The Salvation Army released its State of the Nation 2023 report – Nga Rourou Whakaiti this week. It’s a depressing document which tells the story of a rich country which has chosen economic policies which enrich the superwealthy at the expense of those on the lowest incomes – much the same as Victorian England.
The poor are held responsible for their situation of course – blaming the victims is how the middle class justify their own comfortable lifestyles while they vote against any transformative change to give everyone a fair go.
It’s full of graphs and descriptions of what poverty looks like in a land of plenty.
t’s sad when any small blip in a graph is acknowledged as a positive sign – as in the small drop in the number of people on the state house waiting list. Under Labour the number went from just over 5,000 when the Ardern government came to power to over 25,000 last year. The small blip is not because more people are getting into state houses – the net number of state houses has increased by a paltry 1100 per year under Labour – but because they are being “managed off the list” by MSD or just giving up. This was described to me by a former housing minister as “working with people to identify their actual housing needs” – ie managing them off the waiting list.
Further on in the report are more graphs showing shameful levels of social neglect. It’s worth remembering that under Helen Clark’s Labour government pokie machines in the community increased from around 3,000 to 25,000 and a tsunami of social destruction followed. These number have been slowing pegged back to around 18,000 now under sinking lid policies but the revenue lost to communities continues to rise.
No-one in government will lose any sleep over this unfortunately.
Meanwhile New Zealanders on the lowest incomes continue to pay the highest proportion of their incomes in tax while the wealthiest pay pocket money amounts.
How much longer can New Zealand afford to carry the rich?
This collapse into Third World-style living conditions can only go on for so long before the people revolt.
Up until now, the most motivated and critical minded have simply left the country. The problem is that the living standards are now so bad, many cannot even afford to do this.
The labour movement will need to be ready to lead the fight once the angry people eventually begin appearing on the streets. They don’t appear to be prepared for that at all.
I often wonder whether people have been brainwashed into a sort of ‘national inferiority complex’. As the local media is so atrocious, it’s quite possible that people don’t actually know what is going on, or even remember how much better things were only a few decades ago.
What you mean? The 20 million plus, privately built, brand new, Hamilton, woke led, 3 bedroom 2 bathroom, 130m2 Kainga ora houses are not good enough?
or their own offices…
Revealed: Kāinga Ora spent over $24m of taxpayer money in four years on its own office renovations
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/03/revealed-kainga-ora-spent-over-24m-of-taxpayer-money-in-four-years-on-its-own-office-renovations.html
After credits, subsidies and other benefit refunds half of NZ households pay no net income tax & a small percentage (12 per cent) of individuals pay just under half of all personal taxation, and the top 3 per cent account for almost a quarter of all personal tax paid.
Source Stuff 31 July 2019 “an inconvenient truth about tax in NZ”
That just proves how distorted our economic system has become Robbie. Families on median wages can no.longer afford to live without government assistance and those at the very top are obviously creaming off the greater part of the economic pie as witnessed by their tax contributions. As for those in the lower quartile. Collateral damage of an economic system that is clearly past its use by date.
I know there are poor out there but is it a small minority because I see people out and about in there cars and shopping at the malls at all times of the day .The food court at Riccarton and Northland are busy all day and the food is not cheap.
Being poor in this country relates back to the family you were born into and your physical and mental attributes.These last two need more government support to enable them to have the dignity of working for a wage if possible.
The poverty cycle will not be broken until poor families can persuaded not to have no more children until they can house feed and educate the ones they have . Rather than the government paying child support they should pay a sum for them to stay child less.. There should also be a reward payment for getting the children to school .This would soon be self funding as Lee’s is paid out for youth crime .
Taxing the few rich people in NZ mkre will not fix poverty as money is not the answer pride and self estimate in one self is .
Ah! Trevor is Mr. Sensible in this debate. There had to be one!
He is on the money regarding family background. All the social science research shows that a child’s parents are THE major factor in determining outcomes for the child. Poor decision making by parents sets back a child’s development and then is copied by the child in adulthood because he has no other reference in life.
So, if you want to see better outcomes for kiwis, stop taking money from the educated middle class and handing it to no-hopers in the form of child support. Just as he says, we should be paying them to NOT reproduce!
(The road to hell is paved with good intentions)
Thank you Andrew
Such an apt comment, both Key and Hart came from poor backgrounds. If your suggestions had been policy of the day back then they wouldn’t have been around to inflict themselves on us.
So where does the money come from in paying them not to produce Andrew?
Trevor the stats suggest there are far more poor people out there than your visit to a mall apparently tells you there are.
We have the biggest gap ever between the haves and the have nots that surely is a major issue.
John worked in poor schools for years in south Auckland, I remember him saying kids are pulled out of school to go to work in shitty little jobs to help the family make ends meet.
Surely we need jobs that pay sufficient for people to actually live on.
To limit how many children ‘some people’ can have is to me an outrage.
I do wonder whether you and others have ever done the figures on people’s low incomes or benefits, we all know that many of these people are paying a high percentage in rent.
Agreed it really is an outrage that people like Andrew and Trevor think this way that the rights of parents to have children take a backstep to their little tribes beliefs. I am not buying their philosophy. I am sure most kiwis would not support their rantings.
It’s a fairly well-known fact the more wealthy a person (or country) is the fewer children they need to assure them of an old age with a bit of comfort.
Abortion on demand then. You want less ‘poor kids’ then you are going to have to make sure people can terminate their pregnancies when they want to.
Telling us the number on the waiting list for state houses is meaningless unless you also include the number in state houses along with the number of state houses in 2017 & now. There is more than 1 reason that the waiting list could have increased so if you want honesty about the privilege given to the wealthy you need to practice the same.
A lot of those added to the waiting list in 2017 was John Keys homeless on the streets, in cars, in garages, 15 in one house, etc. If Natz built social houses in their 9 years there would be no wating lists now.
Correct
Trade skill,no seems,unbeliavable, how can we get him on our employ,pick me up central,as the Kiwi/ Trade Union, negotiated,employers what soft control soft,of employers traffic jam they are in,no matter our government,20 cxent a litre, for them to get never crib,us kiwi we never crib.Compulsory Unionism,the best boss sorry its the law, i have to be part of the union,what about these meetings, ave got its the law.
Never thought I’d read this economic take in the NZ Herald of all places but here it is – https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/political-roundup-branko-marcetic-how-will-we-pay-for-the-cyclone-recovery-tax-the-rich/JSOYBVRBSRG7VJ7O2IMRXNYKEY/
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