Is Australia still the lucky country or are we being screwed????

[Gaddy]

Yeah but we have Medicare, free quality education for our kids and a VERY generous welfare scheme!
Beats Iraq or afganistan, israel Lebanon Greece etc etc etc.....
I say
AUSTRALIA
LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT!!!
just saying!

[Absinth]

Yeah but we have Medicare, free quality education for our kids and a VERY generous welfare scheme!
Beats Iraq or afghanistan, israel Lebanon Greece etc etc etc.....
I say
AUSTRALIA
LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT!!!
just saying!

Yep, Medicare is great for those on welfare....
Our free education is not as free as it used to be and the quality differs from State to State and is far from uniform.
Our generous welfare system is excellent if you're a dole bludger... get well paid, subsidised transport, rent assistance and hugely subsidised pharmaceuticals while you share a beach house with your mates and surf all day...

How is all this paid for...... by taxing the arse out of the honest hard working citizens...... Ohh, I get it now... they're doing a Robin Hood.... rob from the hard working money earners to give to the poor lazy beach bums and single mums... what could be fairer... of course... we'll throw $5500 at them for every baby they churn out...

I was comparing us to similar countries with a similar culture.... the US and England.

What pisses me off the most is 10 years ago I could buy a 700m2 block of land for $40,000 and build a 200m2 house on it for $140,000.... today you can build a 200m2 house for $170,000 but will be flat out getting a 400m2 block of land to put it on within 1hr of any major city for less than $180,000.

Why the hell in a country the same size area wise as the US but with less than 1/10th the population are we now paying so much for a piece of that land. A family with an income of $100,000PA will struggle to buy a house in Australia and have to penny pinch to survive.... if our VARIABLE interest rate goes up by 1 or 2% a lot of those families would lose the house they worked so hard to get.

A 280m2 house on a 3500m2 block in Milwaukee 20 mins out of the city can be bought for $200,000 on a 3.5% fixed for 30yrs loan. So... they pay the same amount per month for the whole term of the loan. 10% deposit of $20,000 and a loan amount of $180,000 with repayments of $870 per month or $200 per week.
http://www.realtor.com/realestateand...8_M78860-07021

A $100,000PA income family in Milwaukee can live in a 280m2 house with a bathroom (ensuite) off every room, far better fitted out than you would find in Australia with a pool and plenty of room for the kids along with a new car, a nice boat and could also afford decent holidays each year.