This is exactly right. I am pretty sure that considering my position at the time, the money would have been very welcome and likely completely absorbed into paying bills. A year or two later, what would have changed in my life? Now though, if those same kinds of prices arrive - 25% and I pay off my house and all debts and have a little left over.

Yep - Australians could take a max of 20K out and many did, including those who only had 20K in. Over the sapce of the next 40 years, the cost of taking that 20K that they spent on TVs will amount to a something like the equivalent of 150K, as it would have been the capital that benefited the longest from compounding.