IMHFO, spot on and thanks for the laugh! Best short summary of AA I've read in ages. If I'd tried to paint the same picture, it would have been too long for a pprune post.
ANSA, yes property etc is high in Oz, comparison was with Scandinavia/EU only for Muldrake's benefit. I'm guessing that it'd be a few years in Oz only, renting rather than buying and eating out a fair bit and living the lifestyle. Too short to get caught up in the politics of AA and maybe too short to care like the rest of us.
Life is good in the little bayside inner-city enclave that I'm share-renting in which is shielding me from the property price balloon that's about to burst when all the Baby-boomers sell up their negative-geared property portfolios and put what money they get out of it into their Superannuation, as per Peter Costello's "transitional" superannuation concessions. They avoid Capital Gains Tax and pay no tax or 15% Superannuation tax (depending on how it's done and depending on the final wording of the legislation when it appears in Parliament sometime this financial year) on it when it's rolled straight into Super from the sale of the property.
Single, no kids, my situation is different and my reasons for heading to the desert have more to do with living the lifestyle that my ex-pat friends in Europe and Asia are living now than in leaving the politics of work in AA. I've copped a few nasty baseball bats from Managers in the back office here, but I've ducked almost all of them and my return swing has connected each time. SERCO etc are a different employer and I know to keep my mouth shut and play the game, and reap the benefit of the lifestyle I'm seeking.
As Muldrake was alluding to... it's not about the money... it's about the life experience... what is familiar and uninteresting to one, is exotic and enticing to others...