The state of the economy at the street level

[moXJO]

I have 4 kids most with partners and 8 grandkids, who live in all levels of society and range from 4 years old to 46 years old.
They live from Midland in social housing, down to South of Collie on acreage, so a pretty wide demographic

I also socialise with heaps of people in Mandurah, from people who live on the canals to people who live under the bridge, so I actually think I get a fairly wide exposure to society, my observations maybe incorrect and everything maybe fine.
Time will tell.

I have the same experience across a large demographic. Sons from 8 to 20s. I also train a lot of guys, exposed through multiple businesses, etc.
It's a noticeable shift in attitudes.

 

[IFocus]

Are you sure?
I talk to a lot of the fly in miners and they are one of the most depressed socially isolated guys I know. Are you just surface level talking to them?

The FIFO crew are a mixed bag most cope pretty well some really suffer their lives are way better than when I did it, on construction you were lucky to get a week off (unpaid) every three months.

 

[qldfrog]

I have the same experience across a large demographic. Sons from 8 to 20s. I also train a lot of guys, exposed through multiple businesses, etc.
It's a noticeable shift in attitudes.

For my part and limited circles, the covid lockdown, forced jabs and damages remove whatever legitimacy trust people had in the system.
Do you realise we just got our politician voting a law to prevent social media accessto pre 16y old..
Both sides...
People with any common sense/real life experience just shake their heads and think in which ******* planets do these morons live?
And they tell me there is no inflation?
Nothing to do with neg gearing, girls may want to believe the woke storyline etc, after all protected jobs, special treatment, etc..they are not all fool but can pretend to believe the ****, it's in they interest so why not but young men being so austracised nowadays, and no room for freedom for these suburban kids, speed camera at 50km/h, you are a ******* criminal inhaling water vapor in Australia FFS, we do not even have a Joe Rogan or Jordan Peterson.
No even drinks or sex, contraband cigarettes or drugs the only window left for many
Any lone wolf blownout would not be a surprise here
So expect coming explosions.
And it might be ugly.

 

[mullokintyre]

Getting Back to the topic, I was at a Christmas function last night.
Got talking to a dairy farmer in our region.
he wanted to put in a large rotary dairy on his property to replace the ancient herringbone system he had.
From the time the design started to the time he got approval to build the dairy was 3.5 years.
The design only took 3 months.
The rest was getting permitting from local council, EPA, CFA, and whole bunch of other hangers on.

Mick

 

[farmerge]

Getting Back to the topic, I was at a Christmas function last night.
Got talking to a dairy farmer in our region.
he wanted to put in a large rotary dairy on his property to replace the ancient herringbone system he had.
From the time the design started to the time he got approval to build the dairy was 3.5 years.
The design only took 3 months.
The rest was getting permitting from local council, EPA, CFA, and whole bunch of other hangers on.

Mick

Typical and I guess the cost per transaction wasn't a dollar each time either.

 

[over9k]

NZ now officially in recession, any kiwi's on this forum?

 

[wayneL]

I am investing in wheelbarrows. They will be in high demand for carrying around bundles of $100 notes to buy a stale loaf of bread.

 

[sptrawler]

This is an interesting article, I wonder if the other banks and car makers will have something to say about it? It seems a weird sort of Federal handout, if it is true.
But E.V sales have fallen off a cliff, so any members on low income who need an EV, here is your chance.

MSN

The Federal Government has announced it will help finance low-interest loans to help Australians – including essential workers – buy an electric car.

The Commonwealth Bank will receive $150 million from the government-run Clean Energy Finance Corporation to offer “low-interest” loans for workers earning less than $100,000 a year, plus essential workers such as police officers, teachers, fire fighters and nurses.

It’s claimed the interest rates on the loans will be “up to 5 percentage points lower than standard rates,” the Federal Government said in a media release, and could save buyers “more than $8000 for a $40,000 loan with a seven-year term”.

Funding will go towards “discounted loans for new and used EVs worth up to $55,000, as well as home EV charging equipment,” Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen’s office said.

 

[qldfrog]

Did some shopping in Sunshine plaza, biggest shopping centre on the sunny coast and was happily surprised by how quiet it was a week from Christmas.
Maybe pure luck but far from the mayhem i remembered for school holiday pre xmas.

 

[moXJO]

NZ now officially in recession, any kiwi's on this forum?

They are all moving here because groceries are absolutely ridiculous there along with the bills.

 

[moXJO]

Mall restaurants are quiet. It's packed in the malls here. Not sure about spending though. People are buying. Weekends seem to be doing more trade.

 

[divs4ever]

NZ now officially in recession, any kiwi's on this forum?

does a half count ? ( my father was born in NZ )

i was under the impression NZ has been officially in recession for at least 3 months ( maybe since Jacinda left the Prime Minister spot , although it may have been unofficially in recession for all of 2024 ) and the amazing thing they are honest about it ( must be too deep to paper over )

am still circling , looking for ( ASX-listed ) NZ-recession bashed stocks , so far only nibbling on SPK ( one of their telcos )

 

[Knobby22]

Numbers are hard. The human brain is limited but we can work things out by analogy.

