BL> In my day, all you had to do was work hard, and you could be
 BL> rich. Places like Newtown and Sydneham were just temporary if
 BL> you wanted out. Today, the rich are two-job families and the
 BL> poor are no-job families, and the poor bastards in the middle
 BL> end up funding both.

 BV> I think to much emphasis is placed on monetary wealth though.
 BV> Look at all those families with both partners working, they
 BV> might think they have lots of money, but they aren't really
 BV> rich. They just have lots of money.

  I agree completely... but if you try to take the other route, it is
too easy to slip into poverty. There is too much emphasis on working
married women, as if it is the ideal rather than the opposite, and
too much empahasis on consumer goods that go over the top.

  Look at the houses they are building today: 4 bedrooms, rumpus or
"family" room, study, sewing, ensuites, several bathrooms... and at
the same time that families are shrinking!  People have gone beyond
their needs, and see this as the new minimum, while the economy itself
is shrinking.

  The pressure to collect useless junk is immense, and if you try to
drop out and live within your means, swapping time for money, people
treat you like a possible derro.

  The real danger is what I was trying to explain to Paul - that if
you stand still while the others around you earn more and spend more,
you are driven backwards into poverty. The big change in this country
since Gough is that the poor are taxed higher and the rich are taxed
less (a typical guy on a million a year pays 23% tax and *I* pay that
much!), while the increase in unemployment has pushed ever greater
numbers of people into poverty.

  The destitute do okay, living totally on welfare, but there is a
whole range of people who used to be middle class but are now just
marginally poor, with single incomes or fixed income, paying their tax
and getting fucked by the system, slowly sinking.

 BV> I'm very happy with my lot. In fact, I'm the richest bloke I
 BV> know. We don't have lots of money, but we can do anything we
 BV> want. We don't worry about where the next meal is coming from.
 BV> Nor do we worry about next weeks bills (because we don't have
 BV> any). We don't have a lot of money in the bank, but we don't
 BV> have any debit either. But we live comfortably and enjoy each
 BV> others company.

  Yair... this is the philosophy of "enough". I don't agree that you
don't need money in the bank, though; you need a buffer that can see
you through emergencies. Shit happens.

  The idea of being able to "do what you want" is interesting, because
if you lower your expectations you can be satisfied with less... while
money in the bank makes you immune to most stupidities. When my
brother bought the Ferrari it was important to him. It showed he had
"arrived," but I had to fake my enthusiasm. I could buy one too, but
I'd have to be a fuckwit first. I don't see John's Ferrari as a status
symbol. To me, it is a giant embarrassment, tantamount to advertising
that he is an insecure dickhead. I don't even like it as a car. I
lusted for his Porsche, though.

 BV> Money isn't everything, its just that everything else is so
 BV> darn expensive :) 

  Money is only important wehen it is not enough.

 BL> Probert Street was named Regent Street in those days, and had
 BL> the brothel and the SP joint as I said.

 BV> Both places seem to have held a great fascination for you Bob
 BV> :)

  It was years before I realised what the brothel was. I knew that
people paid to fuck women, but I didn't like to admit that I couldn't
see why.  The SP (and sly-grog) shop was much more fascinating to my
childish mind. The idea of picking winners and getting money for it
always appealed to me, but I could see that Dad (and everyone else)
was doing it wrong.

  It's funny. When I think back to those days as a kid, the "me" part
of me has not changed. I think exactly the same way now, as somewhat
of an outsider making lists of things to study properly, later. When I
fianlly got down to punting, I had 20 years of data behind me.

 BV> We lived in John Street, Erskinville when we first moved to
 BV> Sydney. Mum used to take us up to Newtown because it was "such
 BV> a nice place".

  That's a pretty crook area of tiny houses if I remember it right,
near Macdonaldtown. It's funny now, that Erko has a pleasant village
atmosphere. I went to school at Erko in 1950, and I rather liked it,
but the pubs were a hangout for crims and still are, as far as I know.

  The big difference I noticed between Newtown (after 30 years) and
Concord, is that there were always poeple all around you, close, in
the slums. The streets were narrow, the houses were close, and the
houses were full of people. The extra space was strange, at first. 

Regards,
Bob
___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12
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