Curmudgeons.
Plumbers in Perth are about $200/hr. You'd have to be a spectacular fuck up to not be well-to-do as a plumber here. And it's not hard on their body. You hardly ever see a plumber sweat. It takes less exertion than painting. Try drywall.
The only credit crisis is they extend too much of it. There's certainly an affordability crisis. Currency devaluation has been steep since covid. Couple that with rising interest rates and a certain percentage of dual income couples will have mortgage problems. When the % is high enough the housing market collapses.
Whether you used garden twine to hold up your trousers in the 70s doesn't say anything about the shifting sands of the current economy. It's not imaginary that an average house went from 2x yearly earnings to 10+x, nor that once everyone was mortgaged to the hilt their salary basically dropped due to higher prices and their house repayments rose.
Personally, I dress like a bum, sleep on a building site 3-4 nights a week, drive a year 2000 Isuzu truck without a turbo, and have zero debt. I still get why people are financially stressed tho. Average house around Perth is near $1,000,000 and its on a postage stamp block. Wagies and salary people with fresh mortgages are fucking screwed. The majority of young people will struggle to ever own a home.
Wish I'd bought gold. Or bitcoin. Or the index. But I resent having to be a speculator. Looking like being a real estate vulture but I'd be content to just put money in a bank if it was an actual unit of account instead of a make believe currency that no one knows what it will be worth later. Fuck Keynesianism. End the Fed.
