How Sydney is Designed To Crush Poor People

[@Sett86]

Being poor is expensive. No surprises there...

[@williamkarl-gustafmoller8492]

The bank of england is telling australian politicians how to run the country.

[@unknownechoecho]

Yes, but being poor in Sydney is uniquely expensive. If you live in the poor part of Sydney, just driving to the city for a good paying job is $20 one-way. $40 a day to get there and back and that's just the tolls. The drive can easily be an 1.5 hours contributing to significantly higher fuel costs. With that context in mind, imagine how the citizens feel when the federal government forced public service workers to return to the office because inner-city cafes were losing revenue and closing down. Who gives a flying fuck about them? The distance from Mount Druitt (classic "poor" suburb) to the CBD is 40km. For context, the country of Singapore is 50km from end to end. I'm travelling across Singapore to buy a coffee from a guy who I've never met, at the expense of the coffee guy who lives down the road from me and frankly makes better coffee? So now western suburb office workers are poorer, western suburbs retail workers are poorer and western suburbs hospitality workers are poorer because we all have to protect our eastern suburbs and inner city counterparts from losing money?

[@Layla12251]

It pushes people out. I dreamed of going to uni in Sydney but once I got there it was so hard to find a rental as an 18 year old that I gave up and left.

[@wellingtongil]

Even owning a shitty house in a shitty suburb in Sydney is pretty rich as well by international standards

[@toofbar3]

You are definitely part of the 1 percent richest of humanity if you live in Sydney and its metro, even if its a crappy house or apartment.

[@AlsandoGames]

A great example how, even in such minute details, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer...

[@Xeverous]

This is a very common and a very false dichotomy. Under proper capitalism (not today's neoliberalism) the rich get richer and the poor also get richer (and faster). The problem is that due to various bad urban planning and regulation, the city created 2 classes of citizens on an unfair market.

[@AlsandoGames]

@@Xeverous "the poor get richer"? So everyone just gets richer? This doesn't make any sense: If everyone is getting richer and nobody gets poorer, then the value of our currency would equally fall. After all money, gold and other valueables are only worth anything because there is a limited amount available. Yes we are living in an inflated (and still inflating) economy but there for sure is not infinite money out there. But considering inflation and the move to non-tangible currencies there is an argument that the rate poor people get poorer is slowing down. On the other hand the rate rich people get richer is also increasining in my opinion though ...

[@Xeverous]

@@AlsandoGames "If everyone is getting richer and nobody gets poorer, then the value of our currency would equally fall." - this is bad reasoning. The value of the currency is a separate measure, independent of the state of people's wellbeing and overall wealth. And today even poor people have things that were unimaginable few decades ago. The rich get rich very fast because of current inflation. The rich hold mostly assets, the poor hold mostly money. If money inflates, the rich stay at their level as assets increase in price. For the poor - the savings shrink compared to the economy overall.

[@AlsandoGames]

@Xeverous Well I guess what my original statement was meant to say ist that the gap between the rich and poor is widening. The bigger the bread is the rich are eating the more crumbs will fall for the poorto eat I guess. Sure in the end the poor get more bread crumbs, yes, but the more bread there is, the less a single piece is worth. In short inflation! And yes currently it is still working because everyone is playing along and invests in tangible assets. This in return creates a cycle where spending money is highly incentived. In short term this does improve the overall living conditions but at some point, when there are none or barely any tangible assets left and they are essential things like homes, food, water, etc, there will come a tipping point where the price of those skyrockets and poor people will have to spend more money than they can earn to acquire them. Then they will fall deep and hard.

[@Xeverous]

@@AlsandoGames The biggest problem we have today is that we don't do real capitalism. The rich abuse the corrupt system to bend the game in their favor (which is a rational thing to do if corruption gives you more than investment into better product) and the poor remain mostly uneducated how economy works. We have hordes of people wanting to raise the minimum wage, even though its pure discrimination of free trade and never worked in the past; even though it is the rich companies that won't suffer but tons of low-skill people will be basically banned from legal work.

[@linden1763]

There's so much misinformation in this video and I'm only at the 3:24 mark so far. The maximum daily train/bus fair is $18.70 per day and $50 per week, far less than your $25 one way estimate. As someone else pointed out that $4.7M was on a huge block that would likely be subdivided. Over priced yes, but no need to exaggerate. The 3 bedroom house in the West you showed us actually a 4 bedroom, it says so on the listing you showed. The point you're trying to make is valid but making up sensationalist facts only hurts your message

[@Ice_fnt]

I go past the ramona street house almost every day and there is a train station literally 30 seconds walk from the house as well, no need to drive to the city

[@MrSomethingred]

The $25 was in tolls. Because most of Western Suburbs are not connected to the PT network (Because NSWGOV signed a noncompete clause with TransUrban)

[@linden1763]

​@@MrSomethingredat 3:15 he mentions you can get a bus and train from Jordan Springs to the CBD, which he says will also cost you $25. This is completely false

[@hjhj-d5o]

Am I missing something...westconnex 28 dollars one way toll, any one defending Sydney is a greedy lunatic

[@darkanus51]

@@MrSomethingred There is a $60 weekly toll cap

[@shamuclone]

it's like someone glued Lower Manhattan and Houston together, staggering

[@hjhj-d5o]

Houston is amazing , don't disgrace Texas , Sydney is a greed house , they don't even have guts to build like Texans

[@hjhj-d5o]

@@shamuclone don't disgrace Houston

[@Tokahfang]

I definitely agree with most of the points in your video, but the weekly Opal cap does at least mean someone commuting by public trans 5/day week isn't actually spending $25 every day they go.

[@7eventh7ense]

the cap is $50 and its still too high for public transport

[@oshochso]

You have forgotten the previous products Sydney Transport was offering. Yes you could buy an unlimited pass and ride unlimited. One family buy one and pass around to save money. The current product and pricing model is robbery compared previous product offerings. And pricing will go up but the same signal boxes and lines will fail like it has since for past 30+years. You pay more for less of a service every year. Metro network is a better solution but it wasn't completed without delaying and I gurantee you people who worked on the tender will work for the developer later or already is in developers pocket.

