At mum’s group people go on and on about real estate a lot. It seems as if everyone has a house and a rental property. I’m not in a leafy suburb by any means. In fact people think I live in the projects when I tell them where I live because the house prices are way under the median.
I don’t have an investment property and I don’t own the house I live in.

To give you an idea of craziness of real estate prices - the house I live in is now worth the same as what a three level town house in the inner city cost back in 2000. Of course that house is probably in the million dollar mark. I really don’t get it. So everyone in mum’s group wants the prices to remain as high as they have been in the past few years whereas I want them to drop so I can buy in.

I read a story in the paper about a young family that lived in a tent in a caravan park and used public toilets and BBQ facilities to cook a meal. These people are completely invisible at the moment in the mainstream press which goes on and on about millionaires, people who make money off real estate and rising rent prices. It makes people anxious and if you buy into it you really feel you don’t have enough even if you’re a millionaire. It’s the whole status anxiety thing.

But if you don’t look after those at the bottom, it’s not good for your kids or the future. Incredible disparity in wealth within a society really scares me. It’s how radicals are created on both sides of the fences. I don’t mind paying more taxes for better social services and for the money to go to people who need it. I believe in means tested welfare. I mean the fact Nicole Kidman will get the baby bonus of $5000 is ludicrous.

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