Posts by giovanni tiso
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
"Shearer's speech also did not contain -- as certain of my gloomier friends have been confidently predicting -- a fresh stanza of dog-whistling about welfare."
Dear God, man. What do you call this:
Number one: our community must take care of the needy. They deserve a share of the pie.
And if people fall on hard times, we will help.
But equally importantly, number two: everyone who can help to make that pie needs to be involved, and fairly rewarded for doing it.
Here's a hint: it is indistinguishable from what John Key has always said about welfare in his speeches.
-
Hard News: European Horror Stories, in reply to Russell Brown,
Just to note that the Media7 programme that prompted this post screens tonight on TVNZ 7 at 9.05pm.
I trust you'll all enjoy it.
In spite of the fact that it's a topic that I find hard to discuss without severe spikes in my blood pressure, I really enjoyed being a part of this. Thank you so much for having me on the show, Russell.
-
Hard News: European Horror Stories, in reply to Conrad Heine,
it must not be forgotten that the entry of these countries to the eurozone was desired by the leading economies, to ensure potential low-cost competitors were in the euro tent.
That's a very good point. German manufacturers would be particularly worried about Italy exiting the Euro.
-
Hard News: European Horror Stories, in reply to Angus Robertson,
Really? It might I suppose, but it hasn't actually been tried so we don't know for sure.
I might have to ask you to take it up - in a non-belligerent fashion - with the papers I cite in my article (which were two of many, but seemed the most lucidly argued). Interestingly, the most compelling research and urgings came from the early days of the crisis, in 2010. When a solution would have been eminently affordable. And by the way if it was still just Greece, it would still be affordable. But certainly the hesitancy and the haircut approach have made things worse.
There is a shorter, very accessible piece on the "it's not a moral argument" argument, here. It's not quite as strong in many respects as the academic ones, but it's easier to link and quicker to read. And here's Paul Krugman just the other day on the inadequacy of what he calls the Republican and the German narratives. On the actual causes of the crisis, he says this:
So what does ail Europe? The truth is that the story is mostly monetary. By introducing a single currency without the institutions needed to make that currency work, Europe effectively reinvented the defects of the gold standard — defects that played a major role in causing and perpetuating the Great Depression.
More specifically, the creation of the euro fostered a false sense of security among private investors, unleashing huge, unsustainable flows of capital into nations all around Europe’s periphery. As a consequence of these inflows, costs and prices rose, manufacturing became uncompetitive, and nations that had roughly balanced trade in 1999 began running large trade deficits instead. Then the music stopped.
-
Hard News: European Horror Stories, in reply to Danyl Mclauchlan,
That’s about labour productivity. German workers are much more productive than Greek workers, so they earn more, so they work less.
It's more that they don't work at the same jobs. And needless to say, but I'm going to say it anyway, having a lower productivity doesn't make you lazy or mean you work less hard.
-
Hard News: European Horror Stories, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
"The US dollar was a load of bollocks from day one, you can't have one monetary policy with multiple different fiscal policies, it can't and never will work over a period of time, it is an impossibility"
James has a point, and there is every indication that the architects of the union were aware of the problem from the start, but counted on a crisis to force governments to accept the necessary greater political integration. It's just that the crisis turned out to be rather more catastrophic than predicted. But as things stand, as Michael Burke has written, it is as if the existence of the US dollar were under threat because Rhode Island had a big deficit.
-
This report from the SST yesterday was very good.
A patchwork of voluntary bodies, raising funds from donations, trusts and philanthropists, fill the gap. Heatley says many of these organisations are "better placed" to holistically support the homeless than his department, Housing New Zealand, and suggests these faith-based groups "would consider it their core business, as being a Christian community" to offer that support.
Actually, it leaves Zussman depressed. "It's a vicious cycle," he says, "people say you are doing the work of the government, stop doing it, but that resolve of working for your fellow man doesn't let you do it, so we work bloody hard to let the government off the hook. It's a complete dilemma. But you sense that if you said 'here's the keys, we can't do it any more' ..." They would lock the doors and leave? "Yes."
-
OnPoint: Dear Labour Caucus, in reply to Russell Brown,
I understood that Giovanni was pursuing a line of argument, one he’d introduced. I was disappointed that he seemed unwilling or unable to modulate his style when it was evident that someone else was upset, and that, rather, he seemed to express some pride in it.
I was extremely irritated by what appeared to me to be an extraordinary (and self-serving), level of preciousness. Good to see that Damian can be hurt (and you can be hurt), but that other emotions aren't allowed. And now Emma wasn't even referring to me when she called me an arsehole. So good of her to take ten pages or thereabouts to clarify that, then.
Clearly, I’m an ideological failure
Yes, that is totally what I meant by "there aren't many communities like PAS to begin with". And it is also what I meant by writing over 7,000 comments on PAS. It was all subtly aimed at pointing out your personal ideological shortcomings - as indeed I have done in a number of forums over the years. I'm sure it wasn't the opposite.
This has just moved beyond a joke. If people would be kind enough not to involve me in this argument any longer, I'd like to go home now.
-
OnPoint: Dear Labour Caucus, in reply to Emma Hart,
I can totally see how in context people would take it that way, but I wasn't.
You didn't? ARGH!
Some of Gio comments do have a strange effect on me -- he had me licking utensils in my kitchen not all that long ago.
I'm sure it's wrong of me to love this sentence, but I do.
-
OnPoint: Dear Labour Caucus, in reply to Sacha,
Please do suggest which other significant political movements/actors you believe we're overlooking. The thread was pretty clearly focused on political parties, and you mentioned unions earlier but if there are others then name them so we can better understand your despair.
Mana, the Poverty Action Group, the Alternative Welfare Working Group, the unions with a community outreach, socialist organisations, the Greens when they feel like it. As you'd know disability advocacy groups tend to become quite conscious of class divides. But yeah, there is stuff out there, just not a lot of it - as per the Bruce Jesson quote I think I snuck in there somewhere. However it is very important not to mistake lack of representation with lack of a constituency. Even from the very narrow viewpoint of party politics, it pays to remember that a full third of eligible voters didn't vote.