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The RBA’s raising of interest rates has not been applauded by readers.
. Please include your home address and telephone number. No attachments, please include your letter in the body of the email. I am seriously confused.
Inflation is too high so we need to increase interest rates so those fortunate enough to have a mortgage have to curtail their spending. The government then looks at measures to put more money into the economy in the guise of tax cuts or whatever may be effective in ensuring they may not lose votes. That, of course, may be inflationary ensuring another rate rise to curtail inflation.
How can the so-called money managers see this as a solution? How can no government economist see that belting those who strive to buy their dream home is very narrowminded? Raising interest rates has to be an inefficient means of combating inflation.
Borrowers are the major cohort of those impacted by a rate rise – and that happens to be about a third of us. The other two-thirds are basically unaffected by a rate rise. In effect, the Reserve Bank wants to control inflation by impacting only part of the community and Royal Children’s hospitals, a shortage of beds to house homeless people, childcare upheavals leaving families without places, roads across the state in poor condition, and public schools struggling for funds are all symptoms of the increasing need for better service delivery demanded by the community.
Also, the Middle East war and Reserve Bank interest rises are adding to the cost-of-living crisis that cannot be addressed unless governments have access to more funds either through borrowing or increasing taxes. Whoever wins the next Victorian election has a massive challenge, and no simple solutions other than more funds will solve the problems. Let’s not be fooled by rhetoric and grandstanding by those seeking election.
supporting an assertive homelessness outreach program points out that it is but one part of the whole. Housing is the issue, and the dream of home ownership is over for the foreseeable future for many Australians – a result of decades of policy neglect and failure from most governments. The Age has a proud history of exposing government failures, and our housing crisis is fertile ground.
All major parties should be asked to respond to the following assertions: Without serious government intervention, we will have a permanent under-class of citizens who cannot afford to purchase, struggle to pay private rents and cannot access public or social housing. Band-aids applied for decades such as first home-buyers grants, selling scarce urban land for private development with paltry increases in public housing stock or encouraging superannuation funds to invest in social housing are not effective.
There is no substitute for adequate public funding for housing – as occurred from the 1940s to the 1970s – and credible analyses demonstrate significant net socio-economic benefits from such investment. As Age columnist Ross Gittins has observed, this might smooth the impact of the cyclical nature of the private housing sector. Your correspondent highlights the success of Australia’s super rich . We are certainly doing very well in terms of wealth concentration.
The United States has about 12 times Australia’s population ? There are many dictatorships around the world and many authoritarian states, but we usually manage cordial relations with them and avoid labelling them as enemies.
Even countries with whom we have had long-standing good relations can prove difficult at times. I think we do need to be cautious in our dealings with China. Alas, I also think we need to be cautious in our dealings with the United States in its current authoritarian phase. I don’t think it helps our efforts to maintain good relations to label them as enemies.
While it is true that trout are an invasive species, as your correspondent rightly says, , brown and rainbow trout are almost certainly the only “pest” whose introduction has been, on balance, beneficial to Australia. Trout anglers are a large part of an industry that spends nearly $11 billion annually and supports thousands of jobs in regional areas, all in pursuit of a fish that has had an almost negligible impact on our natural environment.
Trout should not be considered as pests in the same context as other invasive species that have ravaged Australia. This may make me sound heartless, but maybe it’s time to ban children from libraries who don’t respect this sacred environment. While I have been studying and been respectful of the culture, some parents let their children run amok. It’s not an extension of school, children can be a nuisance and can disrupt the privilege of a quiet space.
Kid-free zones may be a nice option. As a 20-plus-year resident of the inner western suburbs of Melbourne and having founded the local community independents group , I’ve never seen our Footscray district area making news headlines as much for unfortunate reasons.
The high-voltage powerlines through Yarraville residential streets, fast-tracked data centre developments, failed social support and safety in the Footscray urban area, and now the reporting on the dire situation at the Footscray Hospital . These examples speak to the widespread frustration of residents who have been feeling overlooked and taken for granted for many years – and now realising with this Victorian election that the district of Footscray is actually a marginal seat.
Science reporter Angus Dalton’s overview revealed 10 of Victoria’s 14 independent research institutes will close because of the “slow strangulation of the research sector by flat state and federal funding”. I’d always assumed wealthy pharmaceutical companies in Australia – and throughout the world – would help fund such vital research but ironically, antibiotics are deemed “the opposite of a profitable blockbuster drug”.
While experts express concern about the prospective fatal intrusion AI will create, who’s worried about an emerging “ultimate superbug” resistant to existing antibiotics that is a genuine threat to human lives?be selective, feeding only on lavender bushes. In the evenings, with the light of Jupiter standing in for the Moon, I have recently seen swarms of what I guess must be bogong moths landing on and feeding on the streetside bottlebrushes , what hopes remain for these and other nocturnal nectar feeders and pollinators? Can you imagine how insufferable people would be if they only spoke after checking with artificial intelligence?
They would always be right and no one would have differing opinions, anecdotal incidents to relate, and creativity would be lost because everyone would be attuned to what AI thinks is the correct fashion. Empathy and sympathy, love and affection may become scripted, but will we recognise the falsity of it? Our eyes, ears need to absorb natural things before they become overwhelmed by unnatural ones.
The simple touch of a human or animal is enough to trigger all sorts of endorphins in our brain. I can’t see an AI machine doing that without us popping a pill to activate it. Unless we have proper human interaction, it will become a short, boring grey life we lead. When Australia’s underlying rate of inflation is nearly the same as Puerto Rico’s, you know we are definitely on the path to becoming a banana republic.
It might be tough, but I still remember running a business and having a mortgage when the Reserve Bank raised the interest rate to 17.5 per cent. Two signs seen in a cafe in Scotland – ″Dogs Welcome” and “Unsupervised children will be given a triple shot macchiato and a free kitten”. Somewhere in Russia, there must be people who are different from Vladimir Putin. Pity we only ever get to see Putin’s cruel excesses.
When we read that OpenAI promises to do better after the Medicare hack, is the statement coming from company human management or its machine? So Donald Trump has changed the name of artificial intelligence to super intelligence. He may have considered the name, supreme intelligence, but I believe he’s saving that title for himself.
Did anyone else have a metacarpal moment of Mark Latham v John Howard when Donald Trump took to Adam Scott with a mild case of attempted dislocation of his shoulder? Your correspondent laments the lack of genuine original thought and ideas in letters to the editor. I agree, but around 3000 years ago it was said: ″There is nothing new under the sun″ . Keep trying, though.
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