OnPoint: Taskforce 2025: A Space Odyssey
154 Responses
First ←Older Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Newer→ Last
-
Email
Some of my family have spent a *lot* of time in Oz. My sisters there noted that when ANZers go into a shop/hotel/whatever to justifiably complain about something, we start by saying "I'm sorry but"...te mea te mea te mea.
Ozzies go in and start by saying "mate, this thing is fuckin' rooted" etc. -
I like the NZ approach - we're better than them.
-
Email
Being apologetic.
"New Zealand: We're really sorry about that."
Anything boutique has the ability to earn respect and
with that reputation. It does depend on your marketing or in a casual way is a nice lifestyle. Quality every time in a healthy way will create value to product and not in an expensive way.Stay small and valuable. Think green, already clean green, has a market. -
Email
Ozzies go in and start by saying "mate, this thing is fuckin' rooted" etc.
That is probably what made leave. I felt always slightly crude for listening to an, ingrained ignorance/disrespect, for others.I think if there is a problem, it should be sorted immediately but how about less of the "wog" attitude excuses.? While you are at it ,Keep your friggin Uranium.
-
Email
I mean,Mt Aspiring? I feel insulted.
-
Trans-tasman
I'm sorry but this thing is fuckin' rooted -
Email
Sacha - heh!
(One of my brothers, based in Oz, actually *said *this! O, with the addendum - "I'm sorry mate, but this thing" (etc.)
-
Thanks, Craig. Point taken.
-
Email Web
@George
Also, Australian houses are a huge pain to heat and cool, one of the reasons with coal-fired electricity they have the highest emissions of any developed country.
I believe Canada now takes the prize of highest emissions per capita. Thanks to plenty of coal-fired electricity, gas-heated homes, and ... the piece-de-resistance ... the Alberta oil sands.
-
Am I the only person wondering how and why both countries survey fruit juice consumption?
-
Email
I can't have been the only to read all the 35 points with an increasing sense of open-mouth horror
Read the whole report though, it's intriguing. It seems to me that some (undoubtedly right-wing economist) boffins wrote the bulk of it, but then somebody (presumedly Brash) took a very partisan and personal spin to it to create the Exec Summary.
The tax options I discussed above is what strikes me the most - the report itself says "we won't say how the tax system could be structured but as two examples we could go to a really flat top rate or we could have a tax system like Sweden". Like Sweden! High progressive income tax rates and dramatically lower capital income tax rates.
Yet the Exec Summary says "hey we could have a 20% top tax rate". -
Read the whole report though, it's intriguing.
I read the executive summary, then the main body of the document, in that order. If anything, reading the main body of the report made me more convinced the report's authors were batshit crazy. There was almost no serious analysis at all in the document.
-
Email
Where does this crap come from about "catching up" with Australia.
If I wanted to live in a fucked up, polluted, redneck racist desert for the sake of a few more dollars, I would.
If I had a deep personal need to make huge amounts of money, I'd do it in Europe or the US. They'll always have much bigger markets for that sort of thing.
-
Email Web
Catch up with Australia?. Who are these idiots? We are 2 hours ahead. Its those slackers over the ditch that have the catching up to do. What piffle.
-
Rich: you are reminding me of all the handwringing about how unambitious our entrepreneurs are, all wanting to retire to their baches and go fishing, which is to say redefining the parts of our national character that are most humane and admirable as being a problem.
-
all the handwringing about how unambitious our entrepreneurs are, all wanting to retire to their baches and go fishing
Oh YES! I heard something to this effect on NatRad the other day and was very weirded out. 'Wait: there are people who think this is terrible, somehow? I think it's fantastic!'
-
Email Web
You people are not ambitious for New Zealand. Frankly, you disgust me.
I'm off fishing now.
-
all the handwringing about how unambitious our entrepreneurs are, all wanting to retire to their baches and go fishing, which is to say redefining the parts of our national character that are most humane and admirable as being a problem
In the wake of recent opinion by NZTE's chief economist, Gareth Chaplin, market researcher Jonathan Dodd concurs.
Well, Chaplin misunderstands the Kiwi psyche if he thinks that business growth is the only avenue to a better quality of life, and likewise many would question his inference that quality of life is best indicated by income.
...Chaplin's lament at the so-called malaise of "enoughism" misses this difference between people who want to build an empire or who need to expand out of sheer necessity, and those whose satisfaction and drive comes from different sources.
-
Email Web
Also, it's not as if wanting to build an empire always ends terribly well. It's right there in the metaphor!
-
Email
redefining the parts of our national character that are most humane and admirable as being a problem.
This is very true - but the flip-side holds: we need to understand that if our national character is not to generate wealth, then as a nation we simply won't have the tax take/private income of other nations and perhaps have to re-evaluate some of our assumptions re what we can all afford - both through private spending as well as public spending.
Nothing annoys me more than a Govt that says "we're going to cut all these taxes but don't worry, we can keep handing out free ponies as well! How? Well you're not being very ambitious are you?"
-
Wot Rich said.
Spot on.
Maybe (self-appointed) Bishop Brian should have been talking about dosh with his "Enough is enough" slogan. But I don't think he sees it like that for all but the very largest values of 'enough'.
The very thought of "catching up with Australia" makes me feel unclean.
-
Email Web
Maybe (self-appointed) Bishop Brian should have been talking about dosh with his "Enough is enough" slogan
I passed a mailbox yesterday that said:
NO JUNK MAIL
ESPECIALLY DESTINY CHURCH -
I like the way The Bish got in a reference to the size of his dick in the name of his church.
-
Email Twitter
Also, it's not as if wanting to build an empire always ends terribly well. It's right there in the metaphor!
John Hayes has the ambition. The head of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee wants to start by reclaiming the Pacific.
-
I have to take a contrary opinion to many of the points made regarding the NZTE research.
I know Tony Smale, the person whose research the NZTE report relies on, and I’ve heard him speak twice on these issues.
He is not advocating an abandonment of our lifestyle aspirations. He is, however, interested in looking at why we perform so poorly economically. Despite our lifestyle aspirations, we work longer hours than people in most other countries and are poorly paid by comparison.
Part of this is because of our national psyche and tall-poppy syndrome: we don’t do enough to encourage or celebrate business success, and are openly hostile to people with wealth. Our heroes are mostly sportspeople.
As a result, our businesspeople don’t generally create large companies, take risks, or invest hugely in infrastructure and capital. So productivity suffers.
People may decide “enoughism” is fine, but it does impact on our economic performance.
Post your response…
You may also create an account or retrieve your password.