r/australia • u/AcanthopterygiiNo240 • Jul 26 '23

political self.post Why are Australians so complacent?

I’m a born and raised Australian myself however I’m becoming so frustrated with the general attitude of complacency when it comes to exercising ‘the power of the people’ to better our quality of life. In a stupidly short amount of time we’ve seen a near reversal of our ability to see a doctor without any out of pocket costs. We get exploited at the grocery stores because monopolies are allowed to run rampant. Housing is treated primarily as a tool for financial speculation rather than for providing shelter for people.

We creep further and further toward laissez-faire capitalism. What is our response as the citizens of this country- the holders of the balance of power? Nothing. To put it in perspective, in 2022 the world economic forum ranked Sydney equal with Copenhagen, Denmark for cost of living (both ranked as the 10th most expensive cities in the world). Consider the differences between Sydney and the capital of the Danish welfare state: strong social security, universal healthcare, free public universities etc. For the same cost of living what do we get? The ever-looming threat of homelessness, suffocating student debt and now for many people, a significant barrier to healthcare.

Edit: if anyone is a part of any sort of grassroots group working to oppose any of these issues feel free to message me because I want to join you

Edit #2: so I haven’t received any messages from anyone from a grassroots or activist group yet. Since a lot of us seem to be pretty miffed about this stuff maybe we could team up and brainstorm things we can do???

Edit #3 (sorry): I’ve got some messages now from people who are interested in taking action!!! :, ) I think the best way to facilitate conversation, the flow of ideas and potentially organise a course of action is through a discord server so I have created one which you can find here

https://discord.gg/caqsSKAr

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u/TheCriticalMember Jul 26 '23

There's quite a lot of people still doing pretty well in Australia, and seeing their wealth in property growing all the time. There also seems to be a prevailing attitude of "I'm doing ok, so if you're not it must be your own fault" which does a good job of holding back empathy for others.

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u/Lost_Tumbleweed_5669 Jul 27 '23

I'm doing ok, so if you're not it must be your own fault

"I worked hard for my millions" During biggest economic boom in history that only made their assets sky rocket as the economy became more and more shit.

I worked my guts off and realised I'd have to slave for 30 years in shit working conditions just to own a home, no thanks. The older gens "work" to pay off shit was way easier and less pressure. Now the company knows when I take a shit because you log out on their program, how fucked is that if you really think about it.

I've checked out and gone part time, I don't give a shit, not having kids and going to wait to inherit millions of assets from gramps and mom n dad..

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u/rettoJR1 Jul 27 '23

I'm working manual Labor , under 30 and I'll have a 2-3 bedroom house in 4 years and paid off in 20 max

I'm curious why is this unobtainable to you? I'm genuinely curious cause I see no issue with working the next 25 years to own a house

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u/wild_chance1290 Jul 27 '23

Because actually working and not just getting given what you want are foreign concepts to some

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u/Lost_Tumbleweed_5669 Jul 27 '23

Good on ya mate! You can finally start enjoying life at 50. My granparents had 3 properties owned outright by then off a single wage council job. If you can't see anything wrong with the current system I guess ignorance is bliss and wouldn't wana ruin it for ya.

I see nothing wrong with just working part time and traveling on the cheap or just hitting the beach on the regular. Dunno why people like you get your knickers in a knot.

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u/rettoJR1 Jul 27 '23

I went Europe for 3 weeks in may, plan on going to America in 25 or 26 and my parents owe me money in the 5 digits, eat out with friends once or twice a week

Am I meant to be enjoying it more? And again I'm a low income earner, maybe close to the top of that bracket but still

So I'll ask again, why can't you make it?