The state of the economy at the street level

[Belli]

Behind a paywall. Summary, those blaming a particular generation for all the woes i.e you've got it and I want it syndrome, are not looking at the issue properly.

• In the naughties, boomers were castigated for fuelling a fiscal crisis because it was predicted that, as they aged, they would be a drain on the public purse (pensions, hospitals etc) and become a “burden” on younger workers.
• They were blamed for not saving enough for their retirement, even though superannuation came in when they were halfway through their working lives.
• Fewer than 10 per cent of boomers benefited from the fabled free university education. For the most part, only the children of the privileged middle-class attended university in the late 1970s and 1980s.
• Many boomers, anxious about their children’s future, are responsible for a very large transfer of wealth through the bank of mum and dad.
• Those landlords putting up rents for young people? Most of them are Gen Xers and Millennials. And the fastest growing category of homelessness is not among 20-somethings but among women over 55, baby boomers.
• There are rich boomers and there are poor boomers and many in between. For the generational warmongers, the rich-poor divide has been displaced onto a manufactured generational divide.
• Most top decision makers today, in politics, business, the media, are Gen Xers and Millennials. Perhaps Millennials and Gen Xers might turn to their brothers and sisters who now run the country and ask them to create a fairer society.

Blaming Baby Boomers for your money woes is unfair, lazy and wrong

Generational scapegoating places blame on a malevolent generation rather than the political and economic system that creates and perpetuates inequalities between rich and poor.

www.smh.com.au

 

[Value Collector]

Behind a paywall. Summary, those blaming a particular generation for all the woes i.e you've got it and I want it syndrome, are not looking at the issue properly.

• In the naughties, boomers were castigated for fuelling a fiscal crisis because it was predicted that, as they aged, they would be a drain on the public purse (pensions, hospitals etc) and become a “burden” on younger workers.
• They were blamed for not saving enough for their retirement, even though superannuation came in when they were halfway through their working lives.
• Fewer than 10 per cent of boomers benefited from the fabled free university education. For the most part, only the children of the privileged middle-class attended university in the late 1970s and 1980s.
• Many boomers, anxious about their children’s future, are responsible for a very large transfer of wealth through the bank of mum and dad.
• Those landlords putting up rents for young people? Most of them are Gen Xers and Millennials. And the fastest growing category of homelessness is not among 20-somethings but among women over 55, baby boomers.
• There are rich boomers and there are poor boomers and many in between. For the generational warmongers, the rich-poor divide has been displaced onto a manufactured generational divide.
• Most top decision makers today, in politics, business, the media, are Gen Xers and Millennials. Perhaps Millennials and Gen Xers might turn to their brothers and sisters who now run the country and ask them to create a fairer society.

Blaming Baby Boomers for your money woes is unfair, lazy and wrong

Generational scapegoating places blame on a malevolent generation rather than the political and economic system that creates and perpetuates inequalities between rich and poor.

www.smh.com.au

As a millennial, who grew up when they still referred to us as Get Y, I don't think we started the Generation war, for most of our 20's we were trash talked by the Boomers.

As for Boomer Wealth, I don't see it as a problem, the Boomer generation is in the process of drawing down their nest eggs, and as they die the residual amounts flows down to the Millennials and X'ers. The Z's will get their share in turn.

To me it's quite natural that the older generations that have been adulting for 40+ years should be richer than those who are in their first decade of adulting. But each generation will faces its own problems, and the Millennials have faced their share.

 

[Dona Ferentes]

thanks for that @Belli

 

[Dona Ferentes]

To me it's quite natural that the older generations that have been adulting for 40+ years should be richer than those who are in their first decade of adulting. .

and we need to identify the three stages of life
- Infancy
- Adolescence
- Adultery

 

[wayneL]

Talking to the owner of our local. He says things have dropped off quite a bit after the end of September. This, despite my attempts to make it an outstanding success

 

[mullokintyre]

Retail sales down 0.2% after last months 0.9% rise.
The boomers are taking it personally.
mick
Edited to add historical chart.

 

[Smurf1976]

Department stores seem to be struggling:

 

[qldfrog]

Department stores seem to be struggling:

I think people underestimated the WFH and related sea and tree move of the most affluent part of the population
As the richer population move to Noosa ,Byron or wherever, there are only a few shopping trips to the David Jones of Australia, replaced by the daily weekly trips to more local outlets .
Bored stay at home wives will spend differently either internet or more local outside big cities malls IMHO.
The stuck in the cities suburban working crowd does not have matching $power of the retired or sea moved "elite"

 

[mullokintyre]

More and more people seem to be struggling to pay energy bills.
From Evil Murdoch press

A record number of Australians are struggling to pay their electricity bills after prices rose by as much as 28 per cent in the year ended June 30, the country’s energy regulator has said.
The findings will heighten pressure on the federal Labor government, which is struggling to convince voters that it has taken meaningful action to aid families struggling with high inflation and interest rates at more than a decade high.

The Australian Energy regulator said from June 2022 to June 2023 market offers for residential electricity rose in the ACT, NSW, Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania by between 12 per cent and 28 per cent. Gains were less extreme in Victoria, rising by between 5 per cent and 11 cent.

The regulator said the proportion of residential customers with energy debt increased 2.9 per cent, up from 2.5 per cent recorded previously. The number of households and businesses on hardship plans increased 1.4 per cent from 1.1 per cent — both at their highest levels in the past five years.
The AER said retailers are identifying vulnerable customers earlier or with less debt, and more and more people are moving on hardship payment plans with smaller amounts of debt — indicating people are struggling with debts which would have previously been serviceable.

Those on payment plans are also incurring more debt, and the AER said the number of customers exiting hardship programs by clearing their debt is at its lowest level since 2018-19.

This is despite being told numerous times that renewables are cheaper by numerous politicians and economists.
The rhetoric is so far removed from reality, and unfortunately for those who have to cope with the reality, will have devastating consequences.
Mick

 

[SirRumpole]

This is despite being told numerous times that renewables are cheaper by numerous politicians and economists.

That really depends on how greedy the generators are going to be and how much competition there is. It doesn't look good at the moment

 

[qldfrog]

That really depends on how greedy the generators are going to be and how much competition there is. It doesn't look good at the moment

True but sadly renewable are actually really expensive, especially when they are needed and absent
Germany spent nearly a trillion if I am not wrong in the last 20y going green, I believe the part of their energy consumption being green has not moved more than 5% and they have restarted coal power plant...
You can not have cheap green energy 24/7

 

[Smurf1976]

This is despite being told numerous times that renewables are cheaper by numerous politicians and economists.
The rhetoric is so far removed from reality, and unfortunately for those who have to cope with the reality, will have devastating consequences.

Agreed with the point but as someone who's watched the whole thing, there's far more to it than the means of generation.

Hence my posts on the subject dating back prior to any significant use of renewables. The problem is far more fundamental than that - a return to coal, or going nuclear, will not of itself fix it for that reason. Indeed the present situation effectively precludes building either of those anyway - not for political reasons but due to the electricity industry's present structure and operation being very different from that required to support coal or nuclear. That's one reason for the closures.

I'll leave it at that since it's somewhat off the thread subject but suffice to say whilst some issues do exist regarding the technology of generation, the problems are far deeper than that and we're not done yet with all the drama - nothing moves in a straight line, there may well be periods when it goes in the opposite direction, but we're not done yet. Oh no we're not.....