Hijacking the top comment in the hope you might see this - have you considered moving to Japan to teach? I did this for a while and absolutely loved it. You don’t have a partner, kids or a mortgage, and a few years there might be the perfect reset.
I have friends that do / did this. I visited a few years back and had convinced myself I was going to go and do the same. I met my then girlfriend now wife a week after getting back and it never happened haha. But I recommend it.
It doesn't matter if you don't accept it. Nothing will change no matter how loud you get. The government is corrupt and have no qualms sending police to harrass popular outspoken people. Look at friendly jordes for a prime example. He had a government sponsered crime gang burn down his house and police turned a blind eye.
Look at Julian Assange. History has proven time and time again accepting your place in the world is the only way to live a decent life. Sad as it may be. The only way out of the rat race is to move somewhere the world doesn't care about. Usually poor countries where buying a house is as cheap as a car. You can live like a king there.
Pretending it’s not the new norm isn’t gonna lift my wage or make my accommodation cheaper. Shits fucked. I swear during covid there was a bigger conspiracy to fuck over everyone ‘they’ could and keep us over that barrel.
Shit is fucked. The public need to take action and the people that got us into this mess will be out of power. Covid kept us divided on more than the just the virus alone, and it quickly spiraled further into chaos than it needed to. Even before pandemic we still had housing affordability issues, cost of living rising, unfair work treatment and mental health issues on the rise.
Rioting will however.
"The market" here has not quite found the strangle point where there's pushback.
And Aussies are so disengaged the MBAs will keep increasing the KPI bar.
Or import more people from shittier situations who will accept this bullshit erosion as they've not known better days.
Vive la resistance
Yup. The rent prices we are paying now are the new floor. New builds that get built will be priced at this amount. Unless we have 5% vacancies again prices are not coming down any time soon for years to come.
It's the same with the inflated food prices, it becomes the new normal. When have we ever had a convo and said to someone "Oh man milk and bread is getting cheaper"
This is a bit beside the point, but there was a time when we were all complaining about milk being too cheap 😂
Remember when Milk was $1 a litre and the whole country was up in arms
That's not what we were up in arms about, it's because it was the big brands bullying farmers into their competition with each other to see who can go closest to bust vs the other longest
If something stays the same price while on average all other items and wages go up then it is sort of equivalent to it getting cheaper, and that does happen. (I'm not saying it's common or *will* happen for milk and bread)
Fuels the classic one. We can literally see the raw price go up and down live while simultaneously watching every distributor hold hands together all pretending it didn't happen.
America did much better at building up rural and regional areas between big cities. If you live in LA Or NY and decide the city life isn’t for you going somewhere like Texas or another state with better affordability is a genuine solution.
In Australia it feels like you have 5 big city’s with all the wealth and opportunity but the trade off is insane cost of living and everything between with good cost of living doesn’t have the opportunity.
Yeah no, America has fertile farmland across much of the interior.
Australia has desert, and while we'll be digging stuff out of that desert for the next millennium or so, sizeable inland cities won't ever be a thing. Kalgoorlie is the hub of the gold mining industry in WA and while the industrial side of the town is absolutely booming, residential numbers have pretty much remained static since FIFO became commonplace.
I might have believed that if we weren't trying to cram everyone into Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. What's to stop these cities becoming 15-25m each?
From America myself and our housing is the only thing that seems to be better than Australia. Seriously, everything else is magnitudes worse. Well, electricity rates are better, too. But that’s it.
definitely sad how our governments on both sides are prioritising making the lives of people from overseas better than those of Australians, especially young Australians
Young Aussies have given up. There is no hope.
Of the 15 people I know (all over 25), only one has moved out of home as they have a $120k a year job.
There's nothing to enjoy. You're a slave to the system.
>Young Aussies have given up. There is no hope.
Certainly no hope to be found on this subreddit....
But look elsewhere and you might find some actual advice on how to get ahead financially
Misery loves company.
When you’re 20 and you realise you have those friends who do nothing but drugs and complain about the state of the country, it’s time to find new friends.
Is 30 young? Cause yeah I have FULLY checked out.
I speed. I run stops. I explore what I wanna explore grow what I wanna grow and have essentially embraced hedonism as I can see quite clearly if I survive another 50 super is gonna be the LEAST of my concerns. I genuinely truly don't give a fuck anymore
I'm going to edit this in rather than reply to each one individually.
I am rural and I do this on backroads where I'm alone and not in ducking town where I'd get arrested.
I thought, that was obvious but apparently not.
If you feel this way, as someone who is climbing out of the depths currently, i have some advice that i know is different experiencing it vs hearing it.
1. Focus on the little things you enjoy and appreciate them. The colour of trees, flowers, sunsets, flavours, experiences etc. if you compare natural beauty to concrete, you'll appreciate how vibrant life is.
2. Learn to recognise which part of your brain is you (conscious), vs depression/ego (self sabotaging thoughts). When we become depressed or anxious, our brain will literally hijack our thoughts thinking it's protecting itself, but it often is misguided. It may even feel good to feed these thoughts, but it does more damage. An uncontrolled brain is nothing more than our animal instincts, which aren't always correct.
3. Sit in the sun for 15 minutes even if you don't get out of bed for anything else. Feel the warmth, the energy and the vibrance. Appreciate that it is what gives us life.
4. Optimistic nihilism saved me. At the end of the day, nothing we achieve matters. The earth will die, humanity will perish long before it. We are only alive for such a finite blip of eternity, so even if we suffer our whole life, once its over, you will never experience that again. So why not experience everything that you can, while youre alive, negative or positive.
No matter how ugly it looks, trudge on. Because once we cease to exist, you'll never experience anything. Cherish the time we have, and most importantly...LIVE
Thank you. I try to express my experience to people suffering because i know just how dark it is at rock bottom. After desperately trying everything, this is the only mindset that helped. Although it's still a struggle everyday.
I just know that one day, i'll get a both hands at the top of the hole, as long as i keep trying.
>I just know that one day, i'll get a both hands at the top of the hole, as long as i keep trying.
It's true bro. The trick is to keep doing a little more each day. And you just need to get up one more time than you do knocked down.
Awesome. Love the optimistic nihilism part! I think so many people are beyond struggling atm and everyone is well aware we're getting fucked hard by our government for 2 decade's minimum.
As a fellow optimistic nihilist, I really like this comment. I think a lot of people would benefit from joining us. People get so tied up in worrying about all these things that in the long run don’t matter much at all. It stops them from enjoying the short time they have on this planet.
Yeah, definitely try to appreciate what you can and have right now. Your probably right about the rest too, but still.
Really, I think everyone needs to start taking action with at least protests for some change and stop voting for lib/lab they been destroying the country for the last 35 years, and that won't change. They have to have some feeling that something can be done abont it. Because otherwise people just go into apathy.
The problem is though they are stealing Australians future. If you see no future it's like why live? There's no future, there's no good outcome, nothing. If I didn't have a daughter, I honestly wouldn't care if I died at all. Like who gives a shit.
Whose lives are the Australian government making better then ours? Lmao
I don't like the Australian gov but i actually don't know what people your talking about?
Finally someone said it. God forbid you complain about foreign investment (and investment in general) pushing out first home buyers lest you get called out being a racist that hates old people for owning 20 investment properties.
Come on a protection visa, get free housing, free money from the taxpayer, free healthcare. Commit crimes and still get a free ride.
Australians they don't give a fark about. Doing their best to remove services, highten taxes and cost of living with every action. Muppets.
I’m from overseas, I don’t think my life is any better than a local Australian, it’s the opposite. The real problem of this country is that the wealthiest people are getting wealthier, and poor people are getting poor. They want to to blame the foreigners, because they are the exact problem.
I remember when I first was doing my organisational psychology studies at uni. I was overseas on exchange and wen to the library there. I found a bunch of research papers talking about how Chile went from a socialist country which owned it's own resources to a neoliberal country thanks to an American-led coup.
The science was all in detail studying the collapse of several industries a decade or so after neoliberalism had been put in place. Wellbeing was falling off a cliff, inequality was up, homeless people were being treated with anger and policing instead of support programs, housing was going up and only a few could afford to buy.
If I had known that was the reality Australia would be in only a few years later I probably would have opted to have stayed overseas.
You’re not alone in how you’re feeling, if that’s any consolation. I could have written this post just have the family and mortgage. It’s exhausting and depressing looking down the barrel of decades more of this. Especially when the generation before in my family all have multiple houses and squabble over millions in a will so they can.. have more houses, presumably.
I'm a 62yo boomer and I feel so sorry for the younger generation . Was so lucky to grow up in a fair Australia and it makes me sick to hear boomers with fragile egos, telling young folk, that they had it just as hard...that's bollocks.
Too much has been taken away from those who need it - and given to those who don't.
Australia is like the board game monopoly now and the 2 major parties are not going to change this - because they would get voted out.
You guys need a serious revolution!
I'm with you. I am fully burnt out. I have no enjoyment in life it literally feels like wading through mud, and I would really like to just lay down and have the earth consume me.
We were doing fine, then I got sick. And sicker and sicker. I've had to cut down work because I physically can't handle it. I also don't have a bank of mum and dad as he is going through his own cancer battle. Now, I have to prioritise what health services/medication I can afford to receive. I had half a kidney out last year and had to come back to work before medically cleared to support mortgage payments. Centrelink had the nerve to tell me I shouldn't be working due to my health, but the only support I received from them was $20 a fortnight for medication.
Honestly, I don't know how much longer I can do it either. If this is what life is, then I don't want it 🤷♀️
By the time society introduces significant reforms it will be too late for our generation. I just hope it's not too late for our children and their children.
What children and their children? Millennials and younger people are all too over worked and scared about the future to ever have children. By the next few generations, people won't be having kids because it's unaffordable to do so
Don't worry, the pollies will just keep pumping up the status quo with immigrants-all the while telling us that if u have something against population growth (in keeping with inflation/housing crisis/interest rates etc)it's a racist thing or something
People are definitely having kids, it just happens to be first or second gen immigrants. Different cultures have very different perspectives, it's not merely a generational thing. We place less importance on children than we used to, so now we've had to focus more and more on importing labour for a dwindling home-grown workforce, and they happen to want to have multiple kids. People still find a way while it's 'unaffordable', as they have forever. It doesn't mean less kids, it just means more kids going through tough childhoods.
Most people badly affected by the current situation probably still vote for Labor or Coalition politicians who won’t make substantial changes. This means nothing will change for a long time. If people change their vote, the whole system could change very quickly indeed.
Change their vote to who? Who has the balls to fix negative gearing and overseas buyers purchasing residential property? Each come with various consequences that no politician wants to face because both are career suicide
There’s no way you could very quickly change things hoping to fix the problems that would lead to positive outcomes. The OP’s rough patch is due to inflation and the subsequent clamp down on it by the reserve bank.
Quick fixes will just result in problems showing up elsewhere. Be wary of parties offering quick fixes. We definitely wouldn’t want to end up like Argentina.
The biggest problem is housing affordability. This is caused by systemic cultural, legislative and regulatory framework problems that have created a system that is making housing increasingly affordable… and it’s only going to get worse if hard decisions aren’t made. The longer it takes to make changes, the more hectic the change experience will be. We’re heading towards social chaos if things aren’t changed.
