Two stories on the RNZ site caught my eye this morning. One on privatising managed isolation to grease the immigration wheels for wealthy overseas people to come to NZ, and another where John Key, speaking at a crisis summit with Mayor Phil Goff and Rob Fyfe, promoted the idea of ‘expanding quarantine facilities to make the most of New Zealand’s Covid-19 free status’, while also letting in “the right people” to keep New Zealand’s economy afloat.’
So.. if you’ve got lots and lots of money then you are one of the ‘right ‘ people to enter our country and local ‘entrepreneurs’ are rubbing their hands at the prospect of making money by marketing our Covid-19 free status to wealthy overseas migrants and visitors.
You’ve got to and it to these neoliberals they know how to identify a market and make a buck.
Meanwhile I spoke with a man just yesterday – a New Zealander – married to his wife of 30 years who is struggling to be reunited with her because she is currently in the UK and holds a British passport .
And he’s not alone facing this problem . A quick Google I did this morning brought up a number of recent heartbeaking stories of Kiwi families separated by Covid -19 – husbands, wives and children separated who cannot get the paperwork through immigration to be reunited.
It really is time we not only got out our moral compass to figure out where we stand as a nation but also smartened up to the truth behind the relationship between immigration and the growth of our economy because the evidence is clear.
Contrary to what we have been led to believe it’s not the extremely wealthy migrant who, in the long term, contributes most to our economy but ordinary folk who come here to work hard and build a life for themselves and their families.
That’s why Australia and the UK have reviewed their “Golden Visa” policies by means of which a wealthy migrant can buy their way into their countries . But we haven’t . If you are an overseas person with $10 million to’ invest’ you can still buy residency in Aotearoa.
Check it out for yourself.
The research is clear. Hard working migrants contribute enormously to our economy. Wealthy migrants who put their money into government bonds and do not start businesses – contribute very little.
Britain and the UK have learned that lesson and have stopped their golden visa schemes – it’s high time we did too.
Why?
Because trickle up works. Not trickle down.
I explain more of this in the later part of my documentary Who Owns New Zealand Now? which you can find here:
Bryan Bruce is one of NZs most respected documentary makers and public intellectuals who has tirelessly exposed NZs neoliberal economic settings as the main cause for social issues.
Thank you Bryan, for your ongoing efforts to expose the corrupt, inefficient and counterproductive nature of the system, and put the spotlight on the self-serving liars like John Key, who have gamed the system in every way possible for most of their lives and still attempt to do so.
The destruction such sociopaths wreak on the nation is incalculable, and the effect of their activities on the environment is nothing short of horrific.
Sadly, as we all know, the propaganda systems organisations such as the National Party use are still successful to some extent, so the sociopaths and money-grubbers continue to use them.
The good news is, the system is in terminal collapse -largely as a consequence of the activities of people like John Key and those who preceded him.
The bad news is, most people in NZ are still totally unprepared for what is to come later in the year, even as the tallies and tolls of fraud, incompetence and plain stupidity mount by the day.
Let’s face it, people like Key would be unconcerned if 3,000 tonnes of explosive were stored close to a large population centre and if several large bags fireworks were stored close by. As long as he saw the opportunity to do a deal I’m sure Shonkey (and those like him -Goff, Fyfe etc.) would be ‘very comfortable’.
I think you are right there Bryan. For 180 years this country has been living a lie which has grown and been more widely propagated with each passing decade. In the middle of last century New Zealanders were told how much better off they are under the rule of colonial capitalism, where any working family could have their own house and their own farm, when compared to those living under socialism, where the women were sent out to work in industry, children committed to day care institutions, no ordinary person could own a farm or home, and a vast propaganda machine existed to persuade people that they were living in the best of all possible worlds. In other words, the regime has delivered what it promised to save us from.
Now it has the effrontery to come up with new promises and new lies. It is a fraud to suggest that a greater number of wealthy expatriates will make New Zealand a better place to live. It is similarly fraudulent to argue that wealthy New Zealanders are vital to the future well being of their less privileged compatriots.