[@hjhj-d5o]

Mate , I go every week to city , it hurts, it really hurts

[@johnsa3567]

I used to agree that opal was too expensive till I went to Switzerland and pair nearly $1-2k for public transport in a week, was only on the trains for a total of maybe 6 hours.

[@oshochso]

@johnsa3567 I can tell you never riddden a Sydney train when it was called CityRail (or more passionately Sydney siders in 90s used to call it CityFail). I'm talking about how transport services were more affordable and could travel whole city with spare change. Penrith to City return was around $5 in 90s/early 2000s. Inflation aside the price you pay is more for the same product we had in the 90s. The only major difference trains now have air conditioning. If you ever caught a sardine can train you would dred the smell of BO in a hot tin box on summer day. Don't go comparing against another country where totally different dynamics in play. I'm comparing Sydney Transport against itself. If you had experienced the difference, you will know automatically you are paying more for less service and the value is eroding further by each government that comes in. I'm surprised no politicians have proposed privatising it. Won't be surprised if the coalition does it in future, actually I expect it from this money hungry sharks.

[@kevinbarry71]

Speaking as an American; it's nice to know we're not the only ones who screw these things up

[@jarvisaddison8560]

We got way more lame to use plus water. So our situation is actually worse due to that feature

[@kutto5017]

The MEDIAN house price in Sydney is over 1M USD. Not in the city. An hour from the centre...

[@docscotty1992]

Australia is literally USA Junior, it does all the same stupid shit the US does.

[@d3nza482]

Who do you think Aussies are copying there?

[@danielcraig6999]

Thanks to your system everyone hooked up to it gets fucked up

[@bruce4947]

Australia continues to build 2 kinds of housing, 20 storey apartment blocks or McMansions. If they adopted the European model of medium density 5 storey buildings and people could live in a more considerate manner the price of housing and the urban sprawl would be under control. However the mindset is that it is better to live in a soulless house 40 km from the city and drive everywhere for hours every day.

[@sebastientumahai9560]

Parramatta is technically now the “center” of Sydney just based on how far west Sydney has sprawled

[@hjhj-d5o]

It won't, Ray white would never let that happen

[@Serioslump]

I live in Melbourne and it’s basically just like this as well. Australia is a country designed for rich landowners.

[@toofbar3]

it was never like this, go back to 80's and 90's... heck even the 2000's were decent, nothing crazy but after 2012...

[@coagmano]

Also, one bit of feedback: at 7:50 when you talk about deaths from heat stress, it comes across sounding almost like hyperbole. Inserting a graphic with a snippet from a newspaper or graph showing how terribly real it is would help hammer that point home. I wouldn't change the way you say it, your delivery is :chefs-kiss:

[@henrietta9206]

Some heat stress will not make its mark within one year...or even two. Be roasted for a period..4, 5 years and yes - Death. Work opportunities health, wellbeing, mental wellness...you seem to have been doctrinated not to include these?

[@简澜]

Every summer I feel like dying, maybe it is that I am dying

[@Sean-l4h7x]

Opal transport fares: Your pay $2.80 for your first 10km You pay an additional $2.50 for every 10kms after that If you travel outside of rush hour, these fares are reduced by 30% If you take buses, your fare gets reduced by 20% Ferries are privately operated, so this doesn't apply for the F1 route (and others but idk) You get a travel discount of 2 dollars when changing between modes of transport The daily maximum fare for Mondays - Thursday is $18.75 Fridays - Sundays has a maximum fare of $9.35 Weekly caps are 50 dollars. (Some of this may be wrong, fares get changed every year)

[@hjhj-d5o]

That's a commute of a Centerlink junkie

[@heyasimii9170]

This video made me sad as a Sydneysider. I live with my parents and I already know it's over for me trying to get a house. The government will never get rid of negative gearing laws.

[@TheSafetyman1000]

It’s not the negative gearing laws . They are a tool to assist those who can to store their wealth in real estate. Also no one saves their dollars in their bank for future spending. It’s the monetary policy of uncontrolled money printing by central Banks that is devaluing your buying power. All that extra money introduced purposely to buy votes to fund programs under the guise of helping the poorer is if not spent as stimulus checks on buying consumer goods by the poorer less informed populous is filtering into all harder assets like real estate and Equities. Due to this our dollars are getting weaker. One needs more dollars to buy the same property. Properties are not more valuable the Aussie dollars is devaluing.

[@coopsnz1]

High taxation the problem ! More idiots voting communism

[@hjhj-d5o]

Get out while you can

[@darthutah6649]

You might want to get politically active to bring a solution forward

[@andrewthomson6851]

Maybe it’s got more to do with the elephant in the room…immigration!

[@tony41231]

This video exaggerates the gap & makes Western Sydney to be some kind of hellhole, when it isn’t. The travel times provided suggesting it takes over 2 hours each way to get to work, is not the norm. There are frequent trains from major centres in western Sydney providing direct access to the CBD with far shorter journey times than that - eg Blacktown to Central is 37 minutes in peak hour. Also there are lots of jobs in western Sydney & not just Parramatta. Most of Sydney’s industry is located in its western suburbs. There are university campuses & some of the largest hospitals & shopping centre are there.

[@xpusostomos]

Except that Blacktown is a hell hole... ok, maybe not a hell hole, but not somewhere anyone aspires to live.

[@0401412740]

I feel like in India if you're in Western Sydney.

[@7eventh7ense]

agree that western sydney is made out to be a hellhole - which it is not. However, the gap is staggering and growing everyday. Also the transport times station to station might be 37 mins, but the commute time for people is much longer. most people have to walk or catch a bus to the train station, so a 37 minute commute is more like 1 hour each way, sometimes more from traffic or train delays. Sydney is mess, do you even live here?

[@ryan-ci9sl3mt3j]

Yeah a lot of this is based on having to work near the CBD which is totally unnecessary. I work at a bottle shop 5 mins away and make good money, not enough for some people maybe but then that's on them not the city of Sydney.

