As expected, the Reserve Bank of Australia is highly likely going back on its "promise" that it wasn't going to raise interest rates this year, and they are citing that they underestimated the inflation rate. What this means for all of the homebuyers who FOMO'd into houses that they can't really afford to push the markets up 50-odd percent in the last two years in some areas, is they are going to now have to meet higher repayments.
They are saying that "it is okay" however, because they were means tested at a percent or two more than the record low rates. But, this doesn't factor in the rising inflation rate either, so while the repayments can be covered, the costs of living are going up - with the Consumer Price Index increasing 3.5% in 2021. However, costs like fuel (this is significant for most households) rose 32% in 2021 - the largest yearly increase since 1990 - remember those years?
This indicates that the fitness testing on loans might have been okay if everything remained equal, but that is not the case. The money for a person's loan doesn't live in a vacuum, it is subject to all of the other economic pressures and that pressure is mounting.
This isn't all doom and gloom though, because for those who are well-invested into the stock markets, they are likely to keep getting rewarded for it. However, all of those people who were convinced to get out of the stock market and use their investment capital to buy their first home instead, they are going to see the value of their home decrease - but they are liable for the higher amount of course, so if they sell, they will make a loss. But even if they manage to sell, the cost of renting has increased by 12.5% on average anyway - so it is damned if you do, damned if you don't really.
The economy as we know it is very much on its last legs. And what I believe is happening is that those with the ability are extracting all they can, while they can, and then burying it into asset portfolios where they can own something that will offer a return, even as the economy crashes. The current conditions are primed for this, creating the largest flow of wealth from poor up to rich ever witnessed.
Yet, most people are far too concerned arguing in fear to notice and it will only be in hindsight where we step back and assess, that we have been bent over and ridden very hard. If you haven't noticed, all of the conversations about dealing with the wealth gap and equality of opportunity locally and globally, have been superseded by the specter of an illness far more dangerous than starving to death from an inability to make ends meet.
Keep those handouts coming!
They call them handouts now too. Prior, they were "stimulus packages" that were required to keep the economy afloat in terms of economic and financial duress, but now they are handouts like food stamps for the poor. And, where do those handouts that are tax money borrowed from the future going? Into the pockets of the invested, through the companies that are able to operate in these conditions, while the little competition there was, is choked-out of the race.
I believe that because of this transfer from to wealthy and then conversion to assets that can be sold or rented back to us, using money borrowed from our future, which we will have to pay additional interest on also - a new asset class needs to be created. A whole new economy too.
This is where crypto comes in as what gives something value is the belief that it has value, other than the necessities of life we need to survive. However, most of the wealth in the world is not attached to caloric value type business, it is tied to the concept-based type. This means, it is replaceable with an alternative, which crypto assets could offer in such a way that it requires participation and activity in order to generate value.
But, this isn't some quick-fix job, it is going to take decades to wade through the much and climb over the artificial hurdles to get there. However, one disruption at a time, the industries start to populate and due to the decentralized nature of the ownership, it will be difficult to fully appreciate how valuable it is until they start linking up across chains and assets, to create a matrix of user derived and owned assets that encourage practical development to attract demand.
And, while people think that the wealthy will "just buy control of Bitcoin" there is a major difference in crypto that is vital to its development - the ability to walk away. That ability doesn't even require walking away with nothing, it requires walking away with what one has on the chain and then working to redefine what is considered valuable. We have seen this demonstrated with the shift from Steem to Hive, where the community of value, redefined which chain was worthy of their investment in time and money.
Economically and socially, we are entering into unchartered territory in terms of possibility, because at no time in history before have we had the technology we have to enable coordination at a global level, between people who do not know of each other directly. Whilst disorganized currently, alignment is happening and more innovation is happening daily to bring us closer together as an economic force, whilst allowing us to be independent in how we approach our lives.
It is no wonder we are getting locked up and forced not to gather en masse, but that hasn't stopped us doing it online. and where up until now the online masses have been the driving force to enrich the few, there is nothing stopping us taking ownership of our own digital experiences to affect our physical ones to build a new value loop. The process required is a paradigm shift and a forgetting of what we have been conditioned to believe, that we can't do this by ourselves.
Before redistribution of wealth can happen, a redefinition of what wealth is, is needed.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
