Marty_d Posted October 29, 2015 Share Posted October 29, 2015 Don't sweat it Gnu. He's still toeing the conservative line (albeit slightly less fervently than his rolled colleagues). At least he doesn't talk down to the population. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willedoo Posted October 30, 2015 Share Posted October 30, 2015 you old guys don't get it, stopping all the cheap cars and electronics coming in from overseas would make living in Australia unbearable, we would be stuck living a 1950s lifestyle. Imagine no internet, all the wonder drugs, no foreign travel. stuck buying obsolete copies of austins. What you guys want is north korea but run by john howard One spin-off of cheap Chinese imports is the massive availability and affordability of goods. Even a battler today can own all sorts of tools and gear we never could have afforded in the 70's and 80's. The start up cost of a lot of small businesses, eg a chippie, is a fraction of what it was thirty years ago. I wouldn't like to go back to paying five times the price for power tools and electronic equipment. As an example, today someone might take home $800 pw in wages. You can buy an adequate power drill (not top shelf) for $40, or one 20/th. of your weekly wage. Wind the clock back to 1972, taking home $50 pw, there's no way you could buy a new drill for $2.50 back then. I'm an old guy, by the way. Cheers, Willie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fly_tornado Posted October 30, 2015 Share Posted October 30, 2015 and that's why the Laboral party loves free trade deals, cheap imported goods takes the pressure of the gov to fix housing affordability Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willedoo Posted October 30, 2015 Share Posted October 30, 2015 and that's why the Laboral party loves free trade deals, cheap imported goods takes the pressure of the gov to fix housing affordability Yes, and I guess that's where the catch is these days. All the things like food, beer and all the goodies and baubles we collect are proportionately much cheaper, but the other things like housing, electricity, fuel and service type fees etc. are climbing all the time. I guess from a government point of view, they might think as long as we have a beer in the hand, food in the belly, and a big tv to look at, we'll be happy. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fly_tornado Posted October 30, 2015 Share Posted October 30, 2015 you would be amazed how many ppl's lives revolve around a weekly trip to the mall, the numbers are huge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M61A1 Posted October 30, 2015 Share Posted October 30, 2015 Yes, and I guess that's where the catch is these days. All the things like food, beer and all the goodies and baubles we collect are proportionately much cheaper, but the other things like housing, electricity, fuel and service type fees etc. are climbing all the time. I guess from a government point of view, they might think as long as we have a beer in the hand, food in the belly, and a big tv to look at, we'll be happy. I recommend reading 2 books- "Things Bogans Like", and "Boganomix", both tongue in cheek, but I think there is a lot of truth cleverly hidden in the humour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geoffreywh Posted October 30, 2015 Share Posted October 30, 2015 You'd stop the housing price rise in a heartbeat by stopping mass immigration. Keeping the population count stable should be a priority. Demand for goods and services is kept artificially high by continually increasing population. It's all going to end in tears.... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fly_tornado Posted October 30, 2015 Share Posted October 30, 2015 yeah no way, we need those people to bring their money into the country, think about it 200,000 ppl bringing an average of $100k in assets per person is $20B inflow of cash. every year Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ev17ifly2 Posted October 30, 2015 Share Posted October 30, 2015 Yeah, "populate or perish" was the old catch cry. Sure, bring in you 200,000 migrants but unless we as a country feed them, provide clean air and water it's a mute point. Australia is an arid continent with the majority of its population clinging to existence along the eastern seaboard which by sustainable standards is already over populated. By all means throw open the doors to the rest of the world however your children and grandchildren won't thank you. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty_d Posted October 30, 2015 Share Posted October 30, 2015 You'd stop the housing price rise in a heartbeat by stopping mass immigration. Keeping the population count stable should be a priority. Demand for goods and services is kept artificially high by continually increasing population. It's all going to end in tears.... That could be applied to the world as a whole, and there's a lot of other countries with far less resources than ours with larger and faster-increasing populations. No real answers to this particular problem, although the Catholic church could help by reversing their stance on family planning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winsor68 Posted November 1, 2015 Share Posted November 1, 2015 yeah no way, we need those people to bring their money into the country, think about it 200,000 ppl bringing an average of $100k in assets per person is $20B inflow of cash. every year For whom??