Posts by James Butler
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Up Front: Where You From?, in reply to BenWilson,
“Home” becomes more specific depending how close you are to it. If I was in Andromeda, I expect I’d say “The Milky Way”.
But then every time there's a supernova way out on the Perseus arm, you're besieged by concerned Andromedans who imagine it must be right on your doorstep.
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I've spent 8 of my 28 years in Auckland, on and off, but somehow I'm still "from" Wellington if anyone asks. This despite the alienation I increasingly feel when I go back "home", with a) having no family living there anymore (they're mostly in Christchurch or Australia, the more fool them), b) the hyperspace bypass which has appeared through my once-favourite part of town and c) buses in Manners Mall!!!! I mean, srsly, wtf?
In some contexts, when people ask where I'm from I'll presume that they've noticed my vestigial accent, so I'll say "London" (despite having no conscious memories of my time living there).
Despite having lived in this country my whole life, my accent is often mistaken - by NZers and otherwise - for English, or perhaps South African. Perhaps that's another reason for being "from" Wellington - when asked where I'm from (or more insidiously, where I'm originally from), it's easier to reply "Wellington" than get all defensive.
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to Carol Stewart,
People do not have a responsibility to vote. There are many valid reasons for not doing so.
They do in Australia plus a further 11 countries
I think there's a difference between a responsibility and a legal requirement though...
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to Rik,
I agree – I’m all for it. And you know what – National are looking in to these areas.
Isn't National's stated strategy for combating tax evasion to make taxes low enough so as to not be worth evading? Not quite what I meant.
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to Rik,
Those on higher incomes bear the lions share of personal income tax revenue
True - so surely if one wants to make real, useful efforts to prevent people "milking the system", which will actually impact government revenue, one should start with corporate tax shenanigans, untaxed capital gains etc. - all systems "milked" by "those on higher incomes", and I'd hazard a guess worth a whole lot more than benefit fraud.
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to Rik,
While ideologically I support benefits for those that need them there is ample evidence of many individuals milking the system
Where?
Sure there are always people who set out to defraud WINZ and get away with it for too long, but claiming that a) this is a statistically significant problem that b) has a real impact on the bottom line of the budget and c) can only be fixed by kicking the shit out of everyone on a benefit is bullshit.
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OnPoint: Everything has changed until 2014, in reply to Sacha,
I would prefer to see smart tax changes that incentivise investment in sustainable productive businesses
The problem with using taxes to incentivise certain sectors, is that it often ends up looking like the old Muldoon-style tariffs and subsidies in reverse: if you target particular sectors too closely, you risk skewing the market and preventing it from doing the one thing it’s actually pretty good at, ie. regulating supply and demand. Look at the US biofuel subsidy regime for a good example of well-meaning “incentives” gone bad.
Ditching our broken ETS and implementing a properly proportioned (read: huge) carbon tax would be a first big step towards getting the sustainable business outcomes we want, without picking winners too finely.
ETA: Unless that's what you meant, of course.
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Would it be stretching geographic protection too far to prevent South American-grown fruit from using the name "Kiwifruit"? :-)
It would be contentious to interpret the name as "Fruit originating from New Zealand, and thus known as 'Kiwi'" rather than "Fruit which looks like a fat flightless bird", but the thought amuses me nonetheless.
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Legal Beagle: Hidden in plain sight, in reply to Graeme Edgeler,
Does it still count as breaking news if it became public a week ago?
The wheels of justice blog exceedingly slowly...
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Hard News: The Wall and the Paper, in reply to Stephen Judd,
Even Garth George occasionally follows evidence and reason into places he'd rather not go, such as his grudging but solid defence of the Maori seats. There was another example, but I can't be bothered wading through his usual self-righteous bullshit to find it.