How Aussies responded to $100k earner’s housing riot call
Aussies have piled on at their hilarious best to a query by someone on $100k a year over why people don’t ‘riot in the streets’ over the cost of housing.
Aussies have piled on at their hilarious best to a query by someone on $100k a year over why people don’t ‘riot in the streets’ over the cost of housing.
In a case of if you don’t laugh, you might cry, Aussies have responded with good humour to a query by a Reddit user on the AskAnAustralian forum asking “why don’t we riot?” over high living and housing costs.
“I’m your average Aussie on average 100k salary. I work my 9-5 pay $800 week rent for a crap 3x1 in a ‘previously low income suburb’. With the recent and continuous cost of living pressures lack of housing blah blah … Why don’t we riot in the streets at our governments like the Europeans do? I feel like we just accept fate and don’t retaliate.”
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It is unlawful to intentionally or recklessly threaten violence or incite violence against another person in Australia, so the responses were uniquely Australian - that is, mostly tongue-in-cheek deflection.
“We’re too lazy and the footy season is still on” was upvoted by almost 700 people on the post.
Many agreed. “Came here to say this... and the beer is cold. So we are parked on the lounge watching the footy. Take away the beer, the tv and the footy. then u might have a riot”.
Other Reddit users said “but when footy season ends it’s too hot to riot…”, “and the cricket is on …”
The post did jokingly agree on a window in the sporting calendar: “There is about 2 weeks every year in early February when cricket is finished and the footy season is yet to start. NFL has even just finished. That’s when the aus government is at high alert”.
Another said “this is when we strike! We’ll use all the built up rage at having no sport to watch to motivate us”.
The situation was pretty much summed up as “can you imagine a bunch of aussies trying to plan an uprising. ‘Nah … can’t be f*cked ay’. ‘Pub?’.”
Any serious discussion was quickly sidestepped with this pearler: “We’d never storm the capitol like the US did because we’d have to go to Canberra. And honestly, who the f*ck wants to go to Canberra?!”
There have been such protests in the past an elephant-memory-level user reminded everyone, to which another chimed in over the very laid-back police response to that one in the 1980s: “I was one of the 34 that got past the police lines. We were told if we left quietly they wouldn’t lay any charges on us”.
Another said “living on 100k a year is quite comfortable. Rioting is very much not comfortable”.
“Australians are currently at mildly annoyed. Mildly annoyed people don’t riot. Most of Australia hasn’t even hit the threshold for a strongly worded letter.”
Commonsense was aplenty in the responses: “Cause average people here have it better than people in basically every other country”.
Some had housing advice for the poster: “Ngl man, 800 sounds insane, especially if you’re living on your own. I’m currently paying $470 for a 2x1 that I split with my gf … I think you need to downsize. Saving $300 a week is an extra $15k per year that you can put towards a house deposit”.
One said “Aussies still have hope that this is a temporary setback. If it worsens or festers for longer, we will see riots.”
Though even that seems unlikely: “Let’s face it, redditors would have to leave their bedrooms first” was another’s response.
Originally published as How Aussies responded to $100k earner’s housing riot call