There are so many lines that are rehearsed and recited that they lose all meaning. Cost of living is the one that confused me.
I've been hearing about people struggling to make ends meet since I was born. We never have a enough money to do what we want, we always want more.
We get so caught up in the lifestyle of new cars, new phones, new houses and international holidays that it makes me wonder if we ourselves are to blame.
So I started looking at the data from the Bureau of Statistics.
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Since 2014 inflation has gone up at an average of 0.4 per cent each quarter. That's a bit lower than what economists would like but not too bad.
When I dug a bit deeper I found that some of the fastest growing prices - averaging more than 1.5 per cent each quarter - were the essentials. Insurance bills, car servicing, childcare even meat and beer are having the most impact on household budgets.
At the same time you are earning less. For two straight years the average income in Western Australia has gone backwards.
This is being driven by men working in mining, construction and retail who have had up to a $100 a week cut from their income.
Basically, your forking out more at the cash register now while you're earning less than you did in 2015.
On Wednesday Premier Colin Barnett said during the live leaders' debate that "the reasons drugs are high here is because incomes are high – that's a reality."
You can't link high drug crime to our earnings. Wages are going backwards and most price pressure is from what we need each day.
It is more likely that drug crime is being policed harsher rather than us being able to afford it more.
But back to the real story here, the decline in male wages is of key concern. These are usually breadwinners who are facing a fusion of job losses, scaled back projects and accepting smaller packages.
You don't have to go far to find someone who's fortune has changed in the past year or so.
Conrad Liveris
When their wages are cut it has a disproportionate impact on households.
When men earn less we all feel it.
A mate who is a builder was telling me about the increased number of cancelled houses he is dealing with. These people were going back to renting or, in the worst cases, to living with their parents.
It means he can't commit to staff and apprentices from month to month. That isn't good for anyone.
This has flow-on effects for the whole economy, and we can all feel it. You don't have to go far to find someone who's fortune has changed in the past year or so.
I can confidently say that the pressure on cost of living is the most stressful it has been in decades.
Turning this around is hard. It will take a couple of years for wages to bounce back to where they should be.
At the same time government and business need to build industries in less volatile markets that give men and women real earning capacity. Good, stable full-time jobs shouldn't be the hard ask it seems to be.
The alternative is to keep doing what we have always done, even though it clearly doesn't work well for us.
Conrad Liveris is a workforce diversity specialist.
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