ACCORDING TO PEOPLE “in the know”, Labour is awash with more cash than its seen in a very long time. Apparently, Jacinda Ardern’s handling of the Covid-19 crisis didn’t just net her party an unprecedented number of votes, it brought in tons of funds. While this happy situation endures, Labour is said to be polling and focus-grouping like there’s no tomorrow. The PM doesn’t just have her finger on the pulse of the nation, she’s reading its ECGs.
This insight – if that is what it is – goes a long way towards explaining what a great many journalists and commentators have found immensely perplexing. Why, with an absolute majority in the House of Representatives, is this government so reluctant to use it for anything other than legislatively facilitating Maori wards, and (apparently) making it easier to convict men accused of rape? Why, with inequality increasing, and the housing crisis becoming more acute with every passing week, have Jacinda and her Cabinet stubbornly refused to direct anything more substantial than pious rhetoric at either issue?
Towards the end of last year, for example, the government found itself on the receiving end of a growing cacophony of calls for action on the housing front. Those calls came from across the political spectrum. On TVNZ One’s Q+A show, Laila Harré on the left, and Fran O’Sullivan on the right, were united in their demand for action. The push came from employers, unions, churches and NGOs. National and Act swelled the chorus. It was as near to a show of public political unanimity as New Zealand had seen in decades.
Twenty years ago, the political pressure generated by such a powerful display of public concern would have been irresistible. Indeed, liberal-democratic theory holds that no government can resist such pressure without registering a significant fall-off in popular support. Was Jacinda moved? Was Grant Robertson? Not one bit. The rhetoric of Labour leaders’ may have edged up slightly on the piety scale. Jacinda’s look of concern may have grown even more compelling. But, nothing was done.
What on earth had happened to the “politics of kindness”? Why was Labour being so bloody-minded – not to mention so bloody mean? Why, when everybody was saying “Yes please!”, was the Labour Government saying “No thank you!”
The answer, of course, is because “everybody” wasn’t saying it. Thanks to their polling agency and the participants in its focus-groups, the Labour leadership possesses a great deal more information about the Kiwis clamouring for action on the housing front than journalists and lobbyists.
Confronted with a simple “Are you concerned about the lack of affordable housing?”, most New Zealanders will respond in the affirmative. But, ask them whether they favour addressing the housing problem by means of a Capital Gains Tax, and their agreement will evaporate instantly, like spilt beer on the barbie.
Allow a randomly selected group of focus-group participants to range widely over the big issues of the day, and the comments and expressions captured by the organisers’ microphones and cameras will reveal just how divided our society has become. Between rich Kiwis and poor Kiwis; Boomers and Millennials; people of colour and the white majority: the chances are high these recordings will confirm that, in the New Zealand of 2021, unanimity is in very short supply.
Just how dispiriting this must be for Labour’s new MPs is readily imagined. Fresh from mixing with family and friends over the Christmas break they will roll up to their first big caucus meeting of the year brim-full of the opinions and criticisms they have been given. How hard it must be for them to discover that what they have been told in no way reflects what is actually happening out there in the electorate.
Among the sort of folk who know and like Labour MPs, the level of concern for the homeless, renters, and first home buyers, is unquestionably real and urgent. The same is probably true of the mostly young journalists writing and broadcasting about these issues. They, however, are not the only people with concerns; attitudes; and (most importantly) interests. What Labour’s new MPs think they know; and the knowledge which Labour’s pollsters have gleaned from the hard data of their surveys; are unlikely to be all that similar.
The New Zealand middle-class, like its counterparts in other western societies, will defend its advantages tenaciously. Sitting back and allowing the government to appropriate and redistribute its wealth – especially among those it dismisses as the “undeserving poor” – is not an option it is likely to greet with the slightest degree of enthusiasm.
Just how unenthusiastically such notions are received soon becomes very clear to those tasked with watching and listening to the reactions of focus-groups. These can be hair-raisingly racist and sexist – more than enough to demoralise even the most idealistic supporters of the Labour and Green parties. That such brutal prejudices against the poor and marginalised are often reiterated with even greater vehemence by upwardly-mobile members of the working-class, makes them no easier to hear!
Their vested interests and shared prejudices notwithstanding, these two groups nevertheless contributed enormously to Labour’s electoral success in 2020. Keeping them on-side is, therefore, this government’s No. 1 political priority. It explains the PM’s point-blank refusal to countenance anything other than a general flattening of New Zealand property prices. Certainly, no policy measure threatening to weaken the “wealth effect” produced by inflated house prices will be countenanced. The good-will of the fortunate 15 percent of voters who shifted from National to Labour at last year’s general election must, at all costs, be retained.
