This weekend there was an election in Australia that really no one in the rest of the world cared about, including myself. Essentially, it was a selection between two bad candidates, from parties that have like most in the world, lost their relevancy. But, unlike most places in the world, Australia has a near 100% turnout for voting, because it is mandatory. This means that most people don't throw their vote away, they use it - making it an interesting place to evaluate the changing culture.

It was a landslide win for the Labour Party.

This was to be expected, because for the first time, young voters outnumbered older voters, and voters tend to vote based on their current conditions, which in Australia, is a rising cost of living, unaffordable housing, and spiralling debt. And these affect mostly the younger voter, so it is natural that they will vote for anyone who promises to ease their suffering. And the Labour Party tend to be the ones who promise to give more to those in need - and the voter doesn't think about where that "more" is going to come from.

Free handouts are free, right?

But what is interesting to consider, is that this voter group, which is struggling financially, are making decisions that they think are going to improve their lives now, even if it is going to cost them later. That makes sense of course, but what has to be considered is that this is also the consumer generation, the ones who will willingly go into debt in order to get what they want now. They feel that they are entitled to spend money they don't have.

But more interesting than this, is what is going to happen in the coming years, as those "boomers" (many are generation-X, but accurate definitions don't matter to gen-Z, it is all fluid) that everyone complains about, are going to start kicking the bucket, and those previously poor millennials and Gen-Zers, are going to be inheriting the largest transfer of private wealth in the history of the world.

What are they going to do with it?

I predict....

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Consume more!

With little fiscal sense, an experience of consumption on debt, and a level of personal entitlement that was once reserved for the children of royalty and dictator alike, they are going to spend. And that spend is not going to be of the fiscally responsible kind, with money going into sensible housing and low-risk investment portfolios - it is going to be on luxury, glamour and betting on the longshot, as after all - they are playing with someone else's money.

The next couple decades are going to see some massive movements of wealth into many people's pockets, but it isn't going to stay there long, before it is moved back into the hands of the extremely wealthy, who are owners and investors in the products and services companies that the newly-rich are going to chase.

A fool and his money are soon parted.

And there are a lot of fools out there at the moment, who don't have the experience that their parents had with responsibility. You know, things like a mortgage and children in their mid-twenties. Instead, the young have largely stayed renters and not had children because they "can't afford it" - yet they have kept on consuming, and consuming. This means that rather than learning how to manage their money in order to take care of dependents and obligations, they can "afford" to live hand to mouth, as it is just them. This means that they have conditioned themselves as spenders and they will carry through their habits like any addict, no matter how much money they have.

More money, just means more desires filled.

And the majority will spend and spend all they have, until they are again spending on debt. And then again, the newly-poor will complain about the extreme wealth gap, which will have expanded even further due to their own spending habits and lack of control over their desires. Luxury trips, newer cars, and every gadget possible will fill their lives for a short period of time, until they are paying credit cards off with other credit cards.

But no more inheritance will arrive to save them.

Mummy and Daddy's bank will have closed, the vault cleaned out and the wealth safely in the hands of investors and corporations who capitalised on the consumer spend conditioning that they have been driving into the culture for the last few decades. Spend, because you only live once. Take that holiday, buy that car, upgrade that phone, and keep up with the influencer trends on TikTok.

What is also going to be interesting though, is that this young generation is also the ones who are coming into power themselves, including into the management of companies. They are tech savvy and willing to consume, and this means that they will be looking for more and more ways to spend, including on crypto. It will be little surprise as more of these people become decision makers, that they will push their companies to capture more of the wealth from their peers. It is the done thing in business after all - and that will include an increase in gateways into and out of crypto.

At the moment, old people are making the decisions - but ultimately, death catches every one of us and bit by bit, even the most conservative fiscal policies will start to change through the decisions made by people who have quite different experiences with wealth management.

All of this might be a good thing, because it will create a lot of opportunities for those who are able to manage themselves, invest well, and cater to the market - but for the majority, it is going to like they won a large minor prize in the lottery, and decided to splurge it on desires, rather than using it to stabilise their financial futures.

As far as governments go, because they aren't actually working toward social wellbeing, they are going to make themselves evermore irrelevant and the corporations driven by high consumption, will become evermore powerful and controlling over the lives of the people who they will keep trapping into debt cycles. Again, maybe this is a good thing - as it speeds up the process of how fast a capitalist market will eat itself, so perhaps it will all collapse soon, and we can start it all over again.

Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]