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The Forum > Article Comments > 'Can't make ends meet' syndrome > Comments

'Can't make ends meet' syndrome : Comments

By Steven French, published 17/4/2008

Big house, big car, big TV, big mortgage? And you can't make ends meet?

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Glorious! More of this please :)
Posted by BN, Thursday, 17 April 2008 9:22:11 AM
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All true! But the people referred to will never listen; they are too busy consuming and whining.
Posted by Mr. Right, Thursday, 17 April 2008 9:37:41 AM
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We have friends who live in a $2 million house with an $800,000 mortgage, two four wheel drive cars, swimming pool, regular overseas holidays, all the mod cons - and they are constantly complaining about the pressures of modern life.

They never stop to think that their own insatiable media-generated wants are the source of the pressures. And if they just stopped for a moment to reflect on their manic consumption patterns, they might find a saner space in which to live and breathe.

A number of recent books have explored this same theme (eg: 'Affluenza', 'Status Anxiety'). Essentially, it is a disease brought on by a long economic boom. People's expectations gradually ratchet higher. Wants turn into needs. And material things are expected to provide all the worthwhile things of life.

The cure for all this - and it is now on its way - is a decent recession. As painful as it is, a decent economic downturn forces people to find value again in non-material things and to reacquaint themselves with the notion of 'making do'.

The world becomes a better place as people put down their electronic devices and reconnect.
Posted by Mr Denmore, Thursday, 17 April 2008 9:57:43 AM
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When the RBA raised rates a while ago (January I think), I saw a great news item about a young couple with two small kids, who were complaining about the rate rise, how it meant an extra $30 a month on the mortgage, which they just couldn't afford, and blah blah blah, and in the background, while they were talking, I could see a massive 40 inch or so flat screen TV.

Needless to say I had very little sympathy for the poor darlings...
Posted by Countryboy, Thursday, 17 April 2008 10:09:08 AM
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Fabulous! We need more of this type of reality check. The truth is every choice has it's consequences and greed makes for a stressful life.
Posted by Lesleyb, Thursday, 17 April 2008 10:51:44 AM
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We live in a society which is based on consumption. The economies not only demand it, but require it. The whole focus of society is on how to consume. Lending institutions fall over themselves to facilitate it.

You must have it and you must have it now and it must be really really big.

Just like your mortgage and your credit card and your car lease and your …… well, you get the picture.

To facilitate this we have inflation. A State run institution carefully managed by the Central Banks. It’s only 2/3% they say.

Bulldust.

Everyone knows that is a gigantic con job, just ask a pensioner.

Add inflation to the ‘must have it now’ syndrome and society is on a never ending catch-up. The banks love it.

Deflation is a bad, bad thing. Things go down in price. That is terrible say the economists.

So, if I have savings in my account and the thing I want to buy goes down in price, I am struggling to see how that is bad for me.

I am not an economist but I have read about Austrian Economics. Most economists fall about laughing because it says that moderate deflation is not bad, it can be good. It gives you time and incentive to save. Also, that a healthy economy needs to be reamed out from time to time to restore itself.

No, say the economists, let us manage the problem, after all, we can count.

http://www.mises.org/
Posted by DialecticBlue, Thursday, 17 April 2008 11:01:52 AM
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