Every 6 years the ABS reports on average weekly household expenditures. The last data is 2015-16, next one is…

Every 6 years the ABS reports on average weekly household expenditures. The last data is 2015-16, next one is imminent. A few eye-openers into Australian life, circled in red and green. /1 https://t.co/weMO68aeD0

Australians spend as much on average on recreation and alcohol every week as they do on groceries. (In some age groups, it’s more.) Society is a high school. At the same time the dominant tool of the economy, displacement of people, is shown in enormous weekly transport costs. /2 https://t.co/hisZuUFQ8Z

(Transport and household fuel and energy costs would be significantly higher by now, so energy is a growing drain on household budgets.) As for the ‘freedom’ apparently given to us by increasing privatisation and removal of the economies of scale of the State, look at the…/3 https://t.co/JmeK2a7qux

…growth in spending in the key social areas of education, health and energy, in the last column (green circles). Note again that energy component has exploded since this last survey, so is now much worse. All of this paints a picture of households saddled with the weight of…/4 https://t.co/qBI5TKW7x8

…ongoing cuts to public services by libertarian governments. And them managing this burden like teenagers manage money, spending big sums on recreation and booze. The two are the same phenomenon. The politics of individual lifestyle is the politics of libertarianism. /end https://t.co/8Uzi8QL613