Posts by Rich of Observationz
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This isn't leadership, it's playing defense and waiting for the other team to turn the ball over so you can score.
Could you translate please - surely a ball is the same whichever way up it is?
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Even at the current parity, prices and wages in NZ are much lower than in most other developed countries.
I/S is right that a lot of the headline exchange rate is the US dollar being weak - and we can do nothing about them trying to build an imperium on borrowed money.
I'd also point out that countries such as Switzerland have strong export industries despite a very unfavourable parity - firms like Novartis, ABB or UBS seem to be able to export and grow despite having expenses out of line with overseas competitors.
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Parliamentary democracy works largely because of accountability. If the government doesn't have a set of policies that work reasonably well for a majority of electors, it will lose the next election. If it's policies work, then it will probably stay in. The electorate don't need to have a view on every detail, they just have to decide whether the incumbents did a good job or whether they prefer the other lot.
Referenda, on the other hand dilute this by imposing a set of disparate and ill thought out policies.
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My belief is folks are voting Green essentially for Greenness, not for the sideshow agenda's that Kedgley and co. seem so keen on chucking out
I didn't - I voted Green because, in short, they're the only electable party on the liberal/left side of Labour. I agree with about 75% of their policies and can live with the rest (for instance, if people want to use ineffective therapies for self-limiting conditions, then why not).
With Labour, I probably agree with a similar number of their policies but disagree so fundamentally on some of the rest that I'd never vote for them.
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There is a much better solution to the Foreshore and Seabed law:
- allow Maori to recover their ownership of the foreshore and seabed where appropriate
- legislate for access to a coastal strip everywhere there isn't a strong safety reason to prevent it. This would apply to iwi, to Ports of Auckland and to Michael Fay equally.
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gratuitous anti-Ocker paranoia
The country that throws a guy in jail on a political whim *after* a court decides to free him? Sorry Craig, no such thing.
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It isn't France's high level of social spending (with the possible exception of benefits) that are causing its economic malaise. The most likely cause is labour market rigidities combined with over aggressive European Central Bank inflation targeting and downwards wage presures associated with Globalisation. Even then the problem doesn't appear to be across the economy IIRC - it's limited to certain groups (the young, those new to the labour force etc). This in turn, is amplified by France's failure to find viable multiculturalisms
France isn't anything like the collapsing economy of right-wing myth. A short visit will show you that. There is localised poverty and social exclusion, true, but in general people live pretty well. There may be a high level of unemployment - but economies like the US have disguised unemployment (workers who don't add enough value to earn a real living). Plus, productivity is higher than in anglo-saxon countries like Britain and public infrastructure works well.
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And people believe it, just as they believe that the rich must pay low taxes and that owning guns makes society safer
All part of a failure to engage with and learn from the rest of the world. Like mobile phones - everyone else in the world got the idea of cellphones straight away. The US persisted with incompatible technology and obsolete pricing models - resulting in mobile telecoms being the first new technology since WW2 to be dominated by non-US companies.
The British Empire had, I think, the same problem (although they did pick a few things up from others). The technology that marked the Brits losing the plot was industrial chemistry. Maybe mobile phones are the aniline of the 21st century.
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Oh, and trout. Commercial sale of which is illegal here, for some reason. You can get fresh trout everywhere in the UK - our local pub even had a pondfull so you could pick the one you wanted, lobster style.
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I'm unconvinced that any canned and packaged items from the UK are better than standard NZ product.
Thing's I do miss:
- Pret a Manger sandwiches - especially the crayfish flavour
- Marks and Spencer ready meals
- English Chinese food. Yes, I know that ours is closer to the authentic food you'd get at a greasy spoon in Beijing, but I miss the Szechuan-style king prawns and the roast duck with blackbean sauce.
- warm, flat beer!