Australia Is Such an Overpriced Sh**hole - AAARGH

[Vasco]

You can get 14% on a bank account? I have to hunt to get 1 1/2%.

[positron]

Australia is only a worth while place to live if your a cashed up baby boomer from property or you came from overseas with cash (99% of Noosa).

Younger Australian don't have chance to accumulate the amount of cash that boomers have been able accumulate.

As for Australians protesting... to much fluoride in the water and "bread and circuses".

[cat man do]

Originally Posted by Vasco

You can get 14% on a bank account? I have to hunt to get 1 1/2%.

Interest Rate
http://www.eab.com.vn/

Pretty simple to open an account when there.
Quite difficult to get the money out of the country.

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by 44'cruisingcat

.........
My real beef is that Australian retailers have such high mark-ups. If I can buy the same product form a US RETAILER, and pay shipping, duty, GST, and still get it for halfthe cost or even less, then IMO the Aussie retailers are gouging.

Not necessarily the retailers, let's take say Icom. An Aussie Icom dealer has to buy from Icom Australia who will charge a wholesale price that is quite a bit above what an American retail store will sell for. Sure it is a "slightly" different radio as it has to have an Aussie "C tick" of approval stamped on it and that does cost Icom some money to put their various models through the required government hoops to get such approvals. By the way, this isn't a rant against Icom, they are just an example about which I have some knowledge.

It is also partly due to retailers here having only a small market population to sell to. Economies of scale etc.

And for retailers of imported goods that are priced based on US dollars, well, they struggled badly back when our dollar was around 50 cents to that "other" dollar and took hiding with margins just to stay afloat; now that our dollar is relativity high, they are returning to more comfortable margins that allow for them to stay in business, support the product etc.

Sure some are probably gouging but I don't think it is small importer or speciality products sector. But don't get me started on fuel companies

[Wand]

Originally Posted by cat man do

I have several friends working in various asian counties now.
ALL have better quality of life , many have maids, drivers, gardeners etc as required, many with paid accommodation and driver as part of their package.

I know others before me have tried to drum some sense into you - and failed. I'm gonna have just one shot with this illustration.

And that is that you too can have, in Australia, your own personal maid, driver gardener and toothpick sharpener, and you can get all your dental work done for small change etc etc IF you can find a maid, driver, gardener and dentist to work for a dollar a day.

Just think about it a mo pal.

[cat man do]

Originally Posted by positron

Younger Australian don't have chance to accumulate the amount of cash that boomers have been able accumulate.

Of course they do

Mr Dinnison (25) dropped out of Mandurah Catholic College in Year 10 and, after getting into trouble with the law, he got a job in the mines seven years ago.

He now earns up to $208,000 a year as a diamond and long-hole driller.

Cashed up bogan from Mandurah sparks debate in Wall Street Journal - inMyCommunity - Perth, Western Australia

[cat man do]

Originally Posted by At sea

I know others before me have tried to drum some sense into you - and failed. I'm gonna have just one shot with this illustration.

And that is that you too can have, in Australia, your own personal maid, driver gardener and toothpick sharpener, and you can get all your dental work done for small change etc etc IF you can find a maid, driver, gardener and dentist to work for a dollar a day.

And you can't

Thanks for proving my point

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by positron

Australia is only a worth while place to live if your a cashed up baby boomer from property or you came from overseas with cash (99% of Noosa).

Younger Australian don't have chance to accumulate the amount of cash that boomers have been able accumulate.

As for Australians protesting... to much fluoride in the water and "bread and circuses".

Hmm... I am guessing that you are one of the "Younger Australians"; if so, you may not realize that back in the 60's and 70's when those baby boomers where leaving school and entering the workforce etc, they also were "Younger Australians" and the future didn't look so great except they had no expectations of it being easy to get ahead, they just accepted that you start at the bottom, worked hard and maybe IF you got lucky, you would move towards the top. Perhaps having parents / grandparents surviving a great depression and two long world wars gave us a different outlook then the current YA's.

