Aussie bloke exposes soaring cost of living: Three jobs and still struggling
A man who works three jobs but still struggles financially has hit out at the cost of living crisis and says home ownership is now out of reach for most Australians.
Chris Booy, who is in his 30s and lives on the Sunshine Coast, expressed his frustrations in a video shared with his YouTube channel.
“I’ve never made more money, but I’ve never felt so broke,” is the title of his video.
Mr. Booy explained that he worked about 60 hours a week in three jobs, including in the insurance industry, as a DoorDash and Uber Eats driver and as a content creator on YouTube.
Despite his heavy workload, Mr Booy says he doesn’t feel like he’s getting ahead, highlighting the dramatic decline in the quality of life for many Australians in recent years.
“Working three jobs. “I’ve never made more money in my life, but I don’t feel like I’m getting ahead,” Mr Booy said.
‘I live in Australia, we are a great country, many opportunities are presented to us. It’s a good place to live. But things are expensive. The cost of living is crazy right now.”
Mr Booy claimed the average Australian who works one job and gets by on an average income of $67,000 is “living just above the poverty line”.
In a video shared to his YouTube channel, Chris Booy (pictured) claimed he was working three jobs and making more money than ever before, but was still struggling to get ahead in Australia
By comparison, he was only making $40,000 a year a decade ago, but he could make it more comfortably.
“The quality of life in Australia is declining,” Mr Booy said.
‘Ten years ago I probably earned half of what I earn 1736821352I had one job and things just seemed easier to afford.
“I went out and bought things, I didn’t worry about groceries, I didn’t worry about paying the rent. It was affordable for what you earned at the time and I didn’t have a high income.
‘Nothing special, nothing crazy and everything was affordable, I could do things. Now that I’m working three jobs, things seem further and further out of reach.’
Mr Booy said his 60-hour work week was not sustainable because he had no time to ‘live’ even if he earned more.
He added that an average-paying job was not enough to survive in Australia.
‘Is that really the Australian dream? Because it feels like one job isn’t enough. “Wages aren’t going up, the cost of living is through the roof, groceries are out of control,” Mr Booy said.
Mr Booy, who is in his 30s and lives on the Sunshine Coast, said many Aussies were struggling to survive amid the rising cost of living and skyrocketing rent and property prices.
“No matter how hard you try to get your groceries and do it on a budget, it just doesn’t happen.
“Just groceries and household items, it’s not a waste of money, but it costs hundreds of dollars a month just to get by, just to stay fed. There’s something wrong with that.
‘Housing… a large part of what you earn goes into having a roof over your head. It doesn’t feel like we’re moving forward.”
Mr Booy’s goal is to become a homeowner, but as house prices continue to rise he believes this may now be unattainable.
He explained that as real estate prices rise, a much larger down payment is required, and the size of the loans required to purchase even a modest home leaves the borrower in debt for decades.
“I certainly don’t feel like I’m making any progress, I’m struggling at the moment,” Mr Booy said.
‘What should you do if two people with a standard job can no longer get ahead, what is the solution? Work more jobs?
“How much time should we spend trying to survive and get ahead, rather than actually living?”
Mr Booy said his goal of becoming a homeowner was becoming increasingly unattainable (stock image)
Mr Booy also took aim at the federal government for its exorbitant spending fueling inflation.
Last year, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced that Australia had struck a deal to financially support Papua New Guinea to establish a National Rugby League team.
Mr Albanese, together with his colleague James Marape from Papua New Guinea, and NRL boss Peter V’landys announced the long-awaited $600 million deal.
The team will debut in 2028 and will be funded by the Australian taxpayer over a ten-year period.
Mr Booy also called out Mr Albanese for spending $368 billion on submarines that the country has yet to receive.
Mr Albanese announced the massive spending alongside now-vanquished US President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in 2023.
Former Prime Minister Paul Keating is among those who have declared this a colossal waste of taxpayers’ money at a time when the nation can ill afford it.
“$350 billion, like Crown released land for the people of Australia to use and we put that money into construction, which would allow us to build a million homes with our tax money,” Mr Booy said.
‘It feels like a circus with what’s going on. There are people who cannot afford bread. There’s a problem.’
‘Is it even possible to stay ahead or is it just about keeping your head above water?
‘Something’s wrong. If the majority of a country, if the majority of an economy, if the majority of people are not thriving and struggling to survive, then something is wrong.”
The young worker slammed the federal government (pictured, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese) for spending billions of dollars on submarines and an NRL team from Papua New Guinea instead of using money to help struggling Australians.
Other social media users agreed, with many claiming that most people’s expectations that they will be able to find an affordable home are now gone.
“Growing up in Australia in the 1970s and 1980s, you pretty much won the lottery. Sadly those days are long gone, the great Australian dream is now to leave Australia,” one person wrote.
“I hate what this country has become. This isn’t Australia anymore, it’s a country run by crooks,” a second person wrote.
“I’ve been working and saving money for the past five years and I feel like I’ve gone backwards not forward because rent/housing/food/electricity has become so expensive,” said a third.
A fourth added: ‘When did having a steak and a beer in the pub become a luxury? Not only is the cost of everything going up, but the volume and quality of the goods and services you buy is also declining.’
Another said Australia’s wage earners simply can’t keep up, with the only people able to live comfortably being those with money to invest, or retirees who bought homes when they were much cheaper and are selling them at a huge profit.
“No matter how hard you work, it’s not enough to keep up even before inflation,” they wrote.
“Fewer people can afford to save, far fewer to invest, and more people may struggle in retirement.
‘Low-paid jobs, inflation and high rents make it difficult to save. Now, middle-class Australians are also finding it difficult to own a home, leaving them without a place to live.”