Posts by Kumara Republic
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I'd vote for p-rominent musician if I thought it would get past the senses.
Riddle me this, riddle me that...
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The high costs of the privatised US health system (which President Obama is trying to steer away from) owe a lot to the malpractice litigation industry over there. And also largely unique to America, it's also had a knock-on effect on its heavy industry sector too, in the form of union healthcare plan demands.
Those who wish for private accident insurance and a return to the CHE system (or worse) should be careful what they wish for. They might actually get their wish.
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Teabagging - verb. An act of imaginary political anger towards an imaginary Big Government. Highly common among loyal followers of Fox News. See glibertarian.
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ScottY:
BTW, I'm not suggesting we get the hankies out and start weeping for the poor dears. But the widespread disdain goes some way to explaining why many business people "satisfice".
To be fair, the idiotic 2025 report probably doesn't help, and probably convinces a few people there is some evil big-business agenda to eat our babies.
Geroge D:
New Zealand is one of the most unequal of all developed nations. I think that a good number of poor people actually resent being told to celebrate rich people. I know I do.
The venerable Brian Gaynor speaks for most if not all of us; for him, the disdain towards NZ business leaders seems to be a post-1987 thing. The article's from a few years back, but it still rings true today. (My emphases in boldface.)
New Zealand's leading business people are held in low regard because of their poor performance over the past 15 years.
The lack of respect is not due to envy or the tall-poppy syndrome. Respect has to be earned, and the top end of the business community has eroded its support over the past decade and a half.
It was a very different story in the late 1970s. There was the occasional rogue businessman at the time but most - they were all males at the time - were highly respected.
And around the same time as the above, Pete Hodgson hit the nail on the head when he effectively attributed the issue to anti-intellectualism.
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Zombies and apocalypse porn no longer scare me. If I wanted to be scared, I'd rather watch political dystopia flicks:
http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/sleeping-dogs-1977 -
Basically, everybody is jumping off a burning plane, and the last parachute can't be found. Brash sits there calmly to the amazement of others. "Don't worry", he says, "economic assumptions show that if there's enough demand, someone will create one".
I'm also reminded of a Tom Scott cartoon that came out just after AirNZ was bailed out by the Beehive. It went something to the effect of this:
(Close up of bow-tied evacuee being hoisted to safety.)
Evacuee: A long rant that I've long since forgotten, but self-explanatorily, it ends with, "Long live Roger Douglas!"(Cut to long shot of AirNZ plane sinking in water, & rescue helicopter marked NZ Govt or something like that.)
Rescue Pilot: "Do you want to be rescued or don't you?"
Evacuee: "Sorry, old habits die hard..." -
Imagine how much better our economic figures would look if we just left the unducated poor to starve and die...
Or leave them to get angry and close the wealth gap with AK47s.
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Thats far to harsh, a holiday in Fiji would be shocking enough for the little petals.
I beg to differ. Nothing's ever too harsh for hardline demagogues.
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So why don't local employers pay more for skilled labour? Everybody knows that you get paid more elsewhere -- but why? What are the structural reasons for that?
It seems largely to have been an issue since Black Monday and the bankruptcy of DFC. Much of the investment in NZ since then has gone into property speculation, which has been glaringly overlooked by the Brash Report. I suppose turkeys don't vote for their own Thanksgiving.
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And what's the value of a neolib cheerleader? Business roundtabler Roger Kerr on RNZ this morning has clearly not learned a thing from his existence on the planet.
Never a plutonium-powered DeLorean when you need one, so it can be set on a one-way trip.
I have an idea: if we want to catch up with Australia, why don't we start by looking at what they are actually doing? They don't have low taxes, low government spending, or minimal regulation. Nor have they slashed spending on health and education.
And they've had less of an issue with abusive monopolies, even if you count Telstra.