[@xpusostomos]

@ryan-ci9sl3mt3j yeah, you're fine in Sydney if you don't need to go near the CBD... For some professions it's real hard to not go to the CBD.

[@DaytimeOperator]

I agree with most of what you said. But Jordan Springs to the CBD is $11.11 in tolls, the drive used to take 1hr 30 mins, it now takes 50mins. That new tunnel has been great for us out west. Just the rich sods in Rozelle complained, because it diverted some of our traffic to their area.

[@christopherpekel6096]

I live in rozelle and I apologise for those idiots. They are incredibly selfish

[@DaytimeOperator]

@christopherpekel6096 one of the good ones!

[@suzannamurray2751]

So return trip is $22.22?

[@DaytimeOperator]

@ yep. Gladly pay that to save 80mins of driving/fuel.

[@Starcraftmazter]

Sydney has a public transport cap of $50 per week - no matter how many busses, trains, or ferries you take. Nobody out west drives to work - it takes longer and as you mention is unnecessarily expensive (not to mention you won't find anywhere to park anyway). $50 a week is peanuts compared to how much they are saving on our ludicrously priced housing. The very vast majority of people in Sydney are using public transport to get around, in the west where train spots might be further apart, there is park and ride. In terms of electricity you have it backwards. We have a self-feeding doom loop of rising energy distribution costs BECAUSE of solar, because many people in the west - having houses with roofs, put solar panels on them, disconnect from the grid (or feed into the grid, which is also problematic because as it turns out, nothing was ever designed with this in mind) - both of which make it more expensive for everyone else, which incentivises more people to get more solar and disconnect, and so on and so forth.

[@7eventh7ense]

a lot of people do drive to work - noticed all the traffic?! its because the public transport doesn't exist and in some cases in more expensive than driving :)

[@alexanderrobinson4387]

A lot of places in Western Sydney doesn't have reliable public transport.

[@antontsau]

PV makes it more expensive even for owners, because they generate at daytime and when the owner returns home at 1800 sun is already down and network price is on maximum.

[@tsport100]

Doesn't sound like you've ever experienced the M4 @ 6 am on a week day... lol

[@MyNineTails]

Yep. you can spend 3-4 hours on the public transport everyday for just $50 a week. Everyone works in the city like to get away as soon as they don't need to commit to the city. That has been proven by the property price surge during the pandemic period and Sydney business started to lobbying the state government and made works commute to the city as soon as they realised the inner city property price went down.

[@RyanC5891]

I have lived on both sides of the line. Im now living on the poor side on a bigger property and i can tell you life was better on the rich side when i was living in a shoe box - we had easy access to everything then: city, beach, parks, better cafes and restaurants.

[@club1fan552]

Many years ago there was a similar "line" in an article in The Sydney Morning Herald but it used the shape of a half moon which was somewhat more accurate. The Latte Line excludes all of The Sutherland Shire (The Shire) with some expensive real estate. It is also serviced by an excellent train service. A former PM lives there.

[@espkev]

"This 3 bedroom townhouse sold for over a million dollars, But it did come with a working bathroom and a front door" Yeh but with the build quality crisis going on in Sydney (and other Australian cities) the front door will likely just fall off after a few months and the bathroom will develop waterproofing defects within 6 months and become unusable, causing $100k worth of water damage to surrounding rooms and need to be completely replaced. Great video showing the reality of living in Sydney these days.

[@xpusostomos]

err... I don't think so... quality issues tend to be in apartment blocks.

[@jackryan2135]

@@xpusostomos your dreamin

[@romanbrandle319]

Australia's corporate monopoly on housing products ensures that overpriced houses are built with pure crap products that have no longevity, a rip off on every level.

[@OZVify]

@@xpusostomos Those problematic developers don't just build apartments.

[@xpusostomos]

@@OZVify actually, I think they do only build apartments. In any case, screwing up a regular house is a lot harder because they're a lot simpler. There's not a lot to go wrong. But if there is a major structural issue in a 10 story building, that's a big deal.

[@007i1]

Not sure where you got a bus and two trains needed from Jordan Springs. You wouldn't drive to a bus stop you would drive to Penrith station which has a large commuter car park. Then it's 1 train to the cbd

[@rogerwilco2]

If you can't walk, cycle or take a bus to a local train station, then your public transport has already failed. Our main train station in a city of over 200.000 people has no parking, only a taxi stand and ±20 spots for people to drop off and pick up passengers. The same is largely true for the other 3 train stations in the city. You need to build dense enough, walkable neighbourhoods for public transport to be functional and profitable to run. It also needs not to get stuck in traffic.

[@CMurdoch-n3t]

@@rogerwilco2 You can take a bus from Jordan Springs to the nearest train station, it just seems like the presenter was being misleading in assuming it's too hard to walk max 8 min to a bus stop, so added the car step, despite the fact even in Jordan Springs, there are perfectly walkable footpaths and parks. But if you do add the car step, like 007i1 said, you can skip the bus and drive to the station, making the journey faster and more convenient.

[@007i1]

@rogerwilco2 the 783 bus runs directly from Jordan Springs to Penrith station. You wouldn't drive to a bus stop for it. And it's only one train from Penrith to the city.

[@xpusostomos]

Admittedly I didn't try that exact thing, because I didn't live near Penrith, but knowing the general area, I'll betcha that carpark is full by 7am or something, and/or is expensive. There's no chance there isn't a catch to that plan.

[@ronnycook3569]

The really annoying thing about public transport in Sydney is that most of the development of NEW public transport is in the East, where there is already very good infrastructure. Most of the new Metro and Light Rail lines are firmly in the eastern part of the city. The West mostly gets by with a handful of overpacked train lines and private bus companies. The private bus companies only cover explicitly profitable routes, so services cut out not long after rush hour, and are themselves relatively spread out to extend the catchment area of each route. This has only gotten worse over time.

