We have all been out and about and heard from friends and colleagues how hard things are under this Government or that Government, or since the GF or it was better in the 70s…
There are plenty of measures out there Australia usually ranks highly on per capita income levels and on well being levels, the latter the harder one to measure as it takes into account happiness and other subjective factors.
The OECD 2013 Better Life Index shows we rank highly again in all areas!
- Average household net-adjusted disposable income per capita is 31 197 USD a year, more than the OECD average of 23 938 USD a year.
- Unfortunately the top 20% of the population earn almost six times as much as the bottom 20%.
- People in Australia work 1 728 hours a year, less than most people in the OECD who work 1 765 hours.
- About 14% of employees work very long hours, much higher than the OECD average of 9%
- Life expectancy at birth in Australia is almost 82 years, two years higher than the OECD average
- 83% of people saying they have more positive experiences in an average day (feelings of rest, pride in accomplishment, enjoyment) than negative ones (pain, worry, sadness, boredom, etc.). This figure is higher than the OECD average of 76%.
We have had over twenty years of solid growth that is unprecedented in our history! Australia has not had a recession for 23 years (1991) and I know about that as I was just about to finish Uni and there were not many jobs to be had. In 1992 my University mates and I had to settle for jobs outside our studied accounting and finance areas; we were couriers, fisherman, garbage men and I was cleaning while I did some extra subjects. All these mates from Uni have been very successful since in their studied areas.
I did not think it was that tough in 91, 92… though my lifestyle has moved on since then! I sense that now compared to then Australians travel overseas more often, eat out much more, drive nicer cars and have nicer possessions… This is a general sense I have and there are other factors such as the $AUD strength, globalisation etc. I think we are generally better off and we are used to it!