Sunday
The Australian Bureau of Statistics has just claimed that Australians are richer than ever. It produced figures showing how much their property and shares were worth. They forgot to mention how much their debt was worth.
The ABS seem unaware that the measure of true economic health is to subtract debts from assets, not just ignore the debts. It should be mentioned in passing that while the asset value can (and will) fall, the debt value is fixed in stone.
And what is the current value of personal debt in Australia? Au$2 trillion, which comes in at $250,000 per household. It’s the fourth highest level of personal debt in the world.
The truth is that the situation in Australia is so dire that it could be this tiny outpost of Anglo civilisation that is the drop that breaks the international debt dam.
Even when both parents are working, average Australians are struggling to get by. Australian children have never had such grim prospects.
Meanwhile our government continues to regulate away the free market and thus any chance of a return to prosperity.
‘Tax the Rich’ is back in vogue. We all know the level of political desperation behind that hoary old slogan; we also know that its implementation will quickly make matters far worse.
Government education has produced a world full of ignorant and foolish people. Some of them work at the ABS.