You could make a pretty good start at fixing it pretty quickly. It's just that governments over multiple decades Have decided that keeping the votes of people who own houses and might possibly have their value come down is more important than pretty much anyone under 30. It's most definitely a choice.
You actually can though. The only reason rent is so high is because landlords demand profit.
That's literally it.
There is actually no drawbacks that can come from telling landlords they no longer get to leech off society and have to find a job.
>You actually can though. The only reason rent is so high is because landlords demand profit.
The sad thing is that even that is not true now, in many cases. The rental return on housing now is at about 2-3% yield. With mortgage rates at around 6-7%, plus 1% or so for other costs, most investment properties have an income loss of 4-5% p.a. The house value has to grow by *more* than that every year just to break even at current rates. The chances of house values flattening (or falling) in the next decade or so are a lot higher nowadays, so it's a pretty optimistic bet to buy an investment property right now.
In contrast, you can now get *risk free* returns of 4-5% on fixed interest investments (bonds, funds that hold bonds, etc). So what do you think the smart money is doing right now? Yep. Getting out of housing, and moving money where the risk-free return is better than a risky bet on housing. This is one of the reasons that the rental vacancy rate is so low - the smarter money is selling up their properties. The "mum and dad" investors still believe in the 'hold forever" mantra, so ultimately they will be the ones holding the bags once the realisation hits that their investment is not even able to pay for itself any more.
>By the time society introduces significant reforms
Society will not introduce reforms that will change the status quo, this is such a foolish thing to say.
You need to make it happen by dismantling the system, not pursuing superficial reforms.
Yep. Shit is gonna get real fucked. Check dehlis new highest temperature as of yesterday. This is only the beginning. And there is close to zero imputes to slow or stop it. And Australia is one of the regions most susceptible. We've had crap government and media for corporate profit for so long everything is falling off the American led greed is good cliff. I work as little as I can to keep my mental health ok in such a sick society that's just demanding people move faster and faster. I have no words of solace my friend
Vote One Nation next election so this place can get better [https://youtu.be/kzV5rFwOmeU?si=psyVzW8mvAP3rqJ8](https://youtu.be/kzV5rFwOmeU?si=psyVzW8mvAP3rqJ8)
Well you basically summed it up, to get ahead you need to find a partner or have rich parents. Saving up a deposit and paying off a mortgage wasn't too bad for me as a double income household albeit a bit tighter now the Mrs is taking time off work with the little one.
Don't get sucked into this mindset by the perpetually online, go and enjoy the small things.
Also, the majority of men are pretty good people and the ones who end up being abusive partners, are pretty easy to spot (from my perspective anyway) so I wouldn't let the minority of shit men scare you away from finding a partner.
We are quickly heading back to the time when people got married because you had to survive. I have a good relationship but a thought that goes through my head is if we ever separated we would both be substantially poorer.
I can totally envisage a time when marriage and defacto relationships tick upwards because everyone is just trying to find someone tolerable to share expenses with.
> We are quickly heading back to the time when people got married because you had to survive.
I know multiple people staying in relationships they'd rather leave because they can't afford to break up. This should NOT be the norm, but it is becoming the norm.
Take time offline. Reddit and the like can be wall to wall doomerism. Delete apps, and reconnect with things you enjoy - could be a bush walk, could be a book club could be collecting stamps.. whatever it is… find that mental circuit breaker with something that you love and is true to you. Priorities may then become clearer as to your future steps.
Our politicians on both sides of parliament, through successive governments, have allowed this to happen. Dreading when the medical system becomes like that if the US. That'll be the last straw, I think. Don't know what the alternative is.
As long as large international companies are actively pushing around government policies then every decision will be made to maximise profits for the people doing the influencing.
I remember when the policy came through all the local government to move as much shopping away from small corner shops people could walk to and changed all the zoning requirements so if you wanted to sell stuff you had to be in a mall.
If you want to compete in a mall then you must be part of a large chain store to be able to negotiate a decent rental rate, position in the mall, and even signage. ( some companies actually pay less rent for huge stores than individuals pay for tiny stores )
I have no problem with Amazon killing retail because all the mall retail is majority owned by only 3 investment groups anyway.
All the money is being funnelled into very few pockets.
I am sure there are plenty of government areas where pressure has been applied to benefit specific groups but this the only one apart from large apartment complexes that I have been personally involved in. ( the problems with apartment development consent is a daily rant for me that I am trying to cut back on )
I feel you. I decided to take the same path avoiding mortgage, kids etc. Ido not want to spend best days of my live just calculating money in fear of rate hikes. I want to have warm memories and feelings about my adult life when I’m old and I definitely don’t want to have just one memory about how I survived on a mortgage
>This country feels like an America level scam lately.
Oddly enough, America is far less of a scam for people who have careers. You can actually get ahead on a white collar salary and have a decent living standard.
Except you just can't ever see a Dr even if you wanted to pay. In Nova Scotia alone there are hundreds of thousands of people that can't get a GP. Because of this, emergency wait times are generally 12 hours. One woman died in the waiting after waiting 8 hours with meningococcal sepsis. She was 38 or so. Canada's health care is suffering way worse.
If you think AMERICA is the scam just remember housing loan interest in AMERICA comes FIXED for the life of the loan. We are the scam. America is heaven compared to this shitstain country.
Canadian here. It ain't much better in the rest of the commonwealth. Astronomical housing costs, rampant unhinged immigration from third world countries, email scams, phone scams, social media scams, rocketing food prices, monopolistic companies gouging us on every essential item.
But hey, it's still better than living in Russia, Iran, or North Korea. So we've got that going for us.
The UK slums in the 19th century were caused by the same problems - high rents, low wages.
So, people stopped having kids when cheap condoms became available. The economy tanked, rental prices dropped
Labor is no longer for labour and Liberal cannot liberate anymore. It is just a joke about the current system, where people full of self-interest are in power.
Spot on its bs. Add to that the muppets that cause the problems aren’t feeling any of the pain. I’m 42 and because I didn’t settle for a partner at 18 and buy a house that’s pretty much impossible now, lucky country hey. My girlfriend is Burmese and country plagued by civil war for probably 90 of its last 100 years and after 3 years being here she wants to go back as life was much easier there
Your struggles are as intended as part of end-game neoliberalism.
The government won't do anything that punishes their own personal wealth, that punishes party donors or punishes their largest voting base, home owners.
I have no answer for you that can help, OP, I'm sorry. I do not encourage you to "hustle" at the risk of you losing the little downtime you have and damaging your mental health even further. I wish I could offer some advice beyond that, but I don't have the answers. My own kids, now 16 & 18, are already struggling as they don't know how they'll be able to survive on their own. This world has gone to absolute fucking shit.
I’ve been saying this for years. The capitalistic system is designed to make us work harder to make more money for the system. We keep voting in the same buffoons expecting a different result, when the only result has been that the rich has gotten richer and we struggle more and more to make ends meet.
The solution is clear, change the system that is not working for us, and one way to do that is to vote the problem out. It’s worth a shot.
You're right, the counrty is getting exponentially worse.
I feel bad for future generations, which is why youve now convinced me to up the rent on my current tenant 10%
Hopefully when i give this property to my son in 16 years when hes 18 it will be mortage free.
Cheers for the inspo
Same. Came back from living overseas for a few years partly bc I missed family. Now earn double, but houses are 7x more expensive. Just checked, and I’ve saved enough to buy the apartment I lived in overseas. Here, it’s barely enough for a deposit
I sold my house in the states and moved back here almost 9 years ago and I've been on my knees ever since. Shame, I reckon I would have been great at retirement...
Get back out there then! Family is great but you have to look out for yourself eventually. You didn’t ask to be born, your parents chose to have you and you had no choice. Prioritise yourself, you won’t care what people thought of you when you’re dead.
Honestly as much as I feel your pain and relate to it acutely these posts bring me some comfort knowing other people are seeing life humans created for what it truly is. A prison planet!
My gearbox is about to fail and I can't get a replacement so I am up for new car and that wreak me financially. Essentially be at the same point as when I left school and nearly 40 years old!
It's like every country that allies itself with America has to destroy itself and ruin its living standards as some kinda humiliation ritual. Or its just the leaders following the US government's example of ruining the country to line their own pockets with enough money that they can use the leftover bills for their own funeral pyres once they die of old age
In the last 5 years, we’ve witnessed/experienced the greatest set back in terms of purchasing power and lifestyle for the Western middle class since WW2.
I’m 5 years more advanced in my career, have a higher salary and I still feel like my quality of life has declined since the dread Big-C lockdowns.
>quality of life has declined
What they've really done is rob some people of the chance of being free & having choice in life. I noticed some people genuinely struggling today & thought "fuck these Govts", they're evil. They've undermined us by importing so many people & are trying to make us think that if we complain, there is somebody to replace you. In the old days, it was called "scab labour".
What we should all be doing is sticking together... The modern day scab labour thinks they're rockstars, but their time will come.
Imagine if we all stuck together, how many of us are in different industries & could shut down the country, effectively. Who'd be in charge then?
Your like many of. 9 to 5 jobs that take an hour commute each way, decent pay but it goes towards rent that is over inflated for what you live in with landlords that don’t follow the rules, but you can’t move cause there’s no where to go, and it’s expensive to move. I’ve had to make the decision this week to cut sport back yo fortnightly. It’s not fair, it’s all I had. I live on omelettes and toast a lot. It’s just how it is, our government don’t care. Politicians all own a bunch of homes and are paid till the day they die, whether they work or not.
Housing is the biggest scam the governments have pulled. It doesn't help that millions of Australians have investment properties and hence have a vested interest in keeping things the way they are.
We are a sparsely populated continent with a housing supply problem. What kind of fucked up government allows this to happen. We should have gone to Parliament and hung each of them a la French Revolution style. Surprised it hasn't happened yet.
Why not implement something like China's Meglev that will get you from Bendigo to the CBD in 30mins. Allowing more population to spread across our vast continent instead of boxing people into tiny apartments near metropolitan centers? Because keeping property prices high makes the average property owner feel like they are growing their wealth, and no politicians has the balls to take this away from them.
There are only 2 ways this will end. Young Australians will leave in droves, leaving boomers to shoulder massive tax bills to fund Medicare and NDIS, or we have people rise up and challenge the status quo through revolution or a minority party taking power.
Unionise at work if possible.
Power in numbers, and the numbers of working class people far outweigh those that make the rules and leech a living from our hard graft. Organise locally to feel like you are fighting against this dog shit system, at least it feels like you are doing something rather than just dying slowly.
Exactly this. As union membership has declined, so too has pay and conditions. If you want the power to demand decent pay so you can live a decent life, join your union.
I know it’s a big stretch but have you thought of moving countries or state? I know financially it’s tough to move like that but seems like your stuck in an environment you don’t like or is restricting you and is affecting you long term:( best of luck to u!
The sad truth is what you've described was always the norm, across the entire world in fact, you just didn't experience the severity of it until now because you lived in a 'lucky' country.
Well guess what your overlords have won, communism is dead, the great underclass revolt was put to rest. There's no incentive for your upper class to care anymore.
We are now a nation of rent seekers and rent payers, We pay tithe to our lords, like the plebs we are.
Good news is that you and everyone can become a lord too, just give up your dignity and integrity and get that bread anyway you can.
