[Forum] R. Findlay’s comment that “the economy has been going backwards for the past 40 years” (“Getting back to normal’, CCN 255) is, of course, complete nonsense.
On the contrary, the economy, until this year, has been growing for at least 30 years, and Australians are more prosperous than they have ever been.
In 2010, median wealth per household in Australia was $400,000: today, it is about $625,000.
In fact, the most recent research by the Credit Suisse Research Institute ranks Australians as the wealthiest people in the world.
Naturally, all these statistics are subject to disorder since the advent of the COVID pandemic, but, by any comparative measures, the Australian economy has performed superbly under all stripes of government.
One wonders what Mr. Findlay has in mind when he calls for us to “get back to normal”.
Since 1980, 40 years ago (which he seems to think of as a magic figure), average household income has increased by more than 50% – and that is in real dollar terms.
Is he suggesting that we should all go back to living on two-thirds of the income we have now?
I think that most of us could do without that kind of “normal”.
Since 1990 (only 30 years ago), Australia’s Human Development Index rating has risen from 0.866 to 0.938, so that our economic improvement has been matched by all human-development indicators as well.
There are very few countries in the world that come close to matching this economic and social record.
Nobody would claim that the country is perfect, but looking backwards 40 years, through rose-coloured glasses at a past that never existed except in Mr. Findlay’s imagination, is a totally unhelpful exercise.
It happens that 1980 was the year that I left Australia to look for fame and fortune overseas: the reason I’ve returned is that I see the transformation that has taken place over those 40 years, making Australia the best country to live in in the world – and that’s today.
Email, Aug 14
B. Hyland, Woy Woy.