Rather, ordinary New Zealanders – indeed the very poorest – are key to the salvation of our peoples. When they rise with one voice to say “Enough is enough”, the regime will be destroyed. Not one or another part of it, but the entire regime. The land will be reclaimed. In full.
Outrageous, absolutely outrageous. When one watches that documentary and see’s it all plainly laid out,… Yet here we are standing on a precipice looking down, and still nothings being done.
And yet the simple idea and example of a govt lending against its assets to ensure people are housed with stable community’s has all been done before , – SUCCESSFULLY. And yet we’ve had 36 years and counting of successive govt’s in a blind rush to sell off as many assets as they can. And along with that, essentially ensuring the privatization of the housing stock and leaving it to privateers whose only bottom line is profit.
So now we can see why 4 Australian banks have been taking out 6 billion dollars that should of been circulating in our economy per annum. Deregulation of the NZ banking industry. Whereby the NZ Post was the first to go.
And then of course online buying of real estate. The unseen factor, which of course suits those so inclined to ramp up prices with zero regard for social planning simply because they don’t live here, have no concern for our economy let alone who we are as a people. To which neo liberal govt’s don’t like to disclose too much on that score because it may , well,…make the chickens restless…
And on top of all that and the buying of residential property we had cumbersome laws regarding large acreages of land used for farming being sold to foreign investors…
A definition of genocide also includes taking the land and its economic potential from those who live on it and who have historically dwelt there. The Maori people know this all too well…and now its happening to all New Zealanders , and most particularly, our young people.
And despite the pandemic,… the ‘adult conversation’ has been clouded by claims of racism and effectively has the ability to shut down dialogue, aided and abetted by neo liberal govt’s who were unwilling to disseminate data to the public…
The ONLY , and I repeat ONLY solution is to return to basic Keynesian economic principles, to re-nationalize key assets ( at great cost by now unfortunately ) to regulate the finance industry, and for the NZ govt to once again lend money for mortgages for its citizens against its assets. The state is the ONLY body large enough to be able to do that and guarantee that kind of stability.
The profit driven private lending of money is not concerned with the good health and prosperity of citizens, – that is of absolutely no concern to them.
The good govt is precisely the opposite.
In fact , there is a moral and ethical duty for them to do so. In one of Chris Trotters sterling articles , we see the under-girding principle,…
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”The safety of the people shall be the highest law”
– Cicero
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The Safety of the People Shall Be the Highest Law. | The Daily …
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2020/05/08/the-safety-of-the-people-shall-be-the-highest-law/
It is amazing then , that this neo liberal lawlessness has been allowed to run rampant for so long. Even more amazing is successive govt’s refusal to acknowledge it. It is time to vote very seriously for the party’s who are more inclined than most,… to adopt a Keynesian-ism form of governance.
Because that is the way of the future, drawn from the past. And indeed, fulfills Cicero’s maxim,…” The safety of the people shall be the highest law”.
‘The ONLY , and I repeat ONLY solution is to return to basic Keynesian economic principles, to re-nationalize key assets ( at great cost by now unfortunately ) to regulate the finance industry, and for the NZ govt to once again lend money for mortgages for its citizens against its assets.
You are starting to sound like Margaret Thatcher, with TINA and all that.
I suggest you do some research into our environmental predicament instead of ignoring it, and recognise that destruction of the future via Keynesian policies amounts to the same thing as destruction of the future via neoliberal policies.
Far from being the ‘ONLY solution’, what you propose just makes matters worse as far as anything that matters is concerned.
The ONLY sane responses to the overall predicament are Permaculture (low energy input localised food production) and Powerdown (rapid planned reduction in overall energy use until we reach the point we were at prior to the Industrial Revolution).
Since both Permaculture and Powerdown are unacceptable to governments and to the majority of the populace, both will be forced on the unwilling fairly soon after the present system goes down, which I believe, on the basis of the evidence, will be before the end of this year.
No, I certainly don’t need to proceed along the lines of any ‘far out’ theories that have no grounds in reality. I have heard many of them, and most seem like pie in the sky.
Keynesian-ism is still the most viable, practical methods available.