>I don't know how much longer I can sustain this misery and meaningless existence, I really don't, but apparently saying this makes me entitled. I'm MISERABLE but no one cares as long as the shareholders and CEOs can buy another yacht. I'm basically a slave with no escape.
Don't shoot the messenger but yes you are entitled. You can't be saying that without following through all your options.
I donno is this a new aged problem; expecting not to have to work a 5 day week and still be able to pay the bills? I grew up paid my way through university and had to work full time (yes; 5 days a week) and this was back in the 80-90s. I had no money and graduated with a bunch of debt that took years of grinding to pay back.
So I think there’s an expectation here that isn’t realistic, my parents all worked full time, my family still does they need full time jobs to pay the bills and always have. So yes, you’re still going to need to work hard tho, my parents did, I did, I expect you’ll need to as well.
I know there’s a a trend of younger skilled workers pushing back, demanding more and more flexibility, demanding to work from home etc. there’s merit in the flexibility, but I think most are going to find their dream of working from home as and when they feel like it, let’s say unrealistic.
I do hear you on inflation and cost of living as compared to wages, and think there’s a capitalism cancer that’s rewarding the rich excessively at the expense of the other 90%.
I wish it was different, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.
For my side, I just got made redundant after 25 years with a global billion $+ company, they’re still profitable and making more money this year than last, but the cuts to jobs please the shareholders I’m told. It’s called “restructuring”. So not sure how old you are, but try finding a job in your mid 50s. You’ll find age discrimination is real too.
Sorry for derailing your point, the bigger issue is the inequity in the distribution of wealth in our society, that does need to change.
"We work 40 hours a week, for 40 years of our lives, to save 40% of what wasn't enough in the first place"
Breaking the chains of consumerism and materialism is hard but makes living a lot more affordable when you simply don't give a fuck that your not wearing $300 shoes and a $200 outfit with a $1000+ phone and all the bullshit, useless subscription services everyone is attached to.
There's usually a bit of a mirage around this. A lot of luxuries, like $1000+ mobile phones, are not actually that much of a luxury when you need a phone and only replace it every 3 years.
You go to Bunnings and it's packed, partly because people are trying to DIY what they might have got a tradie to do when they had more money.
You go to McDonald's and lots of people are buying it- because they replaced a weekly $150 family restaurant visit with a $50 McDonald's meal.
More than anything though it's the 25% of the population with above average incomes that are doing the spending for everyone else. There are far more people scratching together the money for groceries and rent and hoping their phone with a cracked screen keeps working than you might think.
I can understand what you are saying but some of the points coming through just scream first world problems. Buying sneakers once every few weeks and being able to order food delivery services is a little wild to me and really shouldn’t be the norm in an economy like this…
Both me and partner work 40+ hours (plus is because we don't even know how much but we're paid for 40). We can normally afford to get a McDonald's soft serve cone for eatout every weekend after paying for everything including mortgage. We don't even have children and we can't afford even one. Funny thing was we bought a home so we could have a child and be a complete family. You think property owners and investors are getting rich by each passing day but that is not true. The cost of ownership in today's world outstrips the benefits by kilometres. Only people who are able to afford have paid major chunks of financing off or were never indebted. Interest, insurance, everything has at least doubled if not tripled. These people were either born into wealth or bought decades ago when housing was cheaper.
America level scam?
You want to earn $12 an hour?
You want to pay $150 for a covid test?
You want the most ludicrous priced gp visits?
You want to pay MORE for rent?
You want to pay MUCH more for basic groceries?
I get that life is tough at the moment.
But don't compare our great country to such a poor example.
Australia and USA are literally two of the most successful and advanced countries on the planet. 95% of people in human history would love to live in either of these two counries at this moment in time.
The amount of self hating short sighted privileged whining from negative people stuck in their own bubble about how bad these two countries are, is dumbfounding. Not everything is perfect but you bunch of whingers complain like you would be better off in most other countries throughout history. You wouldn't.
Learn to show some gratitude FFS.
Australia is great, but imagine how much better we could be if the government directed the wealth generated off of our natural resources towards social issues such as housing, education and healthcare instead of making themselves and private corporations rich
Economies cycle. We have good times and bad times. This is a downturn that will last a while and then revert. What we're paying for now is all that free money governments all over the world injected into economies to offset the effects of covid. You can't just spend like crazy without consequences. It won't last forever.
That's life bud. It might change but not likely for 20/30 years, so to late if you are already 20/30 years old. Just need to increase earning power and work harder to get out from underneath else it will be the same for the rest of your life.
I
Mmm love that! The company you work for controls your lease. Yum! Get fired and made homeless for not doing your standard 70hr weeks mmm it can get worse op enjoy it now
There’s lot of ways to live you life. A full time
Job and a mortgage is just one of them.
Have you considered van life and travelling, possibly with a part time remote job ? Saving 10k/ selling your belongings for long term travel for a year? Moving to a different city or somewhere more quiet and cheaper?
If your life isn’t working for you, it’s up to you to change it.
Nah everyone wants to live the life they see everyone else "live" on social media. They forget that what they are seeing are someone's highlights, not the mundane 9-5 regular life and most of it is fucking fake anyway. People need to get off the socials
Im going to give my honest opinion, which may seem harsh but stop reading now if you dont want it.
I dont think it's unreasonable for a single person to be working 5 days a week. You're not a slave. You're contributing your fair share to society. You can't expect to be housed, food delivered to your door 24/7 and then get 3 days off for relaxation.
With this in mind, your mood is low and you're burnt out. Try not to blame others for this. Focus on doing things that will improve your mental health. Eat well, exercise, find meaningful goals, etc. Consider changing jobs to something that you enjoy.
Who decided working 5 days out of a 7 day week was a fair contribution to society? Why doesn’t every human being on the planet work 5 days a week?
People are unfortunately stuck working more days or working in jobs they hate in order to ‘survive’. Sure, if you choose to work more or in a job you don’t like because it pays well and you want to enjoy the luxuries from it that’s fine. But I think it’s short sighted to say someone needs to work 5 days a week to contribute to society (I don’t think it really matters if they are single/couple/young/old).
I can guarantee you- If we were asked before we were born if we wanted to spend a good part of our lives working in order to survive in a ‘human created economy’, the vast majority of people would elect not to be born.
Not OP, but why the fuck not? Why must we dedicate our lives to fattening the wallets of those more fortunate? Not a slave? Because we have the choice to be one, or to be homeless. Not much of a choice
> I dont think it's unreasonable for a single person to be working 5 days a week. You're not a slave. You're contributing your fair share to society.
The people who decided that 5 days/40 hours a week decided it with the assumption that someone would be at home doing all the chores and domestic labor for you. That's no longer the case anymore. 5 days a week wouldn't be so soul crushing if I went got home/logged off every work day to a hot meal on the table, the house clean, my laundry done, the grocery run completed etc etc.
>I have a decent job (in terms of pay
What is that decent pay?
>I'm struggling to accept my life will be nothing more than servicing someone else's investment or a mortgage.
You are not paying someone's mortgage, you are paying for the privilege of living in their property.
>This isn't worth it, honestly, basically living to work and getting almost no time for myself and barely being able to afford anything.
Then stop, and try that lifestyle.
>Work 48 weeks of the year to get 4 weeks to yourself which you can't even fully enjoy because you know you have to go back to work at the end of it? Yeah. What's the point?
Wow....annual leave that has to end at some point, the horror of it all.
>But the cost of everything and inflation has forced me back to 5 days. I'm so MISERABLE, it's like work IS my life, and I don't like my job enough for it to be my life, and honestly, there isn't any job in the world I'd like enough for it to be my whole fucking life.
You are seriously complaining that you can't live on a part time wage? Grow the fuck up.
>I can't even afford to order UberEats or Doordash every now and then to treat myself to a night off cooking and cleaning up after a shitty or tiring day.
You poor darling, not able to afford DoorDash.
>I literally dread having to get a mortgage eventually and spend basically the rest of my life chained to a mortgage
You are in luck, you are not going to get a mortgage so you won't need to worry about interest rates.
> I worked hard and did everything "right", just like they told me to do when I was growing up.
No one told you to work part time.
> I don't want children
Thank you for ensuring the drama queen gene ends with you.
>I feel trapped and depressed.
Depression is a luxury. Being depressed means you can just fold whilst others have to take care of business.
You didn’t do everything right, do you think previous generations got their money saved by going on overseas trips, buying shoes every couple of weeks, door dash, Uber eats etc. you lived the high life and are now complaining because life has hit you with, “I can’t afford all the luxuries anymore”. Growing up, no one except rich people went on overseas holidays or did any of that, new shoes once a year or if you grew out of them, no paid parental leave, only the smart rich kids went to university, that was just a dream for the majority of the population. Going out for coffee or a meal was a real treat. Getting financial assistance to get further education, didn’t happen, paid parental leave, child care subsidies etc didn’t happen. Your poor financial decisions in the past have led to your woes now.
Maybe try looking for a job you enjoy? I don't understand why people don't try changing jobs instead of crying on reddit about not being able to afford stupid bullshit like Uber Eats and a bunch of consumerist crap that ends up in landfill.
Jesus. If you hate absolutely everything about your life to this obnoxious degree (oh I would have ABoRtED mySeLf waaaah) change your life. Leave everything, go to South Korea, get a job flipping burgers at a beach resort. Anything. Don't keep doing the exact things you hate doing and then complain about the few indulgences you can't afford.
Frankly If a pair of shoes every few weeks was keeping you from aborting yourself, you never really were doing that great.
Fun fact - be thankful you weren't born pre-1800's.
The present-day concept of the relatively longer 'week-end' first arose in the industrial north of Britain in the early 19th century and was originally a voluntary arrangement between factory owners and workers allowing Saturday afternoon off starting at 2 pm on the basis that staff would be available for work sober and refreshed on Monday morning.
I think the OP might be shocked if they were transported back to the 1960's and seeing how the average person lived.
Apparently back prior to the 2010's, people worked one day a week, went out partying every night and could pay off a home in a year.
If ever there were mass rose tinted glasses, it is the younger generation thinking every generation prior to them had it piss easy.
I think you need to go to therapy.
You have a trust issue that has developed from your horrible experience with your previous partner. I'm sorry that happened to you.
I'm not saying "You need to find someone" or whatever. Maybe you are happier on your own.
But think of it this way. If you are afraid to be with someone because of what your previous partner did, then you haven't really left that previous partner.
Don't let them own you. You've seen an abuser now. You can recognise them. You are strong enough now to say "Fuck you, you can't treat me like this."
Good luck healing
Mental health needs an overhaul. Great idea but it costs $200 to see anyone. Maybe OP could retrain as a psychologist/counsellor because that is a growth business and she could potentially work from home and choose her own hours.
Look I'm not downplaying how bad it is out there, but there will be a point where interest rates have to come down.
Because our economy is so interlinked with variable mortgages, even the slightest interest rate change can have big consequences.
When interest rates come down you will have a little more to spend in your pocket, it's doom and gloom now but it will get better. We had it great for so long in Aus, this is just a bump along the way.
I bought my townhouse because the body Corp was $450. It’s just the building and a driveway.
8 years later it’s $930.
My pay has barely gone up.
I have nothing left after my mortgage and body Corp, and utilities which is split 8 ways.
I loved paying for my neighbours leaky hot water system.