[@dakkossman2063]

This is BS. Public transport in North And East Sydney are crap

[@ronnycook3569]

@@dakkossman2063 Pull up a map of bus routes in Sydney, THEN complain about the status in the North & East. There are basically no public buses west of Parramatta - they're all run by private operators, with much less dense networks. Get a map of the physical layout of Sydney train lines and note the gaping gap in the southwest of the city. Not saying public transport in the north & east is flawless, but it's terrible in the far west and southwest. And these are the areas with furthest to travel to reach the CBD; a two hour commute each way is not unusual.

[@dakkossman2063]

@ronnycook3569 because that's the only transport that exists there

[@dzigizord6567]

all the new metro lines are to the west and south

[@scottha4935]

Western Sydney has better transport for sure. it's a real struggle sometimes if you don't have a car if you live in the North or East

[@509734]

If you use the Opal card, which is like a charge card for Sydney’s public transport, your commute is capped at $50 AUD a week with unlimited rides.

[@niccolosun3416]

Very interesting observation. I used to live out in the west and I remember after graduating from high school I got a casual job to work in a factory at Pagewood. I had to wake up at 430 am to catch the bus to Blacktown station and then a train to Redfern and then another bus to Pagewood. My shift started at 7am and finished at 4 pm. It was about a 90-120 min commute one way. I had to sleep on the conveyor during my lunch break to catch up on eye shut. I did that for couple of years whilst part time at tafe and then finally uni. I’ve had so many of those character building moments which I totally forgot about or didn’t appreciate until now. I’ve broken the cycle for my family - it was hard work, commitment, patience with a bit of luck and love along the way. Now to pay it forward

[@7eventh7ense]

The planning in Parramatta has been terrible. Its hardly a second CBD.

[@myword1000]

Is the Parramatta Light Rail up & running yet?

[@7eventh7ense]

@@myword1000 nope

[@TheNemisisx]

​​@@myword1000it was meant to be up and running last year but hey that still didn't stop my land lord and real estate raising the rent because it's "nearly ready" 🙃

[@landlordize]

1:30 The 4.7 million dollar town house comes with 550m^2 land. It is misleading to present it like the current structure is what sets the price.

[@coopsnz1]

in cbd in roseville can buy a nice big home for that on 1000sqm block 8 km from Cbd

[@landlordize]

@@coopsnz1 To be fair $4.7 is a fortune.

[@coopsnz1]

@@landlordize that what luxury mansions sell outer west now on 4000sqm block ! median house price dump on 500sqm block $800000

[@Kni0002]

4.7m is for the land, the rundown house is just garbage that sits on it.. to someone who can afford to buy it..

[@Exodus227]

Yes, and even $4.7 Million for the land alone is stupid.

[@dddsss2023]

there is so much going wrong in Australia. It's incredible.

[@chrisj8764]

So much going right, mainly

[@ACDZ123]

MAGA..make albo go away

[@williamsolomon940]

As a Sydneysider, I think you do a really solid job of illustrating the city's major issues, but I think you undersell the effectiveness of our public transit network. It's true that the further you get from the CBD, the worse transit gets, but it's still quite feasible to commute into the city on a train from most of major population centres out west - at a fraction of the cost of the admittedly diabolical tolled roads.

[@hjhj-d5o]

It's an illusion mate , west connex 28 dollars one way , latte makers for the rich in the north , I am out of of here

[@gabepee3533]

Your point is valid, but as someone who lives in Liverpool/Prestons it’s not as bad as you think. Most new and old suburbs in Sydney are built with schools/public transport/general shopping 5-10mins away, or within the suburb itself. Look at a new suburb like spring farm and you’ll see a woolworths and a public school integrated into the suburb. I travel to Sydney sometimes for work and a train costs about $10 there and back, one train the whole way from leppington.

[@lithyy2972]

Doesnt help that government post ww2 decided Australian housing was something to make an investment rsther then a responsibility to the people, which helped for a few years in the short term, but now we have this.

[@xpusostomos]

No, the government didn't decide that, the government decided to protect NIMBYs, aka not build big apartment blocks in the city in favor of suburban sprawl. I could say this is the end game, but this is actually the mid game. The end game is either they capitulate and demoilish all the old homes, or they stop immigration. You guess which, because the only other option is tent city in hyde park.

[@MaoZedongWasRightAllAlong-i9f]

Meanwhile the governments of Vjetnam, Cuba , China and the USSR decided to make housing a given right for each tax paying , law obeying adult rather than somethjng to invest in... About 90% of people in Vietnam own their homes as I type this right now Why did the people of USSR give this system up? I cannot answer that. They were being idiots I guess. Humans arent very smart history shows...

[@coopsnz1]

​@@MaoZedongWasRightAllAlong-i9fno they dont own homes it leasing off the state marxist idiot 90%

[@christopherpekel6096]

That started in the 90's

[@2020OCAR]

Yes, the gap between the poor and the wealthy in Sydney is huge. However, this video contains loads of misinformation, and I haven't even gone through the 3:17 mark. The ideas you provide in the video are true, and I fully agree with them, but this exaggeration of details and facts doesn't help. (P. S. I signed in just to comment on this video...)

[@coagmano]

I married into property east of the latte line (took a mortgage to build an apartment on top of the in-laws house). If I hadn't there's no way I'd live in Sydney, it's crazy

[@xpusostomos]

Even if I found myself with a nice house, bought and paid for, why would you not sell it, buy a nicer house somewhere else for a 10th of the price, and live off the rest.

[@hjhj-d5o]

Lucky Feudals...😂

[@themoviebud1988]

Thank you for this video. I've been living in Sydney my whole life and it's just getting worse and worse. I want to leave, but I can't afford to right now

[@VictoriaBrz]

A lot of those issues would be solved with metro/train lines, but then people need to demand it and vote for it.

[@pm2886]

How can you not afford to leave, if you can't afford to stay? Just curious, since that sounds contradictory.

[@thecoolestfaisal]

​@@pm2886 Moving is expensive and it seems like they're spending so much just to survive in Sydney that they don't have any savings that they can use to finance the move.

