The RBA’s report into consumption during the pandemic is a very revealing insight into modern Australia. This…

The RBA’s report into consumption during the pandemic is a very revealing insight into modern Australia. This is how a spoiled, snowflake society responds to an emergency. It missed its cafes, restaurants and recreational travel too much. /1 #covd19aus https://t.co/zV4CyVizQD

This first graph shows how the consumption of goods not only barely declined, it actually went up during the pandemic. But services crashed. What services were these? /2 https://t.co/wKiLT5iMSd

‘Out and about’ services, predominantly cafes, restaurants and travel. Spending on eating out more than doubled in Australia between 2004 and 2019, pre-pandemic. That has been the main driving resistance to public health action during Covid, both from consumers and businesses. /3 https://t.co/KFkt1Xfn7N

To this mix of hedonistic lifestyle interruption we can add the other great vampire squid on the face of Australian democracy, gambling. Public health action really upset the pokies. In NSW in particular, this was intolerable to the political donors, many of whom…/4 https://t.co/yDudgmfShy

…were also keen users of JobKeeper. Modern Australia increasingly is like a holiday resort for its own residents, who wine, dine, travel and gamble while foreign interests plunder their natural resources. /5 https://t.co/CGWqTnysby

RBA analysis is here: https://t.co/7NvvoLeQCn /end