The Average Punter is an Importer
The rich people who run this country loved to bang on to the poor about how we were crippled by a high Australian dollar. What they never pointed out was that a low Australian dollar makes just about everything we wear, eat and manhandle more expensive. The average Australian punter is an importer.
A high Australian dollar makes for lower import cost – consider your dollar exchange on Amazon purchases. Most business in the World is done in US dollars. So, while exports are expensive – imports are more affordable.
A low Australian dollar makes exporting more viable. We can sell things cheaper on the International market. Primarily we’re talking about poor old mining magnates. Yes, I know there are a lot of smaller businesses exporting and that international trade is important. But the bottom line is a lowering Australian dollar makes life for the average punter more expensive.
There’s a trade-off. We need a dollar priced low enough to be competitive, while we have it high enough we can afford goods and services from overseas.
Here is an everyday example that I would like you to think about. An example that shows just how much more expensive things are in Australia since the dollar fell to below 80 cents against the USD.
I was in the market last week for a stainless steel pot to be used in brewing. I wanted an expensive professional pot. So I went to the commercial wholesaler that services Hobart restaurants and hotels.
The pot that I chose was priced at $121. The guy behind the counter saw me baulk. He offered me a cheaper pot from the storeroom that fit the exact criteria. It’s price was $91.
He explained that the $121 pot on the shelf had been cheaper than the $91 pot only a few weeks earlier. What had changed was that new stock was being purchased from overseas at the current low exchange rate. A price rise of over $30 for that pot.
So don’t bang onto me about the value of a low Australian dollar to the average punter within Australian society. Our life just got more expensive. And we live in a time when just about everything we buy is bought with that exchange deficit on our dollar. Clothes. Cars. White goods. Plastic. Steel. That $30 rise in the price of a pot is a deficit that applies to nearly all our everyday consumer purchases.