Less clear, is whether Labour’s willingness to embrace the “woke” agenda represents a similar reflection of the data emerging from its opinion surveys and focus-groups. In return for the government leaving their wealth intact, have the middle- and upwardly-mobile working-classes suddenly become willing to tolerate the Labour-Green agenda on race, gender and sexuality? Are we looking at yet another of the Faustian pacts entered into by the Baby Boom generation? Something along the lines of: “You let us enjoy our tax-free capital gains, and we’ll tolerate your cultural revolution.”
Or, is it, rather, a case of not asking the sort of questions that could lead to the cancellation of a pollster’s contract. Requiring progressive MPs earning in excess of $140,000 p.a. to accept a moratorium on tax hikes is one thing. Asking them to tolerate the racism, sexism and homophobia of the voters who placed them on the Treasury benches is another.
There are some answers a political party is better off not hearing.
I think you are right Chris. And there is so much disarray around the world, and so many speculative bubbles, Jacinda is probably frightened to do anything* -other than oversee border control- in case it rebounds on her.
Maybe she is not as uninformed and stupid as she appears in public, and maybe she actually knows the Greatest Bubble Of All Time has been blown by central banks here and overseas, and that the bubbles will burst soon, which she then thinks negates any need for proactive policies by the NZ government right now. In the meantime,rRearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic gives the passengers a sense of well-being, and the reassurance that all is well when it isn’t. Because you know it[s all gone completely crazy when Bitcoin surpasses 50,000 and people are guessing whether it will break through 100,000 or return to its actual value, which is, of course, zilch. Nothing. Zero.
It’s a FOMA (Fear Of Missing Out) world out there now. That includes the fear of missing out on a coronavirus vaccine jab. And when it comes to the financial markets, even the Roaring Twenties (when people borrowed money to buy shares) doesn’t compare with the FOMA of today.
‘GBOAT: Is This the Greatest Bubble of All Time?
February 16, 2021
The lifestyle you ordered in the euphoria will be out of stock in the panic.’
https://www.oftwominds.com/blogfeb21/GBOAT2-21.html
As for
‘There are some answers a political party is better off not hearing.’
Is the financial system a Ponzi scheme. YES
Are financial markets in hyper-overvaluation come-massive-speculation territory? YES
Is the global environment collapsing? YES
Is the world grossly overpopulated? YES
Are we in the midst of the Sixth Great Extinction Event? YES
Has extraction of conventional oil peaked? YES
Can the world run on ‘renewables’? NO
Do current economic-political arrangements have a future? NO
* She has agreed to removal of the last NZ forces from Afghanistan, the longest war in modern history, after 20 years of futility.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/17/new-zealand-to-pull-last-troops-out-of-afghanistan
As long as they keep printing money AFKTT , I don’t quite see how the bubble is going to burst. At least not in the same way as before QE. If as soon as a slide sets in more money is printed to fill the shortfall and fed into the market under pressure I think the inevitable disfunction will look more like an extreem form of hyper-inflation.
Eventually it is going to “trickle down” to the price of things in the real economy apart from rent which is already being effected .
Already the cost of living is rising faster than benefits, but that only effects the poor. The rich might not be disadvantaged by any natural development while QE continues .
Bitcoin might be as sound a currency as any other . There’s a finite mineable quantity of it. Unlike any other.
In previous periods of depression money and credit have been restricted. Flooding the economy with cash and credit is a relatively new idea. I don’t think we can know how it is going to end. Partly because it will depend on what the powers that be do to try to manage it.
D J S
You’re clearly an alarmist of the greatest sort, the entire AGW premise is the greatest scam ever perpetuated upon mankind you have swallowed the propaganda whole.
Facts: past 10,000 years were actually hotter for 60% of the time compared to today, previous 500 million years averaged CO2 levels are 800PPM, temperatures aren’t rising by any appreciable amount, sea level rises slow and steady since the 1500’s etc etc. But hey Greta knows….
AGW is your dystopian future dressed in drag
Love the parody!
I Think a CGT at this stage would need to be set at a catastrophic rte to have any effect on the rising house prices. If it were set at the same rate across farms and business premises it would collapse the economy.
What is driving the house price inflation is QE. Money created all over the world as a continuing emergency device in the hope of recovering from a banking crisis that occurred in 2007/8 and has never resolved. Hence ever more money is floating around seeking a secure “home”. And in the hands of most recipients , and especially in the books of the banks, there is no safer “home” than a house.
