Isn't it amazing how the Elite view other people .
I am astounded why Andrew has bothered to write this , he must be burnt up with grief because he doesn't qualify .
What exactly is a jobless region? Hay Plains , Maralinga or Tooleybuc ?
Under our current Master no one has a permanent job and eventually nobody will now that Govt has found out that Balancing the Books is unnecessary if they can generate enough Spin to run on inertia .
That young people aspire to make an investment such as a home that later they can use as security demonstrates their commitment to organized society and to their maturity , they are going places !

Your belief that rising property prices are a good thing is flawed , good for who ? Definitely not for the first home buyer. The Govt grants
make this worse because grants offer parents the opportunity to cash in by financing their children into a first home of fifty squares etc etc .

How did I miss this!!

I'm unsure if your argument against home ownership is because of Government grants that should not be paid, and thus people cannot afford to buy ,-and therefore renting is the better option? OR:

Simply that renting IS the better option. IT IS.

Home ownership in itself is a myth; an absolute myth. Unless you purchase outright, the bank/financial institution owns your house, not you.

But as you say,-it's big business! Perish the thought that this entire system of regaling the merits of home ownership ensuring that 'money shops' have sold you some very expensive money that will come back to them for decades,-whilst for that entire period, they own the property......Well we can't burst that warm brown fuzzy, now can we?

I don't own. I never wanted to, because I could not REALLY own. I have lived very comfortably, and sometimes luxuriously,-when income permitted-; and watched the stress and distress of those who are captive to this myth, forcing them to do anything to keep their jobs, forcing them in general, to stay in one location, forcing them into debt to these greedy money factories.

Yes. I know all about Mc'Mansions, and wanting bigger n' bigger-and YES! you DO 'have a choice' not to do that. I agree. But the myth of home ownership is a whopper, and society is VERY STRONGLY encouraged to 'own' a home.

It is a ludicrous lie. To lead hapless punters by the nose straight into a greedy system, tying them to that system for years.

Excellent thread!

.........1 Server error.

renters are sukkers
you heard me

investers get full deductability..home owners pay for maintanance and rates[and investers get the cast as a tax deductable 'cost'[and an extreemly valuble asset paid off by the sukker]read tax payer/renter

with houses increasing the investers clean-up, with both a riusinbg rent and a rising value as the sukker pays it off for you[ass its equity increases the invester keeps bying up other houses creating ever more sukkers]

add in the rent subsidy[allways increasing further the rent[and govt subsidy direct to the invester is huge]thus we get these paid to report[paid to decieve] reporters in the media[who are directly responsable for raising the real price of houses]

it is interesting to look at spain more intently[noting the high unemployment has directly res.ulted in the govt expending the peoples resources on creating their 'green economy'[with the nett result each new gren job has cost 2.9 jobs[the high unemployment is directly the result of the gren revolution]

the falling price of real estate reflects the real value of real estate[that is that land cant be taken anywhere]that when the revolution eventually comes squatters will inhabit that the bankers or investors think to own[witness the destruction of houses in america[in the pathetic attempt to create artificial shortage]

hom,eless living in tents[while the banks sell off for cents in the dollar,..all from a fiction of 'lending' money[our signing loans creates the money[as we sign less the monetary supply lessons[and banks stop lending[pumping in ever more govt[read tax payer funds only inflates the monetary supply[and gives hyper inflastion

[great for those investor types who get the timming of the intrest cycle roight and fix the intrest[bad for the renter paying the inflating rent][bad for govt subsidising the rent[bad for the tax payer paying the govt debt bill[as well as rent

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13551
What we fail to acknowledge is that the system itself is totalitarian.This means that it is designed to exert total control over the lives of individuals.

We are accustomed to use this label when thinking of anachronisms of history like communism or fascism.We do not understand that globalist finance capitalism and the government which protects,enables,or even regulates it are also totalitarian.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/may/10/g20-policing-agent-provacateurs
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6257122.ece
What has happened in the last year as the financial system has seemingly gone belly-up,and is coming back only through massive government bailouts,is part of a pattern that has been around for decades if not centuries.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124174053175598779.html
http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2009/05/its-snowing-all-over-world.html
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=10554
How the controllers work was laid out in 1967 when Dial Press published a leaked copy of The Report from Iron Mountain.
http://www.projectcamelot.org/Report_from_Iron_Mountain.pdf

This was a study put together by a team of academics and analysts who met at the underground facility in New York that was home to the Hudson Institute.
http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0oGkjggUgdKgVgBkxil87UF?p=The+Report+from+Iron+Mountain&fr=sfp&fr2=&iscqry=

The report began by identifying war as the central organizing principle of society.
http://desertpeace.wordpress.com/2009/05/10/photo-essay-honour-your-mother-by-boycotting-apartheid/
http://desertpeace.wordpress.com/2009/05/10/photo-essay-new-york-jews-continue-to-say-no-to-the-blockade/
http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/27-04-2009/107459-american_capitalism-0
http://news.goldseek.com/EuroCapital/1241809381.php
http://uruknet.com/?p=m54077&hd=&size=1&l=e
It stated,“War itself is the basic social system,within which other secondary modes of social organization conflict or conspire.It is the system which has governed most human societies of record,as it is today.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/08/short-sales-banks-blockin_n_199099.html

The report said that,“The basic authority of a modern state over its people resides in its war powers.”
http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/616.html
It said that any failure of will by the ruling class could lead to“actual disestablishment of military institutions.”The effect on the system would be,the report said,“catastrophic''
http://www.poketheeye.org/?p=210
http://mantiqaltayr.wordpress.com/2009/05/10/notes-quotes-hate-speech-and-goats/
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article6256745.ece

Andrew,

You are one of the 70% of Aust's who own a house. You are also one of Australia's top 20% of earners.

So what do you propose to help Australia meet its housing needs given Aust's problems ahead? Community housing.

It is not good enough to just highlight the negative side of an argument. You (and Steve Keen) also need to offer or discuss policy alternatives

The trouble is for every renter there has to be a homeowner/investor, unless of course you are only referring to government housing.

I prefer to own my home and it gives me security. I don't have to move everytime a landlord puts up the rent unreasonably or decides to sell or move in. I also started work in the days before Super was compulsory and added to that staying at home to raise children we were behind the pack as far as retirement security goes - still are. Luckily our house will be our biggest asset that we can sell and downshift to live within our means.

We were lucky we could afford to buy a house and we bought in the days when house prices/repayments did not represent a large portion of one's wages.

The reality is home ownership is becoming less accessible to younger people who may not be eligible for government housing. In any case, government housing waiting lists in each state are unbelievably long - even for those on the priority waiting list.

Community housing schemes and collectives might be one way of attacking the problem as well as more government housing to reduce waiting lists. The social benefits would far outweigh the cost considering that the cost of not doing so is already very high in terms of homeless support, social support and payments like rent assistance etc.