Posts by "chris"
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I have met some of these young men. They were indeed watching us after midnight.
LOL. Good on ya Russell, looking forward to it.
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Which would lead me to think that saving for a rainy day was a pre-requisite to being an upstanding citizen. And that was years before us Europeans invented Jesus, you know,
Most interesting there is that the point of reference is not Plato, Socrates or Aristotle , but a Jesus replete with, miracles. One patron mentioned the reception was stonking by virtue of saving the best wine till last. While the investment diversification trip prescribed in The Parable of the Talents has certainly had it's way with us - as you say it seems we're hardwired to expect at least five virgins
35% is a big slice of income. I suspect that the main reason they can do that is because they have very good incomes.
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Thanks for such a forthcoming response Ben. I'll be the first to admit I don't know much about this stuff so I was super pleased to read your critique. getting paid once every 4 months sounds like it would be nightmarish to adapt to, especially in an environment where that wasn't standard practice.
Foresight doesn’t tell you when your car is going to die, or you are going to be hit with a huge dental bill.
You're right, it won't tell you when, but these things do happen as a matter of course. Foresight is prudence, it's making provisions for potential calamities, being duly prepared.
They’ve had millenia to work this out, and just haven’t. It’s one of those compulsions I don’t really feel bad about.
And obviously not everyone but by and large. One of the things that irks me are the constant MSM reminders that NZers can't save, where I suspect that social and economic conditioning does play a large role. Why can Chinese save so well? Certainly decades of abject poverty aren't easily forgotten, but it would also seem that economic conditions are more conducive. Across the board monthly payments and lack of social welfare push people to develop the habit of saving. But there are other trends in conjunction with this such as quarterly or biannual rent payments which further enhance the scope for a longer term prescience, and free up a lot of capital for short term investment.
your first month at work is going to be really hard, if you’re really at the bottom of the pile.
That really is the crux of it. there would be a horrendous changeover period and knowing New Zealand's luck there would be a decades long hangover of some kind or other as we've seen since the end of the 6 o'clock swill. All things considered, I have to agree that you are right Ben, I'm used to the monthly payments now, but it took quite a number of years for that mindset shift. And I have kiwi friends who still haven't got to grips with it, the inevitability being that they end up borrowing more from mates, deepening their debt burden.
Similarly, the freedom to ruin yourself economically is another of those freedoms that I think has simply had its day.
In a nutshell. Thanks again for your reply Ben, I've been profoundly inspired by your posts of late. And yes, I'll shut up about the dam. More ideas!
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People struggling to pay for things for a whole month to teach them discipline.
It’s a slightly different breed of struggle though. The guarantee at least once a month of seeing the kind of money you can shake a stick at, does encourage more ambitious use of one’s income: Not having to save up week to week or fortnightly to pay utility bills is a weight off minimum wage earners’ minds, being able to bulk buy at the supermarket and the money saved on transport is both economic and environmentally advantageous. It develops foresight, which is something the status quo is currently lacks the scope to.
I have no opposition to the compulsory savings scheme you mentioned Ben except for the fact that it would be compulsory, a feature which seems wholly at odds with the notion of encouraging personal responsibility, enabling our population to reach budgeting maturity, and most simply freedom. Crucially it ties up a large amount of capital, capital that in some cases could be put to better use keep the wheels of the economy rolling. Perhaps it’s the right thing for the region, I don’t know, I simply rail against the underlying implication that it would be justified because the population are incapable. but perhaps we just are.
One of the main things I learnt rather belatedly, and this ties back in with your scheme for issuing shares for the dams to New Zealander tax payers, is that money saved is money earned. My problem with that scheme is that surely it entails there a finite window for issuing, so New Zealanders who had been living offshore at the point of issuance, or future immigrants, will be profited off – for a basic human need. This would be exacerbated would only be heightened by as you say
since we have to buy the power from them, would demand efficiency from them too, as shareholders, with the actual power to hire and fire the management.
When it would seem, that deprivatizing these assets would be the single best road for maintaining the businesses at minimum profit, reducing the cost of living, enhancing the population’s spending power and paving the way for further economic growth.
On a previous page, I mentioned defloating the dollar, creating greater stability for exchange, amenable both to exporters and freelance consultants etc, Sacha you made a timely joke of it. But, why not? Why would anyone want to start a business in New Zealand when they could start it somewhere with a stable exchange rate? Why would consultants who can work anywhere want to have their foreign income paid into the New Zealand economy when the floating exchange rate begets uncertainty as to their monthly income? It’s simply not an attractive scenario, and so the money flows elsewhere. The government should peg that dollar and micromanage the economy, earning their keep so to speak.
Another issue I touched on on the CGT thread which again wasn’t run with is the introduction of a tax free threshold, again to tie up less money and encourage market liquidity. 12.5% 0-14,000. What is that? A child doing a paper run earning 40 dollars a week should be taxed? kids doing some odd jobs are tax evaders? Sure no one will be prosecuted. But what is the relevance of a 5 tier income tax system? China has 9 the US has 6. Surely all economic indications are that this is no longer relevant. Why is there no income tax exemption bracket? The UK has one up to £2440. To me it just seems laziness and a real lack of imagination.
The ilk of nouse and creativity of the competition is well illustrated in this example of China’s economic growth 2000-2010. The CCP, knowing that the local population are frugal savers encouraged the importation of millions of westerners (usually English teachers) on a gray visa system (allowing apparently laxly policed illegal temporary residence) under the assumption that westerners will spend! spend! spend! a foreign lubricant to help kick start the engine of the domestic economy. Not that anything of the sort would work in New Zealand, but, it's hard to dispute that it's canny….that’s the challenge.
Sorry for the rant.
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For me, cumulatively 2011 feels to have been a year where the internet and communication technology has come of age as a key player (for better or worse) in facilitating unprecedented levels of mass social and political activism and change:
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Not to overlook others, but all of you and especially Russell and Hilary, deserve to be heartily congratulated for your unrelenting and passionate efforts here on this case . It's empowering when this technology helps to make the world a better place, and that's only possible when people are prepared to go that extra figurative mile, stand up tall and make the right noise, Good on you. Regardless of deficiencies in the outcome and despite whatever negative fallout may come, this is a worthy victory.
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Hard News: Is that it?, in reply to BenWilson,
Any number of small tinkerings could make a substantial difference to overall competitiveness, general fairness, and economic growth.
I'm not sure if people are still routinely paid fortnightly in NZ but it would seem that monthly payments dramatically enhance peoples' money management abilities.
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Working at Southern Blues in Christchurch, I attached each leg of the inside-out jeans to the machine, hit the foot pedal, and it sucked the legs through. I then folded the inside-in jeans. 300 pairs an 8 hour day.
I guess I was cheaper than a robot. It would have been bearable had the prohibitionists not pushed up the price of Kronic, which had for a time been improving my perception of this “drudge” work.
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Too saturated, I'd have said.
Video, photography, print: Sure, true, Ben, but the digital domain opens doors for all kinds of new interactivity. The Leisure Suit Larry legacy is sorely lacking a successor, and the kind of hardware being used by Weta and their ilk could perhaps open a door here and there.
Related to funding. Rob Mayes has finished his "masterwork", I'm a bit skeptical about quoting oneself.
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I win stuff. And it is booze! W00t!
Lucky for some. I had my name erm, accessorized.