`It really feels sometimes that the only thing the average Australian cares about is the price of their property portfolio.`
If this is the only accessible form of financial gain - why wouldn't they?
I strongly suspect that in order to have a dynamic economy a weak housing market is a pre-requisite. Given the choice it's much easier to plunk money down in a house and watch cash magically appear than it is to start a business or do anything creative.
Not in Australia but it's been kind of an insult to see my house earning more than the top tax bracket income I've been making from my one-man business for the past 3 years. Sometimes I wonder what the point of trying to earn money with work is. Of course it won't last, but it has a psychological demotivating effect.
All the while being bombarded with ads from real estate companies trying to FOMO you into buying a very average house for a price you really can't afford.
People are always feeling bad that they missed out on the hot new investment thing. At the time I bought, prices were already rising rapidly and people were complaining how they'd missed out, assuming the boom was about to end. The rise of cryptocurrency is probably creating a lot of unhappy missed-outers too. But these people somehow forget that they're still able to get in on the ground floor with the next hot new investment thing. I remember during the first couple of bitcoin bubbles, people complaining how early adopters were making so much and how they missed out. But then the next bubble would come, and the next, and the next. Some people are just too risk averse to ever win the bubble lottery.
If this is the only accessible form of financial gain - why wouldn't they?
I strongly suspect that in order to have a dynamic economy a weak housing market is a pre-requisite. Given the choice it's much easier to plunk money down in a house and watch cash magically appear than it is to start a business or do anything creative.