[@pm2886]

@@thecoolestfaisal I'm afraid that still makes no sense. With respect, it's this kind of behaviour which causes people problems in life. People back themselves into a corner because they want to keep living beyond their means til the last minute. That's crazy. It's not as though Sydney hasn't been shockingly expensive for years, so an exit plan should have been in place before now (drastic lifestyle adjustment to allow a savings plan, etc). Read the room, and plan accordingly.

[@aaronsannet]

Leave dude! just do it, there's jobs in the country and the people are so much nicer.

[@StratosFair]

I moved from Hong Kong to Sydney, and I thought I had already seen the worst when it comes to housing prices, but i quickly found out that I was very wrong

[@imadeacake7340]

Brilliant summary of what’s become of my home town.

[@xpusostomos]

As a Sydney resident, I never heard of a "Latte line" or seen anyone draw a line there to make a point. Your transport prospects in Sydney depend on your proximity to a train station, of which there are places on both sides of that line both with and without a train station. As someone who lived on the supposed "bad" side of that line, but near a station, it wasn't that bad to get to a station. However sure, if you're not near a station, then it's difficult if you work in the CBD. Basically, most mega cities tend to suck as places to live.

[@robmcd]

This latte line is full of sh!t. If anyone is making lattes in the city they live in the city or east.

[@poidonline4312]

The latte line is a very well known concept and has been discussed for years...

[@xpusostomos]

@poidonline4312 ok, so judging by Google, latte line has been around roughly 10 years, and is talked about with increasing frequency... I'd say because it makes good news copy, us vs them, find out which side you are on, blah blah. As if a city could be summarised by just drawing a line somewhere.

[@robmcd]

@ as someone who has lived my entire life in Sydney never heard of it. Parts of my family are on both sides of the line.

[@Droidy77]

It's blindingly obvious if you drive around at all. There are beautiful and shabby areas all over Sydney so it's not a black and white thing and also shouldn't be used to look down on anyone ... But some areas of the city are clearly far more affluent than others. It shows in the cars and the clothes and the buildings and the green spaces and the climate.

[@Zachafinackus]

"Safe Government" - Didn't someone try to assassinate FriendlyJordies for speaking out against the Aussie/NSW government? Loving your vids!

[@TrafficPartyHatTest]

I mean, the only two types of governments are "safe" ones like that, or ones in civil wars

[@vandelayindustries5814]

I think it was more the gambling industry that was responsible for that

[@EatMyShortsAU]

Was likely bikies.

[@katherineforbes9440]

I thought it was bikies

[@davidhayter8516]

FriendlyJordies was a fearless exposer of political corruption and is without doubt the number one investigative journalist in Australia. Other so called investigative journalist shows, i.e., 60 Minutes, Four Corners are too scared of reprisals from criminal gangs and their toady police on the payroll. When Jordan and his producer were arrested it was at the behest of corrupt politicians that FriendlyJordies had exposed. Shanks was then the victim of a firebombing. An even stronger warning. In the end Shanks had to back off because organised crime in collusion with government departments were going to either injure him or kill him. He aired a video to his enemies that they had won. They only conclusion that one can draw from Shank’s videos about political corruption is that organised crime in Australia continues to operate under the umbrella of corrupt government offical and that the media is too fearful to expose it.

[@thevishahrukh]

Quite clear they haven’t spent 5 minutes researching this story. - Half of Sydney’s IT crowd lives out west. I have friends living in the west and all of them earn well above 300k in family income. - No one pays less to work in Parramatta vs CBD. - You’ve also got job centres in Norwest, - Macquarie Park and Liverpool other than Parramatta so there are way more work options. - You’ve shown a 950k townhouse in quakers hill and thats by no means cheap but QH is not even a comparable suburb. You have also got Bella Vista out west and the house price there is 3.5mil+. You have got Kellyville, Ponds etc at around 2 mils and they are not cheap either. - You’ve got metro out weat now that leads you into the city in 35 mins. No one drives to the CBD. Quite clear someone on a tourist visa did a research and made the video for views.

[@lixian0072000]

there are abundant supply of apartments across Sydney, still quite affordable, but the Australian dream is to live in a house with 900 square meter backyard !

[@Hudpix16]

I agree, I hate how apartments are always ignored when lots of people live in them.

[@onepavo2510]

My question is how does Singapore charge $1 each way on their metro system and we pay five times more? Answer: Australians haven't had to stand up to their national and state governments for decades and they have been taking advantage, big time!!!

[@richardbaker2701]

Sydney is a cancer the rest of the country too. The insane competition there spills out into the rest of the country and all the big corporations are headquartered there and they set Sydney prices for services that are required elsewhere on non Sydney wages. It’s a sad state of affairs

[@moefoemonkey]

That is a really interesting point that no one talks about. But it's not intrinsic to Sydney, it is due to the unrestricted migration, foreign investment and intentionally inflational government policies.

[@BizRon-dm8ye]

And the government, regional NSW is getting urban speed limits for rural roads.

[@ACDZ123]

Perth has the highest wages because of the mining sector .I could be wrong but I know rentals have overtaken Sydney for most expensive now

[@romanbrandle319]

I absolutely hate living in western Sydney it sucks.

[@deusvult6976]

Cry baby

[@elie464]

the state government has implemented a toll weekly cap of $60. So people from outer suburbs do not have to pay $400+ a week

[@dimplesd8931]

My hubby’s from OZ, The Hawkesbury Dist. His dad built a 1300sq ft. 3 bed/1 bath breeze block house, with a tiny front yard and no backyard, in the early 1960’s. In the 90’s they added a small Granny flat. His mom sold the house in 2019 for $400-500 thousand AUD. My dad sold our 3 bed/2 bath 2000sq ft, brick house with attached 2 car garage and a 1/3 acre of land in a larger US city that was built at the same time for $120 thousand USD. I love Australia but we can’t afford to live there and we make 6 figures. I’m use to high prices in major US cities and in London but Australia is on a whole other level. Unlike most countries they can’t continue to expand due to the lack of water. The easiest fix is to encourage developers to build family apartments. Our friends who have apartments live alone or with a partner. Those with families feel they have to live in a house. But even apartments are ridiculously priced. We’re saving now to go back to visit in 2025 😬

[@xpusostomos]

It's not really true that we couldn't build more cities, we just haven't. I don't know why. The US has a long history of having populated every nook and cranny, whereas Australia has clustered around the old colonies. It would be interesting to see more analysis on how that happened.

