While Jacinda is in Britain trying to suggest a free trade deal with NZ will somehow make the cluster fuck of Brexit somehow easier for Theresa May, the latest inequality numbers are out and they show a society horribly distorted by wealth…
Oxfam report says inequality is deepening
The two richest people in New Zealand – Graeme Hart and Richard Chandler – increased their wealth by over $1 billion in the 2017-2018 financial year, a new Oxfam International report says, but the poorest 50 per cent became poorer still.The richest 5 per cent of the population now owns more put together than the poorest 90 per cent.
…these numbers come on the heels of other figures showing that need, poverty and housing are all still at crisis levels.
The truth is Jacinda inherited a neoliberal structure that is built to punish the poor and benefit property owners. Her politics of kindness simply won’t be enough to make real change for those people, for that she needs actual structural reform.
She has plenty of good ideas and she has plenty of good advice, but the real crunch will be in ramming these proposals through a public service that is neoliberal and the vested interests of those who have benefitted from the rigged casino.
If real reform is to happen, it will need to be championed and rammed through by Winston Peters because to successfully make these changes will require breaking noses and punching jaws.
Those on the bottom can’t wait for the politics of kindness to slowly change things, they need a romper stomper who is prepared to spend the political capital they have built over a life time to ensure they get a real chance in NZ, not just a pretend one.
The yellow Vests of France have some good ideas that N.Z. should adopt.
In order for The few to have much more, the many have to be content with much less, Are you Happy?
Not true, “The truth is Jacinda inherited a neoliberal structure that is built to punish the poor and benefit property owners.”
…not true anymore based on statistics that show the poorest growing group is Pakeha families with mortgages and on wages…
From Brian Easton…
“Shortly after, I discovered that measured poverty in the country was dominated by children and their parents. This was a revolutionary finding at the time and it took only four decades for it to become the conventional wisdom. Even today, you will find people who focus their poverty discussions on beneficiaries, ethnic minorities, single-parent households, and those in rental accommodation. The research evidence points to the most common household in poverty is a Pakeha couple with children living in their own house (with a mortgage) and being dependent upon wages.”
https://www.pundit.co.nz/content/invisible-children
Maybe time to change the record a bit with real research from left wing commentators spreading incorrect information who is benefiting from the neoliberal structures and it’s not all property owners….
Home owners seem to be a popular target and the politics of envy is a wonderful thing, to help distract from the .01% neoliberals who are really making the money and behind NZ Rogernomics and neoliberalism.
Don’t push an in/out/divide discourse that keeps Labour Rogernomics going and helps the right and woke lefties who hate everyone but themselves, to keep the spot light off the .01%, most of whom are not tax domiciled in NZ when they make the real money here while the local’s on the take pocket their political donations, say mum and keep their job and bonuses in MSM, treasury and the like and look forward to the sweet post political deals as the local representative on the boards of the neoliberal companies!
One very very simple thing could be done. Jacinda should instruct the public service that they are there to serve the public. She should insist benefit rates and rules be published and staff make these easy to access. Those Nzers unfortunate enough to need state support should no longer be made to feel like social lepers.
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