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Meet Generation Why Bother

A snapshot of Australia is thrown up in a Roy Morgan analysis of the state of play in the country taken over a 10 year period. It makes for interesting and revealing - and depressing - reading, as this piece in the SMH highlights:

"Young Australians are in danger of being locked out of the housing market, priced out by a combination of their own spending patterns, lower incomes, and the financial power of baby boomers.

This bleak picture of the squeeze confronting generation Y - defined broadly as people between 20 and 30 - emerges from a far-reaching study by the Roy Morgan company. Crunching data drawn from more than 500,000 interviews conducted over the past 10 years, the study draws a portrait of a generation set to be worse off than the one that preceded it.

And the fallout is certain to be felt at the federal ballot box. Labor yesterday went after the generation Y vote with its policy of savings incentives for first home buyers. There is also the near-certain prospect of an interest rate rise this week, which is likely to hurt younger homeowners the most.

The Morgan report, State of the Nation, says the under-30s owe an average of $202,000, compared with $179,000 for the group aged 30 to 44. While the incomes of Australians under 30 have gone up, they have not increased at the same rate as the rest of the population, the report says. Only 13 per cent of this group have a home loan, compared with 17 per cent for the previous generation when they were that age."

Read the complete article here - and reflect on where you and those around you fit into the scheme of things.

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