Discussion: Battler

But the Daily Telegraph said so! And they plenty of people writing in to back them up!

The median disposable income (post tax) for a couple and 2 children is around $80k. Maybe below that would make you a battler.

The $650K mortgage is what convinced me.

Maybe "battling" to spend it thoughtfully/usefully?

80K sounds a bit more like the average

These are the same battlers that have a six bedroom Mcmansion for two kids, a HSV and a Pajero in the driveway, a pool and a few big screen tvs.

These are the same battlers that have a six bedroom Mcmansion for two kids, a HSV and a Pajero in the driveway, a pool and a few big screen tvs.

ie battling to pay a mortgage they didn't realise they couldn't afford. I suppose it is 'battling'. Its strange in the context of real incomes doubling since the 1960s and rising at an average of 3.4% per annum compound over the 15 years to 2008 (ABS income distributional data is not available past that date).

It fits with that political term 'aspirational'. Its easy to say... 'we purchased a two bedroom house to start, why can't you?' But the whole consumer market system sends out messages to behave differently, to aspire. Inevitably earning $165,000 comes to be seen as battling. Says something about housing policy failure interacting with Greenspan's international bubble. Maybe the days of a regulated financial system were actually good for us. The banks made a decision about what we could afford when they handed out the rationed mortgages. That kept housing prices in control. Deregulation let them encourage us to all bid wildly and become high income battlers.