FORGET the lucky country - Australia has been branded the land of the great, big rip-

[tranquilized]

I've travelled to a lot of countries around the world. From what I've seen we definitely have a lot to be grateful for. The fact that so many of us are actualy able to travel to other countries just for fun is one of those things, and is easy to forget.

But the blind belief so many have about the awesomeness of Australia, even though in many cases they have never been to any other country, is.... amusingly ignorant.

[Deaks]

All i can say to people who believe living in Australia is expensive, is yes you are right, it is, but would you swap it for anywhere else just because you can get a can of coke for a dollar?

I have just returned from Hong Kong, bananas were roughly $1.30 a bunch, a Maccas meal was about $3.50, a pair of Adidas runners $85, but the actual living conditions were below average. So would you be happier to get cheaper food, cheaper clothes at the expense of your living conditions? I know i wouldnt.

They always say those that have it easy will get complacent, welcome to Australia.

[DJR-351]

And while we are talking about the tag "The Lucky Country", maybe a few should get educated about how it was first coined and in what context it was meant to be taken.....

The Authors name was Donald Horne, and the book coincidently is called "The Lucky Country" (1964)......

[Jim Goose]

People need to get a grip, yes things are expensive (most of which have no real reason to be expensive other then price gouging), but we are a very large country with a relatively small population.

We are also selling ourselves overseas to the highest bidder, a lot of our farm and grazing land is now owned by overseas interests. Most of our mineral reasources are owned/ sold over seas.

We no longer have a manufacturing base and a lack of farm land means we have to import a lot of rubbish into this country.

We are more interested in making a quick buck now instead securing our future anymore.

People comment that our fruit and vege is expensive.... one wonders the logic of fruit and vege in far north qld being driven all the way to the brissy market and then being bought by coles/ woolies and being trucked all the way back here again! hmmmm thats logic for you...

[Bridgette01]

Originally Posted by Work Horse

I was speaking to a mate yesterday who is Portuguese. He lives here a lot of the time but had just spent six months back in Portugal. He reckons many people in Australia don't realise how well off we are.

Agreed....you turn the tap on, what do you get? Best drinking water in the world. Go to the supermarket, what do you get? Best meat in the world. Most people at my work travel all over the world. Havent heard 1 of them say there is a better place to live then Australia. We don't have tanks rumbling down the main street. Our taxies dont have glass between the driver and passengers. Our cars don't automatically lock the doors when we turn the ignition on (for the occupants protection) If you break an arm, we go to hospital, no questions asked ie (have you got insurance?) I could go on...

I think to see the big picture, one needs to see the rest of the world first. Thats my 2 cents worth

[The G6ET Spot]

Originally Posted by Luke Plaizier

That's where our biggest problem lies - local prices haven't adjusted to allow for dollar fluctuations, and all importers have to pay Duty which private importers don't have to pay for goods under $900, which has guys Like Harvey Norman up in arms because he has to pay a tax that does not apply to goods purchased direct from overseas. So much so that he is looking to set up shop overseas just to compete.

Do you really think that harvey norman is setting up an online store just to compete?



He is doing it as he has woken up to the fact that there is mega bucks to be made.

The only person he has to blame for the fall in his sales is himself. Maybe if he wasn't so greedy his franchisees could sell more product and have a higher turnover and profit margin.

But I suppose anything under 200% markup on furniture isn't an option for him.

Originally Posted by Geez Louise

I went food shopping today and the prices here are disgusting.

I was in woolies on the weekend and they were trying to fleece people $5.48/kilo for pumpkin.

[Jim Goose]

Originally Posted by The G6ET Spot

I was in woolies on the weekend and they were trying to fleece people $5.48/kilo for pumpkin.

And a lot of people forget that our socalled "expensive fruit and vege" is the NOT the fault of the government ..... the farmer doesnt get no where near $5 a kg for his pumpkin... same with bananas... and the rest of farm produce (meat included).

Our expensive "fresh" food is only expensive because we have no competition with woolies and coles owning pretty much everything and destroying the competition or buying them out.

[Road Games]

Ok i see where this is going, so may i just say this ?

Australia, if you don't love it .. LEAVE !!!

