Australians starting to see through the fiction!?

Billy86 wrote: »

$27 an hour? Breadline? That's just north of $50,000 a year! What planet is this contact from? I was on less than that an buying fillet steak and lobster when the mood struck - and no, that is not hyperbolic! Fillet steak in Paddy's Market, and lobster from the fish market. You can get a decent steak or chicken parmesan dinner out most nights of the week for $10, with a side salad and mash or chips included - not just in dingy spots either, good places on Darling Harbour etc.

I was on min wage for most of it (sales job so I earned a good bit in commission on top but saved about 90% of that for when I came home). That was $21.82 a week, if I recall $770 over a 35 hour week, $660ish after tax. Rent and bills were about $220ish a week (they do weekly rent over there, not monthly) first in Surry Hills and then in a lovely place in Kingsford, both with two other roommates. The public transport pass covered all trains, buses and ferries, and if I recall cost about $40. Factor in phone credit, household items like bog roll, bin bags etc and I still had about $375 or so disposable income per week. Again, on min wage without even touching my commission!

If people want to go out on the cheap, there are places that do $2-3 drinks until late, and that usually extended to a good 2-3 beer brands, 2-3 wines, and 2-3 types of spirits. Cheap booze and usually (not always!) in dives granted, but the fact is you could go out somewhere decent for a steak dinner after work, then go for 4-5 drinks after, and not even go through one hour's worth of wages.

Food shopping is reasonably expensive there, but not obscene. I've been cooking for myself since I was about 6 so had an advantage, but I kept pushing it on people and still do - google is basically an infinitely huge cookbook, and you can eat very well on very little money in most places if you know how to cook for yourself, rather than eating out all the time or buying overpriced ready meals/frozen pizzas etc. You can make your own 9" cheese pizza for less than a dollar for example and top it off with whatever is in the fridge, or a big pot of bolognese for about $1-1.25 per portion and so on. But even for those too lazy for that, you have $375 a week to feed yourself on - that's about $75 a day when a steak dinner costs $10!!!

The people complaining about not having a penny to scratch together in Australia were a mix of those working part time only, those who insisted on going to the ultra expensive nightclubs 3-4 times a week every single week, people who loved to spend half the nights coked out of their brains or on pills

As for the Irish having a bad reputation over there or the psyche, I was sheepish as f*ck when I arrived and almost apologetic to them because of us having that reputation... almost every single Aussie was confused as nothing else about what the hell I was talking about? It's over blown self pitying nonsense by and large, spread by people who go to live in the likes of 'Irish/British backpacker ghettos' like Bondi or St. Kilda, insist on only going to Irish bars, only wind up hanging around with Irish people (and maybe the token Brit or two), typically working for Irish people, etc etc and basically do everything they can to ensure that they might as well have stayed at home and turned up the temperature. Then they turn around and say "the Aussies don't even want to know us!" and play the victim card. Also, Aussie employers tend to love Irish and British workers, we've got an excellent work ethic according to most of them.

Absolute bullsh*t, that is. I'm not joking when I say I had more bad run ins with Irish people giving out about me mixing with Aussies, than I did from Aussies giving me grief for being Irish - the latter of which happened to me exactly once. There was plenty of 'banter' bullsh*t but that's just how they are, it's very rare that it's coming from a bad place with them. Also Australian women absolutely live up their reputation of being stunning, and absolutely love the Irish accent.




In Canada I saw people struggling to make ends meet on their working holiday visas quite regularly, where prices are about the same but min wage is $11/hr. Australia (min wage $21.82)? Not a chance! Anyway sorry, I've gone off on a bit of a rant.

Billy86 wrote:

Of course more Irish people would know this if they talked to the locals a bit more!!