[@seansteel3326]

That's why I ended up buying my house in the central coast. Beautiful beaches, 1000 sq meter land, 3 bed, 2 bath home in a quiet neighbourhood, all for $670K in 2018. I commuted to my work in sydney, took me nearly an hour each way , mostly on M1, which is fine. Why would anyone want to live in a crowded city in a small house with barely any backyard and spend 2 million+ is beyond me. Even if I could afford 2 million, I would have bought an acreage in central coast.

[@h3lldiv3r]

the tolls and parking cost also insane in Shitney, from Campbeltown to CBD. would cost 20+ for the tolls alone, and add 20+ dollar parking the City.

[@LienLeon]

What a brilliant video this is. Moved to Brisbane from Scotland 10 years ago and a lot of the points you made ring true. There were a lot of points I didn't even think of and you are right. The country is still paradise though.

[@Ggekko2010]

Also, very few people living 30 kms from the CBD have city jobs. There are literally millions of jobs not located in the CBD. If someone has a CBD job and is ambitious they can rent an apartment 5 mins away from the city…

[@Wayner71]

The Social Contact of the 20th Century has vanished. it is now impossible to live a decent life unless you are very well connected. I lived in Sydney in the Early 1980's when it was still inexpensive. Now, the city is atrocious. The society has evolved in the wrong direction. Sydney is not that special and has an inflated view of itself.

[@BeowolfNindoJournal]

? The townhouse went from Quakers Hill to Jordan Springs

[@Contemplator24]

Great video. I spent most of my life in Sydney and the place has become a living hell on earth. The cost of living is absolutely astronomical to the point where it is unliveable for all but the highest wage earners. Housing, electricity, food, fuel etc. are unbelievably expensive. Couple that with an incompetent government importing 500k+ immigrants a year which only increases demand for housing and puts huge strain on public resources and congestion etc., and you have a recipe for an economic disaster in the making.

[@dimitriosfreedom9282]

Yes immigration is out of control and is mainly to blame for unaffordable housing. Former Labor premier Bob Carr once said that Sydney is full. Unfortunately most politicians don’t get it.

[@victoriab8186]

The difference in home cooling requirements is *stark*. The old house my mum grew up in, just above the latte line but well within the red rooster line, was brick and well shaded, and with curtains and fans, the house was comfortable enough pretty much year round. Where my dad grew up, in a house (and suburb) built in the 70s, despite having more greenery than most, you couldn’t live without air conditioning. The place my mum grew up is one of only a couple remaining old houses on the block, the rest developed into fancy concrete blocks with significant open areas of glazing and the houses taking up as much of the block as allowed by code (and more). They are incredibly expensive and there is absolutely no way any of us could afford to buy there now, and the houses will still be far more expensive to run

[@xpusostomos]

A lot of factors at work, direction of windows, size of windows. Really old houses were double brick small windows. Probably easy to cool, but hard to heat too.

[@Xiangli_Yao_1]

As a person who had lived on both of the lines in Sydney, I can confirm this is true, unfortunately.

[@garryrichardson4572]

All this is why I like rural living. If you can find work within your qualifications the living standards are higher .

[@CanIGetAhhh]

On the infrastructure stuff, developers get charged developer contributions which more often than not reduce the residual land value where as the final sale price is more a reflection of demand

[@jeremylim5689]

weekly Opal cap does at least mean someone commuting by public trans 5/day week isn't actually spending $25 every day they go.

[@rlpupdates]

I live in the East but sacrificed space as my unit is 28sqm to buy a unit I could afford. Many do not want to look at living in something smaller so they can live closer to the city which is there right. Not everyone who lives in the east has a mansion many are like me and we chose small for the other advantages we get ie being in a beautiful harbour side suburb, access to great cafes and restaurants and the savings on travel etc. I constantly suggest that people buy a smaller unit in my area and rent it out and then rent and negative gear in an area and home they like but get told they don’t want to do that so end up living in suburbs whilst less expensive to buy into end costing a lot to live in.

[@llynnmarks3382]

Great video. Amazing how good this channel is.

[@Micro-Econ-YT]

Wow, thank you!

[@Nebs1]

I like how in tge point about heat, it’s basically suggested the latte line is the boarder between the coast and desert. You know Hurstville and their famous desert dust storms.

[@tonymontana24596]

Born and raised in the West of Sydney. Some of the numbers are inaccurate but the overall point in the video is true. The West is feteshised for its cultural spice and imported festivals which the councils milk for revenue. Even if the new infrastructure projects are based out west, its not by design it's because of necessity due to Sydney's sprawl. Getting into corporate and meeting expats, I've always had explain where any suburb past redfern was because there is a very real bubble and its swept under the rug. That said I prefer the West and I am happy to see the progress made in the last 10-15 years.

[@atenciaf]

I live in jordan springs and I love it here. Western Sydney has wide open spaces compared to suburbs closer to the CBD. I wouldn't have it any other way.

[@Vineethajojo]

But the train busses takes like an hour to come :(

[@BizRon-dm8ye]

I swear people who live in Sydney are like abused spouses, they're that beaten down by costs and traffic that they can't even imagine leaving their abuser.

[@ACDZ123]

Yeah I'd say go to Perth but even there its expensive now

[@robvillella1]

"generous tax laws" lol, we wish. I know you're referring to negative gearing, but on the whole, Australia's taxation is anything but generous by global standards. Our top tax rate of 47% kicks in far earlier than in many comparable countries, at only $190k AUD

[@wellingtongil]

This is an awesome video. Even as a Sydneysider, I learnt a few things I didnt know myself.