Additionally those baby boomers who are cashed up from property booms (and unfortunately I am not one) often look a lifetime of work before "becoming lucky".

Anyone using a computer / smartphone on the internet is so far in front of the pack that they can't see the rest of humanity for their own dust, all they see is the handful who are doing better than themselves.

OK rant over

[Ex-Calif]

Originally Posted by cat man do

Interest Rate
http://www.eab.com.vn/

Pretty simple to open an account when there.
Quite difficult to get the money out of the country.

And you would have lost about 12% ROE in the last 12 mos. vs. AUD. Dont have the 5 yr history handy but I am sure its similar if not worse.

The smart answer in the last 5 years is to keep your money in Oz and live in SEA. Which is what most Aussie cruisers are doing.

When I left college we were in the Carter/gas crisis years and in a recession. I sent 300 resumes out to land two interviews and one job. I could not imagine being able to accumulate the wealth my WWII era father had. Well that bastard had enjoyed all the post war boom years, had two tv's, two cars, a house and 2 airplanes! Lucky sod, those boom days were over. Never happen again!

I remember one day on a short drive (after I got a job in aviation) he diverted into a new development in Upland Ca. around 1980-81. He pulled up in front of a house and said I should really think of buying one. Buying a 200+k house was about as crazy to me as buying my own island. Those houses even today, post crash change hands for 6-700k.

It was years later I realized that his 16k house in 1960 stretched his budget as much as mine would have been in 1981. His house sold for over 200k in the mid 80s and he swapped up.

My neice is just graduated in Oz. she and her friends are smart, motivated, politically aware and living on shoe strings. Their lives like ours will be molded by an accumulation of choices spanning decades. Its a long game. You play the tried and true game working for the man, you pretty much know what you get. You go off the beaten track and you can become fabulously wealthy like Gates, or end up wondering what happened to your wealth accumulation when you turn 50-60.

Prices of boats and boat hardware in Oz is sucky for sure but trust me. The average middle class SE Asian may have a maid but they dont often have 40 foot boats and plans to cruise Australia. Boats are, have been, and always will be a fantastic luxury to most observers. You wont get much sympathy from anyone if you cant buy one.

There is a reason I have excellent income and no 40 foot cat yet. First it took a long time, until recently, to decide that is what I want and secondly I made the wrong choices all through my 30s and most of my 40s - oh, well...

Except for the alimony which is conspicuous consumption at its best I now live well below my means, 26 foot "yacht" notwithstanding, as I accumulate the bucks to get where I wanna be.

Thats my heart tugging story - LOL. YMMV...

[Lagoon4us]

Originally Posted by Vasco

You can get 14% on a bank account? I have to hunt to get 1 1/2%.

Did i miss something??? Where can u get 14% interest??? LEGALLY?????

[ausaviator]

I just spent the day in Key West Florida and i can tell you that Australia is NOT crowded in comparison!

[D&D]

Originally Posted by lockie

Yep, Oz is an AWFUL place!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Don't come here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All youse others be warned, don't come here! Just feel compassion for us dopey Aussie twats who are silly enough to enjoy what we have. Can you believe it, some of us bloody dills even enjoy our robust economy, even though it makes our currency a bit high and makes stuff a bit more expensive! How stupid are we?

Yep, stay away, enjoy your guns'n'stuff, and let us get on with our poor pathetic little lives!!!!!!

Heh heh.

lockie

SOOOOO well put lockie mate!!

We're also long-term migrants (ex UK & USA ~30yrs ago) to this beautiful...oops, sorry, meant to say this pathetic little island Down Under.

[Wand]

Originally Posted by cat man do

And you can't

Thanks for proving my point

And that response proves you can lead a horse to water but...

[cat man do]

Originally Posted by At sea

And that response proves you can lead a horse to water but...

What have you proved exactly?
Explain it please.

[cat man do]

Originally Posted by Lagoon4us

Did i miss something??? Where can u get 14% interest??? LEGALLY?????

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