To your chagrin or not.
You can still have your permaculture ( BTW – I do hold qualifications in horticulture ) so can understand your lingo quite plainly.
But that is only a small sub set of fields to be covered in a national / global economy.
‘No, I certainly don’t need to proceed along the lines of any ‘far out’ theories that have no grounds in reality. I have heard many of them, and most seem like pie in the sky.’
I really have no idea what you are trying to say there.
Debate has to be based on fact (data) and policy has to take into account that data to be worthy of discussion.
The fact is, the Earth is undergoing ultra-fast meltdown, unprecedented in its geological history, as a direct consequence of too many people burning too much fossil fuel for too long.
Whether the meltdown has reached the self-reinforcing stage is unclear because the rate exceeds anything there is data for, such as the Permian Mass Extinction Event of 252 million years ago, which took place over thousands of years as the Siberian Traps formed.
We do know that atmospheric CO2 is currently around 415 ppm, which is 185 ppm above the 800,000-year average and 135 ppm above the pre-industrial level. And next May (2021) will be around 420 ppm.
‘Keynesian-ism is still the most viable, practical methods available.
To your chagrin or not.’
Yours is a completely unsubstantiated claim which contradicts well established scientific fact, and is therefore nonsense, utter rubbish really.
To your chagrin or not. But definitely to the detriment of every human and practically every non-human organism on the planet.
https://scripps.ucsd.edu/programs/keelingcurve/wp-content/plugins/sio-bluemoon/graphs/co2_800k.png
WK
Your faith in a Keynesian driven economy can only be a valid view if you have just a short term aim to more of the same or as is often described as BAU.
The Human economy at subsistence level is far from BAU.
Yes we must loose our cars and houses along with asphalt roads and concrete edifices built to continue and even grow our destruction of the planet and the future of a civilisation that is driven by ignorance.
Permaculture is not a matter of just soil health and propagation of healthier foods but a wider perspective that you no doubt have not covered in a horticultural sojourn, is linked with using far less or the Non Renewable Natural Resources that have been thrashed by horticulture. It also involves progressive reduction of the use of oil derived energy and so a move away from industrial cropping, mono-cropping and complex mechanisation such as tractors as we know them.
The social aspect of permaculture where small communities produce food together so specialisation of skills makes food production more efficient.
To go much wider than just permaculture as a possible aid to feed humans, the whole infrastucture we have created just cannot go on expanding and in the longer run we will not be able to maintain what is existing. The resources will just not be available.
I don’t know what your background is but obviously you are sincere in looking ahead and in your rejection of the present politico-economic mess, and I hope where it is heading.
But there is a much bigger picture that obliterates the notion of tinkering and carrying on the way we are at present.
AFKTT is promoting the idea that we have to powerdown and that is a fairly good description of where we are heading.
Human starvation ahead looks to be about 100 million a year initially but as resources further diminish that is very likely to increase for a period. Some of that toll will be accounted for in a drop in life expectancy, infant mortality and diseases we loose out healthcare systems.
The point of presenting the scenario is that the longer we carry on with BAU ( Keynesian or not) the worse it will get and the harder it will be for any future generations and human survival in many parts of the world.
I think we need to urgently talk about human population reduction as much as we need to reduce our dairy herds.
The “economy” is what we make it as it is not a formula for living but a consequence of how we manage to create a better future prospect than what lies ahead now. System change is needed and will happen as we progress into the collapse of aspect of the present system.
In your later reply to AFKTT you make a statement .
“Yours is a completely unsubstantiated claim which contradicts well established scientific fact, and is therefore nonsense, utter rubbish really.”
Have you heard that the world is finite and the total Non Renewable Natural Resources available at say 1800 have been consumed at an increasing rate so today we have used over two thirds that earlier store.
Climate is but one aspect of changes that have been accompanying human population expansion and increased energy harvesting.
The graph in your link offered suggest and element of denial.
Sure the CO2 content of the atmosphere has varied over time and so the reasons why that happened and mechanisms causing the slow changes, need to be understood along with the rate of changes now happening.
The nonsense is the dismissal of the finite planet.