This Christmas the projected amount Australians will spend per person is $425. That's 11.8 billion. (Source Malcolm Knox, The Age).

If we all stopped gift giving and used it differently it would be enough to:

1. Pay every Australians electricity bill for a year or:

2. Buy 1/3 share of a nuclear submarine or:

3.Run for one year the Medical Research Future Fund, all MRI and nuclear medical imaging machines, the entirety of the federal environment, energy, water and climate change departments, the ABC and SBS and still have money left over.

4. 1/32 of the nuclear energy plan (best case).

5. Give to Knobby22 to make him half as wealthy as Gina Rheinhardt. (best choice).

 

[qldfrog]

Are you sure about #1
If a couple on average pay less than 900$ in electricity bill, they are basically off grid
What about i administer option 5 for you?

Numbers are hard. The human brain is limited but we can work things out by analogy.

This Christmas the projected amount Australians will spend per person is $425. That's 11.8 billion. (Source Malcolm Knox, The Age).

If we all stopped gift giving and used it differently it would be enough to:

1. Pay every Australians electricity bill for a year or:

2. Buy 1/3 share of a nuclear submarine or:

3.Run for one year the Medical Research Future Fund, all MRI and nuclear medical imaging machines, the entirety of the federal environment, energy, water and climate change departments, the ABC and SBS and still have money left over.

4. 1/32 of the nuclear energy plan (best case).

5. Give to Knobby22 to make him half as wealthy as Gina Rheinhardt. (best choice).

 

[Value Hunter]

The biggest problem in Australia currently is immigration. Its crippling the average person (while benefiting businesses). All its doing is increasing crowding, pollution, straining infrastructure, exacerbating the housing shortage and causing rising unemployment and lower real wages. The average persons living standards is going down the toilet. We need the types of politicians that have appeared in countries like Poland and Hungry (Victor Orban, etc) to stop the menace of immigration.

Here is a tweet from U.S. politician Nikki Haley:

"When I was governor in SC our unemployment went from 11% to 4%. How? Not by hiring foreign workers. We recruited foreign companies to invest in SC but not their workers. We retrained South Carolinians in our tech schools for these new jobs. The companies started apprentice programs for high school and college students. You know who paid for them? The companies, not govt. Today South Carolinians are building planes, automobiles, tires, etc. And building them well. What is lazy is for the tech industry to automatically go to foreign workers for their needs. If the tech industry needs workers, invest in our education system. Invest in our American workforce. We must invest in Americans first before looking elsewhere. Don’t ever underestimate the talent of Americans or the American spirit."

People like Nikki Haley and J.D. Vance in the U.S.A. have cottoned onto the fact that immigration is rotting the foundations of society and it needs to be curtailed. Politicians in Australia are all so corrupt that none of them will tackle the immigration issue because they all have their snouts in the trough.

 

[Value Hunter]

Let's be honest, a pizz poor education system is the only sustainable export we have, until it is worthless. Lol
Where it is heading.
Australia's underlying economy is a basket case, it has taken 30 years, but finally the chooks are come home to roost. Lol

A huge part of the student visas is just a backdoor for people to work in Australia. The amount of young Brazilians, Colombians, etc in Sydney I have seen studying "hospitality management" or other such courses at overpriced no name institutes and they openly admit when asked they just do it for the visa. If you removed all the courses that people "study" just to get the visa to remain in Australia so they can work here, etc then the education sector in Australia would probably shrink 50% overnight. Its all a farce.

 

[over9k]

A huge part of the student visas is just a backdoor for people to work in Australia. The amount of young Brazilians, Colombians, etc in Sydney I have seen studying "hospitality management" or other such courses at overpriced no name institutes and they openly admit when asked they just do it for the visa. If you removed all the courses that people "study" just to get the visa to remain in Australia so they can work here, etc then the education sector in Australia would probably shrink 50% overnight. Its all a farce.

It's a way for us to import cheap labour and make them pay for the privilege whilst maintaining a veneer of "skilled immigration to fill a skills shortage".

There is no shortage of uni grads whatsoever. It's a farce. I don't know why they don't just outright sell visa's at this point and just cut the **** already.

We all know what's going on.

 

[Value Hunter]

I see plenty of Indians working at Woolworths stacking shelves a job which pretty much any local can do but I have yet to meet an Indian plumber. The reality is that immigration in Australia has nothing to do with filling skills shortages and everything to do with importing cheap labour. The same skills shortages persist for decades despite the continuing mass immigration. We still have shortages of plumbers, electricians, mechanics and surgeons like we did 5, 10 and 20 years ago so what exactly have we achieved with mass immigration?

