Checkpoint interviewed 4 young people in Auckland, about their preference – Kiwisaver?

It's kind of like moaning about NZ's high marginal tax rate (in the California I was paying 33% Fed, 10% state and 6% social security – 49% compared with the 39% here, and healthcare?

BTW the idea that the 3% reduction in tax (on profits) somehow balances a 4% (less tax = 3%) contribution on employees wages seems like comparing apples and oranges to me and is probably a red herring

Yeah – I think the way Key analysed it was good. Take the?

You can't "squander" a surplus, and you can't "waste" a surplus, because if you did, it wouldn't be there, and it wouldn't be a fucking surplus. The whole point of a surplus is that they still have it.

Well you can actually, if you don't get too pedantic. Cullen announced?

On another front, the Government is backing my loathing of houses (well, the insane property market, at any rate) by specifically targeting property speculators for auditing.

I had to chuckle at the TV News tonite. About how an average couple on $50+k a year will have a $300-400,000 lump sum?

This might explain why there were others threatening to move "overseas". Oh, where would that?

Hum... fair question. Then again, the largest items of capital expenditure in our house over the last eighteen months was replacing an elderly car?

And I just have to ask how many people – yes, you and me – are going to trot off to the bank, reduce our overdrafts, get the credit cards shredded, and run the fiscal responsibility rule over our own spending.

In fact, Bill English and his successors must be rubbing their hands with glee. Cullen has done all the hard stuff for them?

When I worked in the US as an employee, I actually could not understand the tax form instructions. Seriously my wife and I sat and tried to figure it out but there was one question int eh form that we could not figure?

The economy has cycles?

Why is the RWC the only reason to build a decent transport system in Auckland. It only goes on for a month – Aucklanders have to get around the rest of the time.

It's a sporting event – why can't the fat gits going to?

And, serious question seriously meant, how many folks around here actually finance their consumption old skool: You know, saving rather than putting it on a credit card or HP?

Hey, I do! I always pay off my credit card by the end of the month and I save up for?

And, serious question seriously meant, how many folks around here actually finance their consumption old skool: You know, saving rather than putting it on a credit card or HP?

A good friend of mine has just finished chemo treatment, and one of the things that struck a chord for her?

The tax system here is mostly a doddle, with the odd complication. For a hideous mess, try Australia!

It's the legacy of the penal colony. Murky regulations allow decisions to be made on the whim of minor bureaucrats. The number of lashes you receive are at the governor's pleasure.

The short-sightedness of business lobbyists in NZ and their reflexive partisanship never ceases?

I always pay off my credit card by the end of the month and I save up for big purchases

Saving for things? I'm with Chaos on this. Having had a brother die of cancer in his early thirties makes you realise that there is no guarantee of?

As a wage or salary?

it's not quite?

But your point is valid from a different?

I guess my point is that NZ exporters cannot generally compete on?

I guess I had Australia in mind – where I really think there basically no "lifestyle gap" or depending how much value you place on sunshine, it may actually have an advantage.

I could never live in Australia – too many Kiwis!

Saving for things? I'm with Chaos on this. Having had a brother die of cancer in his early thirties makes you realise that there is no guarantee of making it to 65 -75

This is a bit like the vaccination debate. It is pretty clear that it makes sense for?

"why wait until you've accrued enough money for something before you get to enjoy the fruits of your labours, when something like this could just be around the corner . . ?"

So, I go out and get my iPod on credit and get hit by a bus. I can?

My wife works in managed funds, and apparently the entire business has the biggest stonk-on right now about it. If anything will?

Absolutely – it's a savings incentive not compulsory savings. If you don't take up Kiwisaver you'll lose out on the incentives, but your employer will?

As a wage or salary earner it really makes no sense financially to remain in NZ vis-a-vis Australia unless you have to care for a sick relative or something (and don't give me no vague, BS notions of "lifestyle" otherwise).

So we should all pack our bags? I sense a?

There is this continual chatter from the right about how many people are leaving to go to Australia,Mr Key is always dropping into his conversation.

I wonder when he will sell?

Rather hiliariously Key also managed to totally contradict himself in the same interview claiming that even?

"Australians pay less tax. We also pay more in living expenses. Imagine buying your first Sydney home in a passable suburb at an average price of $750,000. Imagine then paying stamp duty (say, $20,000), not to mention legal fees.?

