You make some good points as always Ronnie, hopefully my optimism isn't misplaced!
The big difference between the GFC and now as far as I can tell is that the 3 years leading up to 2007 saw an unprecedented rise in share prices. They balooned to a whopping level. People who bought in 2006-07 were bearnt, giving the impression that the market had imploded, but in reality it just fell below the long term trend line. Whereas now the market is still only trending at the long term mean, keeping in mind that the ASX is only now reaching where it was in 2007
The graph here shows it quite clearly if when the historical chart is clicked and set to Max
Also, immigration is the main reason inflation hasn't gone anywhere. Immigration creates more competition and immigrants to western world countries are generally willing to work longer hours for less pay. That has all sorts of flow on effects
And of course there's more competition in most sectors anyway created by the online world that we now accept as normal. Whether it be airlines, retail, health etc. The days of companies having a monopoly are mostly gone, with the exception of airports and maybe one or two others
