[LINK] Cost Of Living

[Michael Skeggs mike@bystander.net]

Stephen,
Australia is both a high income and high cost of living country in
international terms, largely as the AUD has appreciated more than 50% from
a decade ago (2003 AUD cost 66c USD).
This makes our imports cheaper, but makes our local prices look higher to
an international audience.
Luckily, our assets and wages are usually held in AUD, so we kept up our
purchasing power, and many of us benefitted from cheaper prices for
imported things like IT gear. I pay about a third now for a laptop to what
a similar model would cost in 2003.
Some items have gone up in price, oil for example, but thanks to our
currency appreciation it has gone up less for us that the Americans or
Eurpeans.
I have no disagreement with you that Australia has a high cost of living,
but it is also a place with high wages and expensive assets. Yesterday, for
example, there was a story saying Australian oil industry workers are the
highest paid in the world.
And there are regular reports about how expensive our houses are, which, of
course, means we are very rich if we were to sell them off and move to the
USA or Asia (well, not SG or HK!).
You seem to be arguing that the federal government has deliberately caused
this, or has allowed it from ineptitude.
But with the financial problems in the northern economies, and the
construction boom driving our mining industry, it seems that the local
governments have almost no say in it.

To be direct, I think you are repeating things you have read elsewhere, and
drawing conclusions that are unsupported.
An increased cost of goods and services, matched by an increased income is
no change.
The evidence you are presenting shows that foreigners with incomes in
another currency would find Australian prices higher has no bearing on what
we are experiencing domestically.
I suggest you review the ABS figures on inflation.
You will see they have extensive information on consumer prices, wages,
house prices and other series.
I'll save you time, however, and tell you that consumer prices have risen
around 2-3% per year in the past decade and wages have risen faster, at
around 3-4%.
http://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/c311215.nsf/web/inflation+and+price+indexes

So we can agree that the cost of living has increased, but so have incomes,
moreso, and you point is invalid unless you are specifically talking about
expats coming to live in Australia.
I'll repeat my invitation for you to list the things that Australia
provides that you feel are driving cost of living inflation that we can do
without.

Regards,
Michael Skeggs

On 12 February 2013 14:05, <stephen at melbpc.org.au> wrote:

> > Think "Quality of Life" not "Cost of Living."
>
> Sorry gentlemen, with respect, I think this is apologist nonsense.
>
> Long having concerns for the needy, exactly 18 months ago I posted ..
>
>  <http://mailman.anu.edu.au/pipermail/link/2011-July/094406.html>
>
> "Sydney and Melbourne are now the 6th and 7th most expensive cities in the
> world to live, the London Economist Intelligence Unit 'biennial cost of
> living survey' released on Thursday reveals. It's now cheaper to live in
> London, Vienna, Rome, Berlin and Beijing than in most Australian cities.
> **This is the culmination of a remarkable rise in the cost of living in
> Australian cities over the last decade.**
>
>
> Note the last sentence of this London Economist Intelligence Unit item.
>
> So it's only over the last decade that Australia has become paradise? If
> a high cost of living is nesessary for being a living paradise, how come
> life was pretty good when we did NOT have such high comparative costs??
>
>
> The Wall Street Journal article quoted yesterday said Singapore was the
> richest country, GDP/per capita. And America (where geo-prices are low)
> is second. Yet, Washington, the highest cost of living America city, is
> 65th in world cost-of-living terms. Thus America has lower living costs.
>
> So, please stop saying a high cost of living is necessary. Otherwise,
> it's ignoring the plight of our lower-income earners. And we'll never
> do anything about, for eg, international price gouging, super-profits,
> even government mis-management and waste. "Why bother .. Australia can
> afford it."  I do not believe many would think/agree that an expensive
> place to live must therefore by definition give a high quality of life.
>
> Personally, I think Australia had a better, and more equitable, quality
> of life a decade ago when we didn't top any world cost-of-living charts.
>
> Cheers,
> Stephen
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