[@userreview2806]

Generally I agree with this video, however transport has weekly caps (both public -$50AUD/week and private - $60AUD/week). People living in Sydney's west pay more than people closer to the city when it comes to getting around but it's nowhere near hundreds of dollars per week

[@alexcollateral927]

Tolls are avoidable. Wake up early, figure it out or suffer. Coming from a resident of Castle hill in a share house. It’s cheap if you fight for it and follow the rules.

[@Kustom2170]

6:55 at this point I disagree, considering the great dividing range in the west and the ocean in the east it is geographically consistent with cooler air blowing from the east seas and humid air accumulating in the west over the mountains creating a pocket of concentrated heat that develops into mid afternoon thunder storms and at times intense turbulent conditions which can change in a matter of minutes.

[@patrickstarshooter5221]

Yeh, I'm from Sydney, but I live in Brisbane now. Before I left 10 years ago, I remember you could drive via M4 from Blacktown all the way to the city...no tolls. Now I've heard even the M4 (the only highway to the city if I remember correctly) is a toll road. Like...wtf?

[@Mr_LH1980]

Sounds ALMOST like Hong Kong. People live in the New Territories for cheaper rents and properties. But they trade travel time for this. I live in a remote village in Hong Kong. It's so small you can't see it on a map unless you zoom in really close. Bus is $8HKD one way (20 minutes) which takes me to the train $19.50HKD into HK island which is also 20 minutes. At least transport is affordable.

[@xpusostomos]

I suspect even the new territories are much denser than Sydney, but then what do I know.

[@armena8199]

West is 5-10 degrees hotter in summer and also 5-10 degrees colder in the winter (not snowy cold but still gets down to 0 C at night). And literally NO WHERE in Sydney has central heating. I felt warmer in the Canadian winter than the Sydney winter.

[@cyrusso]

Good video, I would like to point out that the tolls are avoidable, though Sydney's traffic makes it frustratingly longer without the tolls (probably 30 min more in your Quakers Hill example), though there are also public transport options available potentially

[@xpusostomos]

ha, quakers hill my old home

[@gaillaffer7579]

I live in Maroubra and travel to Liverpool each day. (East to west) That costs $22 a day. As it is a company car I do not get the “toll cap” or subsidies. Nor am I “rich”. The majority of people living in the east are not affluent and are more than likely, like myself, mortgage stressed.

[@themrm3585]

2:34 The toles are not un avoidable, you can totally drive without spending a cent on roles it will just take longer sometime a lot sometimes a little.

[@vandelayindustries5814]

Crazy city. 6 years ago the best job I could get was in Sydney, (the middle of the city). I had $600, a van and a girlfriend. We got gym memberships for showers and parked in alleyways, at night. Saved $18k in 9 months. If i rented a studio, I would have broke even. 😅

[@xpusostomos]

Kudos to you for lateral thinking. I always thought, if I was to have my time over again and had to start from scratch, I'd do something like that to save money.

[@stuartdparnell]

I too would have done the same and love driving around day by day but having a house is important and no one should have to resort to the van life to get around being paid breadcrumbs to have a life + house savings deposit that the bank will say yes to.

[@ACDZ123]

Did the girl stick with you?

[@vandelayindustries5814]

@ACDZ123 spent a year plus doing vanlife together even though it was not her style and not accepted in her culture. The 18k was for a partner visa and overseas trip to meet her family. We moved on to a few rentals around Sydney. One being a $420 per week one-bed in Waterloo. It's probably at $650 per week now. Due to a number of differences we separated. Amazing experience, very lucky to have it. A year plus of single life. Now with a much more compatible person, very lucky. Still broke.

[@ACDZ123]

@@vandelayindustries5814 ok good one. Cheers for the update. Hope it all gets better and better 👍

[@ChrisJohannsen]

Red Rooster is in all the expensive suburbs in Melbourne. Can't go more than about 5km without hitting one. Weird.

[@christopherpekel6096]

Melbourne isn't as wealth divided as Sydney is. I've lived in both

[@Kustom2170]

7:40 I live in Liverpool South West Sydney, We don't run our aircon all day? When it's 35*+ we turn it on for a few hours when we get home turn on the fans let the house cool down and turn it off not long after. It has to be 40*+ consistently for days on end and that is not a common occurrence for the most part.

[@aaronsannet]

Thanks for reminding me why I left that absolute dump after 28 years! Uck what a dump! You pay more for your enslavement!

[@xpusostomos]

Yes, if you've been there a while, it really grates on you. I can remember it darkening my whole mind towards the end. Now when I go there for a couple of days I enjoy it, and it seems nice, but if you have to live in it and most importantly, commute in it, it sucks.

[@hjhj-d5o]

​@@xpusostomosthe whole city sucks , you travel for two hour , work in the CBD and always think , what the he'll am I doing here , the whole city has become a zombie machine

[@xpusostomos]

@@hjhj-d5o you know what I did? Moved to Canberra. Drive everywhere, most places 15 minutes.

[@hjhj-d5o]

@@xpusostomos you did the right thing

[@lukew3224]

This is true for every large city, its not just Sydney

[@wahlocki]

For those who don't live in Sydney, many examples in this video are of extremes (to support to creators agenda). They have cherry picked the best and worst. The city was never "designed" around some line - some areas are more expensive than others.

[@christopherpekel6096]

I live here, and it's awful. Can't wait to move interstate again

[@hjhj-d5o]

The city was made by Ray white and for Ray white 😂😂

[@mamajojoful]

oh dear warlock clutching at straws and pearls are we?!

[@vallytine]

Ngl with a city thats main international association is something as bougie as Opera I'm not even surprised.

[@CordeliaWagner1999]

A very not-aesthetically-pleasing modern architecture Opera.

[@a11u45]

Thank god I live in Perth

[@stuartdparnell]

I live in Sydney and I've NEVER found the Opera House impressive. Melb Central is better for the publicly-funded classical music.

