Forced Into Debt and Negative Gearing: How Did We Get Here? It's Sabotage

What real options do everyday Australians have?
You work hard, earn a wage, but then what? Saving feels pointless when bank interest rates are next to nothing. Around the COVID period, savings accounts were earning as little as 0.01% interest. Compare that to the late 1970s and 1980s, when savers were rewarded with 10% to 18%. It’s no wonder people are forced to turn to property, not because they want to speculate, but because there’s no better alternative.
But make no mistake: this path was engineered.
The government, alongside banks, encouraged Australians to borrow, luring first-home buyers in with historically low interest rates. Then came the next step: leverage your home to buy another property. Welcome to the world of investment properties and negative gearing, a system that rewards debt and reduces your taxable income.

Meanwhile, immigration was ramped up to fuel demand. This wasn’t accidental. International student visas, university intakes, and relaxed foreign investment rules, especially for Chinese investors, all played a role in pushing up housing demand. Demand which outpaced supply.
As a result, prices kept rising. Those who’d bought one or two properties realised they were on to something, and bought more. “Why stop at two?” they thought. “Why not five?”
Putting money in the bank became a joke, a guaranteed way to lose value. In contrast, real estate became the golden ticket. A wave of savvy investors jumped in, buying more and more property. First-home buyers were shut out. The system encouraged monopolisation, not fairness.
And then came the clincher: Prime Minister John Howard’s capital gains tax discount, introduced in 1999, made property investing even more attractive. Investors could now keep a larger slice of their profits. It supercharged the housing market, for some, a bonanza. For others, a disaster.
Today, Australia, a vast country with a relatively small population, has the second most expensive housing market in the world. Great news for those who got in early. But for the next generation? It's despair. Unless their parents bought five properties, they’re left behind.
And what are we left with? A population stretched thin, saddled with debt, priced out of their own cities, while foreign buyers and investors profit. We’ve built a house of cards, not on innovation or industry, but on inflated land values and household debt.
And to top it off, we have no means to defend this so called wealth. A barely functioning defence force, no real weapons industry, and a population unprepared for conflict.
Checkmate.

Sabotage;
I can't stand it, I know you planned it
I'm gonna set it straight, not capitulate
I can't stand rocking when I'm in here
'Cause your crystal ball ain't so crystal clear
So while you sit back and wonder why
I got this fucking thorn in my side
Oh my God, it's a mirage
I'm tellin' y'all, it's a sabotage

Beastie Boys (amended slightly)

https://www.change.org/Australian_Referendum_Negative_Gearing_Capital_Gains_Tax_Reform