(educate English in the value NZ is getting from the health sector for the money spent).

What he needs educating in, as well as the rest of the political right, is how much the GDP will go down when the number of people too sick to work increases due to overworked doctors and nurses. That’s the simple reason why most of the Westminster derived governments have social welfare and free health care.

We have to get over the idea that the profit motive is good. It isn’t, it costs far more than we can ever possibly afford. AGW is proof enough of that.

The profit motive is simply stupid.

I get that.

Now looking at the (stupid) game and the possibilities as they stand right now viz a viz where the goal posts are as of this moment of time….

Taking profit from citizens who cannot possibly make a profit themselves to subsequently allocate a portion of those profits to pay down debt, as would be the case with a business, is beyond stupidity.

But that\\’s the scenario that the banks are going to continue to pursue and no government is doing anything other than to encourage them.

You’ve shown your ignorance yet again mate. Best quit before you embarrass yourself further.

Are you aware that international studies show we have some of the most “flexible”, ie lax labour laws in the world? No one tell Swampy the Australians have an Awards system or he’ll have himself a brain explosion.

Are you aware that “exclusive”, “monopoly” rights don’t exist and that anyone who wants to set up an incorporated society with 15 members can call themselves a union and recruit and organise members anywhere?

Can you tell me how a group of workers bargaining collectively for better wages an “obvious political campaign” for Labour?

You seem to know of unions and union campaigns, but you clearly have no idea how they actually work in practice. Makes you sound kinda like an ignorant blowhard to anyone who actually has any knowledge in the field.

I’ll say it again, you’re a blithering idiot with no understanding of how unions actually work. Go educate yourself, you’re an embarrassment.

These are organisations that have been around for more than a century and there’s a reason for that. It’s because where possible they plan for the future with reserves, rather than living hand to mouth like you’re suggesting. The claim that reserves are ever accumulated for their own sake, or for any reason other than the long-term benefit of a union’s members, is absurd.

The idea that financial reserves are “fighting funds for political purposes” has no basis in fact. Most probably it comes from the fact you don’t know what running a union involves, yet you seem to feel able to tell them how to operate as if you’re some kind of expert.

You further reveal your ignorance when you praise McCarten, the right’s pet unionist, as “running a tight ship”. Matt relies heavily on donations from old Trots and Maoists, dodgy deals with Brash and Banks’ Kiwisaver scheme, a sweetheart deal with McDonalds, and the fee from the Herald for his Sunday column. His organisation is a shambles, organisers aren’t paid properly and the VUWSA fiasco shows he’s got no real control outside of Auckland. His comments attacking Labour affiliation are politically motivated as he’s a sworn enemy of the Labour Party. The cost is a fraction of one percent of each member’s annual fee. Just utter ignorance on your part.

Again, the question needs to be asked, do of these anti-union critics on the right actually understand how unions work? Or are they just here to parade their own ignorance?

Swampy, out of interest, have you even asked for a pay decrease during individual negotiations? If not, why would you expect something from the collective negitations upon which you freeload?