If you want too know where real power lies in society, compare what gets coverage to what gets ignored.
The chorus that has erupted over Bill English’s suggestion to attack Superannuation is righteous. It is outrageous that National try and lift Super or means test it or attempt to limit it in anyway.
The idea that we all contribute to a fund that is managed and paid to us as we enter the years of life when we should be thinking less about working and more time enjoying life is a privilege and right given to every citizen and resident who lives in a liberal progressive democracy.
What is sad however is that this chorus of outrage has been sparked at the mere hint by the PM of some type of change.
Where is the same level of anger, urgency and volume over beneficiaries now being forced to hand over personal and private information to the state to just be eligible for the tiny crumbs paid out to them…
Budget advisory refuses to send client information to government
The co-ordinator of a South Canterbury budget advisory service is taking a hard stance against a new government policy to collect and share personal details by refusing to divulge client information.
Timaru Budget Advisory Trust co-ordinator Don Macfarlane said the trust could lose up to 80 per cent of its Ministry of Social Development (MSD) funding if it did not release client information as required under a newly signed government contract.
“If [the ministry] wants data about debt, public net numbers … we can give it all to them now, but we’re not giving out names,” Macfarlane said.
…Bill English has been turning mass surveillance tools and big data information against beneficiaries to penalise them and is attempting to remove the poor from the ‘very’ poor so as to justify giving the poor nothing.
He is attempting to redefine what ‘poor’ really means and then claim to only be able to fund the most desperate cases.
What English has in fact created are neoliberal welfare state agencies that are more aggressive than a Police Dog on meth. The beneficiaries are terrified of talking to any government agency now because that information goes to everyone and suddenly the beneficiary who is asking for help from Housing NZ are then facing a bill from WINZ for a relationship they didn’t disclose.
The array of information sharing and data use has alienated the poor and it’s being used to punish those who do ask for help.
It’s sad that the abuse of those on the bottom isn’t even worth of the same volume as the concerns of merely suggesting a change with Super.
Any incoming Government must make reform of the neoliberal welfare state a must, and if they can’t force change, then create a break circuit for the poor to be able to avoid them altogether.
The depressing thing today on RNZ, well, one of many things, but anyway, was
a)the lack of comprehension from the ‘youngsters’ about the reality of being old
b)the total lack of compassion and empathy shown by one and all towards anyone else and any other circumstances. The attitude seemed to be, “well I’m healthy, mum dad were healthy, so sure, why not raise the age. Whats wrong with having to do your comfy well paid job into your 70’s??”
Its just a matter of time before we start getting guff like this
…http://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/walmarts-oldest-us-employee-celebrates-103rd-birthday/story?id=32716324
Suncorp New Zealand – owner of Vero, Asteron and half of AA Insurance – has confirmed plans to offshore a number of its back office jobs.An unnamed source who contacted the Herald said at least 70 jobs were going to be disestablished.
Diana Clement Your Money and careers writer for the NZ Herald
Land bankers sitting pretty
1:03 PM Monday Mar 6, 2017
Auckland needs more homes. So why aren’t developers developing?
When demand is high, Economics 101 suggests that developers would be building every house New Zealand needs. The trouble is the risks and roadblocks involved mean that developers’ interests are nowhere near aligned with the wants and needs of politicians and the public.
Yawn,… neo liberalism.
Same old , same old.
And until we get rid of these neo liberal arseholes nothing will ever change. Its that old adage about Insanity: ‘ doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.’ ( Albert Einstein.)
You seriously want change?
Then purge Labour of any remaining neo liberal treasonist’s, then proceed to vote , campaign against and lambaste the National party as if they were a foreign invading army – and give them the same sort of ‘no quarter’ attitude as well.
Then you will see change. Lots of it.
For this government, for Bill English, and sadly for many MSM conditioned members of the public, beneficiaries are lesser beings, not worthy much attention. Hence the wide spread indifference, and hence the government gets away with treating them with contempt and in draconian ways.
Decency is long gone in New Zealand, only some principled and compassionate people still do care, the rest serve Mammon and themselves, and rather vote for tax cuts for themselves than for fair and liveable benefits.
Any incoming government that cares about people must ensure that one of the most vulnerable groups in society solo mums are better supported by the state. The state should start going after deadbeat dads who don’t pay their child support on time but alas male privilege prevents men from holding other men accountable.
Even better let single parents have relationships and still get the DPB that is mean’t for their KIDS! It should not be about punishing the parent and not allowing them to develop normal relationships for some punitive fucked up 18th century morals!
And they should get it until their kids are 13 years at least!
There’s a reason why we have some drugged up hopeless youth out there, because most of them were not supported appropriately as kids or their families given help and respect they needed, not punished for their family circumstances….
In the old days, people actually used to survive on one income because wages were appropriate, now we have to have 2 parents working to make ends meet..
Yes Now today I visited my doctor for the second time in a year and now he is so rushed off his feet he is a real man under stress now, as I have never seen before.
It seems that the Health bulk funding they get now has been savagely reduced as the case patient load increases, so you Martyn are right when you show the stretched limo with “kill the poor” on it is so true to me and my wife who just turned 72 and 70 respectively and the services for health are so bad now that it is being set up to kill off the elderly & frail like us.
