Upbeat on Australia: Phil Ruthven, founder and chairman of international forecasting firm IBISWorld. The previous guest was Phil Ruthven, founder and chairman of international forecasting firm IBISWorld, who argued life was not actually better in "the good old days," despite what many believe, and that a raft of indicators shows us our economy and society are continuing to provide increased opportunities to prosper. Below are excerpts of his chat session. You have demonstrated that life is materially improved but do you think the world is a fairer place than 50 years ago? sophiebs PHIL RUTHVEN'S RESPONSE: Fifty years ago in the mid-1960s, the world was probably fairer in terms of household income spread or polarisation than today in the developed world (the OECD). The polarisation today in the OECD, Japan excepted, is very extreme, especially in the USA and much of Europe except the Nordic countries. However, the standard of living, as an average is much, much higher than 50 years ago. But regions such as Africa have continued to struggle on both issues. I noticed in the transcript that you were talking about home ownership. You seem to think that is often not the right thing to buy a house. Why is it that so many people still see home ownership as a compelling investment? Clem PR: The home-ownership thing developed across the Western world, including Australia, for several reasons: firstly as a security thing after two depressions (the 1890s and 1930s), three wars (WWI, WWII, and Korea); secondly as a feel-good and pride thing (our "castle"); thirdly because we were told that rent was money down the drain (a fallacy since interest payments alone were always higher than rents, let alone the capital repayments); fourthly because owning a home would be the biggest investment in one's life (also now a fallacy, since our super and savings need, at retirement, need to be twice the value of the house in order to retire on one-third of average household income rather than the subsistence level of a pension); and finally home ownership has now become easier due to more accommodating banks, building societies and mortgage brokers. To what extent do you think that growth in real incomes can continue, particularly in developed countries? Post-GFC US median income has stagnated, and poverty levels have not been falling, is this purely a temporary problem or are there new post-industrial challenges? To what extent do you think income inequality and capital accumulation is a problem in this regard? andrewl - Melbourne PR: The rich club (OECD) nations that account for 64 per cent of world GDP, are in for slow growth in real incomes in most cases. I see western Europe (mainly the EU plus the Nordic sector and Switzerland) as one such region, going through a second fall (since about 350 AD) of the "Roman Empire." That region is a third of the OECD. Their taxes are up around 45 per cent of GDP, and they are labelled as a "nanny state." Japan's position is more disturbing; low taxes (30 per cent of GDP, like ours) but in denial of their serious economic problems including government debt of 250 per cent of GDP, the world's worst ratio (much greater that Greece, Portugal and other basket cases. The USA has a fighting chance of pulling out of their slump, but it will at least be slow, with the probability of another collapse before they regain their mojo - if they do - in the 2020s. Australia has a lot going for it. We are still relatively debt-free, we are part of the huge Asian region, now over 40 per cent of world GDP and growing at twice the world average (6-7 per cent a year v 3 per cent a year). Over 80 per cent of our trade is in that region rather than western Europe or North America, over two-thirds of our immigrants are from that region, and so too is our inbound tourism where by 2030 the export receipts from that inbound traffic may exceed all our current mineral exports. The lucky country? Yes, but we have created most of it. ONLINE: The full session is at theage.com.au/federal-politics/the-zone NEXT WEEK: Professor Sarah Joseph, director of the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law at Monash University CHAT: Tim Smith will be online for an hour from midday.