Only rich people can suffer.

[catsidhe]

Howard dismisses housing 'crisis' claims

Well, that's short and sweet. Let's dissect this vignette of Australian politics:

Prime Minister John Howard has told Parliament there is not a housing crisis in Australia.

[Oh? On what basis does he make this interesting claim? Given that I have precisely as much chance of owning my own home as I do of winning the lottery, and for the same reason.]

Mr Howard says a true housing crisis is when there is a sustained drop in the value of house prices.

[... ?!?!? WTF? Ah, so a bubble deflating (or, gods forbid, bursting) is a CRISIS!!! The average person being unable to own a home at all, and increasingly unable to afford renting anywhere inside a 40km circle from the city, is not. Ah. Good. My situation is obviously not a problem, it is an indication that I am a shiftless goober, who must suck up the rewards of having not been born in time to be able to afford a home when it was possible to do so.]

In response to a question from Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd, he accused Labor MPs of using cheap language to score political points.

[Because the Liberals never do that.]

"It behoves those who sit opposite not to wish for a crisis that, Mr Speaker, does not exist," he said.

[Again, the CRISIS would be if overblown and inflating prices out of any resemblance to actual costs were to return to sane levels. A CRISIS would be if all those Babyboomers started losing money on their seventh investment property. That an entire generation is beggaring and endebtening itself in the increasingly vain hope of owning a home is not a crisis.]

"For the Leader of the Opposition to use careless language Mr Speaker is aggravating, rather than helping the situation."

[The situation, remember, that doesn't exist. Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia.]

I will take immense pleasure in doing my small part in making John Winston Howard homeless. When he gets around to deigning to allow us to, of course.