Despite all the dark GFC 2 clouds forming it seems that Australians will be spending about $1,200 over Christmas this year.
Even with the rising costs of living and our ever shrinking wallets, it clearly seems that as a nation we are getting ready to spend up big this silly season.
Whilst this is not anything new it is somewhat a paradoxical situation where the biggest potential spenders are the ones who feel like they need more cash but are blind to the full impacts of the impending GFC2.
It seems that people are literally putting their head in the sand and in an attempt to ignore the dark headlines such as ‘austerity packages’, ‘crisis talks’, ‘stagnating economies’ and ‘price pressures’ that appear daily in the media.
Our incessant need for ‘best’ is making us worse off, locking us in a mindset where the items that we need are put on the back-burner in preference for ‘non-essential purchases’ such as flat screen tv’s and tv-games. Fact is, a recent survey by news.com.au found that 80% of respondents had bought something they didn’t need.
That survey went on to show a brilliant stat that 45.7% of adults who had just made a non-essential purchase of greater than $1,000 were extremely frustrated about the rising cost of living. Not only that, two thirds of those who had just spent the $1,000 had said that they needed a $100 extra a week in order for them to feel comfortable.
What is it with Australians?
Are we a bunch of complete idiots?
Seriously, I really hope we have a massive GFC in Australia the likes of what is occurring in the US, UK and half of Europe.
This will be the only way to get Australians to WAKE UP and take more care of themselves financially.
How many bloody 4WD’s can we have in CITIES, how many massive flat screen TV’s can we have in the homes of people who complain about the cost of groceries?
I’ve had enough.
Bring on the GFC. Bring on the pain and let it be the biggest wake up call Australia ever had!
Merry Christmas!
What do you think?
Is that a gee up to get a reaction? Though I see the underlying truth.
Hi Adam
Yes it is definitely a gee up to awaken Australians as to the coming GFC2. Let’s call it tough love because no one else has the guts to make the call.
Thanks for your comment.
Kind Regards,
Greg
Hi Greg,
Absolutely love this post. As a family we had a meeting and set up a ” no present xmas” about nine years ago. I have to tell you that the reaction from seemingly intelligent people absolutely amazed me. Apart from being called the very obvious “scrooge”, I even had people going behind my back to my teenagers and telling them that I was a bad mother to not be buying them presents. My children who were older teenagers were flabbergasted that these so called intelligent Australians could not understand why we did this. Apart from the moral dilemma of knowing that globally there are those who cannot feed themselves, we could not understand the need to stress our minds and our bank balances to buy others gifts that they did not need. And worse still we were accepting gifts that we did not need from people who clearly could not afford to spend so much money. When we looked at it, the whole thing did not seem logical in any way. We now make xmas about being with family and having fun. We let others have the stress. People still think that we are a bit strange but over the last nine years we have had plenty of people join us once they see how unstressful, relaxing and financially viable it is to make xmas a time of joyful relaxation, enjoying a meal, catching up with others and having lots of laughs. Life is not easy as it is without making it all worse for a new toy. I too am constantly amazed that people in Australia think that they are untouchable in the financial crisis that is to come. A flat screen TV wont fill your belly. Good on you for having a say
Deborah