"Food Electricity Houses Rent Medical care Education Insurance Beer
I think that all these things are relatively more expensive than in the 70's. No proof, but I suggest they are. "
Missing the point bro, they are more expensive in nominal terms, but in real terms rents have been about 30% of income since 1901 in Aus, and that's still the case. In real terms housing has outstripped wage growth at an UNSUSTAINABLE rate. This has been the case due to alot of factors, the most prevalent being cheap credit, painful red tape in new land release/development which means supply response to demand is lagging behind and a tax system which offers incentives for all of our savings to be used to bid up the price of assets that offer no economic utility. Howard and Costello, the so called great economic managers started this and no govt since has been smart enough to figure out that having Australian's take on ever growing sums of debt to buy unproductive assets is probably not a good economic policy long term. Everyone is so drunk and high from their housing gains they haven't woken up to the fact this could do some serious damage to our economy.
