Must be those poor, poor fossil fuel corporations, that’s why govt subsidies are never enough 🤑
https://thepoint.com.au/opinions/260311-if-unemployment-is-the-cure-for-inflation-who-pays-the-price
Im not australian but in this kind of situation sans garden space. Its frustrating because I need to be looking for work and putting my best foot forward but yeah often you lose days here and there with dealing with the system. I should not even say here and there its like like every effing week there is a new thing and the full day is not bad if it resolves the issue. It really messes with your flow when you are piece mealing it out every day over a week.
I’m sorry to hear about your situation. You mention garden space. Would there be community gardens or similar near where you live that you could take part in? Working with plants and the earth really helps plus you could make some useful connections. I hope all improves soon for you.
unfortunately not where I am at now but I have used them before. man at one point I rented a place in a four flat owned by two sisters and one was like. we don’t sue the whole garden do you want to use half. im like yeah. get this. they had a guy turn the soil in the spring and they covered it in biodegradable week blocker stuff. to boot they regularly watered it with a sprinkler and maybe onece in awhile they would go out of town and I would do it. they even let me make a jurry rigged hoop house in the fall over it. it was pretty awesome.
Unemployment? lmao what? No, taxing the rich is the cure to inflation.
What counts as ‘rich’ ? Is it people with an income over the average, say $100,000 or more ? or are you talking about those earning over a million per year ?
3x the median, and make > 5x the median illegal, just as we have for below minimum wage.
that aside l, instead of raising rates do a temp raise in Super for everyone above median wage, take the money from their wages but it doesn’t go to banks. That takes money out of the Economy now to cool it.
PS. I have zero debt by choice and we (m & f couple) travel SE Asia in the cheap for 6 months a year.
Someone here is really afraid of being properly taxed. It’s those muslims stealing your riches right?
? are you just being a dumb cunt or is there something else i should take from this?
Let’s start flensing the top 1% and go from there shall we?
ok but how would that bring down country wide inflation?
Sorry I had to use mistral AI on my PC to generate this because I cbf explaining
Unemployment and inflation are inversely related in the short term due to the Phillips Curve—when demand for labour rises (lowering unemployment), wages and prices often increase, fuelling inflation. Conversely, high unemployment typically suppresses wage growth and spending power, reducing inflationary pressures.
If you’re actually interested there’s a whole article on it here
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/markets/081515/how-inflation-and-unemployment-are-related.asp
tldr taxing the richest 1% wouldn’t take a bundle of money out of the economy, and it especially wouldn’t take inflation out of things regular people buy, like groceries and take away because it’s not something the ultra rich have an impact on anyway
Here’s Australias latest CPI: https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/economy/price-indexes-and-inflation/consumer-price-index-australia/latest-release
It would be stupidly unpopular, but I actually think there should be some legislated amount the RBA then could regulate how much taxes go up and down. (Including income and/or corporate taxes)
Starting with the top tax brackets, and in extreme cases going further down tax brackets.
How this would work in practice, since tax is calculated annually, I dunno.
Bur it’s patently insane we expect the RBA to control inflation and unemployment with so few tools.
Interest rate and quantitative easing/tightening, that’s pretty much it, right?
Maria is reliant on JobSeeker. She pays more than 90% of this allowance on rent, leaving her with less than $50 a fortnight to live on. She has lived like this for three years and sometimes goes days without food.
Damn that’s such a long time without a job
She rents a rundown house that is “unliveable, basically” and does repairs the landlord refuses to do.
What? Why is she doing a job that she is paying for?
If she is fixing up houses why is she not being paid to fix up other peoples houses?
The trades right now are begging for people, particularly here in Queensland
Queensland is in desperate need of 50,000 workers if it hopes to complete its housing projects, with pay packages to potentially reach into six figures.
The state government currently has $53 billion worth of construction activity in the pipeline with that figure set to jump to $77 billion in the next financial year.
One of those projects includes the aim to build 53,000 new homes by 2044.
She fixing up houses for free while living on welfare, crazy, absolutely crazy, there has to be more to this story, she can’t handle stress, has some sort of medical issue, no way would I be painting/repairing or doing any sort of work on a landlords house for free while I’m out of a job that pays 6 figures for the same thing
When you’re looking for reasons not to just believe her story, that says a lot more about you than it does about her.
A few years ago, I lived in an apartment that cost about $600 usd (~$800 aud?) a month. I had 3 roommates, my room was a loft that I couldn’t stand up straight in, had no AC unit or window screen in hot humid weather, the common areas were dilapidated, and the bathroom was covered in black mold. I was a student at the time so I didn’t mind knowing it was temporary but one of my roommates wasn’t so lucky. She tried to get the landlord to do something about the mold because it was impacting her health, but this slumlord decided to go malicious compliance on her/us for daring to expect livable conditions, so he made our bathroom unusable while his handyman “took care of” the mold and “allowed” us to use another unit’s bathroom that I heard was even more neglected somehow (I used the university bathroom instead).
