Australia's 'pay later poor'

IanL · 15-10-2006, 11:37 PM

This is the mentality I was alluding to in an earlier thread. Absolute madness :?

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegrap...006010,00.html

I'd strongly disagree with this though

Quote:

Retailers have created this new breed of poor - people who have over-extended themselves to buy a new home and then signed up to all these contracts to get the furniture, the television and cable.

Retailers haven't greated it. Consumers have by not being patient enough to save any money and not understanding what they are signing. I have to say I will not give to 'Vinnies' any more. I want my charitable donations to go to the genuinely needy, not the genuinely greedy.

spray21 · 16-10-2006, 03:00 PM

Sounds a lot like England to me - I think most of these people have no-one to blame but themselves - they should not buy things that they cannot afford.
If they are in debt and cannot pay the bills any more, then it is time to get rid of the expensive TV/Cable/Car/House and cut down to what they can pay for.

Personally I'm pleased that interest rates are going up, it rewards those who save and have money in the bank.

Having said that, does Australia have 0% credit card deals in the same way that we have in the UK? A 0% card is always a handy thing to have!

choobs · 16-10-2006, 03:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spray21

Sounds a lot like England to me - I think most of these people have no-one to blame but themselves - they should not buy things that they cannot afford.

I agree completely. The problem is that we live in a society where you "need" the latest phone/car/trainers/bog roll/tech to fit in - how can anyone possibly survive without X? scream the adverts.

And a large number of people, living in the now because of the fear instilled in them by the media, think "hey, I can afford that because I qualify for the finance".

Sad to say, but it's a culture where people are judged by what they have not who they are. Question is - is it any different to the way it's always been, or is it just more visible?

Waiting for case officers makes me philosophical :)

Choobs

spray21 · 16-10-2006, 06:27 PM

I think perhaps people have always been driven to 'improve' their lives - whether they actually make their lives better is debatable, but people will always try to get what they want, what they perceive will improve their life.
Possibly the difference now is that credit is readily available. In small societies, (eg traditional town/village in the past) the local banker would have a good idea about who could afford to borrow what.
Now, in our anonymous modern society, banks do not care whether loans can be afforded by borrowers, only if borrowers can afford to service the debt & pay the interest every month. There are so many lenders there, all begging to loan money to hapless/desperate/naive people, that it is easy to get credit from several agencies at once. Huge debts are so normal now that they seem ok, people don't question it.
However, I still think it is up to the individual people to make their own decisions about what they can afford to borrow - and not take any more! When I was applying for mortgages a few years ago I was encouraged to stretch myself to the very maximum - I just laughed at them and said I can't afford that. But not everyone will tell a banker to get lost - they want what's being offered so they take it, thinking that they will deal with the problems later, 'it will all be ok', head in the sand approach.
And they have no-one to blame but themselves!

(Choobs - having no challenging job makes me verbose!)

IanL · 16-10-2006, 10:43 PM

I think the difference would be that in England charities are not giving out food and utilitie vouchers so these people can keep the stuff. Sell something for goodness sake :roll:

I always say to my wife 'I don't care if the whole world is doing something different to us, we do things that are appropriate for our situation',,,thankfully she agrees.

I am an IT Procurement Mgr/ Contract Negotiator, which gives me a fairly good insight into a) what I'm signing and cost vs benefit, b) I get to see on a daily basis how much of this stuff is obsolete after a short time. For a couple who earn their living understanding IT and financial DBs we live a very 'non tech' life.

Our mobile, which we share (I usually get a corporate one, but working for the Gov means I don't right now) is an old Nkia 3310 (I think) has no camera, no video, we aren't on a contract and buy $20 pre pay vouchers, and usually don't use that much before they expire.

I'm still on dial up at home, why? Because it's cheap and for what we use the net for (browsing and forum posting) we don't need the hassle and expense of a long contract. I pay $12.40 pm with DoDo and I can stop it any time. Yes it ties the phone up, but we only get calls on the weekend from family overseas anyway.

I don't download music etc as I have enough cds anyway, and usually am more interested in playing my guitars than listening to cds.

Our car is an 11yr old Mazda 323 with 80,000kms on the clock, we bought for $7k. It's a lovely car and great for what we use it for (toodling around on the weekends).

We don't go out that much, use to go to trathlons (which usually means staying a few nights somewhere) but that is over now. So it's just cycle racing and the odd meal out.

We do have a very nice stereo and a Sony Bravia with a Sony HD stb, all bought for cash with some major haggling 8) .

And we are pretty close to achieving our $200k deposit for our first house (wherever the hell that will be :lol: ).

I simply can't buy in to the 'look at me, look at my stuff' mentality, not whilst we don't own a house outright anyway. It's tough at first, like dieting, but you will survive

Hey I've just thought, I watch ABC and SBS 99.9% of the time, and they have no ads (well SBS does but not saturation), maybe that has something to do with it?