" . . . . . . Australians owe, on average, about $3,800 in credit card debt and a further $17,700 in personal debt (excluding property debt, which averages $565,880).
This year Australian shoppers were expected to spend $63.9 billion in the six weeks before Christmas, about $2,458 per person.
We waste a lot of what we buy.
For example, each year Australia wastes 7.6 million tonnes of food, with consumers accounting for half of this waste. The food we throw out is worth between $2,000 and $2,500 per household - or up to $1,000 per person.
That's just the start of the wasteful spending - think of all those gym memberships, gift cards, clothes, appliances and furniture we've bought but don't use.
In total, Australian households produce about 12.4 million tonnes of waste each year. That equates to roughly half a tonne per person.
We are not just spending beyond our personal means, but also beyond what our planet can sustain.
Eventually, we will run out of places for all this waste to go.
. . . . .
Why buy so much in the first place?
Part of the problem is we are exposed to thousands of advertisements every day and a huge array of cheap products. The temptation to keep buying things can be too much for many people.
In their 2005 book Affluenza, Clive Hamilton and Richard Denniss described the Western world as being in the grip of consumerism. Fast forward to 2022 and it appears we haven't changed much. Behaving as though we have a chronic lack of stuff, we simply buy too many things we don't need. . . . . ."
Mike Harding said
11:42 AM Dec 29, 2022
A good post Mein. The trouble is that the statements and questions you raise produce many more questions than answers.
I think Western societies have largely lost the plot regarding why we are on this planet and what constitutes a fulfilling life. We hanker after trinkets, a stupid mobile phone for $1300+ is commonplace and gives the owner a sense of satisfaction, importance and success for about two days thus the next trinket must be sought in order to maintain the mental stimulation of "success". Like an addict needing his next fix.
We have, largely, lost religion and families from society both these provided the glue which held society together and created the bonds which encouraged individuals to help and support comparative strangers.
I have no answers indeed I'm not convinced repairs are even possible so much have we damaged society. Ninety percent of wealth is owned by 2% of people (or something like that). Many individuals are worth billions of dollars. Both accumulations are obscene and part of the massive barrier which separates rich from poor. The rich now have to live in fortresses with security in fear of the hoards of poor - perhaps in time the poor will violently rise up and civil war will ensue. Part of government's task is ensuring the poor are supplied with just sufficient contentment that this doesn't happen or, if it does, it's a small enough uprising that the police can put down. I do not think such a society is sustainable.
Once again on this forum; I commend the writings of Theodore Dalrymple to readers.
Mein said
12:11 PM Dec 29, 2022
I very much doubt that this post, or indeed the original ABC News article, will change many mindsets / behaviours but, nonetheless, the subject is worthy of raised - again and again and again.
Cuppa said
12:50 PM Dec 29, 2022
Well I'm pleased (& a bit proud) to say that my wife & I are a long way below average on every aspect referenced in the OP. Last time we had any debt was a small mortgage, paid off over 25 years ago. We have lived a frugal 'planet friendly' life, having just one child, repairing rather than replacing has been a matter of pride as well as principal whenever possible, 'Repairability' has always been part of purchase decisions & we never bought anything unless we had the money to do so. (With the exception of somewhere to live).
We have largely avoided any 'pressure' to 'have more', satisfied instead with having 'enough'. It has been a personal choice to 'make do' & to reject 'bling' and has never felt like we 'missed out'.
We will always have a roof over our heads but will never have a fancy McMansion nor the latest & greatest of anything, & the need for such things to tell us we are 'successful' has never existed.
Our goals have been to live the life we want & to be happy, & on the whole we reckon we have achieved that. Now & again we have seen friends who have appeared to have so much more than us, but to have this they have traded their lives for pressure, debt, & having to live to someone else's tune. They rationalise this in many ways, but have often been too busy to recognise they were not happy. Comments over the years along the lines of "We wish we could do what you're doing' when countered with "but you could" inevitably met with "Yes but". We all make our choices, but choices viewed as 'unconventional' are mostly seen as risky by those whom the 'rat race' has in it's clutches. Every time I read folk advising other folk to 'get financial advice' I have a moment of discomfort, a momentary fear they may be right. But for us, we took things into our own hands after being ripped off by the financial system years ago, living by the principle of spending only when necessary, prioritising saving whenever possible, & relying on ourselves. A financially conservative & cautious approach which rejects a concept of 'loss' which incorporates that which we have never had. Smoke & mirrors money I call it. We rely on 'what we have', not on 'what we could make'. I dare say we could have become far better off financially but for us the concept of 'richer' includes the quality of life we have led - to our own drumbeat, not someone else's.