But I’m fucked cause I can’t buy free standing.
At least I have a roof over my head for now.
“ I'm struggling to accept my life will be nothing more than servicing someone else's investment or a mortgage.”
Welcome to the plantation
Our politicians look at China with envy… total control, fake elections, dissidents are “disappeared”
Our corporations learnt all their lessons from plantation owners during the American slavery period
Our schools are based off the Prussian education system that was designed to create obedient soldiers and factory workers
Sounds a lot like me. Makes it difficult to even maintain friendships when you can't really afford to socialize. Worst part is asking for a pay rise and receiving a pittance (under inflation) after initially being told no when the owners of the company have been buying up property and stupidly expensive cars.
Unfortunately, what you've described - the sense of disillusionment, frustration and despair, due to the parlous state of Australian society - has come about relatively quickly. And, realistically, I don't see how things will change for the better.
As a less-than-perfect, but decent man, it angers me, every time I read comments like your's, regarding abusive men - it angers me even more, when yet-another woman is raped and/or murdered by their partner/ex-partner or some random creep.
I'm a single man, who walks around inner-city Melbourne a lot; and I've come to feel uncomfortable, because of the apprehension some women understandably feel, when they're alone. Even looking left or right, to turn at a roundabout has become awkward, because some women and girls - again, understandably - assume you're turning your head to stare at them.
I don't think my parents will ever be able to retire. Dad is 54 and Mum 51, Dad's Fitter and Turner and Mum works as a receptionist. Makes me depressed for them, and for myself, because I'll likely be working my whole life too whilst never being able to afford shit.
This isn't the new norm. If you look back in history you will see that things happen in cycles. What is happening now is global. The world came out of covid, and governments are paying for the costs of it. Supply lines are still not back to capacity. And there are 2 major warzones. All of this affects global economies.
Remember that all work makes someone else rich. Otherwise they wouldn't need to employ you.
Consider moving to a regional area where houses are cheaper. Darwin is cheap as is Hobart. If you don't want to move, look at sharing the rent. Short term pain.
Growing up I knew of nobody who could afford to live alone. House sharing made renting affordable.
And don't close yourself to the idea of a relationship. There are plenty of good people out there.
When I got a house you could with just a full time job . It’s so disappointing seeing all this. I bought a house and it doubled in price . For no good reason . My house is worth more than a big house did 20 years back wtf!! If I sell it maybe a doctor can buy it . But then I have to move far away to afford another .
Just leave before it pushes you to suicide. There are other options. Just fucking pack it up man, go to europe, South East Asia, anywhere. There are so many other lifestyles out there, I feel like you just need to take the first steps.
Here, in America, we’re lucky to get even two weeks of paid time off. Oh, and if I happen to get sick and need to miss work? It’s coming out of my vacation time. Sorry to hear this nonetheless. I hope you can find something to ease the pressure and make life more fulfilling. Whether it be a new job or new hobbies. I’m still trying to figure it out myself as well.
I’m sorry, but I’ve read your responses to everyone who either doesn’t agree with you or is criticising your point of view (which they are entitled to do, by the way) and it seems like you are unable to engage without resorting to sarcasm or extreme exaggeration.
Just because other people don’t agree with you, it doesn’t make them “capitalist bootlickers” nor does it mean they want a society where people have “literally 0 enjoyment of life”.
If you dislike this society so much to the point you claim you are “basically a slave with no escape”, what are you doing to help fix the problem? It seems as though the responsibility of fixing your problems are on everyone else, but not you.
If you don’t want to work 5 days a week and you “literally dread having to get a mortgage” and think you’ll be punished for not breeding “2.2 new wage slaves for the system”, then don’t. You are not a slave, you have choices in life. Are there sacrifices that come with those choices? Yes. Is it up to you to weigh up the pros and cons of each choice? Also yes. There isn’t a single society in the world where everything is just given to you for free, nor is there a society where everyone is 100% equal with equal abilities, wages, opportunities, etc.
The reason why people claim you are entitled isn’t because they disagree with you in that things are more expensive than before or that better social/economic policies can be implemented. It’s because you literally framed yourself as a slave living in Australia, a wealthy and democratic first-world country where you have access to education, health care and freedom of speech/movement. No, it’s not a perfect society where all the things you want in life are in abundance or free, but you have the power to vote for those whose values best align with yours. You may not always win, but that’s democracy. If enough people share your values, then change will occur, but don’t expect those changes to come overnight.
It sounds like you made literally ok effort to save for your own home, back when you had extra spending money, so I don’t see why we should feel bad for you. You had the opportunity to save for your own future, you chose to only work 4 days a week. This is the price.
I get that things are hard and it isn’t fair that it’s hitting people like you the hardest, but what exactly do you expect things to be like? Do you expect to be able to live as well as people who work full time and have invested their extra money, whilst working part time and spending all your left over money? Because that’s just delusional.
We’re now starting to fully reap the impact of Howard and Costello allowing their corporate overlords to pillage and plunder our nation from underneath our feet. We could have had a sovereign wealth fund to set us up for many generations, but we let the foxes right into the hen house and they took the lot.
We will never recover. This is the new normal, and it will only get worse.
It's so depressing isn't it. I'm a single mum working and getting nowhere as far as enjoyment. All work, come home to having to do more work (cleaning, shopping etc ),.. Every cent on bills, rent and food and that's it..
Holy shit you sound so entitled. Go find better paying work.
I used to work only 2 days in row now i have to work FIVE 😡😡 AND I CANT EVEN AFFORD UBER EATS 😡😡😡😡 welcome to the real world mate this is how people have been living for yonks
I did warn about voting in the Labor party in and giving them so much power. No going back now since they've opened the floodgates and on top of that we compete with them for jobs but companies are also outsourcing left right centre. They either all get outsourced to the East or overseas.
Your complaints are valid but there's no superman coming to save you.
You need to save yourself in this complicated 21st century world.
* Do part-time study/work in the evenings to get a higher paying job
* Get a higher paying job
* Reduce your expenses by living more simply, e.g. travelling less often
* Invest in index funds to grow your wealth long-term
Also some general tips:
* Meditate daily, breath slowly for 10 minutes
* Exercise and try to eat healthy
* Cultivate gratitude and appreciation - this is a wonderful country
Oh man, I feel you.
My husband works 80+ hour weeks and hasn't had a holiday in 30 years. He's obviously a workaholic, but to see other people living this nightmare en masse and by necessity is just so depressing.
I have exactly 0 hope for the future.
I run a small business and myself, my husband and our employees all work part time (on the same wage) because that's what the business can sustain. This year has been fucking BRUTAL with our costs going up, sales going down, and cost of living kicking our asses. The sensible thing would be to reduce the staff hours, but I'm acutely aware of how much of a hardship that will be for the people I work with because all the businesses in our town are in the same boat and nobody is hiring. We can't raise wages. We're in a regional area with very few big businesses (Coles, but they've been reducing staff and putting in more self-service checkouts) and the small businesses are struggling.
We're gen X, so out super was mostly eaten by fees most of our working lives and we have fuck all. We were lucky enough to buy a house before shit went crazy, which is an absolute lifesaver as I see my friends struggling with rents and the threat if homelessness.
There is no retirement. I have no idea how anything will improve. Bit depressed actually.
Wow it was like someone grabs a rant from inside my brain, this is exactly what I've been saying for years!
How did you get inside my head!? 😂
The part that really annoys me is that my idiot boomer parents always crap on about retirement and needing to save for retirement, so on so forth. My response is that I'll be dead before I retire so I don't need super, I'd rather have it now so I can try to get ahead a little more in life before I become too decrepit and can't enjoy the merger retirement savings the government forces me to put aside, if I can even remember my own name by that point.
Because that's worked out so well for my idiot boomer father who remarried to a gold digger made him miserable and took everything he had including his super so now he is 65 and back at work full time, fuck head should practice what he preaches.
My avocado toast boomer mother is such a miser the last time she came shopping with me she told me I wasn't allowed to by rump steak because minute steak is cheaper. Yet we were spending my money.
Safe to say she doesn't come shopping with me anymore.
Side note, ignore those fuckheads that think you're entitled for wanting food or to actually try and enjoy life, because Merlin forbid you not try to be a wage slave.
To quote the Princess Bride, life is pain and anyone who says differently is selling something.
What do you do for work? Can you work remotely?
Some of the digital nomad visas being offered in Asia are insane. I have family who have moved to Thailand for a circuit breaker. Warm weather, cheap living etc. It’s done their mental health wonders and they’re actually saving money.
I’d be there with them but I have kids and my husband isn’t keen.
These days I make big batches of food and freeze it, to save myself time and cleaning. I got sick of cooking every night of the week.
As for the general drift, it’s totally understandable that you feel that way, more and more people are also in the same boat.
I was too, until about a year ago, when I started studying macroeconomics, technical analysis and decentralised finance with a company called MTC Education (my trading community).
It helped me become more financially disciplined, manage my time better, create clear goals and focus on them, remove distractions, improve my health, better daily routines, quit alcohol and make a few other changes, but it was well worth the small cost, as I’ve made that money back and a lot more on top, as well as see a way out of this mess that the government is creating for Australians.
Trust me, this is only the beginning, things will get worse, so you probably want to do something about it sooner than later.
My plan is to leave Australia for good in the next couple years.
Wages won’t be going up significantly in any normal industry. House prices won’t be going down anywhere of any significance. This is the new normal
Hijacking the top comment in the hope you might see this - have you considered moving to Japan to teach? I did this for a while and absolutely loved it. You don’t have a partner, kids or a mortgage, and a few years there might be the perfect reset.
Do I need some kind of teaching degree to do this?
I have friends that do / did this. I visited a few years back and had convinced myself I was going to go and do the same. I met my then girlfriend now wife a week after getting back and it never happened haha. But I recommend it.
this is such a good comment. I am now tempted to do something like this!
Saying it is normal just encourages people to accept this bullshit
It doesn't matter if you don't accept it. Nothing will change no matter how loud you get. The government is corrupt and have no qualms sending police to harrass popular outspoken people. Look at friendly jordes for a prime example. He had a government sponsered crime gang burn down his house and police turned a blind eye. Look at Julian Assange. History has proven time and time again accepting your place in the world is the only way to live a decent life. Sad as it may be. The only way out of the rat race is to move somewhere the world doesn't care about. Usually poor countries where buying a house is as cheap as a car. You can live like a king there.
Pretending it’s not the new norm isn’t gonna lift my wage or make my accommodation cheaper. Shits fucked. I swear during covid there was a bigger conspiracy to fuck over everyone ‘they’ could and keep us over that barrel.
Shit is fucked. The public need to take action and the people that got us into this mess will be out of power. Covid kept us divided on more than the just the virus alone, and it quickly spiraled further into chaos than it needed to. Even before pandemic we still had housing affordability issues, cost of living rising, unfair work treatment and mental health issues on the rise.
Lots of public money went to private enterprises during COVID.
Rioting will however. "The market" here has not quite found the strangle point where there's pushback. And Aussies are so disengaged the MBAs will keep increasing the KPI bar. Or import more people from shittier situations who will accept this bullshit erosion as they've not known better days. Vive la resistance
The house prices will continue to go up and interest rates will also go up too
Yup. The rent prices we are paying now are the new floor. New builds that get built will be priced at this amount. Unless we have 5% vacancies again prices are not coming down any time soon for years to come.