My point is, she’s likely doing repairs herself not because she knows what she’s doing but because she’s scared of a slumlord retaliating if she asks anything of them. It’s a horribly stressful way to live as I’ve seen first hand.
That’s nasty, I’m sorry you went through that. Having lived in a couple shitty places in Australia I didn’t get that kind of experience with a slumlord. It probably does happen, I’m not saying otherwise. But the system here has so much red tape which combined with the culture’s laidback attitude results in landlords taking an eternity to answer requests from renters, if at all. The cheaper and shittier the place, the worse this gets. The classic is the landlord will wait for the contract to end so they can get rid of you. Most likely the real estate agent will then suggest a coat of paint or something similar that doesn’t fix anything, and then a ridiculous hike up to the rent price for the next bunch of desperate plebs. Agents are often just as bad if not worse than the landlords.
But yes Maria’s story here is pretty spot on. Centrelink is ridiculous. If you live in a shit hole it’s easier to do repairs yourself than complain.
My point is, she’s likely doing repairs herself not because she knows what she’s doing but because she’s scared of a slumlord retaliating if she asks anything of them.
Sure but I think you’ve missed my point, my main point was, she has skills, skills she could earn actual money with
Is she in a tough spot? yes. is there any mention of getting a job, studying, anything to suggest she is trying to get out of this position? no.
the article might as well be a single line: being on jobseeker is tough
no shit
dude, i can use a drill, do heaps of DIY around my old cottage and have even illegally done some of my own wiring, zero people are going to be employing me to do trade work.
For sure, this only shows that you have the capacity to work, it also shows that she is utilising her time in the wrong direction, she’s doing all this extra work to make do with being out of work, I’m saying instead she should be focusing not on being comfortable poor, but escaping by getting a decently paying job which was not mentioned at all.
We have free education in this country, actually look:
People from the following groups are strongly encouraged to apply:
- First Nations Australians
- Young people (17-24)
- People who are out of work or receiving income support payments
- Unpaid carers
- Women facing economic insecurity
- Women undertaking study in non-traditional fields
- People with disability including autism and neurodivergence
- Certain categories of visa holders
https://www.tafesa.edu.au/courses/fee-free-tafe-courses#courses
Are you suggesting she is incapable of work despite the article showing the opposite?
Also believe it or not but as someone who has to do god awful job interviews if you explained how you have fixed your own shit around your house that’d show initiative which would put you ahead of so many applicants
The critical point is:
Is she in a tough spot? yes. is there any mention of getting a job, studying, anything to suggest she is trying to get out of this position? no.
the article might as well be a single line: being on jobseeker is tough
Good luck getting a job in construction if you’re not part of the “licensed” mafia. Three years of unpaid apprenticeship and no one is willing to take you on, because no one wants to create a competitor. Yes, you can do things illegally, but it is different story.
yes, did you just learn that being poor is expensive? you get much much less, for much more.
the boots analogy from disc world
Yes, I was also poor once and living in a shithouse falling apart but I didn’t get articles written about me and I doubt I’d even want them to, nor would I ever want to be 3 years without a job without an explanation (eg. seriously disabled)
I’d rather work stacking shelves at coles or woolworths while I studied/did TAFE for a junior role in literally anything
“i didn’t get articles written about me” someone comments on an article written about them…
what?
that’s literally an article about living in poverty and you are complaining in the comments about not having articles written about living in poverty…
or maybe you just want an article written personally about you specifically?
you are complaining in the comments about not having articles written about living in poverty
Did you miss the rest of my post somehow?
and I doubt I’d even want them to, nor would I ever want to be 3 years without a job without an explanation (eg. seriously disabled)
I’d rather work stacking shelves at coles or woolworths while I studied/did TAFE for a junior role in literally anything
you would be right, but are you aware disabilities exist?
I understood it that if she rents a run-down place it’s because of the cheaper rent and by doing the work the rent stays that way and she is less likely to be turfed out. Looong ago when I was a student and shared a flat with other students we kept the rent low exactly by doing that, painting the place, fixing bits and pieces.
Also we don’t know her age. She is not a tradie, just handy. To do a full day’s labouring on a construction site can be very heavy-going.
To do a full day’s labouring on a construction site can be very heavy-going
Sure but construction is not the only renovation/house repair based job available, it’s just the first one I mentioned
Looong ago when I was a student and shared a flat with other students we kept the rent low exactly by doing that, painting the place, fixing bits and pieces
This is slightly different, you said you were a student which meant you were studying, which is what she should be doing, either studying or learning or making herself valuable for a job
There is no shortage of jobs, in fact we apparently are needing more people because:
Economists say it suggests the economy is still operating close to capacity.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-19/unemployment-rate-australia-january-2026-steady/106362428
So if she is disabled or has some medical condition they should mention this, otherwise hearing someone going out of their way to do everything but get a job means nothing to me
Ok then.