The labour party is not addressing the escalating house price because it cannot do so without stepping out of line with the whole world’s agreed approach to finance , banking and the money supply.
If it could it would. And the boomers who all have children and grandchildren they care about at least as much as they care about themselves, would be quite happy to see the inflation stop.
IMHO
D J S
“If it could it would”… I agree JA is not addressing the big concerns because that is against the rules. But they should do it anyway. Better to give an example to other countries about treating people fairly. We can feed all our people. Our military are unlikely to stage a coup. So the only risk is invasion like Norway in the tv show “occupied”. That is extremely unlikely and is worth the risk. It will take extreme measures by the govt but it is better than fiddling. Then we could begin to address the environment issues. Addressing inequality and the environment with a reasonable level of success in NZ could provide a “nuclearfree moment” and provide inspiration to other countries.
Agreed. And we may be the only country in the world that could get away with it. And once the ice is broken everyone will follow because the finance system is manifestly dysfunctional ; it is the Emperor without clothes , and it wont be fixed internationally. Every country will have to take back control of their own finance and banking system.
D J S
The economic reality is that doing anything that causes house prices to tank (or even just decelerate!) will bring about economic Armageddon. Our entire economic system is predicated on relentless debt expansion – housing, consumer, government.
And in the virus crisis, this debt expansion has gone to levels that are not even humanly comprehensible.
This is not Capitalism, it is Creditism.
No government LEFT or RIGHT is going to screw with the housing ponzi scheme, it is political suicide.
All ANY OF THEM will do is some theatrical tinkering, a bit of redistribution via welfare maybe to dull the pain for the have nots while they binge watch netflix and get high.
There is always an answer.
If a government said that one year from now, any property not the main residence would be subject to a CGT when sold – and the CG would be assessed on the price originally paid plus inflation, then a very large number of properties would be sold in that year.
If homes in that year could only be sold to first home buyers – first home buyers would do very well.
So whats the point of any of these political parties. This is simply defeatist bullshit.
Yeah, the whole thing about Ponzi schemes is that they blow up eventually sooner or later. Check this out re a dump on a 471 sq m section with no planning permissions for subdivision and no off street parking selling for 2.3 million: https://www.oneroof.co.nz/news/run-down-villa-with-no-off-street-parking-sells-for-223m-38961.
Now, what kind of tulip was that again, Mynheer?
Lack of vision and lack of intelligence with any foresight to understand how that 15% she is vested in “looking after” will erode by the next election. But who else is there to vote for?
You were doing so well until you felt obliged to genuflect to the woke in the last paragraph:
“Asking them to tolerate the racism, sexism and homophobia of the voters who placed them on the Treasury benches is another.”
Well of course Chris, lil ol’ AotearoaCorp just seethes with racism, sexism and homophobia.
I can’t pretend to understand NZ politics as well as you do, but isn’t the problem primarily that Ardern leads a LINO party (Labour In Name Only)? Did you not hear Robbo talking up John Key and Bill English a few months back? https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/09/nz-election-2020-grant-robertson-tells-business-leaders-national-is-risky-and-dangerous-when-it-comes-to-economy.html
“Labour” are a bunch of progressive neoliberals, drawn largely from the professional middle classes (PMC). They’ll jump on any hint of “racism, sexism and homophobia” (which Brendan O’Neill describes as “middle class policing of working class behaviour”) but they’re not going to hurt the economic interests of the PMC that they themselves belong to. They’re happy to throw the white working class under a bus. And possibly the brown working class too – we know the pounamu-laden iwi hierarchies are doing well out of the present set-up, but I’m not sure how much is trickling down to ordinary Maori.
Thanks to the Ministry of Indoctrination, progressive neoliberalism is the now the default setting of most Kiwis born after 1984 – as well as winning plenty of converts among those born before that date. So is it any surprise we elected a progressive neoliberal government?
Positive change will require a courageous and persuasive figure (or group of leaders) who can sell a nation-building project to the electorate. Someone who eloquently emphasizes our common humanity rather than our myriad differences.
Neo-liberalism has been the order of rule since 1984 and was established (Labour caucus 1984-1990) and sustained since by the votes of those born before 1960. They enjoyed the tax cuts (income and end of estate taxation) that equality of opportunity affforded them, rather than the undeserving poor – who have faced a real fall in welfare support across 30 years (1990 till 2020).
