Posts by Steve Parks
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OnPoint: Election 2011: GO!, in reply to Islander,
one way to help creative people do their stuff is provide them (after they have established their abilities) with the average wage – on the condition that, IF they earned a lot more, they ceased to be so supported, and paid back into a general creative pool. One little bureacrat would’ve been a sufficient overseer…
You mean a minimum wage, surely, not an average wage? And regardless, “One little bureaucrat” would not be sufficient to oversee such a scheme. But you meant this as hyperbole, I assume.
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OnPoint: Election 2011: GO!, in reply to DexterX,
You mentioned earlier in this thread about CGT stopping speculation,
Did he? I’ll leave Matthew to respond for himself whether that’s accurate. I’d say the reasoning is more correctly described as “reducing excessive speculation”. The idea being to ecourage investment in areas that are the most productive, rather than an area with a tax loop-hole. You do realise a capital gains tax will not be for 100% of the capital gains? I’d be surprised if it stopped property speculation full stop.
... consider a builder/developer buys some sections and builds a series of spec houses and on sells them that is not a drag on the economy or the tax pay,
I don’t think that’s what is meant by a ‘capital gain’, is it?
It is likely that CGT will IMHO also push up rents.
....
I asked you [Matthew] a question in this thread awhile back ...And I asked you a question about whether you had actual evidence that a rent increase was a clear result of a capital gains tax, and if so whether it would be a significant problem. You never really answered.
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Speaker: What PACE actually does, in reply to Lilith __,
On the unemployment benefit there’s the two week stand-down, and the requirement to have exhausted all your liquid assets before you qualify.
Um, I’m pretty sure that’s only for the Emergency Unemployment Benefit, which is what students can get during their vacations. And the Accomodation Supplement is asset-tested. The UB itself is not cash-asset tested.
Correct, the UB is not asset tested. But as you say, the AS is, and that can be a real pain if you live in an expensive place to pay rent (like Auckland or Wellington) and have, for eg, a term deposit over $8K.
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Speaker: What PACE actually does, in reply to Rich Lock,
Interesting, thanks.
My favourite example:
In The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy it is possible to fly as long as you don't think about the fact that you're flying. It's not terribly hard. All you have to do is throw yourself at the ground and miss.
Which reminds me of Giovanni's mention of Michelangelo and sculpting. I was trying to think of where I'd heard the claim that sculpting is easy:
You want to sculpt an elephant? Just take a block of marble and chisel away anything that doesn't look like an elephant. -
Muse: TV Review: Good Gods Almighty!, in reply to Miche Campbell,
I haven’t seen any of Davies work outside of Doctor Who, so it’s hard to tell. His DW is certainly patchy. The issue of appropriate levels of overwroughtness and cheesiness for the type of story has come up a lot in recent postings of mine here. I accept a certain amount of that in DW, but Davies has gone too far at times (eg, The Last of the Time Lords). However, some episodes of DW (though not necessarily ones penned by Davies) have easily been the equal of anything I’ve seen from Griffin or Lang. (And that’s meant as a compliment to all parties, not a dig.)
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Changing tack a bit, from the Herald today: Key pledges state service shake-up.
While the debt problem lies mostly in the private sector, the Savings Working Group identified increased efficiency in the state sector as a quick initial fix and Mr Key said his Government would act to achieve that.
Sigh.
And Goff hasn't impressed me much lately, so credit where it's due:
But in a fiery reply to Mr Key's speech, Labour leader Phil Goff said the Government lacked ideas on how challenges should be met.
"The great plan of the Government to solve our problems is to slash spending on health and education and sell off assets.
"Where are the jobs? The best type of welfare reform is to have jobs that people can go to."
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OnPoint: Election 2011: GO!, in reply to Geoff Lealand,
@Danielle. I am surprised–for someone with impeccable taste, you hate Magnolia? It is such a savagely sad movie.
You liked it? I did too. I think Magnolia is unique in that it’s the only movie where the group “friends I talk to about movies” is in complete agreement: that is, complete disagreement with me. One is the loneliest number.
On Muse, I said Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream was overwrought, and not in a good way. Magnolia is the good way. I think Anderson and Aronofsky have similar approaches to their film making. Whether it works or not can be a fine line. I thought the sing-along part, for example, was risky but audacious; it worked for me, but I can certainly see how people might roll their eyes at such scenes. However, a little to my surprise, quite a few people I’ve spoken to are okay with that scene. It is the frogs that ruin it for them. Whereas for me, that worked well as a climax. It’s a logical extension of the portentousness prevalent throughout the film that Danielle noted. It makes more sense to me to either hate the whole damn movie, the way Danielle does, or just embrace the cinematic melodrama of it all.
Anyway, Frogs.
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OnPoint: Election 2011: GO!, in reply to Danielle,
Weird, because I think this is like the least-harsh place I've ever posted,
Yeah, by the standards of (more-or-less) open internet discussion forums, this place is hardly harsh.
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OnPoint: Election 2011: GO!, in reply to Martin Lindberg,
Ah, quoting the soundtrack of a favourite movie? ;-)
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OnPoint: Election 2011: GO!, in reply to BenWilson,
It’s the uncredited editorials I find the most grief in recently. It’s like what they’re writing is so shamefully biased, that they can’t put a name to it.
I’ve never liked the unsigned editorial policy of most papers. I believe the reasoning is that it’s ‘the opinion of the paper’ or some such silliness. I think the editors expect it may give them a certain air of authority, but if anything it has the opposite effect for me.