Posts by Yamis
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Out of interest according to the ird.govt.nz site...
a household earning $70,000 and one child aged 0-12 will get $3 a week, a household earning $85,000 with two children aged 0-12 gets $2 a week and a household earning $100,000 with three children aged 0-12 gets $2 a week.
Those are basically the top ends of the scales before the money gets shut off. if you take off $5,000 from each amount ie. $65,000, $80,000 and $95,000 then each household would receive about $25 dollars a week ($1,300 a year in the hand).
Good to see that a family of five on 95 grand a year are considered beneficiaries in modern day NZ. I wonder what sort of response that would have got 20 years ago. ;)
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increasing benefits isn't a popular policy with the middle class.
These days I wonder what the middle class is given the number of them that are in fact getting a government handout of some sort.
I think that a three person household (two parents and child) can be earning up to around 70,000 before WFF dries up completely. If they have a second child then the threshold goes up higher.
So it really depends on what 'benefits' the government is proposing on increasing, decreasing, changing and WFF effects a MASSIVE number of NZ families, including pretty much the entire middle class. Well, what I would consider the middle class anyway.
I'm sure others know more stats, facts than me though to beat me down.
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I'm going in to Work and Income to see if they will pay for a copy of Grand Theft Auto 4 for me as an emergency need.
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And as Craig has pointed out, the less well off without families have been continually told, in effect, to go and screw thems...ummm, someone.
If they reckon they are finacially stretched now then I do not suggest having children.
If people can't afford to adequately feed, clothe, house their children then I suppose to an extent they have to accept some of the 'blame'. But I would have thought that since we all live in a society that we actually quite like people and so somebody better be having them.
If a couple where at least one of them is working a fulltime job can't afford to have two or three kids then I'm sorry but that's when the state needs to step in and help when necessary. And bear in mind that it is essentially the children that are being looked out for here, not the parents. The 60 dollars we get a week does not go on grog and dvds, it goes someway to covering the nappies, increased heating bills and other necessities naughty buggar needs.
But if people want to have a stack of kids knowing full well that they are already heavily reliant on the government then they need a damn good slapping.
My wife and I were financially comfortable for a wee while there on my income and with no kids. Now despite my wage going up around 20% in two and a bit years AND getting working for families we are struggling more now that we have a tiny tot running amok. Without the WFF we would be FLICKED. So ease up, lest we have child rearing becoming a sport solely for the aristocracy.
;)
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Shep that last comment reminds me of my local rugby club. For years they had a rather unfriendly and unnattractive bar staff and were struggling to make much money. They then made the decision to fire them and get in some more... errr.... younger females and suddenly patronage picked up.
My mate went to an RSA a while ago (actually it seemed more like an RSA crawl) and raved about the beer prices. I might have to tag along next time.
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Doesn't help when our cities are so sprawling and the 'local' for most people in the burbs is a ten minute drive away as opposed to a ten minute walk in many parts of Britain. The nearest PROPER pub to where I live in West Auckland would probably be in the city, 15 kilometres away. So a dozen Lion Reds and the idiot box usually win the battle. There's just so few around though. There's a bar at Westgate shopping centre which is really a pool/sports bar where we often go for drinks after work, but aside from that there's just football clubs, RSA's and one or two smaller hole in the wall type bars and restaurant/bars around.
I often lament all that.
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In Korea they have 3 litre pitchers of beer which made our eyes light up when we first saw them, they also have 5 litre 'tanks' of beer with the nozzle on the side to pour them from.
but if you are after something more your shape...
http://www.travelgeek.ca/wp-content/uploads/050207/IMG_0143.jpgOne bar over there has a secured off corner of the bar where you throw (and smash) your empties. Not sure what our authorities would make of that here but a lot of fun hiffing them in.
What a good bar must have is a good bar.
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I've avoided the coverage of the funerals as I always feel uncomforable watching what I think should be private affairs for those who knew the deceased but...
wouldn't the people giving permission for the cameras and media to be there be the individual families themselves rather than the school?
Also I saw on the news tonight that they had clips from the Marie Davis funeral. Are we going to get more and more of this stuff?
I know I go on about Korea a bit with my comparisons but the cameras getting stuffed in grieving families faces over there is absolutely sickening, especially given the friends and families grieve in a much more emotional way ie.tearful hysteria. I would hate to see us going down that almost voyeuristic path.
If it's that important for us to see it then how about televising everybodies weddings, birth of children, kids first day at school, and graduation ceremonies amongst all the other milestones in our lives?
Or do we only care about people when they are dead?
Reminds me about that line about how we should say what is said at funerals to their face while they are alive.
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My Telecom broadband experience was them coming to our house in West Auckland, trying to connect it, spending two hours stuffing up our dial up connection and then leaving. I then had to repair our dial up connection after getting home.
Six months later they tell us we still can't get broadband in our area.
My wife then calls Slingshot. They come round and hook us up with broadband in 15 minutes.
I'm afraid I don't get how that all worked apart from having a totally incompetent Telecom technician and someone on the phone who has no idea what they are talking about.
I suggest people get multiple opinions...
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It may be useful at school as we occasionally use the internet but quite frankly the speed now is sufficient for what we need.
At home as you say Stephen, we will only be using it to download movies.
I guess businesses may or may not need ultra fast connections but I'd like to know how many and what for. Most businesses like my local mechanic or the supermarket, or the dairy or nappy shop are probably not cracking open the champagne. Maybe people could fill me in on some examples in the techno world of how great advantages can be gained cos I'm pretty ignorant there.
In Korea it's bloody fast but the main use as far as I could ever tell was to have websites with so many pop ups, bells and whistles that you couldn't find what you were looking for and for playing Starcraft online in PC rooms.