A Reality Check

Perspective is a wonderful virtue. Knowing where you position yourself and appreciating your place in this crazy, zany world. However, it is a virtue that most Australians, myself included sometimes, lack somewhat.

I guess because we don't have to worry about suicide bombers at our local market or the fear of secret police watching our every move. We therefore have to find something to complain about so we lash out about a late train, an electricity bill or so-called 'queue jumpers' coming to our shores.

This lack of a 'life and death' struggle in our daily lives, a struggle that tens of millions around the world endure every day, then conspires to a massive loss of perspective on our part as we simply don't appreciate how good we have it here in this country. We sweat the small stuff because we don't have too much big stuff to worry about.

A lucky country we have and lucky people we are. So really, who can blame others for looking at us with envy and seeking just a small piece of the action for themselves and their children. I know I certainly would if I hadn't been so fortunate to have been born and raised here.

So how do we have it so good? I know you might struggle to think as such with rising child care costs and lower house prices, etc, etc occupying your mind but trust me, we do. Or don't trust me. Trust these more objective sources.

Firstly, the United Nations (pretty high in the objective stakes) rates us the second best place to live on the planet. Second people. Out of 187 nations. Just pipped by Norway by a fraction. 94/100 compared to our 93. Those pesky Norwegians.

The UN Index comprises elements such as health, education, per capita income and life expectancy with Australia doing particularly well in the life expectancy and 'non-income human development factors'. Some of those countries that we constantly compare ourselves to struggle quite a bit on those factors. The United States has a relatively lower life expectancy while the Brits have an average stay in school of only nine years.

So as the quote from the linked article goes: "It ought to serve as a reminder that for all the complaints everyday Australians have about different aspects of their lives, this is one of the best countries in the world in which to live and to bring up children".

Secondly, the esteemed magazine, The Economist, came up with Melbourne as the world's most livable city and Sydney was rated sixth out of 140 cities across the globe. Based on social stability, crime rates, infrastructure, culture and health care, it also rated Perth and Adelaide as joint winners of eighth place while my home town of Brisbane just failed to crack the Top 20. So Australia has five cities in the Top 21 in the world according to the big wigs at The Economist. Another fine piece of evidence I would think, demonstrating how good with have it compared to others.

Thirdly, some of you may well remember my Happy Holiday Reading post back in December. Well, it contained a Crikey article titled "Australian Exceptionalism" which also bemoaned the fact we have very little idea of our successes and accomplishments and that instead we choose to play the victim who are so hard done by because some of our costs of living are eating into our latest want for another car or plasma TV.

As the article's author points out, "So preoccupied have we become with our own imagined hardships, so oblivious are we to the reality of our privileged circumstances, that when households earning over $150,000 a year complain about having government welfare payments scaled back, many of us treat it as a legitimate grievance." A loss of perspective indeed.

The article also contains a number of statistics and graphs that further point out how good we've got it and our economic and financial successes over the last 30 years in comparison to the rest of the world and in particular, countries like the US and UK.

I won't bother trying to sum them up and do a paraphrase. Do yourself a favour instead and read the article in full for yourself. The link is above. I will point out this stat though because it really goes to my argument: "A full 75.5% of all Australian adults are in the world’s wealthiest 10% of total population."

Now this post isn't meant to be a bragging contest or a means of pushing a "We're No. 1" message. Far from it. It's more about trying to promote some perspective and dishing out some reality in the face of overwhelming negativism and whinging. The negativism serves a lot of purposes for some, particularly politicians, and we the people and the media merely accept it and don't question the cherrypicking of facts and underlying assumptions.

So next time a politician or media entity tells you how hard done by you are because of this and that, just remember where you truly sit in comparison to all the other humans on this earth and those who've come before you. While we all have our own particular circumstances to deal with, both economic and social, as a group we sit pretty darn close to the top of the mountain and have quite a view below.

Some perspective then would be nice before the next complaint about a few thousand asylum seekers a year overrunning the 22 million of us or the fact we've had to wait a whole 20 mins in the Medicare office to receive our heavily subsidised medical rebates.

I don't mean to be preachy. But some of us, myself included (this blog itself is prone to the odd rant from time to time), could do with a bit of a reality check from time to time. And as reality checks go, this one isn't too bad at all. You know, being told how good you have it and all.

With that off my chest, think I'll now adjourn to the pool and cool off somewhat. Followed by a nice local (Australian) pale ale and some beautiful local cheese. Yes, not bad at all this life here in Oz. Sure beats being constantly chased by the secret police or trying to guess who has a bunch of dynamite strapped to their chest.

EDM.