And so say all of us Pelican.I could not have put it better myself.Just the food alone has gone up over 10 percent.My power bill has just risen by 11.37 percent,it is now double what it was 6 years ago and my usage has remained the same.Every time the price rises gst goes on top of that.If this federal govt has done such a wonderful job of making EVERYBODY so much more wealthy and our standard of living has risen so much,can someone tell me why the polls are showing Liberal heading for a massive defeat.Don't tell me it's because of the IR, laws since everyone is doing so well HAHA negotiating their own working conditions and wages.Don't tell me it's the war in Iraq or because the tooth fairy forgot to leave money under the pillow.It's because the average person is not doing well at all under this bloody govt.I dont believe their is any way to fix what johnny and co have stuffed up.No matter who gets in next time,the damage is done.

(continued from above at http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=6326#93263 - also posted to http://candobetter.org/node/162#comment-749)

* Each serious job application I make these days takes at least weeks out of my life. This is to update my resume, fill out job selection criteria, write applications and if I am lucky, to attend the interview. Given the number of applicants for the jobs I go for (when I can bring myself to face such an ordeal). Given the number of applicants fro each of these jobs, simply fining a newer better job can easily consume up to a year of one's life, so many just don't bother. Year's ago, I was able to walk into good jobs by simply talking to the boss. At most, a scrappy job application and a small amount of form filing was all that was needed.

* The overheads of running small businesses have dissuaded many people I know from working for themselves. A generation ago, almost anyone could start a business without having to spend weekends filling out out paperwork, or, alternatively, employing an accountant part-time. Where is this shown in CPI figures?

* Housing loan repayment periods are 30, 40 years - some institutions are even planning for 50 year periods - where they used to be 20 years at the very most.(See story about economists, employed by banks, having fiddled statistics to make housing appear more affordable than it actually is at http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/ockham/stories/s1335462.htm).

* Overheads of moving home for those growing numbers of Australians who don't own their own homes and are turfed out when their landlords sell or who have to move because they can't afford the rent increases. These include telephone, Internet (around $170 a hit on 5 occasions between 2001 and 2005 in my own case) electricity and gas reconnection, cleaning in order to satisfy demanding inspection requirements, time and effort searching for new accommodation and filing out paperwork, moving or selling possessions in order to avoid moving costs.

Let's now deal with some other examples which Rhian holds prove that we are better off and not worse off:

(tobecontinued)

(continued from above - also posted to http://candobetter.org/node/162#comment-749)

"Is the decline in youth suicide enough to offset the rise in youth drug taking?"

Can't say. Has suicide 'declined' over just the last year, last decade or last three decades? What about mature-aged suicide? All I know is that there is abundant evidence of the growing dysfunctionality of our society.

One example: When I went to school in the 1960's 1970's, I could walk alone or with a group of friends. These days most parents are frightened to let their children walk to school without the accompaniment of adults. So they are obliged to drive them, thereby making our roads more crowded and dangerous, or to run cumbersome parent-supervised 'walking buses'

"Is the reduced capacity to repair your own car (bemoaned at length in the article) offset by the improved safety and reliability of modern vehicles?"

The only cars which are safer and 'more reliable' are new cars. Once they are a few years old, keeping them safe and reliable becomes prohibitively expensive. Thankfully, my older car doesn't have air bags fitted. By the way, an ambulance officer once told me that he and fellow paramedics don't believe air-bags improve car safety and consider them a hazard to their own work. Another case of unnecessary expenses being foisted upon consumers to suit corporations.

"Is the increase in greenhouse gas emissions offset by the decrease in air pollutants such as SO2 that directly harm human health?"

What a stupid question!

(tobecontinued)

Interest rates are down, but you pay four times more for a house.
This is due to increasing demand without any increase in supply.

Same goes for water, energy, fish, food and car parking space.

Your country is being sold from under your nose,

Governments; population target: infinity.

The upside to this population growth however is, environmental destruction, fisheries collapse, and pollution.
Hang on, those aren't upsides.

Please don't entertain Costellos' nineteen fifties economic experiment.

Growth not Population.

Billie,

What Yabby says about plenty of opportunities for young people in WA is also true up here in Queensland.

"Westside News", our local free paper of 5 September has a front page story, "Pizza drive crisis".

If you have your own car you can earn all of $9.90 per hour as well as $1.60 per pizza delivered.

As long as you can find a compatible person of the same gender (or partner) prepared to share a bedroom with you in a share house, I am sure you will have no trouble affording the rent on those wages.

Also, just in case you do miss out on getting one of those jobs, I am assured there are plenty of jobs for junk mail deliverers and traffic controllers who get to stand by the side of busy roads adjacent to Brisbane's many road, infrastructure and building construction projects for hours on end on sunny days or throuigh the night only feet away from car exhaust fumes. When you die of emphesyma, or heart failure you need feel no twinge fo guilt for having indulged in cigarette smoking.

So, stop feeling sorry for yourself and come up here to Brisbane.

And don't forget to fix your electoral enrolment details so you can thank John Howard for providing you with all of these wonderful opportunities with your vote.

Thanks Cacofonix I'll bear that in mind but with my degrees and experience I was hoping to continue earning $200+ to $500+ per day.