Ross Gittins’ article in the SMH today covers many of the issues debated in this thread – the gap between the data on living costs and people’s perceptions, the appeal of the individual anecdote over broader data, and the importance of the question “compared to what” when asking whether living standards are improving.

Like Hamilton, he points to psychological factors explaining people’s refusal to accept evidence of rising living standards.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/please-sir-can-we-have-more/2007/09/11/1189276715265.html

Daggett,

Read what I wrote. I used those examples to illustrate the impossibility of comparing unlike measures to gauge quality of life, not to “prove” that things are getting better.

Two weeks to fill out an application! Heck, what kind of jobs are you chasing?

Of course business overheads aren’t in the CPI – it measures households’ costs, not businesses’. Anyway, you’ll get only support from me (and indeed the driest neo-liberals) on the need to cut business regulation.

The article you link to makes some interesting point about the banks’ affordability measures – including supporting my point that the key problem in the owner-occupied sector is first-home buyers.

Apart from the CBA though, these don’t much influence in the wider debate, where the REIA and HIA affordability measures are most widely quoted. These business associations often emphasise affordability problems in their press releases, as they use poor affordability as a reason to press governments to cut taxes and take other measures in their members/clients interests. The lenders, too, arguably have as much interest in playing up affordability problems as playing them down.

The digs at “economic rationalists” seem gratuitous – the author never explains what link there is, if any, between these organisations’ affordability measures, denial of rising house prices, and “economic rationalism.” I’d say the natural inclination of economic rationalists is to disapprove of declining affordability. One of the most active bodies campaigning for improved housing affordability at the moment is the Institute of Public Affairs, perhaps the nearest thing Australia has to an “economic rationalist” think tank.
(Alan Moran of the IPA has written extensively on this – see his OLO piece here)
http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=4811

"I was hoping to continue earning $200+ to $500+ per day."

Well Billie, if you can do something useful, like be a plumber,
bricklayer, roof carpenter, mechanic, welder, miner or other skilled
work, then its all out there for you!

In my experience its all about people and their attitudes to life.
Some, as is evidenced on this thread, see problems, gloom and doom
everywhere. Of course its never their fault, blame it on everyone
and anything else. Others see opportunity and go and make it happen.
Perhaps its just genetic, I dunno.

Sheesh, I'm not even a Howard fan. I just see the benefits of
having a flexible economy. Give people opportunities and don't tie
them down with red tape and some will thrive and create opportunities
for others. In that sense Costello has continued what Keating
started.

I certainly don't think that Rudd is going to create some kind of
utopia that some of you seem to be yearning for. I prefer him
to Howard, but its his hangers on that could be his downfall.

Perhaps we need a Govt combining Rudd, Costello, Hockey and a few
better ones, just kick out Andrews and other religious fanatics :)

Sorry, the story was "Pizza driver crisis" and not "Pizza drive crisis".

Yabby and and Rhian sound like self-satisfied I'm alright Jacks who just happen, for the moment, to be in the right place at the right time. Most of us go through periods like this. I remember a time when I sat in an office in Collins Street absorbing the Greed is Good of the 1980s (ALP was in). Along with my collegues I was almost completely isolated from reality and all we had to pass the time in that over-controlled competitive environment was to kid ourselves we were in control and that is was all alright.

Naturally that all fell to pieces when the next government came in and the changed all the laws we administered but kept the bad trip going, just with other peacocks in charge.

You just get tired after a while of the paper-chase and turning up to fraternise with money-freaks in suits with a status compulsion who think that they are getting somewhere when they are really just using up stuff and ripping people off whilst writing their own reports on how great they are doing.

That might be okay if the rest of us were left with a choice, but the Ken and Barbie-doll set who believe all the spin are in charge of the bulldozers which are ruining it for everyone else.

Using up stuff counts as 'productivity' and it's just a lot of self-delusion. We are losing soil, pushing water past safety, losing all our ammenity; turning a beautiful world into a tarnished mirror for an ugly species.

Pity we humans didn't remain on the side of the gorge that the bonobos finished up on. We sure have developed our chimp-troglodyte side.

(That's a reference to Wrangham and Peterson's Demonic Apes, which is a good supplement to Machiavelli's Prince, in case you didn't know.)

"Yabby and and Rhian sound like self-satisfied I'm alright Jacks who just happen, for the moment, to be in the right place at the right time"

ROFL Kanga, a statement like that is litle more then trying to make
you feel better about your self, the rest is pure ignorance.

I try to keep my personal life off OLO, preferring points of reason,
but for once I digress.

The other night when APEC leaders were eating their dinner, it turned
out that one of the products was from a company that I had pioneered
and sold not so long ago. To establish that industry involved
countless innovation, countless clashes with Govt, including Canberra
to change the rules, the State Govt to see reason and taking a European
Govt to court, due to their trade boycott. We won the lot in the end
and went on to win various awards.

When I then read that life is considered tough by some people,
because it takes them an hour to cash their medibank rebate cheque,
I can only smile.

You are correct about bonobos being wonderful creatures, I am a big
fan! But then as Desmond Morris pointed out to me, in evolutionary
terms sadly they have been a dismal failure, protected only by
the huge Congo river. He has a point, if you think about it.

Reality does not go away, when we close our eyes and wish it would.

"Ross Gittins’ article............... – the gap between the data on living costs and people’s PERCEPTIONS!!, the appeal of the individual anecdote over broader data, and the importance of the question “COMPARED TO WHAT”!! when asking whether living standards are improving.

...........he points to psychological factors explaining people’s REFUSAL TO ACCEPT EVIDENCE OF RISING LIVING STANDARDS.!!" (Quote:Rhian)

I'll be frank with you. You are really starting to annoy me.

You are so determined to prove that you are right, that you are breaking new ground in utter condescension.

What extraordinary arrogance!

You Rhian, deal in data and intellectual theory. Haygirl and others deal in reality; in personal experience.

The latter trumps the former every time!

It astonishes me that you have the gall to suggest that those who have really struggled under this utterly self-serving, bullying regime are IMAGINING that they are worse off! How dare you!

Whether you like it or not; try hard to accept that those who do NOT agree with your theory and data are NOT hallucinating!!

I remain staggered at your pernicious tactics to prove your point.

Shame on you!