There have been exceptions WFF tax cuts – aid targeted to poorer working families. The MW increases of 2005-2008 and again since 2017. The Living Wage, fair wages and hopefully industry awards this term. The recent $25 increase in mainline benefit, the Power Income supplement, the move to increase benefits in line with wage movements, the increase in other income that can be earned before any abatement – food in schools. Unfortunatley there comes the but – if all the income gains are lost in higher rent costs and people are trapped outside of home ownership, will child poverty be reduced at all? And what of the old age poverty in a generations time when all those without homes cannot afford to retire because super will not pay their rent. And how many state houses will need to be built each year just for those who cannot afford market rents while working …
The government needs
1. 40 if not 50% deposits for investors buying up existing property asap
2. to provide 10% grants to first home buyers (need only 10% deposit) repaid when the homes are sold
3. the government provides finance for new home builds (and makes a profit doing so – getting free money from the RB) to ensure increased supply
4. the government encourages the formation of unit trust like rental companies that develop property and then provide long term rentals with dividend returns to investors (the sort who currently own power company shares for the dividend returns) – or just have Kiwi Saver Funds do it.
I haven’t come across LINO before, but it is the perfect descriptor for what many of us have been saying for a very long time. And TINA is still alive kicking, of course.
As for ‘Positive change will require a courageous and persuasive figure (or group of leaders) who can sell a nation-building project to the electorate’: Yes, absolutely! But that won’t come until neoliberalism has delivered total catastrophe on all fronts; at the moment neoliberalism has only delivered disaster on most fronts. 🙂
The point of neoliberalism delivering total catastrophe on all fronts looks likely to occur later this year. 🙁 I’m not entirely ready yet, having relocated just over a year ago. But I’m a lot more ready (both physically and mentally) than most -especially the poor sods born after about 1975, who have virtually no experience of anything other than neoliberal bullshit and rampant consumerism, along with intense indoctrination.
“middle class policing of working class behaviour”
Socialism has always been ethnic/race orientated despite referring to itself as “International” and focused on economic class conflict. When I talk with white NZ men it is the ones outside the technocracy – tradies etc who are resistant to immigration.
“professional middle classes (PMC). They’ll jump on any hint of “racism, sexism and homophobia” but they’re not going to hurt the economic interests of the PMC that they themselves belong to.”
That is why they jump on “racism”. Importing endless immigrants is a massive driver of expanding debt, house prices, consumer activity – especially in the context of a collapsed birthrate and rapidly aging out demographic.. This benefits the PMC with their home, property and share investment portfolio, business interests.
Meanwhile working class white men are shackled with crazy big mortgages in a fabricated NIRP economy, on stagnant wages, and they have a big target painted on their backs for the PMC and Woke crowd.
Neo-liberal since Lange, perhaps? Who needs the Transnational Capital Party when “we” have got Wage Slave Labour? Two sides of the same treasonous, neo-liberal coin.
Jacinda is like one of those people who win 10 million on the Lottery but continue working at a checkout, living in their old semi detached house and upgrade their car to a 2.0 litre Hyundai. So much wasted potential. Why bother taking up a position that could be used by a person who would actually do something with their opportunity. We might as well just have a mannequin as PM. Total fraud. Total failure. Total waste of space.
Agreed, she is a waste of space.
Labour and Greens could start by stopping the mass sell off of our fresh water to be exploited. All around the world aquifers, lakes and rivers that used to be plentiful are drying up. It is CRAZY to be allowing consents for 35 years for water (for very little cost) and natural resources like sand, that are in decline while neighbours are in droughts. Government could repel the ‘first in, first served, approach under urgency like many other rules they create, but can’t be bothered it seems Government don’t think water (or iwi) is important.