Cicero was a patrician who was violently opposed to the plebeian campaign for a Roman republic built on the rule of law. His saying that “the safety of the people is the highest law” was taken as a license for the governing power to violate any law which stood in the way of its political objectives.
Chris Trotter resurrected this fascist slogan in the context of the Covid-19 crisis. That was, in my view, a serious error of political judgement. It is still worse for those on the left to continue to promote such a pernicious doctrine once the immediate crisis has passed.
I agree WK
I think in all probability that New Zealand society since WW2 and up until 1984 was the fairest and healthiest society that has ever existed on earth. The mix of natural monopolies run by the state was as it should be in regard to the natural resources that were utilised and the services that are required equally by everyone.
It may come about that the opportunity will present itself ti recover some of it if the collapse that AFKTT foresees takes place. The owners of these things may well need to cash up and a “transformative” government could simply print the money to pay for them.
Those who count “capitalism”as a failure , rather than neoliberalism as a failed form of capitalism need to first define just what they understand capitalism to mean and explain exactly what they have in mind to replace it with. It’s generally considered that capitalism replaced feudalism that was around for a thousand years or so until the industrial revolution. that makes the definition pretty broad. Do they want to return to feudalism ? Or is the idea a centrally planned society where an unelected controlling elite tell everyone else where they are to live and what work they are to do and what standard of living they may enjoy. It would have to be an unelected elite because it would never be voted in so we are talking about a military dictatorship as in the old soviet union and Maoist China.
for my part I think of capitalism as a system where people choose what to make of their own lives and society’s needs are met by people taking the opportunities that present themselves commercially. But there have to be rules that prevent monopoly and look after resources .
The argument about whether the CO2 we are producing is going to destroy the planet is somewhat moot, because the stuff is going to run out before we get to find out. So an alternative to fossil fuel is going to be needed very soon if society and the present let alone increasing population is to remain at the present standard of living. Although what constitutes a living standard needs as much definition as capitalism cause it isn’t necessarily the same as a standard of consumption.
D J S
David the present average standard of living in the world is far below what we have had in NZ.
The world population could not live as we do as there are limited resources available and they are getting less each day. Population rises each day and the only country addressing its population rise is China whose population will peak before long and then reduce.
To achieve feeding the worlds population , soil, water and energy are needed. We are going to run out of all three before long.
Fossil fuel that is in quantities that are know, just cannot be burnt without runaway temperature rise. We probably have already burnt more than what it takes to trigger runaway. There is evidence that runaway is happening now.
Any alternative to fossil fuel you mentioned just will not provide energy for our continued trashing of the planet the way we are.
PV panels rely on materials that are in limited supply and take energy to mine as well as manufacture and transport the panels. Then they need replacing in two or three decades.
Wind turbines take a lot of resource to manufacture and a lot of energy to produce the metal from ore as well as the built infrastructure needed to make the machinery that is needed for manufacture.
Transportation, housing, food for the workers and so on all adds up to being energy intensive and using of shrinking resources. Pollution is created in proportion the consumption of resources.
Then everything needs replacing at some point.
Nuclear energy is the most expensive devised as the waste products are dangerous and there is no way to deal with them realistically.
When there were under 2 billion people living as they did pre say 1750, there was a chance that the energy harvested from organically constructed windmills, the use of beast of burden and transportation with sailing ships: could have continued for a prolonged period.
But burning wood was limiting which slowed the rate of increasing energy harvesting.
Then coal came long for a small group based in Europe.
Mechanisation of traditional cropping led to a greater food supply and increase in human population.
From then humans have been able to ravage and process natural resources leading to further demand for energy and resources as population increased.
And so on until we have 7+ billion which is an overshoot of at least 5+ billion.
https://waterqualitynz.info/2019/11/10/limits-to-growth-youtube-talk/
“Wealthy migrants who put their money into government bonds and do not start businesses – contribute very little.”
But they enable us to be serfs in our own country.
These are the new colonialists invisible before eyes which are blinkered by past injustices, and unable to see outside the ToW framework, while the wealthy newcomers’ insulated lives are in no way affected by the hates of the all-white-people-are-bad brigade reluctant to accept that we are all in this together.
