Posts by Rich of Observationz
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
The Homosexual Law Reform Act never came about through harm reduction arguments. It came through the argument of it being a fundamental human right
It was more that those in power came to the conclusion that gay people were no longer an Other that they could use to scare the greater populace. Drug users still are, and they've added Muslims.
-
Wouldn't a label with: "for culinary use only, not to be smoked" solve the problem?
Really, if you take a maximal view of a government's duty to prevent its subjects harming themselves, then it becomes hard to move on from prohibition. It's only if one can make a step to government educating, dissuading and taxing, but not prohibiting, that we can change. This isn't evidence, it's philosophy.
And the same thing would apply to a putative "safe" substance that's been through a testing process - can the government take the responsibility of vouching for its safety? They don't do this for pharmaceuticals - merely asserting that the benefits are believed to outweigh the risks and harms.
The tacit assumption is that a medical benefit, however minor (getting a stiffy, not getting a headache) is adequate to outweigh a non-zero risk or harm potential. Individuals are not, however, given the agency to decide when the perceived benefits to them of using a recreational substance can similarly outweigh the risk/harm.
-
Building more houses is not the (whole) solution.
If people expect house prices to inflate at a higher rate than they can borrow at, then owning a house turns into signing up for free money.
If there's free money on offer, then everyone will pile in. It's got nothing to do with supply and demand for houses to live in - the demand is to join in the free money scheme, which will always tend to infinite.
Stop foreign buyers purchasing existing properties, and that might depress the price of those vs new builds, but there'll be plenty of NZers to keep buying into existing properties and sections.
Intensification will help, in that it'll mean people will be able to afford some sort of property (much as in expensive overseas cities) but if the expectation of continually rising prices doesn't go away, then quite soon those 30m3 apartments will also be unaffordable.
The only thing that would work would be a house price target, say a range of -3..-10% over the next ten years, backed up by a system of automated measures up to and including a 100% tax on capital gains above a certain price/GV ratio (for instance, that if you sell a house with a GV of $500k for $700k, you pay $200k tax).
They won't do it, because governments (Labour as well) are addicted to giving the middle classes free money, in part to compensate for the erosion of the purchasing power of the money they earn from actually working.
-
About half the countries in the UN are despotisms of some kind - while it's obviously necessary to deal with them to try and stop wars and so forth, why should they have any say in what our government lets us put in our bodies?
-
Why does Auckland need a Government House? - it doesn't have a Premier House - I assume that non-Auckland PMs stayed in hotels.
-
Hard News: Labour's medical cannabis…, in reply to BenWilson,
Not to mention the fairly large number of generally honest and peaceable people who are disinclined to engage with the police because of their role in enforcing drug laws - which leaves police less able to do their core job of preventing crimes of violence and dishonesty.
Also true of other areas where policing is used for excessive social control – road policing, alcohol laws, suppressing political protest, etc.
-
Speaker: Banking on a relationship, in reply to izogi,
It’s because even if the client has done the FX conversion, it’s still an international transfer between AU and NZ.
The clearing networks in the two countries are entirely separate (and usually, it being the same bank brand makes no difference, although I know that Westpac, for instance, has its own pathway for AU-NZ transfers, such as Australian companies with an NZ payroll). Otherwise its down to Swift, and “exotic” so you get stuck $15.
You could shop around and see if any bank could set you up an NZD foreign currency account in Australia then use a third-party payment company to do your transfers. Or find an Australian contractor who works for an NZ company and swap your funds unofficially.
Alternatively, if your client is large, it may be cheaper for them to send the funds on a "sender pays fees" basis - their bank might waive the fee for them.
-
Hard News: BRB, at UNGASS, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
Sadly it closed about 10 years ago. It's some sort of clothes shop now.
I guess even the Lower East Side gets gentrified.
-
Speaker: Are we seeing the end of MSM,…, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
Leaking it to a blogger when they could have called a broker and made a moderate amount of money in a fairly short time. Bizarre.
Maybe it's because that website where people could gamble anonymously on inside information isn't around any more?
-
There are a range of people who might want a job outside regular working hours, especially if they get paid a premium for it, could work from home, etc.
What about hospo staff, electricity workers, medical staff, labour inspectors and all the other people who have to work odd hours to provide essential services? Do you never go to a bar or the shops after 5?
Also, investing in better tech so that more issues (I'm stuck overseas and my card just stopped working) can be handled online.
(I'd never travel without two cards from separate banks).