3 ms·

So Australia is basically the UK circa early 2000's?

by mwj 10y ago

riffraff 10y ago
didn't the uk have an insanely large finance sector for the last few decades? I don't think australia has one.
- noir_lord 10y ago
  We did/do, a worryingly large share of government revenue comes from that direction. Combine that with the fact that a large finance sector is good for over all GDP but pretty much terrible for median GDP per capita (since all the wealth goes to relatively few well off people) and we have a nasty time bomb. If you factor in the real levels of inflation against salary rises in the last 15 years they are flat for most and down for some. I find it absurd that anyone is still arguing this is a problem, we've just watched the largest wealth transfer in history from the have-nots to the haves but somehow it's those poor immigrants who are carrying the can for it.
  - paganel 10y ago
    > I find it absurd that anyone is still arguing this is a problem, we've just watched the largest wealth transfer in history from the have-nots to the haves but somehow it's those poor immigrants who are carrying the can for it. One of my former bosses (a British expat who had moved to Eastern Europe) told me basically the same thing in late 2008 in regards to the then fully developing financial crisis: "This is one of the biggest rip-offs that I've ever witnessed". I remember thinking back then "if no world war starts in the next 10 or so years then I guess we'll be good". There has been no world war, just yet, but we've now got Trump, Brexit and almost all of Western Europe being 10-15% away from electing lunatic leaders.
    - noir_lord 10y ago
      What infuriates me the most about it isn't that they've hidden the figures or covered it up, the data is there. It's that no one seems to care, the press isn't covering it (why would they when they are mostly owned by high net worth individuals cough Murdoch cough or funded through them). It's an absolute scandal and we all just collectively went oh well, "please sir, can I have some more?".
      - ZeroGravitas 10y ago
        This was cuttingly compared to watching an episode of Columbo with an elderly relative with alzhimers by comedian Frankie Boyle (NSFW): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtWA3jQN1Pg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtWA3jQN1Pg

So Australia is basically the UK circa early 2000's?

by mwj 10y ago

So Australia is basically the UK circa early 2000's?

riffraff 10y ago

didn't the uk have an insanely large finance sector for the last few decades? I don't think australia has one.

noir_lord 10y ago
We did/do, a worryingly large share of government revenue comes from that direction. Combine that with the fact that a large finance sector is good for over all GDP but pretty much terrible for median GDP per capita (since all the wealth goes to relatively few well off people) and we have a nasty time bomb. If you factor in the real levels of inflation against salary rises in the last 15 years they are flat for most and down for some. I find it absurd that anyone is still arguing this is a problem, we've just watched the largest wealth transfer in history from the have-nots to the haves but somehow it's those poor immigrants who are carrying the can for it.
- paganel 10y ago
  > I find it absurd that anyone is still arguing this is a problem, we've just watched the largest wealth transfer in history from the have-nots to the haves but somehow it's those poor immigrants who are carrying the can for it. One of my former bosses (a British expat who had moved to Eastern Europe) told me basically the same thing in late 2008 in regards to the then fully developing financial crisis: "This is one of the biggest rip-offs that I've ever witnessed". I remember thinking back then "if no world war starts in the next 10 or so years then I guess we'll be good". There has been no world war, just yet, but we've now got Trump, Brexit and almost all of Western Europe being 10-15% away from electing lunatic leaders.
  - noir_lord 10y ago
    What infuriates me the most about it isn't that they've hidden the figures or covered it up, the data is there. It's that no one seems to care, the press isn't covering it (why would they when they are mostly owned by high net worth individuals cough Murdoch cough or funded through them). It's an absolute scandal and we all just collectively went oh well, "please sir, can I have some more?".
    - ZeroGravitas 10y ago
      This was cuttingly compared to watching an episode of Columbo with an elderly relative with alzhimers by comedian Frankie Boyle (NSFW): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtWA3jQN1Pg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtWA3jQN1Pg