Ardern said at the time of the tragic Muslim massacres that we’re all in this together, but there was no way that screwed-up haters would, or could accept this, and thus for those with the wherewithal to buy privilege, it’s business as usual, undisturbed by the proles.
I have one middle-aged offspring, a severe asthmatic domiciled in lockdown in a highly impacted cv area of the UK, who I know I may never see again. I cry about this.
The golden visa prioritizing advocated by John Key is John Key catapulting us back to Old Testament times with the Jewish people worshipping the Golden Calf. With god dead, we have to start looking out for each other- or choose further servitude.
Firm believer in bringing our people back home if they so desire… like the American Marines adage ”we leave no one behind”… courageous. Lets bring our New Zealanders home. Keep your hope high, and lets bring that man back home if he desires it. For this mothers sake.
Bob Marley Exodus Babylon By Bus lyrics
https://youtu.be/9e9iqvyFRrI?t=180
I am not sure how the golden calf with about 3000 men being killed (Ex 32:24, 27-28) is relevant to the article apart from sharing the gold name although you make valid points about the obvious character flaws likely to be introduced if visas can be purchased. I would also inform you that God is not dead.
Yes I would agree God is not dead. Far from it. It was a popular phrase of the 1970’s. It always offended me, – because it gave license to all manner of licentiousness and skulduggery. And apart from which , – quantum physics seems to disprove that conveniently naive proposition.
Which seems the opposite of true science.
I wonder why….. NOT!
However, true science is void apart from the intermarriage of Newtonian science and quantum physics.
It is here that we can perceive the stubborn yet solid christian beliefs of axe heads floating on water, of a risen savior eating , drinking, and walking through walls and cooking meals for his disciples on the beach,… all of which I believe in.
As for those nominal christian cowards who veer towards apologetic’s,… who try to mix secular views with scriptural ones,…and end up worse off,… my heart goes out to them.
And I know I am right.
I declare it.
🙂
WK
I appreciate you point of view and your belief system but lets get science right.
The scientific principle or process is to collect as much information as possible about an event or observation, then formulate a hypothesis that creates a new explanation or discovery from that process.
THEN a scientist will endevour to test that new information and replicate the observed event and keep testing until the hypotheses is shown to be flawed or dis-proven. Then a new hypotheses is formulated taking that into account and so the process continues.
Dis proof is a popular term that has many traps in the concept.
“As for those nominal christian cowards who veer towards apologetic’s,… who try to mix secular views with scriptural ones,…and end up worse off,… my heart goes out to them.
And I know I am right.
I declare it.”
So you condemn what those who deviate from your selected beliefs because as you say you are right and declare it.
I am suprised indeed at your stated omnipotence.
Secular views have been around for much longer than primitive superstition which have morphed into dozens of belief systems if not thousands.
Einstein and hundreds of scientists have open mindedly made significant advances in humankind’s store of knowedge and understanding including the psychology surrounding belief systems and how humans become committed to many traditional and recent cults and authoritarian organisations we have in society. Each one of those tell their flock what to think and most discourage questioning.
Science questions everything so is a healthier approach even if misunderstood by many.
“That’s why Australia and the UK have reviewed their “Golden Visa” policies by means of which a wealthy migrant can buy their way into their countries . But we haven’t . If you are an overseas person with $10 million to’ invest’ you can still buy residency in Aotearoa.
Check it out for yourself.”
This page seems to have mysteriously vanished from NZ Migration Help’s website. I wonder why?
Gary Lin.
“Contrary to what we have been led to believe it’s not the extremely wealthy migrant who, in the long term, contributes most to our economy but ordinary folk who come here to work hard and build a life for themselves and their families.”
The people who really excel at this are refugees. That’s who we should be taking in. They are hard workers who are very grateful to the country that takes them in, and desperate to turn their lives around after being destitute. They are net income earners for the country that takes them in and offers them a chance.
Rosa I agree that some are.
But so are most young Kiwis who need a chance.
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