(deep breath)
Why should you march today against asset sales that look set to occur despite the self inflicted damage it will cause our ability to raise revenues to fund the social structures we know are needed to maintain NZ as an egalitarian nation?
(exhale).
Neoliberal orthodoxy has seen a sudden and dramatic increase in inequality. If you don’t stand to show your disproval, the Government will take this acquiescence as agreement and damage NZ permanently while crowing ‘mandate’.
The small government with a microscopic g agenda taken by Key and his Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, sees NZ cut back it’s ability to generate revenue so that the state can’t afford the social structures it underpins, which in turn leads to demands for more free market reform and deregulation.
We are caught in the undertow of corporate interests and neoliberal fantasy once again and we have to fight like hell to resist it.
National hilariously claim Labour and Greens electricity policy is economic vandalism. How can he keep a straight face saying that? The economic vandalism is selling our assets in the first place. Attempting to limit big business profits over the interests of the 270 000 kids in poverty who need heating in winter is hardly the rise of Zombie Marx to feast on the brains of capitalism is it?
There are the usual challenges in getting out today; the feeling of disconnection from decision making, the thousands of other calls on our time, the sense of apathy that sets in, the fact thousands will turn up when the NZ Herald will say hundreds. All must be overcome so that a clear moment of defiance can be registered in the hope that our voice will be loud enough to be heard.
Even if the turn out is small, those of us who marched can hold our heads up high. When our grandchildren are born into the future dystopia of a country that’s lost its economic base to ensure the ability of self sovereignty, we can tell them with pride that we fought to prevent it.
It’s our responsibility as citizens.
2pm today in every major city. Stand up.
The reason that the rightwing bring out the bogie of communism to scare the children is because in their deep unconscious they know that communism is going to rise up and get them, tear them limb from limb, suck out their marrow and shut down their tax havens and blind trusts.
Ummmm… no. It is because we know Communism just loeads to decay and misery on a mass scale and can only be enforced by a massive denial of individual freedoms. Most wealthy people manage to avoid Communism by leaving countries it gets implemented in. It is the poor and middle classes who get shafted.
Whereas capitalism leads to 1% owning practically everything, and eventually leads to an uninhabitable planet.
Hmmm. I wonder which is better for the 99%.
Communism is even better at screwing up the planet. You just need to look at the environmental mess left in Russia and Eastern Europe to see that.
Just put finishing touches to my placard. ‘They’re not just any assets, they’re our assets’ , in blue and gold (cos then it reads like the Rugby ads here in Dunedin).
Well said and my best wishes for this to be a success.
While I would be happy to join those hitting the streets to voice their discontent, two factors prevent me from doing so:
One – I live in the country, the base of ardent National supporters.
Two – I’m broke.
I suppose I could tempt fate leading a one man protest in the local one horse town expecting heavy persecution at best or bodily harm and martyrdom at worst.
But as I said best wishes for this to be a success, since I can’t be there in person I’ll be there in spirit.
What I can’t get over is that the mom and pop investors look like they are going to severely shafted by the Mighty River Power share float. I mean this company is BORROWING MONEY in order to pay the advertised dividends (this being the ONLY reason to hold stocks for long-term investment purposes). Mighty River Power looks like a total shit investment. The share price looks to be roughly TWICE as high as it should be (maybe even three times). I know that lots of people will want this stock, and it may even rise significantly after it is floated, but in the long term I just can’t make the numbers work in its favour. The “loyalty” bonus shares are also a near zero: ONE free share per 25? Wow, you get 0.4% free shares for holding onto this potential turkey for TWO years?
I must be missing something. Can anyone tell me why this is actually a solid long-term investment?
DISCLOSURE: I am NOT a financial advisor.
“…the fact thousands will turn up when the NZ Herald will say hundreds.”
So what were the numbers like up in Auckland.
Wellington got around the 500 mark.
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