There's a reason why people pay taxes. For the common good. Less taxes equals less money going into health care, or education?

Then again, Yamis, a politically mature debate would involve reframing the debate to focus on the quality of public spending rather than the quantity. But I guess that would?

I'm interested that you appear to think "lifestyle" doesn't count, only income. Really?

If only income counts, people moving to Oz are muppets. They could be getting way richer in Europe or North America.

In the end, I don't think your grandchildren are going to look back on us with too much generosity

Who's we, white man? I'm part of the generation who's paying for the mess built up from when people voted Nordy out for haviung a balanced budget in favour of debt?

a politically mature debate would involve reframing the debate to focus on the quality of public spending rather than the quantity.

A politically mature debate could include both.

a politically mature debate would involve reframing the debate to focus on the quality of public spending rather than the quantity

Agreed. Unfortunately such a debate might demand a level of thought and mature restraint to which blogland appears quite unaccustomed.

Moreover the suspicious lefty mind rather tends to interpret?

Well, maybe I'm being a bit naughty. But what is happening at the moment? Heaps of doctors go overseas, while we import heaps more from other countries. So why are we training all these departing doctors?

There is some kind of?

I'm not sure that young doctors sloping off overseas is a 100% bad thing – for a start they get to learn on someone else. Like the 2% death rate in stomach bypass operations – nearly all?

*cough* You were saying, dear? Odd as it may seem, I have my doubts that either Michael Cullen or John Key lie awake at night trying to figure?

I'm also not sure how many Doctors do come back from overseas, but admit to having no?

I've no idea on the number of returning doctors either, beyond the traditional "I know a guy..." story. But the data will be somewhere.

What scares me about the Kiwisaevr scheme is that it is not govt guarranteed.

Don't join then – no-one is forcing you to.

What scares me about the Kiwisaevr scheme is that it is not govt guarranteed.
Don't join then – no-one is forcing you to.

Oh very nice Muriel, did you read my whole comment? I consider myself reasonably savvy (despite most of that coming from learning from my mistakes) what I'm?

So in 20-30 years time we've got two classes of retirees: those that did well with their Kiwisaver provider and those that didn't. The latter will include those that opted out in the beginning, meaning their nest egg is tiny.

Not much different from now, then, is it?

Like the 2% death rate in stomach bypass operations – nearly all occur in the first 20 ops. So they can become skilled overseas.

A friend of mine is having spinal surgery this year that he turned down 5 years, because the failure rate (where failure = paralysis) has dropped?

But if you do want to retain them, how about bonding schemes, whereby fees are paid, scholarships given in return for a commitment to spend a certain amount of time doing less popular work (GPing?) or in less popular places?

Go even more radical and start marketing our medical training?

What scares me about the Kiwisaevr scheme is that it is not govt guarranteed. If the fund you enter craps out in 10 years because the provider was crap then you are left with nothing.

It's not like they're just going to spend half of it on Enron stocks and?

I would think that the temptation of national to fiddle with Kiwisaver would depend on the takeup rate.

Apparently 80% of new doctors are foreign trained.

Please save me from having to read the SST – are these "new doctors" new to New Zealand, ie already with plenty of experience or are they "new" as in straight out of school?

How strange – it's been my understanding that all our new migrants are unskilled, dole bludging asian terrorists.

New Zealand is at a crossroad. With the OECD and IMF unlikely to take the lead, it is time for domestic policymakers to start a serious debate about where this economy should be headed and how to best get there. This?

pointless, tribal, dysfunctional public confrontation with each other. We don't run our families and businesses like this,

Heh, some people have a sheltered life :)

It could all be moot if the plan is gutted in 15 months, assuming National can get a governing coalition. This may just become another left/right "lets change it radically everytime we get power" situation like employment or ACC.

What, kind of like last time a Labour government set up?

my main issue is this
isn't it good for people pay off their debt (huge?

What ever happened to school banking? During the seventies we all brought out our bank books at school once a week to learn the simple pleasures?

Maybe I should put it in terms that some Herald readers understand
'TAX = BETTER HOSPITALS, BIG NEW SHINY SCHOOLS, BETTER ROADS TO DRIVE THE 4x4 ON AND IMPROVED SOCIAL SERVICES FOR THOSE PESKY POOR PEOPLE TO USE'... Pictures may also help.

Steadeeey, Dyslexics are not all necessarily stupid enough?