Posts by George Darroch
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Indeed, Sofie. Fucking poor people really should keep their houses tidy so they don't offend the eyeballs of passing motorists. That or Melissa Lee should start posting her sociological insights under her own name.
No. But if things were improving, you'd expect to see things getting better, not worse. The difference in my parents street in South Auckland between 1995 and 2005 is quite phenomenal. And yes, better employment and incomes, and a range of social policies have had a great effect on the character of the street.
However, I don't think you can yet criticise National over this street. It is still too early to blame this Government for anything other than the direct results of particular policies - we can start to play the indiscriminate blame game sometime in the next year.
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Or, it seems, any idea that the things being measured are people.
And children, at that too.
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There is plenty to criticise in the speech, and the PM's attitude to those in need of government support is pretty dire and signals a return to a more punitive benefit system with no as its default setting. They appear intent on pushing people into work despite their personal circumstances, with a large stick for those who can't comply.
Nevertheless, there is one thing to praise, and that is the promise that abatement rates on beneficiary incomes will be dramatically reduced. These have been kicking around for decades, and Labour refused to remove them. Part time work for those on a benefit was virtually uneconomic, despite any potential improvements it might have brought. I'm glad to see that vestigal part of the system cut off.
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it was simply the overall philosophy, which was about contents and hurdles and rules and making the child fit in the peg hole
I think that a lot of this Government's thinking on education comes from an imaginary and ideal type. I don't want to disparage this, because they can be useful as guides to thinking. To be useful however, it must be based on real evidence, or trialled in real world conditions before wholesale adoption.
But in this case, the ideal type is Rangitoto College and Auckland Grammar, and ideas about the approach to education that these institutions are thought to embody. Rather than any consideration of the way in which these schools select in an evolutionary sense for students, there appears to be the idea that if determination to do well is instilled into students, educational success will follow. These students are doing badly because expectations are too low.
Establishing measurable standards is a logical collorary of such an approach, because it allows for schools that aren't performing to be identified and targeted for such measures.
These are typically right-wing ideas, because they assume that success is a matter of hard work rather than a combination of factors.
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Yeah, that was amazing. It recalls the difficulties my parents had in the 1990s, when they eventually decided to homeschool me rather than stick out a school that was failing in part due to misguided and simplistic policies. After a while they sent me to an out of zone secondary school, again leaving the community behind.
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The decline in income taxes will be sufficient to compensate those who are not eligible for any benefit - as the goal is to set the GST rate + income tax rate to the same level as it is now anyway, so that labour income is taxed in exactly the same way
So they're going to halve the bottom tax-rate?
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That was just a little TL:DR (too long, didn't read) and advertorial, but otherwise an interesting contribution to the debate Gordon.
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As a member of that group, the only reasons I haven't is that we're waiting on other options, but it's looking more and more likely. And that stuff about CRIs could make it a very long term move, if it ends up being as bad as it sounds.
I suppose, since my avatar and location are sufficiently vague, that I should declare that I post from Canberra, Australia. I'm looking for work on this side of the Tasman right now, and when and if I return will depend on a whole bunch of factors. I miss my family, I miss New Zealand's beauty and taonga, and a bunch of intangibles.
Right now living abroad (ie. not Australia or NZ) seems like the most sensible thing to do. I'll wait a while more and see where things head.
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Gens X & Y should get off their chuffs & do what I did, she huffs: that is, physically build a garage & live in it for nearly 2 years while physically building my house & going off every so often to earn money so I could continue to do-
You're absolutely right about that much - I simply can't see the point in buying a house that cost great amounts more than the physical material required.
Unfortunately the cost of unimproved land in New Zealand has huge amounts of property speculation built into the price. A tax on unimproved land could help, but as with rates I suspect that the speculators would just build this into the price too.
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a variety of exporters, capitalising on the growing Asian markets. Yes; of course it's not easy. But the alternative is harder yet, once the borrowed money runs out.
Yeah I dig that. Like a national park. There are some companies doing that, and Malaysia for example is NZ's 7th largest export market, but for the most part New Zealand businesses and politicians don't appear to have a clue.