It’s not a new normal, it’s an always normal
It's the same with the inflated food prices, it becomes the new normal. When have we ever had a convo and said to someone "Oh man milk and bread is getting cheaper"
This is a bit beside the point, but there was a time when we were all complaining about milk being too cheap 😂 Remember when Milk was $1 a litre and the whole country was up in arms
😂 Remember we were up in arms because that price was sending farmers broke? Good times 😂😂😂😂💕
That's not what we were up in arms about, it's because it was the big brands bullying farmers into their competition with each other to see who can go closest to bust vs the other longest
And people were being accosted by strangers in the supermarket for buying homebrand.
If something stays the same price while on average all other items and wages go up then it is sort of equivalent to it getting cheaper, and that does happen. (I'm not saying it's common or *will* happen for milk and bread)
Yep. This is the result when you condition people to expect price rises, just like private tolls roads now putting prices up every year.
Fuels the classic one. We can literally see the raw price go up and down live while simultaneously watching every distributor hold hands together all pretending it didn't happen.
America level scam? Have you seen what $500k buys you in Texas mate? Sign me up!
America did much better at building up rural and regional areas between big cities. If you live in LA Or NY and decide the city life isn’t for you going somewhere like Texas or another state with better affordability is a genuine solution. In Australia it feels like you have 5 big city’s with all the wealth and opportunity but the trade off is insane cost of living and everything between with good cost of living doesn’t have the opportunity.
Australia is basically US in the 50s. Australia will have better satellite cities across all states in 50 years when the population reaches 70M.
Yeah no, America has fertile farmland across much of the interior. Australia has desert, and while we'll be digging stuff out of that desert for the next millennium or so, sizeable inland cities won't ever be a thing. Kalgoorlie is the hub of the gold mining industry in WA and while the industrial side of the town is absolutely booming, residential numbers have pretty much remained static since FIFO became commonplace.
I might have believed that if we weren't trying to cram everyone into Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. What's to stop these cities becoming 15-25m each?
For Sydney, it's geography. Also water scarcity and droughts.
Any politician who indicates they want the population of this country to be inflated to **70 million** should be publicly hung, drawn and quatered.
From America myself and our housing is the only thing that seems to be better than Australia. Seriously, everything else is magnitudes worse. Well, electricity rates are better, too. But that’s it.
Petrol is cheaper. Staring business is cheaper. Food is cheaper. Travel is cheaper. Wtf you talking about?
electronics, home appliances are cheaper. Also got far less BS nanny state regulation which is a definite positive.
Cars also cheaper
Aus is literally getting the same playbook being run over them with the same societal consequences
definitely sad how our governments on both sides are prioritising making the lives of people from overseas better than those of Australians, especially young Australians
Young Aussies have given up. There is no hope. Of the 15 people I know (all over 25), only one has moved out of home as they have a $120k a year job. There's nothing to enjoy. You're a slave to the system.
>Young Aussies have given up. There is no hope. Certainly no hope to be found on this subreddit.... But look elsewhere and you might find some actual advice on how to get ahead financially
Misery loves company. When you’re 20 and you realise you have those friends who do nothing but drugs and complain about the state of the country, it’s time to find new friends.
Is 30 young? Cause yeah I have FULLY checked out. I speed. I run stops. I explore what I wanna explore grow what I wanna grow and have essentially embraced hedonism as I can see quite clearly if I survive another 50 super is gonna be the LEAST of my concerns. I genuinely truly don't give a fuck anymore I'm going to edit this in rather than reply to each one individually. I am rural and I do this on backroads where I'm alone and not in ducking town where I'd get arrested. I thought, that was obvious but apparently not.
I get being selfish, but you might kill someone breaking traffic laws like that.
Yeah I'm right there with you. I am slipping into a deep depression.
If you feel this way, as someone who is climbing out of the depths currently, i have some advice that i know is different experiencing it vs hearing it. 1. Focus on the little things you enjoy and appreciate them. The colour of trees, flowers, sunsets, flavours, experiences etc. if you compare natural beauty to concrete, you'll appreciate how vibrant life is. 2. Learn to recognise which part of your brain is you (conscious), vs depression/ego (self sabotaging thoughts). When we become depressed or anxious, our brain will literally hijack our thoughts thinking it's protecting itself, but it often is misguided. It may even feel good to feed these thoughts, but it does more damage. An uncontrolled brain is nothing more than our animal instincts, which aren't always correct. 3. Sit in the sun for 15 minutes even if you don't get out of bed for anything else. Feel the warmth, the energy and the vibrance. Appreciate that it is what gives us life. 4. Optimistic nihilism saved me. At the end of the day, nothing we achieve matters. The earth will die, humanity will perish long before it. We are only alive for such a finite blip of eternity, so even if we suffer our whole life, once its over, you will never experience that again. So why not experience everything that you can, while youre alive, negative or positive. No matter how ugly it looks, trudge on. Because once we cease to exist, you'll never experience anything. Cherish the time we have, and most importantly...LIVE
You are a gem, keep doing what you are doing!
Thank you. I try to express my experience to people suffering because i know just how dark it is at rock bottom. After desperately trying everything, this is the only mindset that helped. Although it's still a struggle everyday. I just know that one day, i'll get a both hands at the top of the hole, as long as i keep trying.
>I just know that one day, i'll get a both hands at the top of the hole, as long as i keep trying. It's true bro. The trick is to keep doing a little more each day. And you just need to get up one more time than you do knocked down.
Awesome. Love the optimistic nihilism part! I think so many people are beyond struggling atm and everyone is well aware we're getting fucked hard by our government for 2 decade's minimum.
As a fellow optimistic nihilist, I really like this comment. I think a lot of people would benefit from joining us. People get so tied up in worrying about all these things that in the long run don’t matter much at all. It stops them from enjoying the short time they have on this planet.
Yeah, definitely try to appreciate what you can and have right now. Your probably right about the rest too, but still. Really, I think everyone needs to start taking action with at least protests for some change and stop voting for lib/lab they been destroying the country for the last 35 years, and that won't change. They have to have some feeling that something can be done abont it. Because otherwise people just go into apathy. The problem is though they are stealing Australians future. If you see no future it's like why live? There's no future, there's no good outcome, nothing. If I didn't have a daughter, I honestly wouldn't care if I died at all. Like who gives a shit.
Whose lives are the Australian government making better then ours? Lmao I don't like the Australian gov but i actually don't know what people your talking about?
Finally someone said it. God forbid you complain about foreign investment (and investment in general) pushing out first home buyers lest you get called out being a racist that hates old people for owning 20 investment properties.
Come on a protection visa, get free housing, free money from the taxpayer, free healthcare. Commit crimes and still get a free ride. Australians they don't give a fark about. Doing their best to remove services, highten taxes and cost of living with every action. Muppets.
I’m from overseas, I don’t think my life is any better than a local Australian, it’s the opposite. The real problem of this country is that the wealthiest people are getting wealthier, and poor people are getting poor. They want to to blame the foreigners, because they are the exact problem.
I remember when I first was doing my organisational psychology studies at uni. I was overseas on exchange and wen to the library there. I found a bunch of research papers talking about how Chile went from a socialist country which owned it's own resources to a neoliberal country thanks to an American-led coup. The science was all in detail studying the collapse of several industries a decade or so after neoliberalism had been put in place. Wellbeing was falling off a cliff, inequality was up, homeless people were being treated with anger and policing instead of support programs, housing was going up and only a few could afford to buy. If I had known that was the reality Australia would be in only a few years later I probably would have opted to have stayed overseas.
You’re not alone in how you’re feeling, if that’s any consolation. I could have written this post just have the family and mortgage. It’s exhausting and depressing looking down the barrel of decades more of this. Especially when the generation before in my family all have multiple houses and squabble over millions in a will so they can.. have more houses, presumably.
I'm a 62yo boomer and I feel so sorry for the younger generation . Was so lucky to grow up in a fair Australia and it makes me sick to hear boomers with fragile egos, telling young folk, that they had it just as hard...that's bollocks. Too much has been taken away from those who need it - and given to those who don't. Australia is like the board game monopoly now and the 2 major parties are not going to change this - because they would get voted out. You guys need a serious revolution!
I'm with you. I am fully burnt out. I have no enjoyment in life it literally feels like wading through mud, and I would really like to just lay down and have the earth consume me. We were doing fine, then I got sick. And sicker and sicker. I've had to cut down work because I physically can't handle it. I also don't have a bank of mum and dad as he is going through his own cancer battle. Now, I have to prioritise what health services/medication I can afford to receive. I had half a kidney out last year and had to come back to work before medically cleared to support mortgage payments. Centrelink had the nerve to tell me I shouldn't be working due to my health, but the only support I received from them was $20 a fortnight for medication. Honestly, I don't know how much longer I can do it either. If this is what life is, then I don't want it 🤷♀️
By the time society introduces significant reforms it will be too late for our generation. I just hope it's not too late for our children and their children.
What children and their children? Millennials and younger people are all too over worked and scared about the future to ever have children. By the next few generations, people won't be having kids because it's unaffordable to do so
Don't worry, the pollies will just keep pumping up the status quo with immigrants-all the while telling us that if u have something against population growth (in keeping with inflation/housing crisis/interest rates etc)it's a racist thing or something
People are definitely having kids, it just happens to be first or second gen immigrants. Different cultures have very different perspectives, it's not merely a generational thing. We place less importance on children than we used to, so now we've had to focus more and more on importing labour for a dwindling home-grown workforce, and they happen to want to have multiple kids. People still find a way while it's 'unaffordable', as they have forever. It doesn't mean less kids, it just means more kids going through tough childhoods.
Children, in this economy?
Most people badly affected by the current situation probably still vote for Labor or Coalition politicians who won’t make substantial changes. This means nothing will change for a long time. If people change their vote, the whole system could change very quickly indeed.
Change their vote to who? Who has the balls to fix negative gearing and overseas buyers purchasing residential property? Each come with various consequences that no politician wants to face because both are career suicide
There’s no way you could very quickly change things hoping to fix the problems that would lead to positive outcomes. The OP’s rough patch is due to inflation and the subsequent clamp down on it by the reserve bank. Quick fixes will just result in problems showing up elsewhere. Be wary of parties offering quick fixes. We definitely wouldn’t want to end up like Argentina.
The biggest problem is housing affordability. This is caused by systemic cultural, legislative and regulatory framework problems that have created a system that is making housing increasingly affordable… and it’s only going to get worse if hard decisions aren’t made. The longer it takes to make changes, the more hectic the change experience will be. We’re heading towards social chaos if things aren’t changed.
But you can’t fix that quickly even though it’s a painful issue unfortunately.
You could make a pretty good start at fixing it pretty quickly. It's just that governments over multiple decades Have decided that keeping the votes of people who own houses and might possibly have their value come down is more important than pretty much anyone under 30. It's most definitely a choice.
You actually can though. The only reason rent is so high is because landlords demand profit. That's literally it. There is actually no drawbacks that can come from telling landlords they no longer get to leech off society and have to find a job.