Two things we would do better if we could though. We would prefer to travel without an ongoing reliance on fossil fuel, but reconcile our diesel usage knowing that our 'pollution footprint' would be greater if we were living a more 'conventional' home-based lifestyle, & we also miss growing & raising our own food as we did for decades pre-travel, so have to deal with 'supermarket food' with all it's wasteful packaging. Nevertheless if you watched us in the supermarkets you would observe that we are not your run of the mill shoppers. We neither want, nor have space for most of the packaging, so we return as much of it as we practically can to the supermarket before we leave.
I expect any determined critic who examined the details of the life we've led, and lead could find plenty of inconsistencies where we have let our principles slip, but in comparison to the averages referred to in the OP I reckon they are in a different league to us.
Ivan 01 said
03:51 PM Dec 29, 2022
Cuppa, that is a good post.
I do personally think that many of us think along similar lines.
I also personally think that Australians are generally wanting to penalise themselves for no gain in the big wide world of pollution.
In Australia I believe we are being hoodwinked for political and economic gain by varying representative bodies.
This is unfortunate when considering that the majority of Australians are similar in their general lifestyle beliefs and actions.
Your guilt of relying on fossil fuel wont change unfortunately as there is no current practical alternative but your comment on packaging as I believe is one of our major sources of pollution. It encourages or forces us to over buy, and then creates a huge mountain of waste both with packaging materials and wasted food and many other products.
Removing automated packaging would go a long way to help alleviate mountains of waste.
Unfortunately we have all adopted by force from others, a disposable commodity supply.
Whenarewethere said
03:53 PM Dec 29, 2022
Today things have shorter lifespans but come in indestructible packaging.
Possum3 said
07:21 AM Dec 31, 2022
Whenarewethere wrote:
Today things have shorter lifespans but come in indestructible packaging.
No items have a shorter lifespan than "Women's Fashion" - I read recently that these items are considered to be the largest problem to landfill, in developed Countries. Furthermore, the synthetic fabrics are the source of most microplastics polluting our oceans and waterways.
From an ABC News article posted today:-
" . . . . . . Australians owe, on average, about $3,800 in credit card debt and a further $17,700 in personal debt (excluding property debt, which averages $565,880).
This year Australian shoppers were expected to spend $63.9 billion in the six weeks before Christmas, about $2,458 per person.
We waste a lot of what we buy.
For example, each year Australia wastes 7.6 million tonnes of food, with consumers accounting for half of this waste. The food we throw out is worth between $2,000 and $2,500 per household - or up to $1,000 per person.
That's just the start of the wasteful spending - think of all those gym memberships, gift cards, clothes, appliances and furniture we've bought but don't use.
In total, Australian households produce about 12.4 million tonnes of waste each year. That equates to roughly half a tonne per person.
We are not just spending beyond our personal means, but also beyond what our planet can sustain.
Eventually, we will run out of places for all this waste to go.
. . . . .
Why buy so much in the first place?
Part of the problem is we are exposed to thousands of advertisements every day and a huge array of cheap products. The temptation to keep buying things can be too much for many people.
In their 2005 book Affluenza, Clive Hamilton and Richard Denniss described the Western world as being in the grip of consumerism. Fast forward to 2022 and it appears we haven't changed much. Behaving as though we have a chronic lack of stuff, we simply buy too many things we don't need. . . . . ."
A good post Mein. The trouble is that the statements and questions you raise produce many more questions than answers.
I think Western societies have largely lost the plot regarding why we are on this planet and what constitutes a fulfilling life. We hanker after trinkets, a stupid mobile phone for $1300+ is commonplace and gives the owner a sense of satisfaction, importance and success for about two days thus the next trinket must be sought in order to maintain the mental stimulation of "success". Like an addict needing his next fix.
We have, largely, lost religion and families from society both these provided the glue which held society together and created the bonds which encouraged individuals to help and support comparative strangers.
