In various discussions with friends and colleagues lately it has become even more apparent that we (and by that I mean humans) don’t seem to be happy unless we are whinging about something. Unfortunately the media tend to exacerbate this by continuing to roll out attention grabbing headings and we all know bad news tends to sell better than good news.
Take a few examples that lead me to this conclusion;
A year ago all the headlines were about rising house prices and the fact it was terrible, as first home owners couldn’t get into the market. Alas a year down the track here we are with falling or moderating house prices and the press is talking up doom and gloom!
The Government implements tax cuts that relate to a saving of say $10 per week for the average tax payer and the media say “what’s the point”. However if petrol prices go up a few cents a litre, which probably equates to about $2.50 per week for the average motorist, we whinge like a cut snake
If our large corporations make good profits, we have a go at them for being greedy, but we don’t seem to appreciate that those same profits are what grow our superannuation and investment holdings
Whether rightly or wrongly, the hullabaloo about the cost of electricity seems to have undone the Turnbull government, but numerous other “staples” have declined in price and our inflation levels (cost of living) are at the lower end of the RBA’s target
Headlines continually say the economy is just limping along and we aren’t getting pay rises, however unemployment rates are near lows and our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figure just released was 3.4%, which is above average. Not to mention the last time we had a recession in Australia, we could beat the All Blacks in rugby!
I know life isn’t easy for everyone, so why don’t we spend a bit of time putting our energy into solving some real problems, rather than manufacturing ones where they don’t exist.
Some real problems might include;
Solving the homeless problem
Building infrastructure that will help drought proof large parts of the country and make us more efficient in the long term
Providing more help for those with mental health issues
Domestic violence
Finding some players who can give the All Blacks a run for their money!
I know there are numerous other issues that need serious attention (education, health, ageing population, etc), so I’m not trying to isolate the issues I raised. However wouldn’t it be good if we stopped looking for problems and just dealt with the ones that are quite clearly right in front of us.
Or maybe because there appears no simple solution for some of the “deeper issues”, we find it easier to whinge about things that don’t really matter. Pity isn’t it.
Robert