Posts by Kumara Republic
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In that Morning Report interview, the PM basically made the flag referendum sound like an ultimatum, which only reinforces existing perceptions of a vanity project.
As for the flag design itself, Mies van der Rohe said it best: "less is more." The adopted flags of Canada and South Africa pass that test, which the Lockwood flag doesn't. It makes for a nice toilet paper print though.
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But the people on the network side of commercial television work in an increasingly risk-averse business. Even when a locally-produced series is funded by the taxpayer, a failure puts everyone's job at risk. And there have been a few failures in the past five years; more misses than hits. For reasons of politics rather than commerce, the same applies to the funder, NZ On Air, which pretty much lives in a low-level existential battle. No one wants to fuck up.
What used to be the licence fee - before it was rat-fucked out of existence - has become a balkanised master-of-none that's at the whim of politicians of all stripes. It also doesn't help that our free-to-air broadcasters (or what's left of them) suffer a bad case of cultural cringe - NZ produces a lot of good programmes that are wildly popular overseas, but cultural cringe means NZers seldom get to see them - it was a big factor in Cloud9 Productions threatening to quit NZ for Australia.
It may take a Royal Commission to fix this and the wider media landscape.
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Stephanie Rodgers has a name for the whole thing: the Epsom Paradox, dishonourably established by the NZ branch of Generation Rentier.
And regarding the whole intergenerational theft thing, the likes of Martin Shkreli go to show that Generation Rentier isn't just a Boomer thing.
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Hard News: So what now?, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
Well, the Reserve Bank has an inflation target, which conveniently excludes property.
What we could have is a target for Auckland property prices of say 5% annual deflation for the next five years followed by zero growth.
Then you have a bunch of pre-announced measures to achieve this. Start out with (as we have now) LVR ratios and if they don’t work, crank up to a 100% tax on the sale price – GV margin, such that selling over a certain price is nugatory as all the profits will go in tax.
That would destroy the expectation of price gains.
The Machiavellian solution: print enough counterfeit NZD to crash it, causing the RBNZ Governor to hike interest rates enough to poison the mortgage market and pop the bubble very loudly. Massive collateral damage, but Generation Rentier gets put in its rightful place.
The realistic solution(s): an urban strategy that recognises the benefits of agglomeration of talent, while encouraging some form of regional development. In practice:
* A bigger share of the infrastructure spend on urban centres outside Auckland with over 50k-100k people.
* Encouraging major NZ companies to decentralise, within reason.
* Winning the PR battle against "Generation Rentier" and implementing a CGT, non-resident stamp duty, among other measures.Britain seems to offer a few pointers, where they've had similar issues with over-centralisation, property bubbles and rising business costs in London.
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Hard News: So what now?, in reply to Zach Bagnall,
Waiting for the crash that will fix everything is a hopeless strategy. Ever increasing property value is baked into the economy at this point. People depend on it for their retirement.
Likely the same people who got burned in the 1987 sharemarket bubble burst, in an atmosphere of blind faith and irrational exuberance following financial deregulation.
And over-reliance on property for income – where NZ already ranks among the top of the table* – is no excuse to shut out everyone else. It’s a variation on countries that are over-reliant on oil exports.
*That article was published in 2009, when NZ’s total housing value to NZX ratio was 13:1. When Brian Gaynor revisited the issue in 2013, it had risen to 14:1.
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Hard News: So what now?, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
The only way to stop property inflation is introduce measures that remove the expectation of gain and the ability to finance.
Auckland’s rentier class is beyond reasoning with now, and I’ve previously mentioned that they’re just as wealthy and powerful as an unelected House of (Land)Lords. Everyone reading this thread, feel free to suggest any ideas to bring forward the Auckland housing bubble burst. Sure, it’ll be ugly and there’ll be collateral damage, but I’m angry about the whole affair and it’s the only thing guaranteed to rewrite the rules in the absence of political will.
John Farrell:
I checked the real estate listings here this morning. There are (admittedly old, and needing work) houses for sale in Dunedin for under $200,000. If you were able to support yourself, there are better prices in places like Lawrence, Milton, Balclutha and Oamaru.
Moving to outside of Auckland is a partial solution, if the right jobs are available, or if you’re allowed to tele-commute. Most of us are still required by management to turn up to a physical office or shop-floor.
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Hard News: So what now?, in reply to 81stcolumn,
Okay hands up who knows where the most recent piece of urban intensification is in Takapuna?
And the next most recent is the 30-storey Sentinel, which wouldn't be out of place in Vancouver or Manhattan.
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It is indeed a brave new world
On the surface, that is. Dare to learn too much about it, and you start encountering the apparatus of 1984.
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Hard News: So what now?, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
These massively entited rentiers who heckled the chair and deputy of the Youth Advisory Panel yesterday will take nothing but complete and abject surrender. Richard Burton’s performance on Morning Report today made that perfectly clear. I do you the courtesy of assuming you’re neither foolish or disingenuous enough not to see that.
And in today's world, rentiers are a de facto unelected Senate or House of Lords. I've said it before, but only a massive act of Murphy's Law is guaranteed to put them in their place.
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Hard News: So what now?, in reply to Sacha,
ECan has shown they can get away with it. No voter backlash at all.
Unless of course, the water starts becoming like that of Flint, Michigan.