.
The reserve bank/etc are burying their heads in the sand and hiding behind external factors like the price of resources overseas that artificially inflate official figures… even though they have almost no bearing on the lives of people here in Australia.
I guess those exports are good for our superannuation but that’s about it. As a young person with a family I’m not worried about how much money I will have when I retire - I’m worried about how to pay for the roof over my head right now… and unless something changes soon there’s a good chance a lot of people will be draining their super to pay for housing. If too many people reach for that bandaid it will cause both short term and long term economic problems.
I’m not sure what needs to be done - but it seems to me like whatever it is, it’s not going to happen if we ignore the problem.
If I were to pick an answer though, I’d probably go with some kind of severe tax on anyone who owns a home that they do not live in. Something high enough to force those people to sell and drive housing prices down to something affordable on a typical income. Use the boost in tax revenue to increase welfare funding across the board.
We have been in a per capita recession for ages. The govt avoids a technical recession with mass immigration.
Think of “the economy” as “rich people’s yachts” next time you hear a politician or bobble headed reporter talking about something (like immigration) being good for the economy.
Immigration can be good for the economy. If it’s carefully controlled, planned and, used to increase the productive capacity of the nation. Right now it’s being used to bludgeon the bargaining power of labour and inflate the housing bubble.
Better solution is communism