It's a funny thing talking in dollars OUG, because take your LPS for a dollar and your mid managers wage of $39. 39 LP's for a weeks work.

Today a lattest release CD costs about $30 and a mid managers wage is about $1225 a week take home, or about 40 CD's. No change there that I can see.

Health care for most is now cheaper, shoes another, air travel, milk, bread, eggs and clothing.

I still say this is because people's average disposable spend has decreased and some things had to give.

Spare a thought for the producers of these items because while we demand cheaper goods, they are the ones generally taking the hit.

Well my financial plan is,

To never pay full price for anything.

Although, sometimes you just have to. Try anyway.
Find a cheaper alternative with the same ingredients or
appeal, or else keep watching the liked item until it
is reduced to a price you think is more reasonable.

Like the fellow in the movie "the Castle"
I look at a price on something, and think, "don't be ridiculous
you're dreaming."

Also, if they give you a deal of two for the price of one, which
brings the grocery item down to half price, buy ten of them.

I know it won't save Australian jobs but that is caused by
Globalisation and I don't know how to fix that. That
is caused by overpopulation and resulting poverty.(which reaults
in a large cheap labour force.)

It was set in motion when Australian families decided not to
have lots of children, anymore. And Women aren't going
down the road of having 4-10children any time soon, it just places
too much of a tremendous mental and financial handicap
on them.
In the words of Germaine Greer, in a book I picked up
in a second hand shop recently, "The Western World hates children and have made having children almost immoral in our culture."
So we head down the road of genetic extinction of the once
great Western Empire.

So,I will be enjoying myself on the money I save buying cheap stuff
while the extinction slowly takes place.

Well CHERFUL, sadly, you're right as in my opinion we have gone too far down the track now to turn back and it will all fall in a heap some day, just when is anyone's guess. Perhaps another world war will be needed before wesee some balance. Hope not, but what other choicesdo we have.

We have sat ackand watched the dreas of buying Aussie made, with massiveadvertising capaigns by te likes of Dick Smit continually fail as despite the fact that many ofus drea wit our hearts, we shop with our wallets and 99% of the time, price wins.

There was a time when no farmer would buy anything other than a Honda small engine, whereas now, you can buy three of four imports for the price of one, and they do, myself included. In fact, so long as you change the oil regularly, they seem to go on and on.

The other issue we face is that both sides of politics is hel bent on allowing competition into the market place. Of cause, this same competition has now all but ruined most small retailers, which is a pity because most small retailers also raise their children in the same area, which leeds to donations to school fates etc, another area that suffers from lack of funding.

So the K Mart mentality is here to stay and now that the governments are allowing the likes of Cosco into our market place, it's a case of the dog being eaten by a bigger dog.