Peter Dutton wants to know if you’re better off now. It’s a trick question

Humans find the most interesting and memorable evil than the good because evil is more threatening and we have evolved to seek threats to our environment.

In this case, however, the objective measurement confirms it most People are right in thinking that their domestic budgets are more difficult to balance than they were three years ago. There are various ways to measure living standards, but probably the best single size is something called “income available for net national families real per person”.

Between June 2022 and March 2024 (the last quarter available), it decreased by 3.6 percent. It may have resumed a bit in the 12 months since then, but not enough to prevent it from having fallen in general.

But this is only an average at the level of economics. We can break it down into more specific family categories. Those who depend on the income from wages are worse because consumer prices have increased a little faster than wages, although the wages increases have not been below the price increases in the couple of years Before The work has risen to power. This is a lack of families who earn wages in their efforts to balance their budgets.

The increase in interest rates from the last election means that families are by far feeling the greatest pain in the last three years are those with mortgages.

This also means those who have their homes openly have felt the slightest pain. Most people with the age pension did well because most of them have their homes and the age pension are completely indexed to the increase in consumer prices.

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As for the so -called self -financed pensioners, they have laugh. Not only do they own their homes, their super investments and others earn more when interest rates are high.

It is true, it is common that the elections are used to fire governments that have chaired difficult economic times. Be in power during a recession and you are dead meat. So the elections are often used to punish governments, on the logic that the other lot could not be worse.

But the side that benefits from these circumstances, taking over when everything is a disaster, will not be easy to bring everyone to work and have no problems with the mortgage in just three years.

I remember when Morrison’s government was expelled in 2022, Smarties among the liberals that was probably not said was not a bad election to lose. Why? Because they could see consumer prices had taken off and they had to further go. The use of higher interest rates to obtain the inflation rate would be painful and prolonged, possibly inducing a recession.

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This is the reason why Dutton’s question is so seductive for people who do not follow politics and economics and do not want to use their gray subjects. “If I felt the pain on your watch, it is obvious that you are to blame and take the bag. Don’t disturb me with the details.”

Remember, however, that all the rich economies have undergone the same inflation wave that we have done, all responded with higher interest rates and most have undergone an increasing unemployment and even, like Kiwi, a recession. But not us.

So let me ask you a different question: in the last three years have you ever had reason to worry about losing your job? Have you spent a lot of unemployed time while finding one? Did you have more people in your house able to find work?

Our employment rate is higher than what has never been. Our unemployment rate is still Almost The lowest has been in 50 years. This happened because the Albanian government and the Reserve Bank agreed to break down inflation without a recession.

But the price of avoiding recession is that interest rates remain higher. If you think the work has jumped in the wrong way, the bastards hunt.

Ross Gittins is the editor of economics.

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