Stop the sale of Otakiri Springs to foreign bottling giant Nongfu
https://our.actionstation.org.nz/petitions/stop-the-sale-of-otakiri-springs-to-chinese-bottling-giant-nongfu?bucket=&fbclid=IwAR1JMhKvNVAIcw0TCkiGVIIHByikiTmuZHaSz_dCPg3jGruoC7PlRFR9r2k
Streams in Hawke’s Bay have dried up after being deep enough to swim just one week ago, stoking fears of another drought.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/435391/extreme-drought-fears-in-hawke-s-bay-after-streams-dramatically-dry-up?fbclid=IwAR0Z6UzFYXdcLJqvbU6IqSxNjdAdHxxC_XnuzTIqKEawxG0TlYmK6Lgtq58
Lake Poopó: why Bolivia’s second largest lake disappeared – and how to bring it back
https://theconversation.com/lake-poopo-why-bolivias-second-largest-lake-disappeared-and-how-to-bring-it-back-152776?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=bylinefacebookbutton&fbclid=IwAR0oWf8vwCu47rTUCx1aIQkY8mMY7oD6bsN8klkI0RXTd6LFfHyJMsqOUcM
Climate change is hitting the Colorado River ‘incredibly fast and incredibly hard’
https://www.azcentral.com/in-depth/news/local/arizona-environment/2021/01/01/colorado-rivers-headwaters-climate-change-drives-efforts-adapt/6461183002/?fbclid=IwAR2y5HMHQvjQzX4S1A6xFVWsrZqdHBU3WD1Y_FEcnHuKr8RzArEAe2K0YoM
Talk about precious water. Heard I guy call in the radio. He put in two underground tanks total 50,000 litres. No council connection wanted or required – off the grid and self-sufficient. Well, the council still charges him water connection fees! Insane – there we want to capture resources to ease the burden but we get punished for our efforts. Why? 1. Councils have too much power over that stuff. That’s where Jacinda could make a big change but she already woked out by saying that councils are untouchable. Bullshit! They are not. 2. Councils require too much revenue to run…they have too mnay high earners and push too much paperwork. Another area where Jacinda could make a big difference. But it will never ever happen under her. It means she would have to actually do something.
I think you need to become an MP, you have all the answers whilst disrespecting others, can I suggest National or ACT and call yourself Seemorecollinsdust.
Jacinda’s Govt’ cares a lot more about re-election than it does about the homeless and poverty in general.
This is at the core of all the inaction. Labour is just as treasonous as National was and actually worse because of all the Jacinda promises while campaigning for a 2nd term.
New Zealand is full, if you want to come here, citizen or not, you must prove you have somewhere permanent to live before you get an entry permit. The call for a CGT, can someone explain how that is going to increase the housing stock, or decrease the demand
CGT would bring in a large amount of revenue to a cash strapped government . In turn this money could be used to build houses and there maybe surplus to increase benefits. By inclination I am a National voter and do not normally favour increase in taxes but this virus has tilled the playing field and the government needs to take a look at a change of policy
Rubbish! Not large amounts, just some amounts. CGT is only realised when transactions happen. Property investors will simply not sell as much as they used to and just collect rent forever.
Doesn’t matter how you dress or tax it mate – more houses means more supply means cheaper housing. It’s too damn hard to build cheap houses in this country. And there you have the real problem. There are more clipboard working in Wellington than there are builders and tradies in the whole country. If Jacinda wants a legacy, she should quickly go about making it easy and cheap to build. “Oh yeah, I remember, Jacinda wasn’t that the PM that brought the cost of building down by 50%”….would sound good eh?
Yes I reckon I can supply all the wood, floor, timber lining etc for a 4 brm house for about $50 000. The rest is land consents , labour and fittings.
If building a house was significantly cheeper than buying an old one the price would soon be reflected in replacement cost. For existing stock to be inflating as it is so must be the cost of construction. And that is not the cost of the basic materials. It’s mostly the cost of land and consents.
D J S
David, your estimations are completely out. Even a tiny house (no land, no consents and only 20m2) is costing over $100k to buy!
The new builds are driving up the costs because developers build and charge for example $800k for a 2 bedroom in Auckland on a tiny piece of land and then the surrounding old housing with 3 beds + are driven up on larger land plots. As Kiwis can’t afford this, the developers then lobby the eager government to make them available to foreign investors to buy and people from Singapore and OZ and companies can buy in NZ just like Kiwi’s with zero restrictions. Then put Granny or the kids in there and it’s occupied.
10 years ago you could buy a 3 bed house with commuting distance to Auckland for $250k and a studio apartment in Auckland city was under $200k. As soon as government started the mass immigration while turning a blind eye to extensive foreign money laundering (https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/business/chinese-canadian-mogul-edward-gong-used-auckland-mother-and-sons-finance-firm-to-hide-53m/ https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/william-yan-aka-bill-liu-to-keep-nz-citizenship-despite-money-laundering-conviction/YMYXI6UP6MG6UTYBNQO2SLRGJE/ https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/115157974/woman-discharged-without-conviction-for-laundering-money-for-international-drug-ring) and all the new build Rogernomics developments sprang up as Ponzi’s, it drove up all the house prices.
The council zoning changes are driving up the land prices not lowering them because a land that can have housing is worth 10 times more than farm land and you don’t have to spend a cent, apart from lobbying government and councils to change the zoning!
Fletchers and Lord Sleepyhead are set to make incredible fortunes off the back of this.
