Australia. They've never had it so good.

[Hosehead]

Australia has managed to come out of the global financial crisis without a recession. But as a result of its booming economy, the cost of living is extremely high.

It was the limes that finally tipped me over the edge.

In the sleepy Australian seaside village where my parents live, not that far away from several citrus orchards, I was in a supermarket staring at a sign:

Limes: $2.25.

Two Australian dollars, twenty-five cents.

That's £1.50 (US$2.30). Not for a bag. Not for a pair. Each. One lime cost £1.50. Infuriated, I stormed out of the shop, limeless.

"The country has lost it," I fumed to my mum and dad over dinner that night. "How can anyone afford to eat in this country?"

"Darling," my father replied. "Look around. People here are rolling in money. We live in an unbelievably wealthy nation."

And he is right. In the 12 years since I last called Australia home, it has changed. It was always the lucky country, blessed with fertile land, abundant sunshine and plentiful natural resources.


Now, we are more than lucky. We are rich. Bloody rich. So rich that no-one blinks an eye at paying as much for a lime as some of our neighbours in Asia earn in a day.

Ten years ago, not one single Australian city was in the top 50 most expensive cities in the world to live in, now three are in the top 15

And you can feel it, just by looking at the small stuff.

For example, there is no litter on the streets. Nowhere. And I am yet to see a central reservation where the grass is not well-tended and the attractive shrubs not perfectly pruned.

It is the cars. I swear there is none on the road that is older than eight years. They are clean and dent-free and meet strict safety standards.

(Photo of a Suburban street)

Behind these doors are the latest gadgets and appliances
It is the obsession with gourmet food shows, the shiny European appliances in the shiny designer kitchens that seem to be a feature in even the most average family home.

It is the seriousness about single-origin coffee made by baristas who get paid £17 an hour before tips to bestow their caffeine-laced munificence on their devoted followers.

I do not mean to sound flippant. Of course, there is poverty too, and the gap between rich and poor is growing.

But the overall feeling I get is that this is a country that can afford to be worried about the small stuff, because the bigger things - food, shelter, water, employment are pretty much taken care of.


“
Start Quote

As a country, we are richer than we could have ever imagined 20, even 10 years ago”

Australia was one of the few developed nations that came out of the global financial crisis without a recession.

It was down to the prudent economic management of the government at the time, but it was also largely because of the huge mining boom this country has been riding for nearly a decade.

The world, especially China, wants what Australia has in the ground. And it has been willing to pay for it.

And it feels to me, a long-lost daughter, that the country has been irrevocably changed as a result.

My parents' sleepy seaside village used to be inhabited by retirees and fishing families. Now we share the one pub with hundreds of mine workers, who come for their days off to burn money on bottles of spirits and the newly installed slot machines.

Coal
Mining has helped fuel growth
Their driveways are stacked with fishing boats, jet-skis and monster trucks - all the boys' toys.

We call them "cashed-up bogans", which roughly translates as "urban rednecks". Plenty of money, not much sense.

It is a term my middle-class tribe uses disparagingly to make us feel better about being educated, but comparatively poor.

I am not the first privately educated, university graduate who wishes she had done a truck-driving course instead.

Sure, I might be bored, but at least I could afford to buy a house.

I asked my taxi-driver the other day if he thinks Australians are rich. He was originally from Turkey.

He looked at me as though I was stupid. "We are living in the lap of luxury here," he said, gesturing to the blue sky and the magnificent city skyline.

So I asked him if he thinks Australians are happy. This time, he sighed.

"When I was at school my teacher asked us who had to work harder, the poor Africans, or the rich Americans," he began.

"A lot of us said the Africans, but my teacher told me no, it was the Americans. They were always working to find ways to pay for their lovely life. Australians are the Americans now."

It made a lot of sense. As a country, we are richer than we could have ever imagined 20, even 10 years ago.

But we are more anxious, too, worried about our non-existent public debt, worried about what we will do when the mining boom is over, which it will be soon.

Worried about how we're going to pay for our next overseas holiday, because that's what we've all come to expect as normal.

And me, I am especially worried about how to make sure the limes on my newly planted lime-tree grow, because I sure won't be buying them in a supermarket any time soon.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21519050

 

[ponder]

Fsck the ozzies. Met quite a few before that said "Know what the difference is between you guys and us, you were nice to the natives, we shot/hunted all ours, the few remaining ones are living on reserves drunk as fsck."

 

[DJ...]

Fsck the ozzies. Met quite a few before that said "Know what the difference is between you guys and us, you were nice to the natives, we shot/hunted all ours, the few remaining ones are living on reserves drunk as fsck."

A lot of them are racist as hell towards the "abos". It was a real eye-opener listening to these pseudo-intellectuals justify their hatred amongst each other...

 

[ponder]

A lot of them are racist as hell towards the "abos". It was a real eye-opener listening to these pseudo-intellectuals justify their hatred amongst each other...

Yeah and they can't stop going on about apartheid, they were a 100 fscking times worse and still are. They are not all bad, got some really nice people but fsck they should be the last to judge.

 

[Hosehead]

The abos are only 2.5% of the population. The majority are descendents of criminals and the rest, what. Vietcong? and rabbit run saffers?

 

[HavocXphere]

The abos are only 2.5% of the population. The majority are descendents of criminals and the rest, what. Vietcong? and rabbit run saffers?

Oh the irony. Tell me hose what exactly did the Brit empire use Australia as originally?

