A nice thread, and some interesting comments. Let's look at some facts.
Inflation has been running at around 5 - 6% for the last 30 years. Do the sums. I used to earn $1,000 a week 25 years ago. Now, $1,000 a week. Cost of living is triple.
You can't compare Australian prices with those in the US. Apples to oranges. The US has one of the lowest wages in the developed world. Everything costs half what it does here. But still, many people can't afford to live even with 2 jobs, sometimes 3. Believe me you wouldn't want to live there, I have.
But moving on, governments promised the privatisation of electricity would save us money. Fact - Government's lie, cheat, steel and deceive us and they always will.
The only thing Tony Abbot said "yes" in agreement to Labor was for a huge pay rise for them all on the context that they work hard.
Wayne Swan was voted the worlds best treasurer!!! MY GOD! Goes to show how bad the others are. He couldn't price or organise a BBQ in a butchers shop.
I know things are getting incomprehensibly expensive but lets admit something here - Most people waste electricity.
No concept of turning off lights that aren't being used, incandescent bulbs, power sucking cinema TV's, an average of 3 TV's per household while each kid watches their own TV at the same time even watching the same show at the same time. 4 air cons pumping away just to live in comfort, no consideration when buying appliances as to their energy efficiency etc. Electric hot water systems keeping hundreds of litres of water hot 24/7. Try an instantaneous gas hot water system. Only heats when the tap is turned on and I could go on further.
Before we sold our house we had one of the cheapest bills in the district because we took everything into consideration. The bill would compare our amount to the "average" amount and our's was about 1/3 of the average. All it takes is a little thought and determination to cut your bills in half.
We now live mainly on solar with low wattage appliances, toaster oven, fan and not aircon, nothing left on stand by, which BTW costs around $25 per year per appliance. Add it up, how many appliances have you got? There's a few hundred wasted just on stand by.
Come on, there's nothing we can do about corrupt and self serving politicians but we can help ourselves by not being as wasteful.
