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The Forum > General Discussion > The Way It Will Always Be!

The Way It Will Always Be!

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The higher levels of personal debt suggest that what you say is all too true Crackcup.

We need a people power movement driven by an voluntary anti-consumerism agenda. Don't use credit unless for emergencies, don't by what you don't need, save for those luxruies/treats instead of using money you don't yet have etc. Greed will not feed your soul (in a non-religious sense :)).

Discussions like this and a return to down to earth thinking suggest that this is already happening. History tends to go in cycles and eventually the excesses or extremes of social norms and the negative repercussions generally lead to a return to the opposite and hence the pendulum swings back and forth.
Posted by pelican, Sunday, 31 October 2010 6:20:34 PM
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I am horrified at the amount of money 2 of my kids owe. Then, when I think about it, it is only about 5 times their annual earnings, not much more than I borrowed to buy my second home.

When I walk around their homes, it’s so obvious that they make mine look quite rundown, & shabby. Then again, it didn’t look too bad 20 years ago, while it was full of kids.

The main problem our kids have is partly the number of public servants, & academics they have to keep, but it is also the number of bludgers they support.

There are so many “underprivileged” today, all of whom requiring a standard of living, payed for by the tax payer, which often exceeds the standard the taxpayer attains, with what he has left.

I get along quite well on about age pension income, but probably only do so because I don’t smoke, & drink rarely. Without those costs I can save a little on a little less than $300 a week. Of course I owe nothing, & never borrow.

I was surprised to find that my 99 year old mother had saved regularly with the age pension her only income. It can be done.

Individual, it’s not just the high ranking PS, its most of them. A mate of mine received so many promotions in his last 3 years in the PS, as those above him retired, that when he retired from his now quite senior position, his pension was more than his full time pay had been 3 years before.

This is the rip-off that costs us so much
Posted by Hasbeen, Sunday, 31 October 2010 8:53:14 PM
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HasBeen:

You appear to be one of my mob. I married at the ripe old age of 18.
I was then getting paid 7 Pounds a week ( equiv to $14 ) a week, but worth many times more. I paid 3 Pounds rent each week for a very austere flat. Out of the remaining 4 Pounds, I had to buy food, clothing, pay for electricity and feed a Gas Meter. I did not have a vehicle ( couldn`t afford one) and paid to car pool to work with a fellow workmate ( who was lucky enough to have won a brand new Holden in a Lottery!)

In those days Hire Purchase was virtually unheard of, and my parents taught me that if you need something badly enough, then you have to save up and buy it...."if you cannot save for it, then you don`t need it!"

Strangely enough my wife and I managed to live reasonably well, but during that first year we relied upon friends with a motor car to take us on outings occasionally on the week-ends, eg: swimming, picnics etc.

I purchased my first motor car which was a 1938 Ford Anglia for the princely sum of 30 Pounds twelve months after we got married, as we had our first child in a stroller and lived just too far away from the shops,...also I figured that it wasn`t going to cost me much more for fuel than what I was paying to get a ride to work, fuel being then equiv to 30c per GALLON for Standard fuel.

My wife and I reared 4 children and bought nothing on the "slow drip" except our first home. We have now been married for 53 years and live comfortably on a 300 acre property which we own.

I believe that my parents teaching equipped me to traverse life exercising financial responsibilty throughout and I am thankful for that valuable experience which has stuck to me like glue!
Posted by Crackcup, Monday, 1 November 2010 10:56:21 AM
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."if you cannot save for it, then you don`t need it!"
Crackcup,
Now that would be the greatest blow to the Jerry Harveys of this world eh ? I think it's not that far off now that the number of homeless will become a major problem. What with all these forfeitures due to owing too much we'd need a third world debt kind of bailout. Just look at discrepancy in the pensions between workers & public servants. Look at the discrepancy of the Tax system between employers & employees & public servants. We don't really have an economic problem as such but we have a severe attitude problem. There is sufficient in the coffers for everyone, it's just the distribution that needs a shake-up.
Posted by individual, Tuesday, 2 November 2010 7:16:46 AM
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It's interesting that "shelter" in the form of a house - and the need to pay so much for it (especially with the added burden of "interest" - is the device that is used to enslave people for their "working life". (Of course, we have the added lure these days of most people in a country like Australia desiring a McMansion)
Posted by Poirot, Tuesday, 2 November 2010 9:00:56 AM
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kids..only want mansions..because thats
what the media..has put into their minds

media needs to create consumers..for its multinational advertisers[to sell their product...to

advertising..is a gross..bu-sin-ness..making people depressed..who cant get credit...and setting up for bankruptcy..those who can

we must recall...the poor vilagers..in the poverty counties
largly..dont pay rent..thus can live on less than one dollar a day

i too recall..earning 35 dollars a week
and paying 18..to rent a one room hovel...

my longe was t-chests..with a bit of..rubber on it
i too recall the costs..of elect-trick..consumables

[bying..an 8 mil...film pro-jector..costing three weeks wages]
only to have it go obsolete..by vidio...[and yes i bought beta]

then i bought a vhs...then i bought one of them..new fangled computa...[those ones you program..onto a cassette]

anyhow..consumer-ism...soon made me get rid of this
to buy..that...i went from reel-to reel...to 8 track,,,to cassete tape
and now diget-al..formats..[so many of them..too]

went from 78..to 45..rpm..to 33 lp..then digetal..in that too
but differnt formating]...went blue ray..and the others..as they went obsolete

con-sunmerism...is a huge con..thats just the way it is...for now

when the kids go broke..thats it
[you wouldnt believe..how many phone[y]...
phone contracters they have..gone through

or maybe you can

[i swore i would stop bying petrol..when it..shot over 30 cents]
but of course couldnt....then

now i dont need transport.

and dont pay rent
live on less than 5 dollars a day
[and i smoke]..[but mercyfully..dont drink]..[nor gamble]

gave up consuming..elect-trick...items
long ago...since the lap-top...died
im back to..my windows..from way/back in 2000
that died..in 2002...but miraculously..has revived..now the bugs...have expirede..that was programed..into it..to make my buy the next-one

ps the 8 mil..projector..still works
so does.my radio-gram

im sure..if i fired up..my old/valve..black and white[tv]
it would still run

wonder why*we love excuses..to upgrade..?
when the new fangled..con*sumable..stops working

and costs more..to repair...than replace
Posted by one under god, Tuesday, 2 November 2010 9:54:17 AM
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