 

[LithIX]

The article is pretty spot on... When we got here 19 months ago I was horrified at the cost of living, but after less than 2 months you get used to it

Biggest reason is the minimum wage of $20 per hour. That means any manual labour is extremely expensive, with the upside that more than 90% of the population get a decent-ish salary and contribute to the economy.

It works pretty well imo.

Even though its expensive, Its worth every cent!

 

[Hosehead]

Oh the irony. Tell me hose what exactly did the Brit empire use Australia as originally?

.

around 200 years ago, Europeans arrived in boats from the north. More accurately, European convicts were sent, with a few deranged and stupid people in charge. They tried to plant their crops in Autumn (failing to take account of the reversal of the seasons when moving from the top half of the planet to the bottom), ate all their food, and a lot of them died. About then the sheep arrived, and have been treasured ever since.
It is interesting to note here that the Europeans always consider themselves vastly superior to any other race they encounter, since they can lie, cheat, steal, and litigate (marks of a civilized culture, they say) - whereas all the Aboriginals can do is happily survive being left in the middle of a vast red-hot desert, equipped with a stick.
Eventually, the new lot of people stopped being Europeans on Extended Holiday and became Australians. The changes are subtle, but deep, caused by the mind-stretching expanses of nothingness and eerie quiet, where a person can sit perfectly still and look deep inside themselves to the core of their essence, their reasons for being, and the necessity of checking inside your boots every morning for fatal surprises. They also picked up the most finely tuned sense of irony in the world, and the Aboriginal gift for making up stories. Be warned.

 

[HavocXphere]

hose wtf you talking about. How exactly does that negate the comment about the abos being criminals? You did see the mention of the word "irony", no?

 

[Good.Fellow]

And now they have discovered one of the largest oil fields ever, larger than Saudi Arabia's oil fields. They are on a winning wicket

 

[grok]

TI-not-A!

 

[Budza]

The article is pretty spot on... When we got here 19 months ago I was horrified at the cost of living, but after less than 2 months you get used to it

Biggest reason is the minimum wage of $20 per hour. That means any manual labour is extremely expensive, with the upside that more than 90% of the population get a decent-ish salary and contribute to the economy.

It works pretty well imo.

Even though its expensive, Its worth every cent!

Brilliant.

High minimum wages = a better society.

 

[killadoob]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-...t-rate-unexpectedly-rises-to-3-year-high.html

I am busy googling now but if someone knows perhaps they can give us a few countries who have 5-6% unemployment . That is ridiculous!!!!! I am going to try find the lowest unemployment rate but i wonder how easily 5.6% is beaten.

Well Andorra has 0% tiny population. 75k. Perhaps i should set a minimum of at least 1 million or 10 million.

 

[zippy]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-...t-rate-unexpectedly-rises-to-3-year-high.html

I am busy googling now but if someone knows perhaps they can give us a few countries who have 5-6% unemployment . That is ridiculous!!!!! I am going to try find the lowest unemployment rate but i wonder how easily 5.6% is beaten.

Well Andorra has 0% tiny population. 75k. Perhaps i should set a minimum of at least 1 million or 10 million.

In 2005, the UK unemployment rate was 4.8 %. It peaked to 8% in 2011. It's coming down. About 7.4% now. In the US it was 4.6% in 2007. Peaked to 9 in 2011. Also coming down. Most developed countries would want be at least 5%. So 5.6% can easily be beaten. At the moment of all the developed countries, Australia does seem to have the lowest rate.

 

[zippy]

Brilliant.

High minimum wages = a better society.

It's more complicated than that. Skills for a start. The higher proportion of the population that is highly skilled, the better. And a decent legal system. There is corruption in every country. But those with less, will be better off.

 

[killadoob]

In 2005, the UK unemployment rate was 4.8 %. It peaked to 8% in 2011. It's coming down. About 7.4% now. In the US it was 4.6% in 2007. Peaked to 9 in 2011. Also coming down. Most developed countries would want be at least 5%. So 5.6% can easily be beaten. At the moment of all the developed countries, Australia does seem to have the lowest rate.

I thought the US was higher, then their definition of poverty is not being able to afford plasma tv's hahah, not that has anything to with unemployment . Yea wow i guess i am so used to africa and europe i thought it was a global issue, most surprising are the SA countries.

 

[HapticSimian]

hose wtf you talking about. How exactly does that negate the comment about the abos being criminals? You did see the mention of the word "irony", no?

I think you'll find you rather misread his statement...

 

[Jabberwocky]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-...t-rate-unexpectedly-rises-to-3-year-high.html

I am busy googling now but if someone knows perhaps they can give us a few countries who have 5-6% unemployment . That is ridiculous!!!!! I am going to try find the lowest unemployment rate but i wonder how easily 5.6% is beaten.

Well Andorra has 0% tiny population. 75k. Perhaps i should set a minimum of at least 1 million or 10 million.

there seems to be quite a few, but i don`t know if I believe those stats.. india 1.1%, brazil 4.7%
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_unemployment_rate

 

[noxibox]

there seems to be quite a few, but i don`t know if I believe those stats.. india 1.1%, brazil 4.7%
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_unemployment_rate

UK hides them by putting people on disability. One of Thatcher's innovations.

 

[killadoob]

there seems to be quite a few, but i don`t know if I believe those stats.. india 1.1%, brazil 4.7%
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_unemployment_rate

Yea some of them seem a bit odd, i thought unemployment was high in south america but from the wiki link it seems i was wrong or the governments are lying and pulling figures out their asses.

Look at the central african republic figure, can't be right.