I have no answers indeed I'm not convinced repairs are even possible so much have we damaged society. Ninety percent of wealth is owned by 2% of people (or something like that). Many individuals are worth billions of dollars. Both accumulations are obscene and part of the massive barrier which separates rich from poor. The rich now have to live in fortresses with security in fear of the hoards of poor - perhaps in time the poor will violently rise up and civil war will ensue. Part of government's task is ensuring the poor are supplied with just sufficient contentment that this doesn't happen or, if it does, it's a small enough uprising that the police can put down. I do not think such a society is sustainable.
Once again on this forum; I commend the writings of Theodore Dalrymple to readers.
I very much doubt that this post, or indeed the original ABC News article, will change many mindsets / behaviours but, nonetheless, the subject is worthy of raised - again and again and again.
Well I'm pleased (& a bit proud) to say that my wife & I are a long way below average on every aspect referenced in the OP. Last time we had any debt was a small mortgage, paid off over 25 years ago. We have lived a frugal 'planet friendly' life, having just one child, repairing rather than replacing has been a matter of pride as well as principal whenever possible, 'Repairability' has always been part of purchase decisions & we never bought anything unless we had the money to do so. (With the exception of somewhere to live).
We have largely avoided any 'pressure' to 'have more', satisfied instead with having 'enough'. It has been a personal choice to 'make do' & to reject 'bling' and has never felt like we 'missed out'.
We will always have a roof over our heads but will never have a fancy McMansion nor the latest & greatest of anything, & the need for such things to tell us we are 'successful' has never existed.
Our goals have been to live the life we want & to be happy, & on the whole we reckon we have achieved that. Now & again we have seen friends who have appeared to have so much more than us, but to have this they have traded their lives for pressure, debt, & having to live to someone else's tune. They rationalise this in many ways, but have often been too busy to recognise they were not happy. Comments over the years along the lines of "We wish we could do what you're doing' when countered with "but you could" inevitably met with "Yes but". We all make our choices, but choices viewed as 'unconventional' are mostly seen as risky by those whom the 'rat race' has in it's clutches. Every time I read folk advising other folk to 'get financial advice' I have a moment of discomfort, a momentary fear they may be right. But for us, we took things into our own hands after being ripped off by the financial system years ago, living by the principle of spending only when necessary, prioritising saving whenever possible, & relying on ourselves. A financially conservative & cautious approach which rejects a concept of 'loss' which incorporates that which we have never had. Smoke & mirrors money I call it. We rely on 'what we have', not on 'what we could make'. I dare say we could have become far better off financially but for us the concept of 'richer' includes the quality of life we have led - to our own drumbeat, not someone else's.
Two things we would do better if we could though. We would prefer to travel without an ongoing reliance on fossil fuel, but reconcile our diesel usage knowing that our 'pollution footprint' would be greater if we were living a more 'conventional' home-based lifestyle, & we also miss growing & raising our own food as we did for decades pre-travel, so have to deal with 'supermarket food' with all it's wasteful packaging. Nevertheless if you watched us in the supermarkets you would observe that we are not your run of the mill shoppers. We neither want, nor have space for most of the packaging, so we return as much of it as we practically can to the supermarket before we leave.
I expect any determined critic who examined the details of the life we've led, and lead could find plenty of inconsistencies where we have let our principles slip, but in comparison to the averages referred to in the OP I reckon they are in a different league to us.
I do personally think that many of us think along similar lines.
I also personally think that Australians are generally wanting to penalise themselves for no gain in the big wide world of pollution.
In Australia I believe we are being hoodwinked for political and economic gain by varying representative bodies.
This is unfortunate when considering that the majority of Australians are similar in their general lifestyle beliefs and actions.
Your guilt of relying on fossil fuel wont change unfortunately as there is no current practical alternative but your comment on packaging as I believe is one of our major sources of pollution. It encourages or forces us to over buy, and then creates a huge mountain of waste both with packaging materials and wasted food and many other products.
Removing automated packaging would go a long way to help alleviate mountains of waste.
Unfortunately we have all adopted by force from others, a disposable commodity supply.
Today things have shorter lifespans but come in indestructible packaging.
No items have a shorter lifespan than "Women's Fashion" - I read recently that these items are considered to be the largest problem to landfill, in developed Countries. Furthermore, the synthetic fabrics are the source of most microplastics polluting our oceans and waterways.