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fly_tornado Posted November 1, 2015 Share Posted November 1, 2015 props us the real estate industry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winsor68 Posted November 1, 2015 Share Posted November 1, 2015 props us the real estate industry Exactly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fly_tornado Posted November 1, 2015 Share Posted November 1, 2015 pushing up the price of real estate keeps our banks profitable, falling RE prices nearly killed the US economy. gotta love the ponzi economy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Tuncks Posted October 3, 2020 Share Posted October 3, 2020 I reckon things were better years ago when the unions had more power. Now we see CEO's get millions for poor performance. But here is my current problem... have we had it all wrong about the government printing money? We always thought that you needed a "balanced budget" to keep inflation at bay. But what if this is wrong and there will be no inflation as long as enough goods can be produced to balance the money printed? I hereby offer this site as a test: if all us were to be given 10,000 a week, would it cause inflation? I reckon not, so how about a trial? 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onetrack Posted October 3, 2020 Share Posted October 3, 2020 Good luck with your economic theory, Bruce! A least you're in good company, because every economist has a different idea about how economies should be run, and how money and wealth should be distributed! Kind of reminds me of the old joke. Fred: "My Uncle was making big money! But it all fell apart for him, when things went wrong, and now he's in jail!!" Ted: "What went so badly wrong for him?" Fred: "The money he was making, was 3mm too big!" 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old man emu Posted October 3, 2020 Share Posted October 3, 2020 The true value of money is determined by what the purchaser is prepared to pay for an item. This is best shown with domestic housing. You can ask what you like for a property, but the market will tell you what it thinks your property is worth. What we have fallen victim to is the scourge of Recommended Retail Price, and the lack of control over retail prices. In 1970, a litre of milk (whole milk) was 19 cents. Today it is $2.25. Is it any more nourishing now? No. Have average wages increased by a factor of 11? Minimum wage in 1970 was $55.90. Minimum wage 2020 is $753.80 an increase of a factor of 13. So, in reality, it's just the numbers of dollars we get that has increased, but not purchasing power. If everyone was given $10,000 per week, today's price of a litre of milk would rise by a factor (coincidentally) of 13. The amount of nutrients would still be the same. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Tuncks Posted October 4, 2020 Share Posted October 4, 2020 Lots of people are getting big money printed by the govt. From pollies to medicos to military, they get ( with on-costs ) millions a year. Some of the money spent on military hardware boggles the mind. Army tanks, for example. The previous lot ( from Germany ) were never even assembled as there is no real use for them. They were bought for billions and then I guess sold cheaply to a third-world dictator who will use them to terrorize his population. Where does the money come from? Printed, I hope and not borrowed. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Tuncks Posted October 4, 2020 Share Posted October 4, 2020 Speaking for myself, OME, I will pay the minimum needed to secure what I want. I reckon the price of housing is set by supply/demand and the demand is set by immigration. A house and land should be about $120,000 these days. One day, with a falling population, real estate will be worth very much less. Global warming and resource depletion will see to the falling population, which will not be in our time. ( Unless that American Prof is right about methane from thawing tundra giving us ten years to extinction ) Many other things are these days made by robots and I like how they are good and cheap. Food is not made by robots and is climbing in price, thank goodness says me wearing my farmers hat. Food will spike as the problems bite. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacesailor Posted October 6, 2020 Share Posted October 6, 2020 . ( Unless that American Prof is right about methane from thawing tundra giving us ten years to extinction ). YOU mean the NEW future fuel. Easily collected, and cheap as chips. Make it in your back garden from grass cuttings. spacesailor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Tuncks Posted October 9, 2020 Share Posted October 9, 2020 Well Space, the latest I have read on the methane subject is that soil bacteria eat the stuff so it will not cause us all to die in ten years...whew! Yep it would be a good fuel. Not as good as hydrogen but not bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacesailor Posted October 9, 2020 Share Posted October 9, 2020 WELL . you gain some, only to loose some, on the swings & roundabouts of life. spacesailor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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