Posts by Ian MacKay
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"I myself have never been able to find out what feminism is......."
And that was in 1913! I am still unsure. Would like to think it was equal rights and privileges for women but apparently only women need apply. -
This might be a good time to reexamine the fine print for just what is meant by "replacement value" regardless of where we live. There seem to be rumours around that the replacement may depend on other factors and not just the floor area.
Good luck David with your issue. -
Hard News: Perception and reality in the…, in reply to Stephen Judd,
Prisoners may be considered for parole after serving just 14 days
A great read thank you Stephen. (Have saved it for another day.)
I read somewhere else that the MSM in Finland were enlisted to stop using crime reporting as front page features. I guess the damage done to public perceptions by such over-reporting is universal. McVicar thrives on it.
And I seem to remember reading somewhere, that after being in prison for about 28 days the deterrent effect wears off, and inmates start adjusting, or not, to the institutionalisation. -
OnPoint: Budget 2011: Now with 70% less wordiness!, in reply to Kumara Republic,
Indeed it is. But it’s been deliberately misrepresented as public debt – hence the ‘strategic deficit’. Hardly any bullshit has been called on the issue, and I suspect it’s the case because the banks (mostly run from Oz) have too much to lose.
Andrew R supplied me these figures. Not quite what the Government points out.
At the end of last year debt was like this (from Reserve Bank figures):Household $183 billion 94% of nominal GDP
Business $72 billion 37% of nominal GDP
Agriculture $48 billion 25% of nominal GDP
Government $56 billion 29% of nominal GDP
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OnPoint: Budget 2011: Now with 70% less wordiness!, in reply to Sacha,
Key/Joyce are laughing at our gullibility Sacha and that's not nice.
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Anyway there are strong rumours that this Budget was written/masterminded by Steven Joyce, the Rumsfield lurking in the National ranks. They are laughing at the people. Unwise strategy.
It does leave a gap for Labour Greens to enunciate a fresh direction and increasingly a need will grow for Key to be more specific. Can't fudge questions forever. -
I think that Labour is using so called trivia currently, but the wasteful spending does resonate with people who just read the headlines and glaze over economic detail.
I predict (and I am sometimes right about the weather) that following the Budget next week Labour will launch a make or break campaign. Its the Economy stupid and it is in the form of the problems we have with the cost of living. -
Not only Duncan Garner but also Derek Cheng of the Herald who does not even mention the Hone loss of pay over the next 6 + weeks.
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Craig: Can your link to the fiscal Bradley Effect also cause responses to survey questions have the same effect?
Thus when asked "Which Party would you vote For?", perhaps some would choose the party which is the most popular so that they would seem and be seen to be on the winning side and avoiding the "loosers." -
And also about a year ago after the last Budget I think, some pundits were saying that the success of the 2010 budget was totally dependent on an improving economy and that that was a huge political risk. So now it seems that that the plan was a failure, but the clever Ministers are using the failure to justify the further cuts. There must be an economist person here who can explain how this works?