"Putting the nation and the wider community first inevitably benefits us anyway...". I wholly agree with this, yet this is what right wingers would call socialism. To me this is merely sensible.
I probably didn't write this clearly as I was aiming for brevity in a vastly complex matter ;-) I opined on the Generation Gap primarily to start the distinction of socialism from conservatism, both of which are fairly represented in every new generation, from my experience and reading/studies.
Yes houses were cheap as chips in my day. We almost bought a place for $20k in the late 70s but getting loan was the difficult part because we had saved the 20% deposit in 12 months instead of proving that we were reliable "savers' by taking 5 years to save up ..... crikey it was tough to convince the Bank Manager that we were earning good $$$s and living frugally so we could buy the home we had chosen. Three years later we bought a different home for $60k when easier lending came from a Credit Union. We had 30% deposit by that time and accumulated a few assets besides.
Those were th good old days when interest rates were sky-rocketing and although unemployment was rising dramatically, I'd established myself in my career and making good. We managed to pay off that home in 10 years - but the CU didn't like that much ;-)
These days of conservative rule have made it much harder with housing prices soaring while employment security and wages have crumbled. Despite the "low unemployment" rates, This current time has the highest real unemployment since the Great Depression. I recall that Howard was criticised for modifying how unemployment was counted, and Morrison has taken this to a new extreme by excluding those on Jobkeeper from unemployment figures, as well as reporting that large numbers of people "are no longer looking for work", i.e. kicked off Newstart.