And customer service in Australia has gone down the toilet. I hate being served by third worlders everywhere I go who have zero understanding of the concept of customer service and who only get hired because of nepotism (once an Indian manager gets into a workplace within 5 years half of the employees will be Indians) or because they kiss the managers ass because they come from a country with a caste system. Before anyone screams racism I have Indian friends. Individuals can all be wildly different but on a society wide level there can be aggregate differences in behavior between people from different countries which need to be taken into account.

I remember as little as 10 - 15 years ago you could walk into all kinds of different shops and get basic customer service. You would ask where something is and people would walk you over to the item, if something was out of stock they would check the receiving dock, check if other stores had stock, offer to order it in for you, etc. If there was a queue at the cashier another team member walking by who saw it would open another register, team members were flexible about companies policies and would often bend the rules a little to help customers, and so on and so forth.

Instead now you walk into a store and when you ask where something is some Indian or Chinese person will tell you "Sorry I am new here, I don't know" and then walk away. Or you will ask for something they will tell you they do not sell it and you find out the place does actually sell it, etc.

Back in the day it used to be that it was considered basic customer service that if you did not know the answer to something you would try your best to find out by asking another staff member, having a look, etc. But most of these Indians, Chinese, etc only care about playing politics and kissing the managers ass. Zero care factor about actually being good at their job. Managers hire them though because they like to have yes men reporting to them rather than people who are competent at their job.

The way is Australia is headed we will be a 3rd world country within 30 - 50 years. Also mass immigration is a dumb idea because we are a resource rich country. The higher the population goes the thinner that all the extracted resource wealth has to stretch. The reality is the mining and energy industries only need a fairly modest (in the grand scheme of things) number of employees but they generate huge tax revenues and profits, etc. Norway is so prosperous because they have an immense amount of oil wealth and only 5.5 million population.

Brunei is doing quite well for an Asian country because it has a lot of oil and a small population.

If you have lots of resource wealth why dilute the wealth per capita by having a large population? That just decreases everybody living standards.

 

[qldfrog]

I see plenty of Indians working at Woolworths stacking shelves a job which pretty much any local can do but I have yet to meet an Indian plumber. The reality is that immigration in Australia has nothing to do with filling skills shortages and everything to do with importing cheap labour. The same skills shortages persist for decades despite the continuing mass immigration. We still have shortages of plumbers, electricians, mechanics and surgeons like we did 5, 10 and 20 years ago so what exactly have we achieved with mass immigration?

And customer service in Australia has gone down the toilet. I hate being served by third worlders everywhere I go who have zero understanding of the concept of customer service and who only get hired because of nepotism (once an Indian manager gets into a workplace within 5 years half of the employees will be Indians) or because they kiss the managers ass because they come from a country with a caste system. Before anyone screams racism I have Indian friends. Individuals can all be wildly different but on a society wide level there can be aggregate differences in behavior between people from different countries which need to be taken into account.

I remember as little as 10 - 15 years ago you could walk into all kinds of different shops and get basic customer service. You would ask where something is and people would walk you over to the item, if something was out of stock they would check the receiving dock, check if other stores had stock, offer to order it in for you, etc. If there was a queue at the cashier another team member walking by who saw it would open another register, team members were flexible about companies policies and would often bend the rules a little to help customers, and so on and so forth.

Instead now you walk into a store and when you ask where something is some Indian or Chinese person will tell you "Sorry I am new here, I don't know" and then walk away. Or you will ask for something they will tell you they do not sell it and you find out the place does actually sell it, etc.

Back in the day it used to be that it was considered basic customer service that if you did not know the answer to something you would try your best to find out by asking another staff member, having a look, etc. But most of these Indians, Chinese, etc only care about playing politics and kissing the managers ass. Zero care factor about actually being good at their job. Managers hire them though because they like to have yes men reporting to them rather than people who are competent at their job.

The way is Australia is headed we will be a 3rd world country within 30 - 50 years. Also mass immigration is a dumb idea because we are a resource rich country. The higher the population goes the thinner that all the extracted resource wealth has to stretch. The reality is the mining and energy industries only need a fairly modest (in the grand scheme of things) number of employees but they generate huge tax revenues and profits, etc. Norway is so prosperous because they have an immense amount of oil wealth and only 5.5 million population.

Brunei is doing quite well for an Asian country because it has a lot of oil and a small population.

If you have lots of resource wealth why dilute the wealth per capita by having a large population? That just decreases everybody living standards.

A lot of common sense: VH as premier

 

[Value Hunter]

People like Nikki Haley and J.D. Vance in the U.S.A. have cottoned onto the fact that immigration is rotting the foundations of society and it needs to be curtailed. Politicians in Australia are all so corrupt that none of them will tackle the immigration issue because they all have their snouts in the trough.

And the Ironic part of it all is that J.D Vance has an Indian wife and Nikki Haley has Indian parents. Lol!!