Cameron and Jonathan discuss the trend of moving from Australia to cheaper countries abroad to beat the cost of living and the apparent inability to get ahead down under.
Here in the USA, the main "lifestyle arb" has been related to remote work. When I lived in New York, I always joked with my fellow finance folks, "so are you are resident or a hostage?" The hostages have been freed and many have moved to places with lower wages and prices. The interesting thing to me is how quickly the arb has closed. Nice Florida real estate is no longer meaningfully cheaper than nice NY real estate.
Of course, the residents of the places *receiving* this flow suffers the opposite effect. They see costs rising and they get pushed down the status hierarchy. Hence the hostility toward newcomers!
The political ructions in the two places where I spend the year arise almost directly from the post-COVID disconnection between labor market and real estate market. The locals cannot compete for housing with coastal refugee remote workers.
We are in the phase of a game of Monopoly where the weaker players are being shaken out of the game and those who bought up all the squares & houses are consolidating you know - THE monopoly. In the olden days there were places you could run away to and make your fortune - America & Australia are these places.
The really obvious solution in Australia is land grants - just give away 1/4 acre blocks in the countryside and let people self-build. But we would cease being hostages of the land banker & developer class.
I find it hard to believe libertarians are attracted to India. Every political party in India is essentially a socially conservative left wing party. The only difference is the ethnic group they represent.
The only kind of libertarian thing in India is that you can marry according to religious law instead of a uniform secular law. For example, Hindus can rape their wives, Muslim men can divorce unilaterally (this was reformed recently), Catholics can't divorce etc.
This is a big one for me... I was born in Europe and have seriously considered returning since the possibility if a life in Aus is diminishing for anyone who doesn't have an anchor sunk into home ownership. We seem to have an employment market perpetually saturated with applicants for every job (I'm in IT) and yet have the mythology of skills shortages.
Australian real living standards were higher in the 60s when one income could support a wife and children and buy a home. The smartest thing Australia could do would be to impose a land value tax to reduce land speculation and give a credit against income tax for homebuyers.
I've visited South East Asia and China (admittedly a few years ago, I know they're miles ahead now). Quality of life ... depends how you define it I guess. What do you value? I personally like English-speaking countries with clean air, good public transport, rule of law, property rights and some degree of social tolerance. I guess that narrows it down to Australia, NZ, Canada, UK, Ireland, US, Singapore and a few islands here and there. All expensive countries – maybe not by coincidence. I suspect certain benefits are "priced in" that one might not immediately consider essential.
"Have things gotten worse?....I can't see anything in the data to suggest that is the case." - Are you for real Cameron? Or were you just pretending to counter that argument. If you google Leith van Olsen's article called 'First home buyers confront "impossible" market' - just take a look at the first graph. That's data, can you see a sudden trigger maybe? In only 25 years we have gone from 4:1 ratio to an 8:1 ratio for dwelling value-to-income ratio. Then you say, you can't see it in the data because heaps of people are coming here. They are coming here and enjoying the economic arbitrage and sending earned their money back home where it buys a lot more. Something home-born Australians can't do, and hence why they're getting squeezed out and having to move to cheaper places.
To top it off, in 2000 i could buy about 15 pollywaffles after tax with an hour's wages, now I can't even buy one.
I don't think the "low status" males moving to SEA will be as common. Remote work is mostly an upper middle class thing. You can't work as a plumber in Australia from Indonesia unless there is significant progress in telerobotics.
Do you think more upper middle class Australians moving to SEA will make it harder for the government to rely on progressive income taxes? Like how governments had to rely less on business and corporate taxes after the age of hyperglobalisation.
Here in the USA, the main "lifestyle arb" has been related to remote work. When I lived in New York, I always joked with my fellow finance folks, "so are you are resident or a hostage?" The hostages have been freed and many have moved to places with lower wages and prices. The interesting thing to me is how quickly the arb has closed. Nice Florida real estate is no longer meaningfully cheaper than nice NY real estate.
Of course, the residents of the places *receiving* this flow suffers the opposite effect. They see costs rising and they get pushed down the status hierarchy. Hence the hostility toward newcomers!
The political ructions in the two places where I spend the year arise almost directly from the post-COVID disconnection between labor market and real estate market. The locals cannot compete for housing with coastal refugee remote workers.
We are in the phase of a game of Monopoly where the weaker players are being shaken out of the game and those who bought up all the squares & houses are consolidating you know - THE monopoly. In the olden days there were places you could run away to and make your fortune - America & Australia are these places.
The really obvious solution in Australia is land grants - just give away 1/4 acre blocks in the countryside and let people self-build. But we would cease being hostages of the land banker & developer class.
I find it hard to believe libertarians are attracted to India. Every political party in India is essentially a socially conservative left wing party. The only difference is the ethnic group they represent.
The only kind of libertarian thing in India is that you can marry according to religious law instead of a uniform secular law. For example, Hindus can rape their wives, Muslim men can divorce unilaterally (this was reformed recently), Catholics can't divorce etc.
This is a big one for me... I was born in Europe and have seriously considered returning since the possibility if a life in Aus is diminishing for anyone who doesn't have an anchor sunk into home ownership. We seem to have an employment market perpetually saturated with applicants for every job (I'm in IT) and yet have the mythology of skills shortages.
Australian real living standards were higher in the 60s when one income could support a wife and children and buy a home. The smartest thing Australia could do would be to impose a land value tax to reduce land speculation and give a credit against income tax for homebuyers.
I've visited South East Asia and China (admittedly a few years ago, I know they're miles ahead now). Quality of life ... depends how you define it I guess. What do you value? I personally like English-speaking countries with clean air, good public transport, rule of law, property rights and some degree of social tolerance. I guess that narrows it down to Australia, NZ, Canada, UK, Ireland, US, Singapore and a few islands here and there. All expensive countries – maybe not by coincidence. I suspect certain benefits are "priced in" that one might not immediately consider essential.
Why don’t you talk about Centrelink recipients.
"Have things gotten worse?....I can't see anything in the data to suggest that is the case." - Are you for real Cameron? Or were you just pretending to counter that argument. If you google Leith van Olsen's article called 'First home buyers confront "impossible" market' - just take a look at the first graph. That's data, can you see a sudden trigger maybe? In only 25 years we have gone from 4:1 ratio to an 8:1 ratio for dwelling value-to-income ratio. Then you say, you can't see it in the data because heaps of people are coming here. They are coming here and enjoying the economic arbitrage and sending earned their money back home where it buys a lot more. Something home-born Australians can't do, and hence why they're getting squeezed out and having to move to cheaper places.
To top it off, in 2000 i could buy about 15 pollywaffles after tax with an hour's wages, now I can't even buy one.
I don't think the "low status" males moving to SEA will be as common. Remote work is mostly an upper middle class thing. You can't work as a plumber in Australia from Indonesia unless there is significant progress in telerobotics.
Do you think more upper middle class Australians moving to SEA will make it harder for the government to rely on progressive income taxes? Like how governments had to rely less on business and corporate taxes after the age of hyperglobalisation.