The richer Australians get, the sadder they become, data shows

As Alan Austin reports, life dissatisfaction has reached a new level as the economy records its best year ever in 2025.

Maybe this syndrome needs a name. This is an intriguing but also deeply disturbing phenomenon because it reveals deteriorating mental health.

Enjoyment of life and participation in society increased as Australians reached their highest ever financial standard of living last year, according to an assessment by the Bureau of Statistics (ABSs), fell.

As discussed early last year, by objective criteria Australians have a better life than anyone else on the planet, yet they sit tenth in Oxford’s rankings. Happiness Index. In this year’s rankings, Australians dropped to 15th place.

Highest living standards ever

We now know that 2025 is the first recorded year for Australians to achieve these four excellent results simultaneously in one year:

Unemployment below 4.5%;
inflation below 4%;
Interest rates between 3% and 5%; And
annual GDP growth is above 2.5%.

Australia is the only country with these four results and a triple-A rating from all major credit agencies in 2025. Denmark, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Vietnam ticked four of these five boxes, but only Australia in the world ticked all five!

Datasets confirming the best quality of life ever include:

Life satisfaction is in serious decline

Life satisfaction in 2025 was significantly lower than in 2019, when the Australian economy was close to the worst-performing among OECD members, according to ABS general social survey results last Tuesday.

In 2019, overall life satisfaction was rated as high or very high by 77.6% of the population. This rate dropped to 68.3% in 2025. In 2019, only 6.2% of citizens experienced low life satisfaction. This rate jumps to 9.7% in 2025.

However, as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reported Last month, in terms of overall budget balance, Australia ranked last among developed countries in 2019. Economy, followed by economic growth, government debt and global innovation and unemployment rate.

Mainstream newsrooms continue to stoke fear and anxiety

The problem, of course, is that most Australians have no idea how well traveled they are compared to past eras and the rest of the world.

The news media steadfastly refused to report last year’s impressive results and instead claimed the Australian dream had come true. ‘dead‘monetary policy a ‘horror scenario‘ and a ‘failed experiment‘ haunting Australia ‘survival‘ is in danger and the economy is ‘nightmare‘A. ‘crisis‘ and a ‘scary reality‘.

Last week’s rise in interest rates provided another example.

Interest rates are finally climbing Towards 5%, which offers relief to long-suffering savers who rely on interest to survive but have been denied fair treatment since 2013.

Interest rates now lie in the middle of the optimal range of 3% to 5%, balancing the needs of both savers and homebuyers. See the table below.

Newsrooms distort the truth

RBAs decision It should have been welcomed as an inspiring result. It reduces the risk of accelerating inflation while disadvantaging neither the borrower nor the lender. Win-win-win.

Instead it was depicted as: ‘wild‘, ‘disaster‘, ‘recession risk‘, ‘another blow‘ And ‘Pouring gasoline on the inflation fire‘.

Murdoch tabloids in question: ‘We are step by step approaching a recession that we do not need’. ABC News falsified registration with: ‘The opposition holds the Labor Party responsible for inflation and interest rate increases’. Sky News fueling Australia’s deteriorating mental health declared: ‘People are losing hope’. Absolute destructive nonsense!

Yes, mortgages will now pay more. But they can to negotiate Repayment plan to avoid difficulties and eventually to get better more than just extra expenses due to the corresponding increase in property values.

Plenty of evidence that everything is fine

RBAs report Last Tuesday contained rather optimistic predictions, considering the global turmoil caused by the madness of US President Trump’s kleptocracy.

GDP growth is expected to be 1.9% this fiscal year and 1.3% next fiscal year. Yes, that’s historically weak, but it’s nowhere near a recession.

Inflation is expected to be 4.8% in June this year and only 2.4% in June next year. Considering inflation various Between 7.5% and 18% for most of the period from June 1973 to June 1990, an extremely benign rate.

Surprisingly, the unemployment rate, which is currently 4.26 percent, is expected to be 4.2 percent this June and 4.4 percent in June 2027.

All this compares favorably with the rest of the world.

Actually Australia’s inflation Since January, the rate has increased by just 0.73%. increases over 1% in Austria, Finland, Portugal, Poland, Türkiye and Chile; over 1.8% in France, Italy, Luxembourg and the USA; In Belgium and Greece it is above 2.8%.

Supportive behavior affected

Last week’s ABS social survey shows Australians’ participation in the community declines sharply as wealth increases and poverty increases.

The proportion of citizens doing unpaid volunteer work decreased from 29.5% in 2019 to 22.6% in 2025. The proportion of those providing free support to non-household individuals decreased from 51.5% to 45.4%. The proportion participating in community support groups dropped from 25.3% to just 20.7%.

Disturbingly, the proportion of face-to-face contact with family or friends living outside the household dropped from 67.8% to 52.9%.

So the Australians are not only more desperate, but also practically less helpful.

Newsrooms that tell the truth will solve this problem. Now there is a happy thought.

Alan Austin is an Independent Australian columnist and freelance journalist. You can follow him on Twitter @alanaustin001 and Bluesky @alanaustin.bsky.social.

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