At 54 I had my first heart attack last Thursday fortnight,… thought it was back pain so had it on and off again for a week. I drove myself to my sisters who was a nurse most her life… twice. Im a stroppy number and so my sister… only took charge the second time. The second time ,… the Ambo was called. I was so grateful to those guys . And my older Sis. She sat with me as I ranted and raved and laughed and roared in hospital.
An interesting experience it has been… and being the wild Sasquatch I am… they pumped me full of Morphine that’d knock over the average chap… I alternated between happy and lucid and swearing prolifically , they put a stent in me…
I have never known such exhaustion…
And now I take 5 tablets in the morning and 1 at night.
The breathlessness has gone when I drank some red wine again after abstinence… but there is a strange aggressiveness , I dont know if its psychological or the drugs they give you…
I have stopped roll yer own tobacco and now smoke an e pipe. And soon I will walk regularly to get back my health.
I had a child who died of cancer ( ALL- Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia ) .. I have seen family’s in those wards , wards chock full of little sufferers … I know what goes on there,… year in , year out…
Im happy as I am – barring the anxiety of sudden death and the unknown… and I would prefer rather than being cremated or buried ,… to get to the Australian outback and let the dingoes quietly take care of the remains in the middle of nowhere.
The former leaves me cold… the latter is … in accordance with my worldview…
Which is all very good for me… but to all these people who are growing older, and are in loving relationships… and who have led active , physical lives ( as I have ) … whose bodies will not cope with another two years of working… they deserve respect and in fact , nurturing by the state.
I am only 54… I am not yet 70 ,… and this heart attack has driven home even moreso the differences between us, the strength of so many over the age of 60 who still work…
This … raising of the super another 2 years is an obscenity and an insult to those older… and that this Bill English ,… needs to do some concrete pouring in the summer heat for 4 months consecutively to learn some humility and manners.
He needs to be seen to develop callouses on his hands , and to have to go to bed early exhausted with an aching back before he dares to open his mouth again…
As for me… ‘ you’ll never take me alive , said he’… but for the tens of thousands of Kiwis who remain behind… who will suffer because of this English charlatan… this aging buccaneer says he believes Mr Little can do it… if he pursues values and morality over political expediency , ethics and compassion over self and the doctrine of self, … timeless values that never go out of fashion.
I would so love to see a confident, positive and strong New Zealand again , where elder folk were valued , not marginalized, where women could choose if they wanted to ,to be and feel pride at being mothers , where men would feel secure that the work of their hands was as important as the supervisor who worked with the pen…
In short – the demise and destruction of the values of the neo liberal disease.
That abusive , deranged ideology of the 1% .
It has NO place in a modern , advanced and caring society and in fact is a retrospective and glaring impediment to the advancement of the human species as a whole.
Glad to hear you survived you heart attack Wild Katipo.
Take it easy but take it (the red wine that is).
Unfortunately its not neo-liberalism but capitalism itself that is the cause of our woes.
The huge advances in labour productivity in the 20th century can allow all of us to reduce our work hours to 20 a week and retire at 40 on a living wage.
But the share of labour has gone way down compared to the share of capital over that period (not just the ‘neo-liberal’ counter-revolution)so we are told that “we” cannot afford to live with dignity as any kind of social beneficiary.
“Share” is a misnomer since all the wealth is created by workers and none by owners. Also the meaning of “we” is bullshit.
“We” are not “we” but “us”, the big working majority and “them” the tiny minority.
The massive growing gap between the top 1% and the bottom 80% Picketty et al go on about is symptomatic of this.
The 80% needs to wake up and demand to be paid their accumulated “back wages” to support them while out of work (no fault of their own) unable to work, or in their retirement, hat tip to ARD Fairburn, ‘Dominion’.
When predictably the bosses’ refuse to stop exploiting workers, because they can’t without going bankrupt, we need to organise and take it back.
Expropriation is the name of the game.
For workers to live capitalism must die.
Claire Trevett: Winston Peters was right all along
7:21 PM Monday Mar 6, 2017
‘ Labour had campaigned for two elections on raising the age to 67, but Labour leader Andrew Little took it off the books the minute he got the job. The reason was that it was clear Labour could not win an election with such a policy.’
‘The question English will now be pondering is whether he can win an election with it.’
And here is the strategic ploy of English as Trevett sees it :
” It certainly showed a certain amount of intestinal fortitude to even broach it, although English has taken care to make it so far into the never never that it will not impact on the older vote-rich end of the population.
But it may end up delivering him a fourth term simply by its ability to disappear.
He now has something to trade away to get Peters’ support. ”
————————————-
What this whole thing is,… is a deliberate pitch to NZ First.
English is shaky,… and he sees Nationals demise unless he secures a strong confidence and supply partner… in NZ First.
Peters knows this , … and, … would probably want to edge out the Maori party and also Mana,…we could almost assume these will be the bargaining chips used…
Thus we see,… this could be the penultimate demise of National even if they won a historic 4th election… and this would also be Peters finest hour… for as we all know…
”Revenge is a dish best served cold”…
Even if it was 3 decades in the making…
Not only do Maori have poor health outcomes they also die younger. Many do not live long enough to enjoy any form of Superannuation.
The wealthy and privileged have better and early access to health facilities through health insurance and as a result live longer, a lot longer. They enjoy the full advantage of Superannuation.
Another glaring example of the poor subsidising the wealthy.
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