Yabby ,I said that ridding ourselves of credit cards was part of the solution.Getting the RBA to do it's job is the major part.It shuold not be loaded by large corp interests on it's board.

Our Govts have become incompetent because their authority has been ursurped by the Corps.Now we all say that Govt cannot do anything so let the Corps control us with no recourse of democracy.

We have two parents working longer and harder for less with increases in technology that reduces the labour imput for a lesser income?

Something is seriously amiss and you fail to see it.

*Getting the RBA to do it's job is the major part.It shuold not be loaded by large corp interests on it's board.*

Arjay, you have this real bee in your bonnet about corporations.

But corporations are mere paper entities, they do not think, feel or
vote. They are run by people. Yes, many people with serious expertise
work for corporations or have worked for corporations. You need
people with expertise on the RBA board, not just anyone from the
street. Corporations matter to all of us, for we own them through
our investments. All workers own a share, through their super savings.
Why should somebody who has worked for corporations, not serve on the
RBA board?

*We have two parents working longer and harder for less with increases in technology that reduces the labour imput for a lesser income?*

So you keep claiming, but the ABS statistics do not show that.
They show that real wages have kept ahead of inflation.

You seem to be judging Australia, by your little patch of Sydney and
by your memories of the 80s. Well yes, the world has changed and
peoples expectations have changed.

A 12sq fibro 3 by 1 house, with a 186 Holden and a black and
white tv, is not enough anymore for most families. Yet that is
how many of today's baby boomers grew up, that was all that was
expected.

Next what changed, was the economy. Australia and Argentina were
once two of the richest countries on the planet. Australia did
it largely through wool, Argentina through meat.

In the 1950s, when the Korean war was on, wool was worth 1 pound
a pound. Really old farmers still talk about that today :)

Australia could afford to create a highly subsidised manufacturing
economy, protected by high tariffs, financed by wool exports.

But the poor old merino started collapsing, when nylon was invented
and a host of other fibres since then. So Australia needed to join
the real world, try to make its economy globally competitive.

You seem to simply ignore all these things.

I love credit cards. I utilise the 55 days interest free to offset my mortgage. The money that would have gone to paying for goods and services stays in my mortgage account saving interest.

It's free money that effectively returns interest at mortgage interest rates for me. Without doing anything, just via this mechanism, I actually save a year off my mortgage.

BTW: I wonder if in calculating the stats for credit card debt, people like me are counted. If that's the case the stats are bogus, as I always pay off the card on time, and only use it to track spending and offset on my mortgage.

ARJAY
In spite of production costs going down, generally speaking a higher cost of living tends to cost more money. I wonder how many would be prepared to go back to the time when only one adult in the family earned the wage. Living in a 12 square fibro cottage with two bedrooms and maybe an outside dunny. No TV or at the best an analogue 15 inch clunker. No ipods, No mobile phones, no air conditioned 30 square plus homes, no computers or broadband, old cars with little comfort compared to ours today, no airline travel.....the list goes on. Everything costs more because most people demand it including education, defence, border security and customs and all the social security that is demanded from government that was once never really considered in the way it is today. I am not saying that we should go back to those days, but there is no such thing as something for nothing, which seems to be prevalent in much of the electorate's thinking these days when you hear them say "they should provide more" meaning the government meaning ultimately us the tax payer. Governments don't provide any money at all, they just take and distribute it from the private sector and when they borrow money it is also paid back by you and me. They might print it, but that only lowers our purchasing power by inflation.

People make their own choices about how they manage their money and much of the current levels of personal debt are self imposed in the lust for material wealth. What is hard to fathom is why banks can get away with lending (either home loans/credit card) money knowing that the person has little chance of repaying. Surely there must be fair and reasonable formula that determines ability to repay.

This cycle of debt just pushes up housing prices and so it goes on.

I was reminded of the moral bankruptcy of banks recently when I went with my yongest child to open a savings account and to convert her old school bank account to a newer version, now that she has a casual job.

Crikey Mikey! What the! The teller didn't ask her if she wanted a credit card - we both very quickly said no and opted for the debit card which can only access money you actually have. Thankfully my daughter also thought this was a ridiculous question to ask of a school student on a small wage from a casual and intermittent job.

What is the deal with banks and why is this debt mentality perpetuated?

Ya got me snake. Bl00dy good deal, with the rest of it the way it was.

A few of those.

Hospital, & medical benefits a couple of bob a week.

What could be more inefficient than paying some bureaucrat to take my money, & another to pay my doctor?

PAYE tax, 7.5% on the average wage.

Interest at 4.25% on my housing loan.

Don't really have to go any further to be so far in front it's silly, but anyway,

That lousy fibro box, [actually a big 3 bed in what is now an inner suburb], cost just a little less than 4 years average salary.

Total cost of house payed off in 20 years at that interest rate, 7.6 times annual salary.

Petrol so cheep that you could enjoy a 250 mile drive, & picnic on Sunday, Even that picnic spot is now some one's back yard, & they think they live in the city.

Back yard cricket, without the ball hitting the house 5 doors down the road.

Room for any back yard sport.

Banks that wanted to help, & paid 3.25% interest on a ten bob savings account.

Besides, I drive a 31 year old car by choice, not this modern white goods rubbish. Love to be able to buy a new one, rather than rebuild one myself.

& who on earth needs a mobile phone that cooks dinner, & does the washing up, between calls? I don't

Anyone who would not want it as good as we had it 40/50 years ago is an idiot.