From $30 parmigianas to $15 pints, can Australia still afford the pub?
From our coffee addiction to a weekend pub tradition, some of the simple pleasures many Australians have taken for granted now feel like luxuries. But if patrons can no longer afford to visit the pubs and cafes we love, there may be something bigger at stake.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-04-21/can-australia-still-afford-the-pub-coffees-and-friday-takeaway/105115938Open linkView original on fedia.io
Wages.
We could easily afford beers and parmas if we had the same wage levels as we had 50 years ago
Australians earn **one third **the real buying power of the 1970s.
We earn ONE THIRD of what we used to
**employers took the difference in value **and stores kept increasing prices
the problem is the wages
**join a union **
Prompt reply would be "i can't afford to pay the higher wages without increasing priiiceeessss"
The real hydra we need to kill is real estate. When 60% of your business costs are a rent divorced from reality so some over leveraged cunt doesn't get a drop in imaginary worth, we all pay the price.
100% this. Property prices and business rents have destroyed the good life.
My childhood suburb had nearly 30 pubs and bars when I was 18. Nowadays, half the pubs have been bulldozed and overpriced apartments take their place.
Sad thing is with the size of apartments now, we need pub spaces to share with mates more than ever.
Even if wages rise, we’re still leaving everyone on Jobseeker or DSP behind.
For anyone looking for pub and other specials
are your friends. $15 schnitzels, steaks etc can be found. Sometimes you can combine it with a cheaper drink during happy hour.
Do you mean Parmy?
I beg your Parma?
Parma is just the city, if you want to Aussify it, its gotta be Parmy...
Parma sounds like a phrase uttered by the absolutely deranged. Even the children here know it's parmy
Exactly.
Break it down kids, its pronounced par-mi-gi-ana, and what does that sound like when you shorten it? Par-mi, Parmy.
Where the fuck did the "a" come from in 'parma'‽ Are we just going to start shortening down words and tacking the last letter on now, is that what we are doing?
Apparently The Chats have expensive taste
The price of smokes are goin up again
The way he's screaming at the end of that song is fucking beautiful
Not at the “gift shop”
For me? lol no
Beer was the last thing I expected to be bonkers expensive over here. In England you’d have to get a poncy Belgian wheat beer at 15% strength to pay equivalent to 15 bucks.