[@jontalbot1]

Many of the issues raised here are the result of building detached houses. You see the same problems in cities like this the world over.

[@johhnmorgan8329]

Don't worry about sydney byron bay kingscliff coolangatta those regional areas are expensive too

[@mackash]

"A safe stable government"? Makes no sense. Why is it so expensive if its such good management? A governing body that bows to international investors is not a safe thing for anyone.

[@SalkoSalcinovic]

Not much better in other cities. Yes, you can live inland, but the lack of reasonably paid jobs is an issue. The cost of home construction has gone up 40% since 2020, the land cost has doubled, as have the mortgage repayments, groceries are through the roof, but salaries are the same.

[@coopsnz1]

Taxes up 20% too

[@IulianYT]

So what is the solution? I live in a somewhat smaller city (probably less than 1m population, even with suburbs). But we still have different areas where "business is done", not just one district, so there are additional smaller businesses all over the place. It is not perfectly uniform, but it definitely doesn't have a single focal point around which everything is rotating. I am not specialist in urban development or architecture, but I think this should be the idea of each municipality councils and executives - to develop the city uniformly, with multiple concentration "hubs" or how would you call it. In that way - more kids could walk to the school, and adults will have to commute smaller distances, which will help with traffic jams, living conditions and even decrease impact on environment.

[@TravisHi_YT]

Zoning laws need to be changed for starters. Then stop treating property as an investment vehicle. Many other reasons, but y'all aren't ready to talk about that yet.

[@nunyabisniz8047]

Blacktown to CBD is like less than $6 by train. Public transport costs is capped at $50 a week and $200 a month, it's not $24 a day.

[@ComboSmooth]

gotta start forcing developpers to build parks and stuff i guess.

[@xpusostomos]

That ship has sailed, no land left.

[@CarbonTaxLOL]

This is everywhere now though. It is an inheritocracy. If your parents own a home near the city, you start life with almost 300,000 more dollars than those that have to work and ocmmute to the city. Plus you get the better job in the city that pays more for doing less physical labour.

[@CarbonTaxLOL]

The rich can also use their spare income to buy investments or hedge their bets on the stock market, which is soaring like it never has before, and although there will be a crash, they will be the ones to know about it because their friends and family work trading the derivatives in the city, and actually do nothing for the economy.

[@mitch8072]

if so many people live in place 1 and want to go to place 2 mabey make an tram/train/bus connection? cheap public transport or have the gouverment make rules that forbid only single family house only and have 3/8 etc buildings with homes

[@xpusostomos]

The trouble is, place 1 is the CBD, and place 2 is EVERYWHERE in one of the largest (geographically) cities on the planet. There are indeed trains, but designing and building a train network that covers that area for a reasonable cost is prohibitive. This is not Singapore where everyone is packed into 40 storey buildings, they are in low density houses.

[@kdegraa]

Australia used to be a cheap place to live. Used to. I live on the north side of Sydney. Thankfully I own where I live thanks to an investment that got us out of debt. Even owning your home it is still expensive to live here. The government and associated agencies see a citizen as a source of revenue. I’ve not heard of people dying from hot weather. Fortunately the weather is much milder than it used to be. The last hot summer was the one from 2019/2020.

[@d3nza482]

Don't look now - but that bus stop at 3:29 is in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Next to a cemetery.

[@TwoHandedChargedBonk]

The "Latte Line" I think is more of a cultural divide between the working-class Sydney and the snobby Sydney. Economically that electricity provider map makes much more sense - the more east you go the more expensive the properties are and the more affluent the suburbs are. The South-North divide of the latte line is not neraly as strong as that. For example, no one would call Cronulla poor part of Sydney, despite it being under the latte line.

[@joshismyhandle]

I’ve always enjoyed visiting the city once in a while, but I’ve never understood how people can live there. Costs, travel, traffic, people density, etc are all extreme.

[@AnthonyP1991]

Red Rooster's probably the more accurate description. I had one a kilometre down the road from me until 2000. The area's never been the same since.

[@Kustom2170]

Its all about demographics... And this video is a prime example of that. People in the west south west predominantly work in 3PL sector, warehousing distribution transport logistics industrial services. In the north west cbd south east its the corporate sector, retail office investment and financial services. 😱

[@abdx7777]

Question , why would a person living in 5 million dollar honeymoon go to his job in the city ? He properly has business already , or landlord

[@SoulsofMist]

Man that's sucks so hard , honestly feeling lucky to be in New zealand. I know alot of kiwis go to aussie but man doesn't seem like that great of a deal when compared to New zealand. I brought a house this year for just over $600k nzd ($543k Aud) over 900 square meters of land, and a 15 minute drive into the cbd.

[@TougeWarrior93]

Idk bout y’all but I make over 2.5k a week and I rent a room for 200 a week and public transport in a week is around 60 dollars

[@johnrichards6080]

Isn't it the same in all big cities? Chelsea in London, Upper East Side in NYC, and the 7th arrondissement in Paris are all expensive.

[@sanitygone-l9y]

While a couple points in this video are exaggerated, still great at highlighting just how expensive it is to be poor in Sydney.

[@kutto5017]

It's only at the start of the very long term effects of the utterly ridiculous Sydney house prices. $1.6 million aud is the MEDIAN price last time i looked. Debt debt debt.... As far as the eye can see.... And for what. Financial prison... I benefitted financially on paper from the huge rise here. But no one does unless you move away from Sydney as it's all relative in the local market if you move. how can my kids afford a deposit on a median house price of 1.6 million dollars.. how can almost anyone?😢

[@TravisHi_YT]

Rich foreigners are buying it. It's effectively a business for them. They "buy" a property then hot bunk the house so 8+ adult renters can live in a 4 bedroom house, and effectively pay it off for the landlord at an accelerated rate. Rinse and repeat with the equity. It's astounding what living standards some people will put up with just to live in the first world.

[@MrToryhere]

We catch a train into the city from Bellevue Hill. The ferry is too far away to be viable.