Posts by linger

Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First

  • OnPoint: Media beat-off,

    Kyle -- if your student loan is zero-interest (or even if it's just lower-interest than the mortgage!), then surely the choice is a no-brainer: pay down the mortgage before doing anything about the student loan.

    Tokyo • Since Apr 2007 • 1944 posts Report Reply

  • OnPoint: Media beat-off,

    It's easy to fall into the trap of taking "the average person" as being a construct with some reality equivalent to "most people", and even easier to ignore lives that don't fit that constructed model. So I guess we have to ask, has that really happened here?

    Granted, the fact that on average (or even, for most people -- though that doesn't necessarily follow) accommodation is a much larger expenditure than food doesn't make it true for everyone. Granted also, those on the lowest incomes have the least flexibility to adjust expenditure when food prices rise. So there is a real social problem in food price inflation.

    Nevertheless... when we see editorials, letters and talkback whine on cheese, we see predominantly the views of the middle class, for whom, as Keith points out, the focus would be better placed elsewhere.

    Now back to the accommodation expense stats.
    Focussing on average "total accommodation expenditure from all sources" across the population is certainly an improvement over trying to measure "average mortgage" across the whole population. But I can't see how it avoids placing all people with the same expenditure on accommodation into the same category, whether their expenditure is low because the accommodation in question is worthless, or because it is freehold. Which makes the "average" on this dimension of limited value as a construct.

    Unless, of course, I have misunderstood, and the recommended solution is instead to take the "average mortgage" only across mortgagees; the "average rent" only across renters ... but then what do we do with freeholders? Would accommodation expense figures be more useful if they were to routinely include maintenance and rates expenditure as well? (That would be one way of separating out the homeless from fully paid up homeowners.)

    Tokyo • Since Apr 2007 • 1944 posts Report Reply

  • Random Play: Seoul Searchin' (Sorry, it…,

    I deliberately didn't go there.

    (and yep, that was a rare case of Seoul Discretion.)

    Tokyo • Since Apr 2007 • 1944 posts Report Reply

  • Random Play: Seoul Searchin' (Sorry, it…,

    Ah, Seoul ...

    *sigh* and I deliberately didn't go there.

    On a phonetically related tangent:
    One of the few things I retained from organic chemistry lectures is that there is a class of compounds which contain an arsenic atom in a carbon ring with delocalised bonding. These are -- really! -- known as "aromatic arsols".

    Tokyo • Since Apr 2007 • 1944 posts Report Reply

  • Random Play: Seoul Searchin' (Sorry, it…,

    Oh, there's an endless supply of titles.
    What do you want to write about next?

    A photo essay on the expansive public spaces: "Airy Seoul"
    Industry: "Seoul Mining"
    An uncertain future: "Seoul Doubt"
    On returning home:"Seoul Survivor"
    Loneliness in the big city: "I, Seoul Asian"
    Miscellaneous ranting: "Seoul Vent"

    Tokyo • Since Apr 2007 • 1944 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Things To Do,

    Good intentions don't cut it.

    Isn't that why you need a sickle?

    Tokyo • Since Apr 2007 • 1944 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Things To Do,

    Which is to say, Steve's post is an excellent demonstration of how the rich can end up paying less GST in the long run -- they are better able to afford ways of cutting costs.

    Tokyo • Since Apr 2007 • 1944 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Things To Do,

    Terence: why not?
    are you arguing --
    (a) most people are too stupid to work these things out for themselves?
    or
    (b) most people don't ever save enough disposable capital to initiate such a system (e.g. the bulk freezer is not affordable without getting a loan, which kind of defeats the whole "saving money" point), so that the more likely solution would be a short-term one of "buying less meat this week and waiting for a special".

    Tokyo • Since Apr 2007 • 1944 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Some things I've been meaning…,

    When did the Mayor of Auckland become a rather disturbing action figure?

    When he first entered public office?

    Tokyo • Since Apr 2007 • 1944 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Intellectual Properties,

    we can't actually be sure we won't end up in a more fertile world.

    But we can be sure that the climate change will be more rapid than evolution can cope with (given the limitations on mobility imposed by geography and by human land use). "Potential fertility" means very little if half the species of plants and animals have been killed off in the process.

    Tokyo • Since Apr 2007 • 1944 posts Report Reply

Last ←Newer Page 1 177 178 179 180 181 194 Older→ First