EDITORIAL: We’re richer and healthier, so why are we miserable?

A baby boy born in Australia in 1975 could expect to live for 70 years; 76 for a baby girl.

Today, that figure is 81 for boys and 85 for girls.

Part of the reason for the decade of extra life is our smoking rates. About 37 per cent of the adult population were smokers, including close to half of all men. Today, only 9 per cent of us are daily smokers.

Australia’s homicide rate has halved since 1975, a time at which marital rape was legal. This was also the year that it became illegal to discriminate against a person based on race, colour or ethnic origin. South Australia became the first jurisdiction to decriminalise male homosexuality.

We’re richer now, with about double the amount of disposable income available to Australians today, adjusted for inflation.

And our institutions are more stable; 1975 was the year of Australia’s constitutional crisis in which Gough Whitlam was sacked as prime minister by the governor-general.

We are undoubtedly a better, fairer, healthier, more prosperous and less violent society today than at just about any point in our history.

So why does it feel like we’re going backwards?

According to new research out from Australian National University, 52 per cent of us believe life was better 50 years ago.

Have we become a nation of nostalgic whingers who simply don’t appreciate our many blessings?

Not quite.

We’ve had it good for a long time. But our living standards are starting to slip, and our sense of optimism along with it.

This is a problem particular to Australia. Our disposable incomes have fallen since 2019, whereas across the OECD they have risen. The lucky country is now the unfortunate outlier.

Economists like to talk about the “generational bargain”; the implicit promise that we help those who came before us, through a strong social safety net, and in return we inherit an improved world from them.

The past five years — through which we have endured catastrophic natural disasters, pandemics and economic crises — have exposed the fragility of that bargain.

Now, only 16 per cent of Australians believe life will be better in another 50 years, while 50 per cent believe it will be worse.

Worryingly, public trust in government institutions has fallen sharply, with only 34 per cent of us expressing confidence in the Federal Government, down from 53 per cent just after the 2023 Federal election.

This gives an indication of the root of the problem: failed leadership from our politicians and business leaders.

These are the people we take our cues from as a society. They should be celebrating our successes and articulating a hopeful vision of our future.

But they have consistently failed to do so. Instead, our society blunders on, with no real idea of where we are headed. Is it any wonder that the result is an entrenched pessimism?

A Federal election looms in May. Australians wait to see what — if any — solutions are offered to our crisis of hope.