Budget

It’s Budget Day.  And so that means that Ian will be locked to the TV for the evening.  I had enough of budgets after working in Department of Finance for 10 years – I never watched the budget then and I’m not ever starting.  My aversion of the budget is a mixture of not interested and too depressing – and that is the case every year, not just this one!  Yesterday Justine Davies, a news.com.au money writer, submitted an article entitled “So are we just a nation of whingers?”.    Like me, she was avoiding an actual discussion on the 2012-13 Budget (in her case because she didn’t have the details yet).  She was commenting on the NATSEM report called “Prices these days – the cost of living in Australia”.  NATSEM released a report which basically said (and it was a “basic” assessment) that the average household today is better off compared to 1984.  My mother actually called me about this report because she wanted to say how people complain about the cost of living when the ‘facts’ state that we are better off.   I do agree with mum with regards to some of the report, people do generally moan about how tough life is now without acknowledgement improvements in our lives.   

Now we might be better off, but we “need” much more today than in 1984 (I’m specifically thinking about the third computer that our children are telling us is desperately required).  Remember the “Wants versus Needs” exercise that every High School student is given at some point.  Samantha was telling me that her group had a major discussion about the inclusion of mobile telephone on the ‘need’ list – in 1984 mobile phones were a luxury item, that probably wouldn’t have even made the ‘want’ list!

The main problem with the NATSEM report – and the reason I highlighted “basic” above – is that the report didn’t actually look at the number of hours worked today compared to 1984.  This is a bit of a deal breaker for me, a major deficiency of the report and the point that Justine Davies was making as well.  It’s all very well to be better off – and it’s only slightly better off – but that additional money is due to additional hours worked. 

So today I’m going to be a little bittersweet in my gratefulness.  I’m very grateful for the additional salary that the average householder has today compared to 1984, but I’m a bit sad that it comes at the expense of working more hours.   Then again, as I’ve said before, I work so that I can have good holidays!  I think I need to start organising…