If developers bought land already zoned with services it would cost more. That is not the point of it, the point of multimillionaire operating in NZ is to buy cheap land, pretend you are helping the housing crisis, but actually the big goal is to get that farm land re-zoned and make more multimillions (and then get the rate payers and transport to do all your infrastructure) – instead of putting resources into land ALREADY zoned for intensive housing and ready to build!
Meanwhile the developers actually building the housing are going bust! The houses never get built and when they do they are horrendously expensive as the Ponzi is about rezoning farm land, not building housing for residents on NZ incomes, in NZ already here.
bingo….Tauranga anyone?
I can supply you that wood at that price.
You are better to target a stamp duty that is hard to evade and based on the actual value of the house and asset share – this helps limit luxury builds.
AKA if you have a 1% stamp duty on a 30 million dollar transaction the tax is $300,000 but on a $300,000 house the tax is only $3000.
Stamp duty tax is cheap to collect as it’s instant because the lawyers collect the tax when they transfer the title so it’s hard to evade, unlike income tax where the rich don’t pay it via company structures or in NZ 40% of people get more tax back than they pay. https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/81429047/small-number-of-taxpayers-bear-the-brunt-of-new-zealand-tax-bill or if you are a ‘charity’ https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/96742698/how-some-new-zealand-business-make-billions-and-pay-no-tax or a business ( not it seems NZ doesn’t want to collect this data , company tax data is not transparent) unlike in OZ https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/news-federal-budget/2019/12/12/companies-no-tax-australia/)
CGT is not a fair tax.
Labour can afford to be progressive on woke issues as they don’t affect people’s pockets. Same as the Democrats in the United States
The terrible contradiction of democracy is that the interests of the majority dictate government policy to the detriment, if necessary, of the minority. Home ownership in NZ is declining but sits at around 60% so any elected government that wants to get re-elected will have to serve those interests almost exclusively.
We should also remember the short history of universal suffrage – it is only recently that people who didn’t own property could even part take in the democratic process so it is perhaps not that surprising that our entire economic platform remains focused on asset owners.
In fact since 2008 governments across the Western world have done everything in their power to protect asset owners – property and stocks, in particular, have experienced almost risk free growth for over a decade. Central banks and policy makers have bent over backwards in defiance of formerly cherished free market principles to guarantee ever increasing values and returns to those with skin in the game.
People who know me know that I’m quite basic. I’m as basic as an early ’70s Holden Belmont. Remember those? The base model, as they say these days, never had arm rests, only had one door mirror and were often painted the colour of a post-curry turd and for a few extra dollars more you could get mud flaps. The drivers side of the seat stopped at the hand brake lever down on the floor which cleverly dropped away once it was applied, presumably so as the driver didn’t get a free brake-lever colonoscopy when getting out the door. The down side of such ingenuity was that one’s right arse cheek forever drooped off the narrow bench seat ( 100% plastic. None of your natural rubbish.) so to keep a visual balance, I assume, to the awful car the seat was made equally short on the left. When one see’s an old couple lurching along teetering towards each other it isn’t an enduring, magnetic attraction to one another, it’s that they once owned a fucking horrible early 70’s Holden.
Our politics and our economics is equally so. We lean on into our good night while we’re unaware of the bench-seat parasites on our backs. We’re so used to being fucked on the deal that they know that we couldn’t see a different world for ourselves is someone can along and showed them with pictures, rock drawings and a diagram.
We still see it even here. People write ” But oh why have we so much money now? Why are we a first world economy with poverty, homelessness and hunger?
Well, primarily because many people are dumbasses. ” Oooh? Look” Beersies, footy and Charleen next door has her tits out and I gonna buy low profiles for the drifter for the weekend. ” was said, I bet.
But that’s not the fault of the Great Unwashed. It’s the fault of good people who fail to act. And, it should be written, it’s the grave fault of bad people who don’t.
When Auckland bankers and money lenders coalesced to form the brand new national party back in the late 1920’s the thieving began like not seen before.
Imagine bankers and money lenders forming a political party? Imagine that?
Imagine the advantages of that? One could fuck over whom ever one liked. There’d be zero constraints.
Poor old farmers of the day tenuously clinging to their ever weakening union like a wet kitten to a log in a flooded river.
The wars came and went, times changed, fortunes were made, fiefdoms were built, crooks flourished and sent their evil spawn through world class universities who they themselves were excreted from to become just like mummy and daddy. Greedy, influential and psychopathic.
Along came john key. The bankers darling, because by now the bankers and their mates knew they’d be gone. They knew the internet would lead to a tidal wave of information and they were old, they had their millions and billions so how to make a safe escape?
