"'And what do you do Sir? I DIG A FUCKIN' HOLE! Now give me some Camembert cheese and Pinot Noir, chop, chop!'" - Dave Thornton
The
mining boom in Western Australia has sparked a significant amount of
debate of late as to what effect the new demographic of young people
earning over 100k will have on Australia.
No
doubt you’ve heard of them - the ‘cashed up bogans,’ but are our Gen Y
miners really deserving of this term? And are they really such a threat
to the cultural face of Australia and even the future economy of these
wide-brown plains as the media would have you believe?
Well,
the statistics don’t lie, and there is now a much stronger link between
having little education and earning big bucks. In fact,
tertiary-educated individuals are now far less likely to earn even half
as much as non-tertiary educated people.
Suddenly, being a ‘cashed-up bogan’ isn’t looking so bad right?
Culturally,
figure-heads like Gina Rinehart aren’t really giving young miners much
of a chance, however, Gen Y miners actually come from a diverse
background.
Many
people from industry backgrounds such as education, unions,
manufacturing, transport and wholesale trade are turning to mining fed
up with working hard for a comparatively measly paycheck at the end of
the week.
So,
what are these young people from diverse backgrounds (and now
incredibly, let’s just come out and say it - rich) people spending their
money on?
Well, according to the authors of the book Things Bogans Like, recent
statistics show that young miners are investing their money and are far
less likely to throw it away than the majority of Gen Yer’s in other
professions. Studies in the book even show that these cashed-up youngens
are even drinking less than those in other professions.
Call
them what you want, it seems Australia would be lost without this
super-breed of money-smart and sensible twenty-somethings cashing in on
what is currently one of this country’s most profitable professions!
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