It's everything, not just housing. When we say labour costs are high here, that is true; but only when compared to others in developing countries. So in essence, it's not our wages that are too high, it's our competitors' wages being too low. Invite them over to do business and it won't take long for the structural cracks to become noticeable.
We are being screwed over by the elites that are profiting by using cheap overseas labour. Then when we cannot afford to buy our local homes they get cashed up foreigners to take up the slack. It is the elite that have shut all the gates on the debate, for it is them that will sit with their bank accounts stuffed with the our wealth in years to come.
There was a time when ethics came into politics, now it's just business at our expense. I guess it's just payback time for all those years of the unions having their way with companies - now it will be the time of the big corporates to show their teeth as they'll have a smorgasbord of cheap labour at their disposal - local and abroad.
If we didn't get exposure to cheap overseas goods then we'd see a totally different ratio between assets, wages and consumer goods. Your average house price would probably be no higher than 250k, but your average wage would be closer to 120k. Sounds unlikely? Not if your consumer goods reflect the higher wages - like 3k for a basic telly, $8 for bread or milk, 200 for basic jeans, 80k for an entry level car, 800 for a cordless drill - not 20 dollars as in today. That was what life was like on western turf before it opened the doors for free trade. The cost of everyday living was so high there was virtually nothing left to buy a home, hence the more balanced wage/home ratio.
But we have come a long way, and many would say that's a good thing. I agree, life has been much better since they've flooded our land with goods so cheap that they can be considered gifts. The problem is, there's been a massive fee hidden within each item consumed by us, and only some have discovered it.
