I’ve been living in Australia for 10+ years now and it has a lot going for it – people, the climate, the landscape , the work, and a solid booming 1st world economy. Came across this article the other day which made me realise just how booming! Not knowing what the next twelve months holds does make you appreciate what you have as an Aussie…

Full article available here – http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/3726692.html

 

So this is our economic reality – we are the wealthiest nation in the world with 75.5 per cent of our adult population making it into the global top 10 per cent, our economy has grown faster than nearly all others (certainly faster than all other developed countries), our household income growth has been one of the fastest in the world (including our poor having income growth larger than everyone else’s rich!), we have the highest minimum wages in the world, the third-lowest debt and the sixth-lowest taxes in the OECD and are ranked second on the United Nations Human Development Index.

And this didn’t happen by accident.

This happened by design.

This happened because of 30 years of hard, tedious, extraordinarily difficult policy work that far, far too many of us now either take completely for granted, or have simply forgotten about. We have, without even realising it, created the most successful and unique economic and policy arrangement of the late 20th and early 21st century – the proof is in the pudding. A low tax nation with high quality, public funded institutions. A low debt nation with world leading human development and infrastructure. The wealthiest nation in the world where even though our rich get richer, our poor have income growth so extraordinary that it increases at a faster rate than the rich expect to experience anywhere else in the world but Australia. A nation where we enjoy the highest minimum wages in the world.