I NOTE the weekend media stories giving homeowners the latest instalment of the rise in their house prices.
As usual it’s peppered with high valuations with the hinterland riding high.
Understandably you might say and all well and good when you own your home (either outright or can afford to keep paying it off). But maybe it’s not all really good news in the broader scheme of things. It’s nice when your investment increases in value, but at some point it must come at a bigger cost. I think of the youngsters trying to crack into the market now. Old farts might say, ‘well in my day we did this and that and lived in a one-room dugout etc. But does anything partially acceptable even exist anymore?.
Simply put the hinterland is not affordable as it quite recently was – and arguably should still be. That means less working class people – the ones who provide all the services we take for granted – teaching, emergency services, barista makers and so on – that are living close to where they work. Arguing this line makes one sound like a socialist, but smarter people seem to have no idea how to stem what is a fundamental issue to a stable society.
FESTIVE SPIRIT
Speaking of stable societies, the coast might have a super speed submarine internet cable going for it, but it’s powerless against a mosh of 20,000 teenagers. Having chaperoned a group of youngsters to the recent Groovin’ the Moo festival at Kawana I was astounded that there was no internet access. That meant I actually had to listen to some of the rubbish acts – The Chats I’m looking at you – and didn’t find out the results of the Bulldogs v Dragons match until 11 that night. Lost. Bad night.