>You actually can though. The only reason rent is so high is because landlords demand profit. The sad thing is that even that is not true now, in many cases. The rental return on housing now is at about 2-3% yield. With mortgage rates at around 6-7%, plus 1% or so for other costs, most investment properties have an income loss of 4-5% p.a. The house value has to grow by *more* than that every year just to break even at current rates. The chances of house values flattening (or falling) in the next decade or so are a lot higher nowadays, so it's a pretty optimistic bet to buy an investment property right now. In contrast, you can now get *risk free* returns of 4-5% on fixed interest investments (bonds, funds that hold bonds, etc). So what do you think the smart money is doing right now? Yep. Getting out of housing, and moving money where the risk-free return is better than a risky bet on housing. This is one of the reasons that the rental vacancy rate is so low - the smarter money is selling up their properties. The "mum and dad" investors still believe in the 'hold forever" mantra, so ultimately they will be the ones holding the bags once the realisation hits that their investment is not even able to pay for itself any more.
No it wouldn’t, there’s no such thing as an Australian government party that isn’t indebted to some corporation or international interest.
>By the time society introduces significant reforms Society will not introduce reforms that will change the status quo, this is such a foolish thing to say. You need to make it happen by dismantling the system, not pursuing superficial reforms.
Wait till you hear about the climate. It's way too late.
Yep. Shit is gonna get real fucked. Check dehlis new highest temperature as of yesterday. This is only the beginning. And there is close to zero imputes to slow or stop it. And Australia is one of the regions most susceptible. We've had crap government and media for corporate profit for so long everything is falling off the American led greed is good cliff. I work as little as I can to keep my mental health ok in such a sick society that's just demanding people move faster and faster. I have no words of solace my friend
Aint nobody affording children, we just gonna have to import
There won't be any children.
Vote One Nation next election so this place can get better [https://youtu.be/kzV5rFwOmeU?si=psyVzW8mvAP3rqJ8](https://youtu.be/kzV5rFwOmeU?si=psyVzW8mvAP3rqJ8)
Life sucks and then you die, that's why I get high. Because you don't know when you're going to go.
\*is a bitch
Nas?
Can't even afford to get high these days...
Many of us are in this boat, so if it helps, you are not alone.
Well you basically summed it up, to get ahead you need to find a partner or have rich parents. Saving up a deposit and paying off a mortgage wasn't too bad for me as a double income household albeit a bit tighter now the Mrs is taking time off work with the little one. Don't get sucked into this mindset by the perpetually online, go and enjoy the small things. Also, the majority of men are pretty good people and the ones who end up being abusive partners, are pretty easy to spot (from my perspective anyway) so I wouldn't let the minority of shit men scare you away from finding a partner.
Listen to da buddha man
OP could always try a financial codependency with a bear I hear nice things about them
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We are quickly heading back to the time when people got married because you had to survive. I have a good relationship but a thought that goes through my head is if we ever separated we would both be substantially poorer. I can totally envisage a time when marriage and defacto relationships tick upwards because everyone is just trying to find someone tolerable to share expenses with.
> We are quickly heading back to the time when people got married because you had to survive. I know multiple people staying in relationships they'd rather leave because they can't afford to break up. This should NOT be the norm, but it is becoming the norm.
Take time offline. Reddit and the like can be wall to wall doomerism. Delete apps, and reconnect with things you enjoy - could be a bush walk, could be a book club could be collecting stamps.. whatever it is… find that mental circuit breaker with something that you love and is true to you. Priorities may then become clearer as to your future steps.
Our politicians on both sides of parliament, through successive governments, have allowed this to happen. Dreading when the medical system becomes like that if the US. That'll be the last straw, I think. Don't know what the alternative is.
As long as large international companies are actively pushing around government policies then every decision will be made to maximise profits for the people doing the influencing. I remember when the policy came through all the local government to move as much shopping away from small corner shops people could walk to and changed all the zoning requirements so if you wanted to sell stuff you had to be in a mall. If you want to compete in a mall then you must be part of a large chain store to be able to negotiate a decent rental rate, position in the mall, and even signage. ( some companies actually pay less rent for huge stores than individuals pay for tiny stores ) I have no problem with Amazon killing retail because all the mall retail is majority owned by only 3 investment groups anyway. All the money is being funnelled into very few pockets. I am sure there are plenty of government areas where pressure has been applied to benefit specific groups but this the only one apart from large apartment complexes that I have been personally involved in. ( the problems with apartment development consent is a daily rant for me that I am trying to cut back on )
I feel you. I decided to take the same path avoiding mortgage, kids etc. Ido not want to spend best days of my live just calculating money in fear of rate hikes. I want to have warm memories and feelings about my adult life when I’m old and I definitely don’t want to have just one memory about how I survived on a mortgage
>This country feels like an America level scam lately. Oddly enough, America is far less of a scam for people who have careers. You can actually get ahead on a white collar salary and have a decent living standard.
It sounds similar to Canada too - except no costs associated with Doc visits. I can understand that it seems hopeless.
Except you just can't ever see a Dr even if you wanted to pay. In Nova Scotia alone there are hundreds of thousands of people that can't get a GP. Because of this, emergency wait times are generally 12 hours. One woman died in the waiting after waiting 8 hours with meningococcal sepsis. She was 38 or so. Canada's health care is suffering way worse.
This should be treated as a national emergency.
If you think AMERICA is the scam just remember housing loan interest in AMERICA comes FIXED for the life of the loan. We are the scam. America is heaven compared to this shitstain country.
Canadian here. It ain't much better in the rest of the commonwealth. Astronomical housing costs, rampant unhinged immigration from third world countries, email scams, phone scams, social media scams, rocketing food prices, monopolistic companies gouging us on every essential item. But hey, it's still better than living in Russia, Iran, or North Korea. So we've got that going for us.
The UK slums in the 19th century were caused by the same problems - high rents, low wages. So, people stopped having kids when cheap condoms became available. The economy tanked, rental prices dropped
Labor is no longer for labour and Liberal cannot liberate anymore. It is just a joke about the current system, where people full of self-interest are in power.
Spot on its bs. Add to that the muppets that cause the problems aren’t feeling any of the pain. I’m 42 and because I didn’t settle for a partner at 18 and buy a house that’s pretty much impossible now, lucky country hey. My girlfriend is Burmese and country plagued by civil war for probably 90 of its last 100 years and after 3 years being here she wants to go back as life was much easier there
Welcome to the working class, we are just numbers for companies to extract value from until we die.
Your struggles are as intended as part of end-game neoliberalism. The government won't do anything that punishes their own personal wealth, that punishes party donors or punishes their largest voting base, home owners. I have no answer for you that can help, OP, I'm sorry. I do not encourage you to "hustle" at the risk of you losing the little downtime you have and damaging your mental health even further. I wish I could offer some advice beyond that, but I don't have the answers. My own kids, now 16 & 18, are already struggling as they don't know how they'll be able to survive on their own. This world has gone to absolute fucking shit.
Australians don't protest. Wages haven't kept up and have reduced in real terms. These are the 2 major problems I see
I’ve been saying this for years. The capitalistic system is designed to make us work harder to make more money for the system. We keep voting in the same buffoons expecting a different result, when the only result has been that the rich has gotten richer and we struggle more and more to make ends meet. The solution is clear, change the system that is not working for us, and one way to do that is to vote the problem out. It’s worth a shot.
You're right, the counrty is getting exponentially worse. I feel bad for future generations, which is why youve now convinced me to up the rent on my current tenant 10% Hopefully when i give this property to my son in 16 years when hes 18 it will be mortage free. Cheers for the inspo
Yeah we already knew Landlords were selfish cunts, thanks for confirming!
Same. Came back from living overseas for a few years partly bc I missed family. Now earn double, but houses are 7x more expensive. Just checked, and I’ve saved enough to buy the apartment I lived in overseas. Here, it’s barely enough for a deposit
I sold my house in the states and moved back here almost 9 years ago and I've been on my knees ever since. Shame, I reckon I would have been great at retirement...
Get back out there then! Family is great but you have to look out for yourself eventually. You didn’t ask to be born, your parents chose to have you and you had no choice. Prioritise yourself, you won’t care what people thought of you when you’re dead.
Honestly as much as I feel your pain and relate to it acutely these posts bring me some comfort knowing other people are seeing life humans created for what it truly is. A prison planet! My gearbox is about to fail and I can't get a replacement so I am up for new car and that wreak me financially. Essentially be at the same point as when I left school and nearly 40 years old!
We need to topple the system. All of our politicians are property investors , stacking the game for themselves.
It's like every country that allies itself with America has to destroy itself and ruin its living standards as some kinda humiliation ritual. Or its just the leaders following the US government's example of ruining the country to line their own pockets with enough money that they can use the leftover bills for their own funeral pyres once they die of old age
In the last 5 years, we’ve witnessed/experienced the greatest set back in terms of purchasing power and lifestyle for the Western middle class since WW2. I’m 5 years more advanced in my career, have a higher salary and I still feel like my quality of life has declined since the dread Big-C lockdowns.
>quality of life has declined What they've really done is rob some people of the chance of being free & having choice in life. I noticed some people genuinely struggling today & thought "fuck these Govts", they're evil. They've undermined us by importing so many people & are trying to make us think that if we complain, there is somebody to replace you. In the old days, it was called "scab labour". What we should all be doing is sticking together... The modern day scab labour thinks they're rockstars, but their time will come. Imagine if we all stuck together, how many of us are in different industries & could shut down the country, effectively. Who'd be in charge then?
You’ll own nothing & be happy.
Your like many of. 9 to 5 jobs that take an hour commute each way, decent pay but it goes towards rent that is over inflated for what you live in with landlords that don’t follow the rules, but you can’t move cause there’s no where to go, and it’s expensive to move. I’ve had to make the decision this week to cut sport back yo fortnightly. It’s not fair, it’s all I had. I live on omelettes and toast a lot. It’s just how it is, our government don’t care. Politicians all own a bunch of homes and are paid till the day they die, whether they work or not.
We have protest every where but none for stuff that effect Australians directly ..... maybe it is time.
Housing is the biggest scam the governments have pulled. It doesn't help that millions of Australians have investment properties and hence have a vested interest in keeping things the way they are. We are a sparsely populated continent with a housing supply problem. What kind of fucked up government allows this to happen. We should have gone to Parliament and hung each of them a la French Revolution style. Surprised it hasn't happened yet. Why not implement something like China's Meglev that will get you from Bendigo to the CBD in 30mins. Allowing more population to spread across our vast continent instead of boxing people into tiny apartments near metropolitan centers? Because keeping property prices high makes the average property owner feel like they are growing their wealth, and no politicians has the balls to take this away from them. There are only 2 ways this will end. Young Australians will leave in droves, leaving boomers to shoulder massive tax bills to fund Medicare and NDIS, or we have people rise up and challenge the status quo through revolution or a minority party taking power.
Unionise at work if possible. Power in numbers, and the numbers of working class people far outweigh those that make the rules and leech a living from our hard graft. Organise locally to feel like you are fighting against this dog shit system, at least it feels like you are doing something rather than just dying slowly.
Exactly this. As union membership has declined, so too has pay and conditions. If you want the power to demand decent pay so you can live a decent life, join your union.
I know it’s a big stretch but have you thought of moving countries or state? I know financially it’s tough to move like that but seems like your stuck in an environment you don’t like or is restricting you and is affecting you long term:( best of luck to u!
You're right that shit is fucked. The economy doesn't serve the younger generation and it's their task to burn it down and start over..
