Posts by Kumara Republic
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Speaker: Banning begging will be about…, in reply to Matthew Hooton,
I'm struggling to think what possible new regulation a so-called centre-right candidate thinks begging needs beyond the current restraints under the Crimes Act and common law. Sounds like nanny state to me.
Or paternalism, to put it another way. The desperate need to be seen to be doing something, otherwise known as attacking the symptom.
Sistar Six: "If you ban begging, then pan-handlers start doing what?"
At best, the begging won't stop, it'll just happen elsewhere. At worst, anything could happen - maybe beggars are forced to turn to mugging, maybe they'll start getting ideas from Che Guevara. The ban-the-homeless crowd better hope that doesn't happen. -
Polity: A wilting rose, in reply to David Hood,
To me that is the distinction of voting conservatively (which can actually either be right or left) for fear of losing what you have, and voting radically (which can either be right or left) because you have nothing to lose.
Voting conservatively left: "I fear losing my job."
Voting conservatively right: "I fear losing my house and my public safety."
Voting radically left: "I have nothing to lose because the banksters took it all away from me!"
Voting radically right: "I have nothing to lose because the blacks/browns/reds/pinks/greens/yellows took it all away from me!" -
Polity: A wilting rose, in reply to Gregor Ronald,
The worst of the "trougher" bunch are Generation Rentier - those who relentlessly preach the free market, but are quite happy to use the power of "Big Government" when the free market threatens to disrupt their rentier monopoly licence to print money. The hostility to the Auckland Unitary Plan is a case in point. As is the Koch Bros' attempts to discredit electric cars to protect their oil-drilling bread-&-butter.
-
Banning begging is basically an admission of being too embarrassed to confront the root of the problem. What then if there were thousands of homeless, instead of just dozens?
-
Polity: A wilting rose, in reply to SHG,
Au contraire, Labour needs to keep Mallard, King, Goff, Cosgrove, and all the other troughers around so the voting public can be reminded what the party stands for.
And there are still a fair few hangers-on from the error that was the Shipley era.
-
"Tough financial times are, in general, more likely to lead to conservative government."
Is that during a garden-variety recession, or a major fiscal cataclysm like a bubble burst? The latter often proves to be a catalyst for meaningful change, as happened with the Great Depression.
-
Philosophical thought for the day: how strongly could the Panama Papers leaks benefit the global social democrat movement (including Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders), in the same way the rise of Daesh has been a boon for global conservatives (particularly of the Trump/Le Pen stripe)?
-
Polity: Eleventy billion dollars!, in reply to BenWilson,
CGT and land tax changes could, for instance, tank the property market. You probably wouldn’t want that to happen just when you were piloting your brand new benefit.
Those would be most easily implemented after the property bubble collapses under the weight of its own hubris and avarice. Collateral damage aside, the one good thing from a tanking property market would be that it would take Generation Rentier with it, and hence a chance to start afresh economically as FDR and Michael Joseph Savage did in the 1930s. In the same vein, the Chernobyl meltdown proved to be the knockout blow for the Soviet Union.
-
Polity: Eleventy billion dollars!, in reply to Tom Johnson,
Auckland was always supposed to bubble, John Key was quite specific about the idea when he was in opposition, he wants Auckland to be cleared for a generation of bolthole rich international libertarians.
That is how banking is started baby.
Just like today's London, which has basically become a hedge fund masquerading as a big city.
-
Polity: Eleventy billion dollars!, in reply to BenWilson,
That’s obviously unrealistic. Company tax could also be increased, or GST, the two of those generating together about as much revenue as personal income tax
Speculative taxes like CGT, land tax and FTT are other avenues. That is, if Generation Rentier doesn't veto them, and in the case of the last one, the G20 puts it in place.