Is that why that scum douglas slithered into labour on Lange’s coat tails?
Lange knew all that I’ve written about above. He wanted to purge the bankster monopoly from AO/NZ but he was treacherously betrayed by douglas and douglas’s gutless minions. That’s why Lange resigned as PM. I heard him speak on National Radio. Lange warned that if caucus let douglas back in? He, Lange, would quit. They did, so he did. Meanwhile douglas was back in as was don brash as reserve bank with his retail bank Reichstag in tow then came the interest rates. Remember this interest rates Farmers? That’s why you’re now owned by off shore bankers.
I see this Labour government as wanting to be a fit and proper political force but they would’ve become aware of our economic history. So how does Labour break the news to us? How could they? Is their only course of action to suck it up as the bankster freak show, now old and in their end-of-life years make good their escape? With our money, lives and life-time? It’s too late for people my age and older who’ve witnessed the last 40 years slip away while we watched on in horror at what douglas and his privateer bankster cronies did to us on a rich and beautiful few islands.
The new children of a new politic will only see prosperity ( If the planet doesn’t drop dead under them first) while we old fuckers must watch those older scum bags get clean away with it.
That’s why we’re merely renters of our own lands. We pay our masters to keep us under their thumb and we’re too ignorant to see that.
Labour, and national, are simply a front to a swindle of intergalactic proportions and we mindlessly work ever harder to keep them in luxury.
As I’ve written here before; We vote for smiling hair and teeth or a vicious narcissistic sociopath while hoping that just maybe this time… while our real masters are the banks and they’re here to stay. We didn’t vote them in and we can’t vote them out and yet it’s they who swing the stick.
Read about this guy and decide for yourselves whether we need a fellow like this today.
The Smithsonian
Ferdinand Pecora
The Man Who Busted the ‘Banksters’
Pecora’s hearings had coined a new phrase, “banksters” for the finance “gangsters” who had imperiled the nation’s economy, and while the bankers and financiers complained that the theatrics of the Pecora commission would destroy confidence in the U.S. banking system, Senator Burton Wheeler of Montana said, “The best way to restore confidence in our banks is to take these crooked presidents out of the banks and treat them the same as treated Al Capone.”
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-man-who-busted-the-banksters-932416/
“…while the bankers and financiers complained that the ‘theatrics’ of the Pecora commission…”
Let that little logical fallacy sink in. Ok? You got that? Now watch for the likes of it in our media?
Silly little general public. What do we know about finances and politics. You just go to bed early, get up earlier and work ever harder because it takes a lot of you to make one billionaire you know? Now off you go…
When asked, in 1767, why the American colonies were doing so well, Benjamin Franklin let the cat out of the bag: “Why that is easy to explain. We issue our own currency, American script.”
Not long after, the British bastards were demanding taxes be paid in precious metal coin, and that America script be abolished….leading to the America War of Independence.
This resulted in the colonies being bankrupted, so they set up a ‘temporary’ Bank of America, which became too powerful, and formed links with the European bankers.
In the 1830s President Andrew Jackson fought the bankers -who he described as ‘a pit of vipers’, and succeeded. But only by the skin of his teeth.
His good work was gradually undone through the remainder of the nineteenth century, Lincoln, needing to fund the Northern armies, issued Greenbacks, created by the government. He was assassinated by an agent of the European bankers. The battle between independent and bankers raged on until the arch-traitor Woodrow Wilson facilitated the establishment of the Federal Reserve…which is neither federal, nor does it have reserves. The Fed gradually expanded its activities to the point of controlling pretty much everything financial in America, and half the world.
Meanwhile, the Rothschild financial empire took control of NZ around 1875, via loans to build railways. By the First World war they had more-or-less complete control of NZ.
More-or-less complete control of England by bankers was established in 1698, when the bankrupt British government permitted establishment of the Bank of England and began paying interest on loans.
The bankers stranglehold will inevitably choke the life out of every nation they control. And will destroy most life on Earth in the process if we let them, via their infinite-growth-on-a-finite-planet narrative, required to service ever-expanding debts.
Sometimes our clever politicians MUST put their personal survival and egos to one side and do what is right.
My estimation of our previously caring PM is dropping like a stone because she has been so obviously focused on reelection and therefore herself and not on the plight of those many growing amount of her citizens that are suffering whist she poll watches.
Home ownership stands at around 64% and that’s a voting majority.
It’s that simple
Yep, and each team has a rusted on 25% vote share, which leaves 14% of homeowners choosing the team every 3 years.
