Posts by BenWilson
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Hard News: Only what we would expect a…, in reply to Kumara Republic,
it's the lingering cargo cultism behind current Nouveau Riche thinking that continues to make me, and us, cringe.
Heh, interesting to hear from a guy in the exact same business as me. My own business partner is very similar to him, although far more right wing.
I was thinking much the same as him yesterday morning when I came in to find my (better paid) American colleagues had royally stuffed up something I'd been working on. Being a humble diplomatic soul, I didn't just say "Fuck man, put it back how it was, can't you see that won't work". Instead I praised him for his alternative approach, then got him to explain to me how it could do the very thing that had led me down the more correct path. He hit the wall eventually, realized there was no way his design could be finished without some really, really hard, sophisticated coding. He concluded "I guess I should put it back how you made it?". Still no triumphalism from me, instead "Yes, I'm sorry about that, it's my fault for not explaining why I'd done it that way". But curiously, this morning, I found both him and another guy requesting a code review from me, something they've only ever requested from my biz partner, the system guru. I was chuffed. We all won.
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But Ben, don't most super plans include a balance of investments including in stocks?
Paul, the way it's done in Ozzie, yes. My own Ozzie plan, forced on me by their system, is like that. It lost a lot of money recently. I expect it will balance out by the time I get my hands on it, in 16 years, although I'd much rather have the money off my mortgage here, which would provide me with a guaranteed 7% tax-free return every year, which would in turn lower my cost of life, pay my mortgage off quicker, and shield me from the random disaster that is provisional tax. Indeed, if I'd had it sooner, I'd have been able to buy a property about 5 years earlier, and that would have saved me about $100,000 right there.
Edit: Not that I think super schemes are a bad idea, mind. I think they're a very good idea, and could well be a large part of what is behind Australia's prosperity, and the success of their stockmarket - they have very high levels of local investment, which helps them a great deal.
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Hard News: Because it's about time we…, in reply to Russell Brown,
Indeed. But I have to say that total disconnection from the internet, period, was amazingly refreshing.
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Hard News: Only what we would expect a…, in reply to Sacha,
Key mentioned using the proceeds to invest in irrigation schemes for South Island (dairy) farmers.
Gawd, that must have happened really quickly (he does talk fast), I didn't hear it at all in that clip (I'm not saying it didn't happen). What I did find incredibly disingenuous in that spiel was blaming the rising cost of power entirely on government ownership. There was no mention whatsoever of the massive rise in oil prices that happened during the period he's talking about, which meant cascading price increases across the entire energy sector.
Sainsbury was good, I agree. He hammered the lack of detail about the cuts. He should also have hammered the lack of detail about where the redistribution of assets was going. Key spoke of 33 billion worth of assets we want to buy and can't afford. These things he *can* itemize, and should be challenged right now to do so. I expect there's a hell of a lot of cuts in there that don't have to come from beneficiaries.
As a side note, he mentioned that people with money in Kiwisaver have nowhere to invest it, except Australia. That should have been slammed immediately. Kiwisaver is *savings*. It's a superannuation plan. It's not intended to be something we sink into the stockmarket, without the slightest clue (for most people) about what we're doing, it's a plan to encourage saving through tax cuts to savings. I can't think of a worse time to be suggesting that average people should be investing in the stockmarket, FFS we just had the biggest crash in 80 years.
Furthermore it's total bullshit that there isn't a New Zealand stockmarket to invest in, not to mention lots of other ways of investing locally, the most popular being in property. The totals invested there rival even the huge numbers that Key threw around for NZ's asset base. There's putting it in the bank, putting it into commodities, buying your own small assets, investing directly into a business, buying things that save money (like better energy solutions, or investing in your own education), paying down debt (my main reason for not being in Kiwisaver) etc, etc.
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Amazed that there are so many responses on such a trivial matter (yes, tea is trivial too), esp, when compared with complete lack of comment on the opening shots in the election campaign
I recall the House of Brown being mocked for months on Kiwiblog and others for talking about coffee for several major posts several years back. It confirms prejudices about the effete city-slickers that dwell here. Little did they realize that their mockery also confirmed their strong lean to uncultured barbarianism. Even the rural people I know like good coffee over bad coffee, and many will take the time to learn about and provide themselves with such refinements.
But yes, I think whaling on Key would also tickle my tastebuds. I suspect he's being lined up in a much more measured way as we speak.
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The name has always given me great delight.
Several times between cars I've been sorely tempted just by the name. But I don't really need a van.
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Hard News: Only what we would expect a…, in reply to Sam F,
Makes it all the sadder to see the contrasting editorial, doesn't it?
Yeah, talk about a National Party press release.
National has to get really specific about what they're going to buy with the proceeds, offer clear evidence that all the money is earmarked for that. Inherently the idea of trading up to different assets is not bad, if only it could be believed that that is what they will actually do. 10 billion worth of new assets on the books might not look so bad, if there was genuine engagement with the public (whose money they are playing with) to show what assets and where. If it's mostly going into highways I'll be royally pissed.
Or is gouging consumers to plump your own bottom line only bad when dirty dirty foreigners and rich pricks do it?
It's definitely way less infuriating when you know the profits actually go to the government.
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The electricity supply is unlikely to stop if the companies are sold though is it ?
No, but making it more expensive doesn't help a business for which electricity is one of their main costs. Actually, it doesn't help any business, really, there's no avoiding electricity. To heavy industry, electricity prices are make or break.
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but recently I found a cafe in Napier that sold what it called a Bongo.
What a strange name to give a coffee. It's also a strange name to give to a van, but you can forgive them, they were Japanese, famous for their hilarious choices of Anglo names for products. I think the Mitsy Starion takes the cake - didn't they realize it would be roundly mocked as a bad pronunciation of Stallion? I'm interested to hear the cafe's excuse. Does it make you want to play a bongo when you drink it? Or was it first served from the back of a Bongo van?
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Hard News: Only what we would expect a…, in reply to Matthew Poole,
Contrary to Granny's editorial position, it seems, Kiwis have not forgotten that we got the wrong end of a splintery broomstick the last time state assets were sold.
Yes, it's not going to be popular, is my prediction. In fact, I think it could be unpopular enough to lose National the election. This is the issue Labour should be jumping on, right now, real hard, and keep hammering it.
Who will be buying these assets? What assets is the freed-up money going to be spent on, if any? Who owns those and stands to make a fucking fortune? If the money is just going to be spent to balance the books for tax cuts, how is this sustainable?
Also:
How is the government selling off assets encouraging kiwis to save? Surely it's the exact opposite, showing that even the Government can't afford to save. How is saving going to save NZ anyway, high levels of savings are exactly what fucked the Japanese economy.
Thinking even further:
What is inherently wrong with investing in property, other than the assumption that for some reason, people should never ever have to sell it? Isn't all that property that enriched a generation exactly the thing that should be funding retirements for those who have gigantic property portfolios? Or even just incredibly valuable homes? Can't they just move to a house that's half as valuable and live off the difference extremely comfortably for the rest of their lives? Or even, God forbid, sell off and rent, using the colossal tax-free capital difference to live as actual millionaires? I expect if something were done to force this issue, savings in this country would leap by tens of billions very rapidly. The amount of money tied up in property in this country dwarfs the stockmarket, dwarfs everything the government owns.
I also include rural property in this assessment. I still can't fathom why it is that people who own farms worth millions get a handout every time the weather turns bad. Any other business gets through downturns by either selling assets (and farms are easily dividable), or cutting costs, or borrowing money. Or they go bankrupt, forcing the loss off onto the bank, which is pretty much exactly who should lose money, having creamed huge profits from all the other loans.
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