[ltd_on20s]

Originally Posted by XR6menace

Ok i see where this is going, so may i just say this ?

Australia, if you don't love it .. LEAVE !!!

thats one of the stupidest comments around that most bigots on forums like andrew bolt's say.

as a democracy with an implied right to freedom of speech within reason, people are allowed to have an opinion, and lobby for any change they feel like.

if people want to lobby for sharia law, they can. whether it gets implemented or not is totally irrelevant, the fact is, they can lobby for it.

to suggest "love something or PO" is such an insular world view.

[ltd_on20s]

Originally Posted by Jim Goose

And a lot of people forget that our socalled "expensive fruit and vege" is the NOT the fault of the government ..... the farmer doesnt get no where near $5 a kg for his pumpkin... same with bananas... and the rest of farm produce (meat included).

Our expensive "fresh" food is only expensive because we have no competition with woolies and coles owning pretty much everything and destroying the competition or buying them out.

is that the fault of the corporation that has such freedoms? or a useless government that allows it? (monopolies)

[ltd_on20s]

Originally Posted by flappist

And where do you think these taxes are spent?

Your other remark about retailers and 75% margin shows just how out of touch you are with the real world.

Simple example:

You have a corner shop with 1 employee.

The employee earns $39,000 a year before tax ($750/wk or about $600 in the hand)

The employer pays $39,000 + 9% super ($3510) + workers comp premium (at least $1000) + 17.5% loading on hols ($525) + 4 weeks to a casual while the employee is on hols ($3500) plus various other fees, taxes and insurances.

So we now have a cost of this $600 per week employee of at least $46,535.

If there were no other costs such as rent, electricity, phone, internet, insurances, business fees, accountancy costs for BAS, interest on the money used to buy the stock etc. and the corner store guy has to sell:
@10% $450,000 or $8500 per week
@20% $225,000 or $4300 per week

You see where this is going.

But of course this is a 7 day a week store so actually you need at least 3 employees and there are penalty rates for after 5 and weekends so actually it costs 4 times as much.

Jeez 3 employees, $1,800,000 per year and of course the business owner who has all the risk is taking nothing.......oh and all the other overheads have just been forgotten.

Now lets just close the shop because everything is cheaper on line. Well not so good for the 3 unemployed people (and as the major employer in Australia is small business this might hurt).

So how do we fix this?

1) Buy Australian and pay a bit more to keep Australian is work.

2) Remove penalty rates, awards, super, workers comp, PAYG, sickies and all the other benefits and offer $7.25/hr http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._minimum_wages and everything else is the employee's problem.

Now the $46500 is only $15000 so @10% margin only $150,000 needs to be sold.

So would you like to cut your actual income to about 1/3 so everything can be cheap just like in USA?

obviously you missed the bit about needing 50+ million people for quantity sales of everything. sell more price goes down. commodores would be 20k new if holden could sell 500,000 of them a year.

add to the fact that the US taxation system and the way everyone tips over there is a COMPLETELY different monster to australia.

[pottery beige]

Originally Posted by ltd_on20s

thats one of the stupidest comments around that most bigots on forums like andrew bolt's say.

as a democracy with an implied right to freedom of speech within reason, people are allowed to have an opinion, and lobby for any change they feel like.

if people want to lobby for sharia law, they can. whether it gets implemented or not is totally irrelevant, the fact is, they can lobby for it.

to suggest "love something or PO" is such an insular world view.

is that you bob brown..??..

[ltd_on20s]

Originally Posted by pottery beige

is that you bob brown..??..

lol nah man

[pottery beige]

Originally Posted by ltd_on20s

lol nah man

just checking.. mkay....

[ltd_on20s]

Originally Posted by pottery beige

just checking.. mkay....

i'm in the same state, come past say hi one day

[pottery beige]

Originally Posted by ltd_on20s

i'm in the same state, come past say hi one day

but i like Andrew Bolt.... and hate bob brown.......