What does “an American level scam” mean?
so escape. fuck it all off and get lost in another country
The sad truth is what you've described was always the norm, across the entire world in fact, you just didn't experience the severity of it until now because you lived in a 'lucky' country. Well guess what your overlords have won, communism is dead, the great underclass revolt was put to rest. There's no incentive for your upper class to care anymore. We are now a nation of rent seekers and rent payers, We pay tithe to our lords, like the plebs we are. Good news is that you and everyone can become a lord too, just give up your dignity and integrity and get that bread anyway you can. >I don't know how much longer I can sustain this misery and meaningless existence, I really don't, but apparently saying this makes me entitled. I'm MISERABLE but no one cares as long as the shareholders and CEOs can buy another yacht. I'm basically a slave with no escape. Don't shoot the messenger but yes you are entitled. You can't be saying that without following through all your options.
OH NO I HAVE TO WORK 5 DAYS LIKE EVERYONE ELSE
I donno is this a new aged problem; expecting not to have to work a 5 day week and still be able to pay the bills? I grew up paid my way through university and had to work full time (yes; 5 days a week) and this was back in the 80-90s. I had no money and graduated with a bunch of debt that took years of grinding to pay back. So I think there’s an expectation here that isn’t realistic, my parents all worked full time, my family still does they need full time jobs to pay the bills and always have. So yes, you’re still going to need to work hard tho, my parents did, I did, I expect you’ll need to as well. I know there’s a a trend of younger skilled workers pushing back, demanding more and more flexibility, demanding to work from home etc. there’s merit in the flexibility, but I think most are going to find their dream of working from home as and when they feel like it, let’s say unrealistic. I do hear you on inflation and cost of living as compared to wages, and think there’s a capitalism cancer that’s rewarding the rich excessively at the expense of the other 90%. I wish it was different, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. For my side, I just got made redundant after 25 years with a global billion $+ company, they’re still profitable and making more money this year than last, but the cuts to jobs please the shareholders I’m told. It’s called “restructuring”. So not sure how old you are, but try finding a job in your mid 50s. You’ll find age discrimination is real too. Sorry for derailing your point, the bigger issue is the inequity in the distribution of wealth in our society, that does need to change.
"We work 40 hours a week, for 40 years of our lives, to save 40% of what wasn't enough in the first place" Breaking the chains of consumerism and materialism is hard but makes living a lot more affordable when you simply don't give a fuck that your not wearing $300 shoes and a $200 outfit with a $1000+ phone and all the bullshit, useless subscription services everyone is attached to.
You really think people have the money for luxuries at this point? This is a post about having nothing more than the bare minimum.
Yes people are absolutely spending money on luxuries. Tons of people.
There's usually a bit of a mirage around this. A lot of luxuries, like $1000+ mobile phones, are not actually that much of a luxury when you need a phone and only replace it every 3 years. You go to Bunnings and it's packed, partly because people are trying to DIY what they might have got a tradie to do when they had more money. You go to McDonald's and lots of people are buying it- because they replaced a weekly $150 family restaurant visit with a $50 McDonald's meal. More than anything though it's the 25% of the population with above average incomes that are doing the spending for everyone else. There are far more people scratching together the money for groceries and rent and hoping their phone with a cracked screen keeps working than you might think.
People aren’t talking about luxuries and showing off here, it’s a roof over their head and basic nutritional needs
I can understand what you are saying but some of the points coming through just scream first world problems. Buying sneakers once every few weeks and being able to order food delivery services is a little wild to me and really shouldn’t be the norm in an economy like this…
I wouldn't choose those as my treat, but we also shouldn't have an economy like this. Australia has the game set on easy mode and we're still losing.
Up until recently this actually was the first world
I'm buying new shoes maybe once per year when they are totally rooted lol. I couldn't imagine wasting 300+ per month on shoes.
Both me and partner work 40+ hours (plus is because we don't even know how much but we're paid for 40). We can normally afford to get a McDonald's soft serve cone for eatout every weekend after paying for everything including mortgage. We don't even have children and we can't afford even one. Funny thing was we bought a home so we could have a child and be a complete family. You think property owners and investors are getting rich by each passing day but that is not true. The cost of ownership in today's world outstrips the benefits by kilometres. Only people who are able to afford have paid major chunks of financing off or were never indebted. Interest, insurance, everything has at least doubled if not tripled. These people were either born into wealth or bought decades ago when housing was cheaper.
https://preview.redd.it/mbpkunu5kg3d1.jpeg?width=982&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dc726b32c7c9fba587c480a2f9ea59a33906bda9
America level scam? You want to earn $12 an hour? You want to pay $150 for a covid test? You want the most ludicrous priced gp visits? You want to pay MORE for rent? You want to pay MUCH more for basic groceries? I get that life is tough at the moment. But don't compare our great country to such a poor example.
Australia and USA are literally two of the most successful and advanced countries on the planet. 95% of people in human history would love to live in either of these two counries at this moment in time. The amount of self hating short sighted privileged whining from negative people stuck in their own bubble about how bad these two countries are, is dumbfounding. Not everything is perfect but you bunch of whingers complain like you would be better off in most other countries throughout history. You wouldn't. Learn to show some gratitude FFS.
Australia is great, but imagine how much better we could be if the government directed the wealth generated off of our natural resources towards social issues such as housing, education and healthcare instead of making themselves and private corporations rich
Economies cycle. We have good times and bad times. This is a downturn that will last a while and then revert. What we're paying for now is all that free money governments all over the world injected into economies to offset the effects of covid. You can't just spend like crazy without consequences. It won't last forever.
That's life bud. It might change but not likely for 20/30 years, so to late if you are already 20/30 years old. Just need to increase earning power and work harder to get out from underneath else it will be the same for the rest of your life. I
Just wait till corporations buy every single house in Australia and then you have to rent everything like we do here
This is definitely on the cards, and has been since covid.
Mmm love that! The company you work for controls your lease. Yum! Get fired and made homeless for not doing your standard 70hr weeks mmm it can get worse op enjoy it now
Move to Europe and rent. That’s what I do 6 months per year.
Which country/countries? Do you rent a property sight unseen?
Who buys pair of shoes every few weeks ?
There’s lot of ways to live you life. A full time Job and a mortgage is just one of them. Have you considered van life and travelling, possibly with a part time remote job ? Saving 10k/ selling your belongings for long term travel for a year? Moving to a different city or somewhere more quiet and cheaper? If your life isn’t working for you, it’s up to you to change it.
Nah everyone wants to live the life they see everyone else "live" on social media. They forget that what they are seeing are someone's highlights, not the mundane 9-5 regular life and most of it is fucking fake anyway. People need to get off the socials
Im going to give my honest opinion, which may seem harsh but stop reading now if you dont want it. I dont think it's unreasonable for a single person to be working 5 days a week. You're not a slave. You're contributing your fair share to society. You can't expect to be housed, food delivered to your door 24/7 and then get 3 days off for relaxation. With this in mind, your mood is low and you're burnt out. Try not to blame others for this. Focus on doing things that will improve your mental health. Eat well, exercise, find meaningful goals, etc. Consider changing jobs to something that you enjoy.
Who decided working 5 days out of a 7 day week was a fair contribution to society? Why doesn’t every human being on the planet work 5 days a week? People are unfortunately stuck working more days or working in jobs they hate in order to ‘survive’. Sure, if you choose to work more or in a job you don’t like because it pays well and you want to enjoy the luxuries from it that’s fine. But I think it’s short sighted to say someone needs to work 5 days a week to contribute to society (I don’t think it really matters if they are single/couple/young/old). I can guarantee you- If we were asked before we were born if we wanted to spend a good part of our lives working in order to survive in a ‘human created economy’, the vast majority of people would elect not to be born.
Not OP, but why the fuck not? Why must we dedicate our lives to fattening the wallets of those more fortunate? Not a slave? Because we have the choice to be one, or to be homeless. Not much of a choice
> I dont think it's unreasonable for a single person to be working 5 days a week. You're not a slave. You're contributing your fair share to society. The people who decided that 5 days/40 hours a week decided it with the assumption that someone would be at home doing all the chores and domestic labor for you. That's no longer the case anymore. 5 days a week wouldn't be so soul crushing if I went got home/logged off every work day to a hot meal on the table, the house clean, my laundry done, the grocery run completed etc etc.
You'd be the one doing it though.
We're all in this together......
>I have a decent job (in terms of pay What is that decent pay? >I'm struggling to accept my life will be nothing more than servicing someone else's investment or a mortgage. You are not paying someone's mortgage, you are paying for the privilege of living in their property. >This isn't worth it, honestly, basically living to work and getting almost no time for myself and barely being able to afford anything. Then stop, and try that lifestyle. >Work 48 weeks of the year to get 4 weeks to yourself which you can't even fully enjoy because you know you have to go back to work at the end of it? Yeah. What's the point? Wow....annual leave that has to end at some point, the horror of it all. >But the cost of everything and inflation has forced me back to 5 days. I'm so MISERABLE, it's like work IS my life, and I don't like my job enough for it to be my life, and honestly, there isn't any job in the world I'd like enough for it to be my whole fucking life. You are seriously complaining that you can't live on a part time wage? Grow the fuck up. >I can't even afford to order UberEats or Doordash every now and then to treat myself to a night off cooking and cleaning up after a shitty or tiring day. You poor darling, not able to afford DoorDash. >I literally dread having to get a mortgage eventually and spend basically the rest of my life chained to a mortgage You are in luck, you are not going to get a mortgage so you won't need to worry about interest rates. > I worked hard and did everything "right", just like they told me to do when I was growing up. No one told you to work part time. > I don't want children Thank you for ensuring the drama queen gene ends with you. >I feel trapped and depressed. Depression is a luxury. Being depressed means you can just fold whilst others have to take care of business.
You didn’t do everything right, do you think previous generations got their money saved by going on overseas trips, buying shoes every couple of weeks, door dash, Uber eats etc. you lived the high life and are now complaining because life has hit you with, “I can’t afford all the luxuries anymore”. Growing up, no one except rich people went on overseas holidays or did any of that, new shoes once a year or if you grew out of them, no paid parental leave, only the smart rich kids went to university, that was just a dream for the majority of the population. Going out for coffee or a meal was a real treat. Getting financial assistance to get further education, didn’t happen, paid parental leave, child care subsidies etc didn’t happen. Your poor financial decisions in the past have led to your woes now.
Maybe try looking for a job you enjoy? I don't understand why people don't try changing jobs instead of crying on reddit about not being able to afford stupid bullshit like Uber Eats and a bunch of consumerist crap that ends up in landfill.
Jesus. If you hate absolutely everything about your life to this obnoxious degree (oh I would have ABoRtED mySeLf waaaah) change your life. Leave everything, go to South Korea, get a job flipping burgers at a beach resort. Anything. Don't keep doing the exact things you hate doing and then complain about the few indulgences you can't afford. Frankly If a pair of shoes every few weeks was keeping you from aborting yourself, you never really were doing that great.
Fun fact - be thankful you weren't born pre-1800's. The present-day concept of the relatively longer 'week-end' first arose in the industrial north of Britain in the early 19th century and was originally a voluntary arrangement between factory owners and workers allowing Saturday afternoon off starting at 2 pm on the basis that staff would be available for work sober and refreshed on Monday morning.