Waste of time even voting
The rich greedy investors who rented out unliveable homes at top rates for years can now sell up and make massive tax free capital gains. They do not even have to upgrade their rotten houses to meet the healthy homes requirement. They just flick them off to poor over extended first home buyers desperate for a home. These parasites cannot help but make money on top of money…. winning forever. Jacinda has crippled the poor and young with extensive debt and shoddy homes just to make the rich so much richer. Seriously…what has NZ become? Why has Jacinda decided her top priority is making National supporters much richer?
Jeff you’re 100% on the ball. But the average sleepy hobbit of NZ will never see this in a thousand years brainwashed by 7 sharp and the endless posturing BS from government and its capital gain merchants stuck up its ass! JA is a waste of time and space.
You’ve missed the point old mate.
1. Labour will work on housing affordability through other measures
2. These things are not overnighters/nor radical/nor unpopular
3. Scrapping the RMA is a massive move-although little will change, it is likely to focus on making subdivision easier-more sections/faster process.
4. Perhaps more investment into infrastructure will be required of Local Govt. Three waters investment perhaps funded in part by Central Govt.
4. CODC already actively consulting on housing infill-it would appear Auckland is filling up with very nice multi story apartments too.
5. Rental housing standards have improved-massive disincentive for having a rental property along with harder to kick people out. The cost to paint a house with scaffolding may be up to 30K. My new roof quote was 70K. You cant really rent out a dive now. Any maintenance cost is huge.
6. Kitset homes are going gangbusters-great low cost / low maintenance homes.
7. Tiny homes are going gangbusters-free and easy lifestyle
8. Lifestyle village heaven here.
They obviously havn’t sold the strategy very well if you don’t get it.
I don’t think a lot of investors realise how poor our old housing stock is and the cost to upgrage/repair it. Having worked on a few they are just utter rubbish-not fit for purpose.
New technology and green strategy is our salvation-off grid/septic systems
Although I’m not a big fan she may smarter than you think?
-end of rant-
“think”………..that involves grey matter, Country boy often uses it here, maybe a few other sincere commentators. The rest are the organised cuts hoping for political death down the line.
If your born into a poor bed and are challenged or have a low IQ and your income means you are destitute for all of your existence then you are neoliberal expendable and will never be represented as you have no political power or influence. Adern and the others will solicit your vote promising to build back better or a brighter future but it is all just bullshit with smoke and mirrors. Politicians like Adern and her middle class Social Democrats will never experience the utter cruelty of life below the neo liberal comfort zone , they don’t have to it is just to awful to comprehend but Jacinda said she understands and will act to ease the conscience of those who are the propertied class but do worry about the social cost of those at the bottom of the capitalist heap and yes Prime minister i need to be able to sleep at night.
If your born into a poor bed and are challenged or have a low IQ and your income means you are destitute for all of your existence then you are neoliberal expendable and will never be represented as you have no political power or influence. Adern and the others will solicit your vote promising to build back better or a brighter future but it is all just bullshit with smoke and mirrors. Politicians like Adern and her middle class Social Democrats will never experience the utter cruelty of life below the neo liberal comfort zone , they don’t have to it is just to awful to comprehend but Jacinda said she understands and will act to ease the conscience of those who are the propertied class but do worry about the social cost of those at the bottom of the capitalist heap and yes Prime minister i need to be able to sleep at night.
How can you make sense of nonsense? Because that’s all politics seems these days. Trivial nonsense on what pronouns and period products are free to use. And people losing fluffy toys. Go figure.
“Speak Science To Power”
https://outrageandoptimism.libsyn.com/39-science-leadership-action-with-rainn-wilson-dr-gail-whiteman-and-david-perry
You,re all wrong. The land values will never allow for affordable houses to be built or existing houses to be affordable in the future unless there is a majoe global financial crisis. The price of land increased substantially from 2012 and now is about 60-70% of house values. My street has $2.5m houses with a land value of $1.6m. No land-owner or land-banker is going to sell their lands at bargin prices. No RMA changes or taxes will change the equation. The mass building of social housing would help.
One way is for iwi/hapu to make their Maori lands available to build their whanau houses to get whanau into a house. An opportunity for Maori to go back home. Get tenders from the Chinese to bring kit-set housing over in containers and 2000 workers to assemble them. Kiwi builder have plenty of work building expensive houses, commercial work and renovations.
There are areas of Papa kainga housing in many many places.
But no – keep the Chinese out of it. We have NZ companies who can do up to spec kitset housing. We have or can train NZ workers to build them. We do not need the Chinese and I find the very suggestion offensive
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