Posts by Craig Ranapia
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
What's your message to kids in rural Taranaki who'd like to go to a movie or enjoy a social life? "Get fucked"?
Hey, pretty much. Must be that damn convent upbringing again, but am I the only person who finds 99% of the teenage boys of my acquaintance bewildering, often annoying beyond endurance, but nor given to drunken hooning and rooting around between TXT-driven race riots?
-
You don't recall when NY City went bankrupt and everyone's retirement funds evaporated?
Or thousands of former employees of Enron and Robert Maxwell who found out their pension funds had vanished before their jiobs?
-
Jonty:
I actually think McCarten has a point -- geez, I am going to get drummed out the VRWC for that! :) Whether you think that's necessarily a bad thing - or even if TINA (there is no alternative) comes into play here - is quite another. At the moment, I think Cullen has played the politics very well indeed (which nobody is arguing with, AFAIK); but I'm still to be convinced we're not being sold a pup.
-
But the fact that people are better off with Kiwi Saver alone is a powerful point for the government.
I never thought I'd say this, but I thought Lila Harre actually made an interesting point on Nine to Noon's politics segment yesterday. (And so did Matthew Hooten, just to add insult to injury.) Have we seen, in effect, the privatisation of superannuation - and the nationalisation od any risk, which should be a real concern given the rather *cough* uneven history of returns on such schemes - through massive transfers of public money to the affluent? Sounds OK to me, on a purely ideological tip, but it's rather ironic that you can argue Cullen has done without a peep from the left what George Bush couldn't over the last six, even with his own party in control of Capitol Hill.
Discuss. :)
-
Oh, and how long is the media going to persist with allowing John Key to continually contradict himself depending on the question? Its driving me nuts
About as long as the media's going to keep running editorial puff pieces on KiwiSaver that any other financial institution would have to have to pay for - and have clearly marked as advertising? This isn't pure partisan bitchery, because I've not been impressed by the media coverage of the budget full stop -- especially when it's centrepiece is going to have profound long-term effects.
As for the moral panic de jour, I wonder when anyone will ask these concerned mayors how well the laws we already have on the books concerning the sale of alcohol are being enforced -- fines, repeal of licences etc.? Piss-poorly would be the answer, I suspect.
-
William:
Some of the harshest critics of the Qantas Media Awards are the very people who've just stuffed a hunk of perspex in their handbags -- and what's an award show without some luxurious angst about how utterly meaningless it all is?
But.. if Public Address Radio is up for something at the RBA NZ Radio Awards next year, it will take Russell and a tazer capable of bringing down an elephant to keep moi away from the rubber chicken and orgiastic self-congratulation. :)
-
I might be biased, but I thought the introduction of internet categories to the Qantases this year added real interest to an event that has always been about "old" media.
*ahem* Indeed, and congratulations.
But,,, I do hope we're going to see a few less columns huffing and puffing about what a pack of lying, psychotic douche bags bloggers are. Yes, there's plenty of nut bags in the blogisphere but one might think some sections of the old media (and I'll not harsh the buzz by naming names), really need to clean up their own act before getting Miss Manners on anyone else's arse.
-
There's also not turning into a pissy bitch at the drop of a hat, so you both have something to work on.
*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 out new depths of depravity they can bamboozle the stupid peasants with. I'd just like Messers Cullen and Key to at least pretend they think the same, and perhaps credit the rest of us with some smarts.
-
There's a reason why people pay taxes. For the common good. Less taxes equals less money going into health care etc.
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 require a little more than sound bites designed to scare the crap out of people, wouldn't it?
-
Keith Ng wrote:
And interesting to hear it coming from you, because way I figured it, the philosophical divide was going to be on the choice issue: Do we give money back, knowing that the debt monkeys will stuff it all up, or do we keep the money and squirel it away for them?It's one of those fundamental left-right divisions, ain't it?
Up to a point, but I do think there a marco-issue that's all about choice. Perhaps I'm a total freak, but in my upbringing and experience 'living within your means' was a virtue, keeping up with the Joneses wasn't an aspiration worth pursuing, and debt was something you didn't take on board lightly. I'm no sociologist, but that sure seems to have changed, and I don't know if it's ever going to change without a hell of a smash no matter what the polis do.
In the end, I don't think your grandchildren are going to look back on us with too much generosity. In their own ways, both Key and Cullen want us to believe there is such a thing as a free lunch -- as long as you don't think too hard about who's eventually going to be stiffed with the tab. And why should they: Baby Boomers and Gen Xers vote. Children don't. And why should we? It's a very comfortable lie to believe.
Last ←Newer Page 1 … 1194 1195 1196 1197 1198 … 1235 Older→ First