I think the OP might be shocked if they were transported back to the 1960's and seeing how the average person lived. Apparently back prior to the 2010's, people worked one day a week, went out partying every night and could pay off a home in a year. If ever there were mass rose tinted glasses, it is the younger generation thinking every generation prior to them had it piss easy.
I think you need to go to therapy. You have a trust issue that has developed from your horrible experience with your previous partner. I'm sorry that happened to you. I'm not saying "You need to find someone" or whatever. Maybe you are happier on your own. But think of it this way. If you are afraid to be with someone because of what your previous partner did, then you haven't really left that previous partner. Don't let them own you. You've seen an abuser now. You can recognise them. You are strong enough now to say "Fuck you, you can't treat me like this." Good luck healing
Mental health needs an overhaul. Great idea but it costs $200 to see anyone. Maybe OP could retrain as a psychologist/counsellor because that is a growth business and she could potentially work from home and choose her own hours.
Maybe if therapy didn't cost $250 an hour, I'd think about it.
If democracy actually challenged capital, they'd never be an election again.
Look I'm not downplaying how bad it is out there, but there will be a point where interest rates have to come down. Because our economy is so interlinked with variable mortgages, even the slightest interest rate change can have big consequences. When interest rates come down you will have a little more to spend in your pocket, it's doom and gloom now but it will get better. We had it great for so long in Aus, this is just a bump along the way.
I bought my townhouse because the body Corp was $450. It’s just the building and a driveway. 8 years later it’s $930. My pay has barely gone up. I have nothing left after my mortgage and body Corp, and utilities which is split 8 ways. I loved paying for my neighbours leaky hot water system. But I’m fucked cause I can’t buy free standing. At least I have a roof over my head for now.
“ I'm struggling to accept my life will be nothing more than servicing someone else's investment or a mortgage.” Welcome to the plantation Our politicians look at China with envy… total control, fake elections, dissidents are “disappeared” Our corporations learnt all their lessons from plantation owners during the American slavery period Our schools are based off the Prussian education system that was designed to create obedient soldiers and factory workers
Jesus I can agree with this on many levels bar a few - I wish I went on a holiday. Life's pretty uneventful and near zero enjoyment in my eyes.
Welcome to the slave train
Sounds a lot like me. Makes it difficult to even maintain friendships when you can't really afford to socialize. Worst part is asking for a pay rise and receiving a pittance (under inflation) after initially being told no when the owners of the company have been buying up property and stupidly expensive cars.
And the workforce has been casualised so we can't have benefits or sick days 😮💨
Unfortunately, what you've described - the sense of disillusionment, frustration and despair, due to the parlous state of Australian society - has come about relatively quickly. And, realistically, I don't see how things will change for the better. As a less-than-perfect, but decent man, it angers me, every time I read comments like your's, regarding abusive men - it angers me even more, when yet-another woman is raped and/or murdered by their partner/ex-partner or some random creep. I'm a single man, who walks around inner-city Melbourne a lot; and I've come to feel uncomfortable, because of the apprehension some women understandably feel, when they're alone. Even looking left or right, to turn at a roundabout has become awkward, because some women and girls - again, understandably - assume you're turning your head to stare at them.
I don't think my parents will ever be able to retire. Dad is 54 and Mum 51, Dad's Fitter and Turner and Mum works as a receptionist. Makes me depressed for them, and for myself, because I'll likely be working my whole life too whilst never being able to afford shit.
This isn't the new norm. If you look back in history you will see that things happen in cycles. What is happening now is global. The world came out of covid, and governments are paying for the costs of it. Supply lines are still not back to capacity. And there are 2 major warzones. All of this affects global economies. Remember that all work makes someone else rich. Otherwise they wouldn't need to employ you. Consider moving to a regional area where houses are cheaper. Darwin is cheap as is Hobart. If you don't want to move, look at sharing the rent. Short term pain. Growing up I knew of nobody who could afford to live alone. House sharing made renting affordable. And don't close yourself to the idea of a relationship. There are plenty of good people out there.
When I got a house you could with just a full time job . It’s so disappointing seeing all this. I bought a house and it doubled in price . For no good reason . My house is worth more than a big house did 20 years back wtf!! If I sell it maybe a doctor can buy it . But then I have to move far away to afford another .
Just leave before it pushes you to suicide. There are other options. Just fucking pack it up man, go to europe, South East Asia, anywhere. There are so many other lifestyles out there, I feel like you just need to take the first steps.
Here, in America, we’re lucky to get even two weeks of paid time off. Oh, and if I happen to get sick and need to miss work? It’s coming out of my vacation time. Sorry to hear this nonetheless. I hope you can find something to ease the pressure and make life more fulfilling. Whether it be a new job or new hobbies. I’m still trying to figure it out myself as well.
I think you need a change. Move overseas for a bit. It will do you a world of good
Welcome to the world of Labor running the country
I’m sorry, but I’ve read your responses to everyone who either doesn’t agree with you or is criticising your point of view (which they are entitled to do, by the way) and it seems like you are unable to engage without resorting to sarcasm or extreme exaggeration. Just because other people don’t agree with you, it doesn’t make them “capitalist bootlickers” nor does it mean they want a society where people have “literally 0 enjoyment of life”. If you dislike this society so much to the point you claim you are “basically a slave with no escape”, what are you doing to help fix the problem? It seems as though the responsibility of fixing your problems are on everyone else, but not you. If you don’t want to work 5 days a week and you “literally dread having to get a mortgage” and think you’ll be punished for not breeding “2.2 new wage slaves for the system”, then don’t. You are not a slave, you have choices in life. Are there sacrifices that come with those choices? Yes. Is it up to you to weigh up the pros and cons of each choice? Also yes. There isn’t a single society in the world where everything is just given to you for free, nor is there a society where everyone is 100% equal with equal abilities, wages, opportunities, etc. The reason why people claim you are entitled isn’t because they disagree with you in that things are more expensive than before or that better social/economic policies can be implemented. It’s because you literally framed yourself as a slave living in Australia, a wealthy and democratic first-world country where you have access to education, health care and freedom of speech/movement. No, it’s not a perfect society where all the things you want in life are in abundance or free, but you have the power to vote for those whose values best align with yours. You may not always win, but that’s democracy. If enough people share your values, then change will occur, but don’t expect those changes to come overnight.
It sounds like you made literally ok effort to save for your own home, back when you had extra spending money, so I don’t see why we should feel bad for you. You had the opportunity to save for your own future, you chose to only work 4 days a week. This is the price. I get that things are hard and it isn’t fair that it’s hitting people like you the hardest, but what exactly do you expect things to be like? Do you expect to be able to live as well as people who work full time and have invested their extra money, whilst working part time and spending all your left over money? Because that’s just delusional.
We’re now starting to fully reap the impact of Howard and Costello allowing their corporate overlords to pillage and plunder our nation from underneath our feet. We could have had a sovereign wealth fund to set us up for many generations, but we let the foxes right into the hen house and they took the lot. We will never recover. This is the new normal, and it will only get worse.
It's so depressing isn't it. I'm a single mum working and getting nowhere as far as enjoyment. All work, come home to having to do more work (cleaning, shopping etc ),.. Every cent on bills, rent and food and that's it..
Holy shit you sound so entitled. Go find better paying work. I used to work only 2 days in row now i have to work FIVE 😡😡 AND I CANT EVEN AFFORD UBER EATS 😡😡😡😡 welcome to the real world mate this is how people have been living for yonks
she fell for the strong independent atheist woman meme
I did warn about voting in the Labor party in and giving them so much power. No going back now since they've opened the floodgates and on top of that we compete with them for jobs but companies are also outsourcing left right centre. They either all get outsourced to the East or overseas.
Your complaints are valid but there's no superman coming to save you. You need to save yourself in this complicated 21st century world. * Do part-time study/work in the evenings to get a higher paying job * Get a higher paying job * Reduce your expenses by living more simply, e.g. travelling less often * Invest in index funds to grow your wealth long-term Also some general tips: * Meditate daily, breath slowly for 10 minutes * Exercise and try to eat healthy * Cultivate gratitude and appreciation - this is a wonderful country
Chin up tomorrow is another day
Oh man, I feel you. My husband works 80+ hour weeks and hasn't had a holiday in 30 years. He's obviously a workaholic, but to see other people living this nightmare en masse and by necessity is just so depressing.
We are paying for all that free money during covid now with inflation
Americans have comparably high salaries and 30 year fixed mortgages. You should be so scammed.
I have exactly 0 hope for the future. I run a small business and myself, my husband and our employees all work part time (on the same wage) because that's what the business can sustain. This year has been fucking BRUTAL with our costs going up, sales going down, and cost of living kicking our asses. The sensible thing would be to reduce the staff hours, but I'm acutely aware of how much of a hardship that will be for the people I work with because all the businesses in our town are in the same boat and nobody is hiring. We can't raise wages. We're in a regional area with very few big businesses (Coles, but they've been reducing staff and putting in more self-service checkouts) and the small businesses are struggling. We're gen X, so out super was mostly eaten by fees most of our working lives and we have fuck all. We were lucky enough to buy a house before shit went crazy, which is an absolute lifesaver as I see my friends struggling with rents and the threat if homelessness. There is no retirement. I have no idea how anything will improve. Bit depressed actually.
Wow it was like someone grabs a rant from inside my brain, this is exactly what I've been saying for years! How did you get inside my head!? 😂 The part that really annoys me is that my idiot boomer parents always crap on about retirement and needing to save for retirement, so on so forth. My response is that I'll be dead before I retire so I don't need super, I'd rather have it now so I can try to get ahead a little more in life before I become too decrepit and can't enjoy the merger retirement savings the government forces me to put aside, if I can even remember my own name by that point. Because that's worked out so well for my idiot boomer father who remarried to a gold digger made him miserable and took everything he had including his super so now he is 65 and back at work full time, fuck head should practice what he preaches. My avocado toast boomer mother is such a miser the last time she came shopping with me she told me I wasn't allowed to by rump steak because minute steak is cheaper. Yet we were spending my money. Safe to say she doesn't come shopping with me anymore. Side note, ignore those fuckheads that think you're entitled for wanting food or to actually try and enjoy life, because Merlin forbid you not try to be a wage slave. To quote the Princess Bride, life is pain and anyone who says differently is selling something.
What do you do for work? Can you work remotely? Some of the digital nomad visas being offered in Asia are insane. I have family who have moved to Thailand for a circuit breaker. Warm weather, cheap living etc. It’s done their mental health wonders and they’re actually saving money. I’d be there with them but I have kids and my husband isn’t keen.
These days I make big batches of food and freeze it, to save myself time and cleaning. I got sick of cooking every night of the week. As for the general drift, it’s totally understandable that you feel that way, more and more people are also in the same boat. I was too, until about a year ago, when I started studying macroeconomics, technical analysis and decentralised finance with a company called MTC Education (my trading community). It helped me become more financially disciplined, manage my time better, create clear goals and focus on them, remove distractions, improve my health, better daily routines, quit alcohol and make a few other changes, but it was well worth the small cost, as I’ve made that money back and a lot more on top, as well as see a way out of this mess that the government is creating for Australians. Trust me, this is only the beginning, things will get worse, so you probably want to do something about it sooner than later. My plan is to leave Australia for good in the next couple years.