[ltd_on20s]

Originally Posted by pottery beige

but i like Andrew Bolt.... and hate bob brown.......

ha ha, don't worry, i'm always on bolt's forum, responding. i like the banter. i don't agree with everything he says, some is right some is wrong, but some of the people on there need to be responded to.

at the very least, he has a pretty open forum.

btw....i was'nt attacking AB

[flappist]

Originally Posted by ltd_on20s

obviously you missed the bit about needing 50+ million people for quantity sales of everything. sell more price goes down. commodores would be 20k new if holden could sell 500,000 of them a year.

add to the fact that the US taxation system and the way everyone tips over there is a COMPLETELY different monster to australia.

No not really.

The 30 odd years of running businesses together with the more than $10,000,000 I have personally paid in wages as well as the many business and private trips to USA since the early 90s are what I base my ideas on.

So what is your experience again?

[ltd_on20s]

Originally Posted by flappist

No not really.

The 30 odd years of running businesses together with the more than $10,000,000 I have personally paid in wages as well as the many business and private trips to USA since the early 90s are what I base my ideas on.

So what is your experience again?

running a successful hairdressing business with my wife for the past 7 years, having 2 full time and one part time staff member , coupled with trips to Malaysia and the Middle east.

last time i went to the US was 14 years ago, and will not go now as they want to fingerprint me back to the stone age.

the taxation system in the US, the tips system, and the fact the corporations and private donations control the US is different to here. but you already know this.

[5.4 GT]

Originally Posted by Nikked

I don't get the whinging, australia is an awesome place to be.

If you haven't travelled maybe...

[LTDHO]

Originally Posted by Nikked

I don't get the whinging, australia is an awesome place to be.

A lot better in many ways than many other places.

Originally Posted by XR6menace

Ok i see where this is going, so may i just say this ?

Australia, if you don't love it .. LEAVE !!!

Whilst no country is 100% the best, there are plenty of places to live if you are unhappy where you are.

[Cheese3]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Nikked
I don't get the whinging, australia is an awesome place to be.

Originally Posted by 5.4 GT

If you haven't travelled maybe...

yup, exactly what i was going too say, when i was backpacking for 6months, i stayed for 2 month with my family in austria, its not the prices of things that made the country better, it was the life style. The phrase i like to refer too is,
In Australia we live to work, overseas they work to live.

They dont need a fancy new car or own a house, they go on heaps of holidays and when they go out they don't drink till they drop like australia's culture. In Aus we are conned into beleiving the great austrlian dream (owning a house) an we are focus on own more and more as its a competition. The only reason i returned was for money, i had a great paying job to come back too. I couldn't justify doing the same job for 2/3 less pay, and when i think about it, thats really materialistic of me, but thats how we are programmed in australia as such a young age. we NEED that, we NEED this object. I am able too get a duel citizenship easy, and i will, im saving up and planning of living overseas for a long time. It's the life style thats amazing.

oh edit, since this is a car forum ill add, cheap Porsche in europe

[Spudz27]

I will say sometimes we are being ripped off and sometimes not. Let's use blu-rays as an example. I got the full Harry Potter collection for $40au delivered, from amazon uk. That same set in shops here is $118. So everytime I see it I just shake my head. However I got Tron and Tron legacy, for $29 here in jbhifi. Amazon was about $37. You do have to remember that online shops don't have huge overheads like a bricks and mortar store. The company I was made redundant from suffered because of this. We sold our products cheaper than any retailer, incl office works, harvey norman etc etc. But we still had customers complain the one guy internet operation was cheaper. I am sorry, but that one guy sits at home, simply calls the supplier each day and has them dispatch the goods and as a result can put a 17% markup and still make a living. 30% was our markup, remember still cheaper than any retailer in town and we still couldn't make money.

My ex boss has had the company running for 11-12yrs, I was there for 5 of them but this year suddenly everyone took to the net and we were losing money for the first time.

[z80]

Just googled this.......

Average minimum hourly rate in US $7/hr

Average minimum hourly rate in AU $15/hr


The highest new record minimum hourly rate set in San Francisco at $10/hr recently.

[mcnews]

Originally Posted by pottery beige

but i like Andrew Bolt.... and hate bob brown.......

Bolt can be amusing at times but by and large he is a shock jock in print that writes a lot of sarcastic bile that some really ignorant fools swallow. I can't fathom that he actually believes himself in half the crap he writes, it's just entertainment in the same shape as Today Tonight etc. It's swallowed by ignorant people that have a chip on their shoulder about how woe is me etc.

