Taylor Swift ticketmania and ABS inflation figures shouldn't mask most people's struggles

Suzanne Garfinkle-Crowell's patients think of Swift as a big sister, a good friend. But as her performances in the US approached, these were girls gone wild. Their psychiatrist had to grapple with how these young people managed anticipation, enjoyment, self-regulation, suffering.

Suffering. Not sure how a passionate engagement with a pop phenomenon classifies as suffering - unless you miss out on tickets. Oh my god, the folks who did not manage to get their Taylor fix were on TikTok bemoaning their fate. Until they weren't. I'm imagining that by the time the extra concerts finish selling there will be few fans who miss out.

Is buying a Taylor Swift ticket an extravagance in tight times? Sure. But in times of war, of out-of-bounds inflation, of the hideous polarisation around the Voice, sometimes you need to shake it off (sorry, but this is the only Swift song with which I am truly familiar. I was dealing with a bad boss at work and played this song while singing wildly over and over again to help me deal with all my negative feelings about my job).

And sure inflation is still out-of-bounds but check out the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics numbers from Thursday which reveal households deposited $26.3 billion in the quarter, with a record $655.1 billion now invested in savings and fixed-term deposits. We might be paying 15 per cent more for our favourite tasty cheese but somehow, on average, we are managing to save.

Professor of economics at UNSW Business School Richard Holden says certain narratives take hold (we'll all be rooned). While it is true some of us will struggle with high interest rates and inflation, there were plenty who saved during the pandemic, paid off significant parts of mortgages and who've emerged wanting to spend money on what they missed out on during lockdowns and other restrictions, who think: "I didn't get to to do for two years. I better enjoy it."

Holden's teenage daughter has her fingers crossed for Friday's sales.

Will Taylormania cause inflation to rise?

"I don't think Taylor Swift is going to move the needle on inflation. Ticket sales are just evidence of a broader point that at least, for a lot of people, there is capacity for significant discretionary spending."

Ben Phillips, associate professor at ANU and a longtime social researcher, points to new retail figures from the ABS: "Discretionary spending at cafes, restaurants, take-aways still up massively. Mr/Ms average seemingly doing pretty well."

Australians have always been such good fans, from the rugby league sidelines to watching the cricket in the wee hours of the morning (why do we have to play cricket in a country where the sun fails to shine. And why am I slightly conflicted about pitch invaders?).

And concerts. My god. Is there a person in this country who has not queued online, on the phone, outside in the street in the olden days, to get tickets to see their idols? Or if not their idols, then someone who breaks the monotony of our lives? I have clear memories of setting an alarm at 2am to queue outside a ticket office for tickets to see Jerry Seinfeld with all my cash stuffed into the toe of my Ugg boot; of sleeping on a mattress on the footpath outside the ticket office for the Sydney Olympics and taking money from complete strangers because I was first in the queue. And when I became slightly more comfortable, paying ridiculous amounts to scalpers to see Bob Dylan and Patti Smith and Leonard Cohen. Swear to God, who would begrudge fans from seeing the objects of their love and adoration, the ones who perform at least. Not everyone loves refreshing the NSW ICAC home page as much as I do.

Georgia Carroll, a sociology researcher in fandom, says the stars themselves encourage us to believe our connection with them is about love. "Really, it's a marketing tactic." Harsh. But fair. And she says Australians have always been like this: "This is very normal within our culture."

And Swift has it down pat, says Carroll: "She's been making it seem like a personal connection for the last decade."

For those of us who are Swifties or Swiftie-adjacent, any attacks on either the woman herself or the cost of her tickets brings out the kind of online mayhem we see in politics. University of the Sunshine Coast's Renee Barnes says while fandom is part of our identity, so can anti-fandom create a cohort.

"If you want to be seen as counter-culture, then that's one way to do it. Fandom works just like politics. You define your side," says Barnes, author of Fandom and Polarisation in Online Political Discussion: from Pop Culture to Politics.

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Turns out my side is being a fan. Which is why I love Helen Gladman, from Giralang. She's been in the queue twice for presales. Got as far as loading the tickets into her cart. Got booted out. She's 50, a public servant, and was late-onset Taylor, just two years ago. Now she's determined and her much younger boss has been extremely tolerant.

There's been a bit of that. Now at the same time we've been spending more money ourselves, it turns out that another important entity has money to burn. Yes, the federal government. Time for them to actually support those who need help.

It's not trivial to say that not everyone can manage Swift tickets. Some of us can't even manage supermarket costs or energy bills. While it's clear from the ABS many of us are doing just fine, it's a government's job - especially a Labor government's job - to support those who can't. Otherwise there will definitely be Bad Blood.