BY MARCUS BRICKFRONT, HOUSING CORRESPONDENT

AN INTERNET VIDEO of a young European woman with a mobile phone, a laptop, and a state subsidy when she is not working, claiming she was living below the poverty line, has drawn the expectations of today’s young Australians into sharp focus.

A recent gathering of Australian youngsters has revealed that a number of them have a sense of entitlement that so far exceeds their own ability to provide it, that even the Federal Government can’t provide satisfaction.

“I blame social media first,” says Murdoch Right, a sociologist from Muchabunda in the New South Wales Central Highlands. “What these kids have been raised to expect is more than extraordinary. They see wealth and extravagance every day and they think that’s the norm from day one. Add that to a cotton wool upbringing – you know devices, cars, trips to Bali and Fiji – and you just have to light the blue touch paper and stand back. Boom!

“I mean I lived in a shed for the first four years of my working life. With three snakes and a outlaw motorcycle gang. For that privilege I paid forty per cent of my income. Living in shit and overpaying for it, when you are young, is part of a natural right of passage. It’s a lot better than living in shit and being evicted when you’re older.

“Today’s youngsters are shocked if they don’t have WIFI, or four beds and a swimming pool. And if you tell them they might have to wait till they’re in their thirties or forties for something like they, they have a breakdown and call you a fascist.

“The really well-off get mum and dad to finance their first accommodations, which forces prices up for everyone else. Affluence can be a bitch, too.”

“The problem for many kids is that their upbringing was just too bloody good. The shock of leaving home is too much for them. I guess it’s another unintended consequence of affluence.”