Can there ever have been a country in such good shape as ours that’s as miserable as Australia is?

… The only thing that makes sense as a single cause of Australia’s misery is excessive debt.

Australia’s household debt as a percentage of disposable income has been stuck at 150 per cent – the highest in the world – for about five years. Twenty years ago it was 50 per cent. In other countries it has come down, albeit painfully. Interest paid as a percentage of income has doubled in 20 years.

And the underlying cause of this is the high price of land in Australia. It is one of the mostly sparsely populated nations on earth, yet the cost of land is among the highest in the world, crippling the citizens with massive debts and leading to hugely profitable banks.