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Australians are poor, miserable and anxious because all their media tell them to be [1]
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Date: 2025-03-17
An article appeared in the Canberra Times last week with the disturbing heading:
‘Voters despair as economic hurdles cloud future’.
It lamented that ‘Australians are losing hope as economic burdens weigh on their minds’. My goodness! It claimed ‘one in three Australians has reported financial stress’. Gosh! It bemoaned that life satisfaction was at ‘its lowest levels since the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns’. Oh dear! Terrible.
This is one of countless articles which denigrate Australia’s surging economy and urge voters to feel helpless and depressed and, most importantly, angry at the Labor Prime Minister. Independent Australia has recently listed 53 examples here, here, here, here and here.
These contrast dramatically with reportage in Finland’s newspaper, the Helsinki Times, such as this one headed ‘Business satisfaction with Finnish government at all-time high, shows survey’. And this: ‘Finnish grocery chains are most profitable in world, views professor’.
Finland’s daily newspapers – in English, Swedish and Finnish – routinely encourage community pride by celebrating economic achievements.
Well, this is explained by Finland having a vastly better economy. Right?
Contrasting Australia and Finland
Wrong. The disparity in economic outcomes is stark. Australia’s jobless rate has ranged between 3.4% and 4.2% for the last three years and is now 4.1%. Finland’s is now 9.5%, having fluctuated between 5.8% and 10.2%.
Finland has had five negative quarters of quarterly GDP growth in the last three years, and six of negative annual growth. Australia has had none of either.
Australia’s median wealth per adult is second highest in the world at A$414,000 – three times Finland’s, which ranks 23rd. Equality is greater in Australia than in Finland. And Finland’s top tax rate is 58%, compared with Australia’s 45%.
Australia has generated budget surpluses and repaid debt for the last two years. Finland has been in deficit since 2008. Finland’s post-Covid inflation was much higher and lasted far longer than Australia’s.
On every significant measure, Australia now has close to the world’s best outcomes, and is streets ahead of Finland.
Comparing happiness scores
In 2024, Finland ranked number one on the United Nations’ world happiness index for the sixth year in a row. Australia came tenth.
The 2023 report applied a three-year-average, 2020–2022. This placed Finland first and Australia twelfth. The 2020 report used the three years 2017–2019, and also ranked Finland first and Australia twelfth.
So do the Finns have more sunshiny days for garden parties, barbecues or relaxing at the beach? No, far fewer. More wineries and better wines? Of course not. Greater variety of fresh local fruits and vegetables? Sadly, no.
Freedom from fear of invasion by a hostile neighbour? Nyet. Finland shares a 1,340 kilometre frontier with Russia which now has border garrisons in place. Lower crime rate? Not even close. Australia’s annual homicide rate is 7.4 per million population. Finland’s is 16.5.
Longer life expectancy? No, Aussies live 83.2 years versus 81.2 for Finns. Better sex? This requires more research.
So why are Finns consistently much happier than Australians?
Media manipulation – destructive and effective
Opinion polls have shown for years that voters believe the right-wing Liberal Party manages Australia’s economy better than the reformist Labor. The latest Resolve sounding, taken in late January, measured this at 41% to 24%.
Of course that is ridiculous. That 41% are completely deluded. All the evidence has proven overwhelmingly that economic outcomes have been much better under Labor going back to the Hawke/Keating years in the 1980s.
This was partly quantified here last week where 32 key variables were shown to have shifted from near the bottom of global rankings to the top, or perilously close to – in under three years.
What that Resolve poll actually measures is the extent to which the mainstream newsrooms have convinced voters to believe the opposite of the truth. It confirms they are succeeding.
Rupert Murdoch’s outlets are now running a campaign with concocted “stories” such as one headed ‘Plunging living standards hit households harder than past recessions’. This claimed falsely that ‘Living standards in Australia during the inflation crisis have fallen more dramatically than in any other OECD country.’
That article and its companion pieces are riddled with blatant lies. This does not happen in Finland, nor in most other advanced democracies.
Finland shows the way
Susanna Mykkänen Irlès is a multi-lingual Finnish translator working with European institutions. She told IA that the newsrooms in Finland do not foment anger, hatred and anxiety as in Australia.
“We have faith in our media. They are independent, and not there to sell or make money. There is not someone rich controlling it for their benefit. We often notice good news, like a company creating new jobs or selling their products abroad for example.”
She identified other differences as well.
“We trust our government, the police, the tax authorities and other institutions”, Irlès said. “We see where our tax money goes – free health care, school meals, higher education and libraries. We are all treated equally, and our bosses trust us to work without supervision. We can work at home, or in the garden.
“We have clean forests and lakes near us everywhere. We can relax there and just breathe, without noise, stress and crowds.
“And our news media are committed to informing, not deceiving.”
The way forward for Australians is to turn off the TV, cancel the newspapers, and get news from outlets which don’t lie and manipulate. Then voters can stop despairing at the economic hurdles clouding their future and enjoy a barbecue at the beach with local prawns, fresh mangos and maybe a Clare Valley Riesling after work.
The Finns wish they were so fortunate.
*
This is an edited version of an article published today in Independent Australia. The original article is available here in full for free:
https://independentaustralia.net/business/business-display/australians-are-miserable-and-anxious-because-the-media-coaches-them-,19529
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