Posts by BenWilson
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Really loved this post David.
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I favour the idea that they fucked up, TBH. The last election was actually quite close. Usually there's a consolidation of lead in the first election. Instead National picked up votes but the rest of the right completely died, and NZF was born again.
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Hard News: Political Idol, or whatever…, in reply to Jason Kemp,
National has had their obligatory 2 turns
Unfortunately, in NZ it's historically been an obligatory 3 terms. That's the median stay. If Labour get in, they're actually bucking the trend. Or, possibly more accurately, National have fucked up.
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Hard News: So long, and thanks for all…, in reply to Matthew Poole,
No, it doesn’t, but because it introduces a private profit motive (and in this country gives tenants very, very little protection against bad landlords) it’s not an activity which is broadly socially beneficial.
I'm not sure that it's clearly broadly socially detrimental either. A landlord is taking all the risk on for the property. Many people are simply not in a position to do this, hence they rent. Without landlords of some kind (even if they are the state) there would be no rental properties, and people who can't get a deposit together, or a loan from a bank, would be homeless.
The social detriment is a complex function of how expensive property has become, and how many people this excludes from owning. That goes to equity of capital and income - when property is in fewer and fewer hands, that means pretty much all the capital is too (since property is most of the nation's capital).
Essentially, if private property ownership is possible at all, then there are always going to be landlords. The problem of landlords is not their existence, it is their relative wealth. The two can work in a feedback loop, however, when becoming a landlord becomes one of the most effective means to wealth. The "real" landlord is in most cases a bank, and they have become obscenely wealthy.
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OnPoint: Ich bin ein Cyberpunk, in reply to Matthew Poole,
Yes, every level. Considering most hardware is built by software nowadays, you can't draw the line at hardware, even. It could have Trojans built into it. And that's even harder to detect than bugs in code. But there's a blurring line here with the entire Cartesian method of doubt. You can't know for sure that you aren't, in fact, just powering the Matrix. At which point one can only argue one's way out from the cogito by appeal to non-logical, but nonetheless reasonable, arguments.
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Hard News: So long, and thanks for all…, in reply to Rob Hosking,
Actually, Chris Keall used it on NBR ONLINE, last Thursday afternoon, only an hour or two after the announcement.
It kind of lends itself, although I'm not sure if anyone has really meant it the way it was meant in the original. It's the last message from the dolphins to humans before the destruction of Earth, whereas the predominant expectation is that Labour's chances will probably improve now.
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Hard News: So long, and thanks for all…, in reply to Emma Hart,
Fair dos, I was asked those exact same questions about two power companies in a focus group. What would they wear, where would they live, etc.
Yes, it goes to perception of them, indirectly. I could see why they were doing it, but it was interesting how little of the point of the group was to actually find out what I think I wanted Shearer to change. It was "what information/messages would change my perceptions?". Since there were no revelations to me about Shearer, my perceptions didn't change. Nor did it seem that many of the apparently left wing people found out anything they didn't already know. What Shearer is like was not news to them. But to the National voters, there was a change. Beforehand they simply had no idea about him, and afterward, they were better disposed to him.
But for all that, it didn't seem like anywhere near enough for them to then decide to vote for the guy. They liked everything about Shearer that made him like Key, but of course, they liked Key better.
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Hard News: So long, and thanks for all…, in reply to Rob Stowell,
I did a focus group myself, no long after that, which was clearly sponsored by the Labour party, looking at how Shearer might improve his image. We were all swing voters. At the start of the session, the Nat voters had pretty much no idea about him at all. By the end, they liked him more than even the Labour voters. I found that rather telling at the time. They asked us a bit about policy, but far, far less about that than more pressing kinds of questions like what kind of things we think he'd wear and what kind of house he'd live in. This was done before and after watching a video about him, to gauge how we'd change our perceptions, presumably. I came away with a heavy heart, wondering what place this kind of thing was having in forming plans for our government in waiting.
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Just enjoyed a blast from the past, looking back to when Shearer got selected. It's a dramatic thread, with multiple flounces, earnest discussion, communal self-appraisal, lurkers drawn in. Classic PAS, made me feel almost 2 years younger, like an angry 39-year-old rather than the wise old 40 something I am now.
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Hard News: So long, and thanks for all…, in reply to Lilith __,
I don’t mind eating GMOs (I figure they can’t be worse than all the artificial additives in processed food), but I would rather they aren’t hurting the environment.
Which not a Libertarian position, is pretty much what I'm saying. They seldom consider externalities.
This debate’s been had here before and I’m not keen to reopen it, but my concern is ecological rather than personal.
Yup, it's not the time or place.
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