And Bob Brown can certainly be annoying. But there is still something to be admired in someone that stands up and fights for what they believe in. Certainly deserving of more respect than a hate and constantly negative shock jock. Agree with Brown or not he has put the time in to get somewhere to do something about it.

What has Bolt done...... N-O-T-H-I-N-G. If he is some great saviour he should stand for parliament, I am sure Abbott would make room for him...

[Kieron]

Originally Posted by 5.4 GT

If you haven't travelled maybe...

Hmm, I have travelled extensively around the world, lived in the UK, i'm not an Aussie, have dual nationality allowing me to live anywhere in Europe and could live in Malaysia but I still chose to live in Aus.

[gtfpv]

Originally Posted by flappist

Well the problem is that the taxes are need to pay for:

Medicare.
All of the centrelink benefits.
The plethora of public servants.
The roads and other infrastructure.

The other reason why things are so expensive is:

Wages are so high with awards that allow even the most incompetent idiot to be given much more than they are worth.
Conditions such as sickies, 4 weeks hols with leave loading, unfair dismissal, workers comp etc etc.

I always find it amusing that those who scream about how expensive everything is in Australia are actually the REASON why everything is expensive in Australia.

There is this push to buy overseas and save money at the expense of Australian small business.

I wonder what the reaction to fly in fly out workers from Asia doing all the mine work at $200 a week? You know, like what happens in Europe etc.

Or how about all the union members in the cities being offered the same rate as they can get from overseas workers, take it or leave it. And if you leave it there is no dole just like USA and most of the rest of the world.

Things are expensive in Australia because it is full of Australians.........

totally true . we shouldnt whinge , when you think about it we pay yes , but we have less crime rates than overseas , we get a better lifestyle overall as a group . our poor and our bludgersll get looked after , our middle class may have a little less to some degree than other countries , but atleast our overall lifestyle for the elderly , the sick, the poor , the bludgers, the immigrants, and the single parents and divorcees>(freedom of choice) still fair quite well in comparison which helps our COMPLETE lifestyle overall allowing us to be a relatively safe nation , and we can still strive for wealth as individuals if we wish . ... overall , not too bad . thats why people who have it relatively good elsewhere want to come here .
middle class in other areas do have it better though with a little less stress from what i gather .

[Cheese3]

Originally Posted by gtfpv

totally true . we shouldnt whinge , when you think about it we pay yes , but we have less crime rates than overseas , we get a better lifestyle overall as a group . our poor and our bludgersll get looked after , our middle class may have a little less to some degree than other countries , but atleast our overall lifestyle for the elderly , the sick, the poor , the bludgers, the immigrants, and the single parents and divorcees>(freedom of choice) still fair quite well in comparison which helps our COMPLETE lifestyle overall allowing us to be a relatively safe nation , and we can still strive for wealth as individuals if we wish . ... overall , not too bad . thats why people who have it relatively good elsewhere want to come here .
middle class in other areas do have it better though with a little less stress from what i gather .

The reason why people come to australia from else where because the majority fall in the category you have mentioned, poor and bludgers. And i will never will be please with those slackers taking a cent of my money, when i am pumping out 76hr weeks to earn good money while they sit at home and breeding, and the kids seeing the parents doing nothing and when that happens, its monkey see's monkey do's.

[mcnews]

Yeah all those immigrant kids that top virtually every academic measure in existence and go on to be doctors and destists to the woe is me Aussie battlers that can't be bothered getting off their bum and taking advantage of the god given advantage they were given by their birthright. Can't be my fault I am too stupid, fat and lazy to make a good living and support my kids, but for those damn immigrants I would be sitting pretty......

[Jim Goose]

Originally Posted by Cheese3

The reason why people come to australia from else where because the majority fall in the category you have mentioned, poor and bludgers. And i will never will be please with those slackers taking a cent of my money, when i am pumping out 76hr weeks to earn good money while they sit at home and breeding, and the kids seeing the parents doing nothing and when that happens, its monkey see's monkey do's.

Oh... ok so there are no anglo saxon "white" folk who are dole bludgers and breeding 4/5 kids to different fathers?

Seriously, i really dispare when i hear racist comments like this.