Page 11 - 1. What Wealthy Means to Australians in 2023

5 . N EW T H I N K I N G A B O U T T H E
C ONC E P T OF ‘ W E A LT H Y ’

It is not surprising that there should be discussions in Australia in the post-
Covid era about what wealthy looks like for different communities.

In the 1960s when home ownership rates At a time when home ownership rates
peaked, when couples married and had kids peaked (in 1966) there were many
early, when life expectancy was shorter, when Australians who either didn’t share in our
the population aged 40-plus remembered national wealth or who were disenfranchised
the Great Depression the idea of ‘wealthy’ by prevailing values.
was tied to the concept of home ownership.
Indigenous Australians weren’t counted in the
And this is why the ideal of ‘home ownership’ census until 1971. Women were yet to break
found its way into the core of Australian free via their so-called liberation movement.
culture. To the Depression generation, and to Both tertiary education and defined pension
their baby boomer children, home ownership schemes weren’t accessible to much of
was the store of wealth and a cornerstone of middle Australia. The gay community was
household security. still very much underground. (Sydney’s first
Mardi Gras didn’t take place until 1978).
But today the evidence suggests that
‘wealthy’ is being viewed quite differently. Australian society, along with many nations
Not only are Australians vastly wealthier, on in the West, prospered and morphed in
average, than were our compatriots half a the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
century ago, but what we want out of life, Globalisation (and the rise of China) helped
and how we choose to live life, has changed. underpin that prosperity.

The gay community was still very much
underground. (Sydney’s first Mardi Gras
didn’t take place until 1978).”

10 What wealthy means to Australians in 2023