Comments on: Key on wages

By: Pascal's bookie

Pascal's bookie — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 20:30:49 +0000

A lot of ACT policy is pretty much bog standard supply side stuff which, inasmuch as it is supposed to benefit the poor as much as the wealthy, = trickle down.

By: ben

ben — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 20:22:19 +0000

Do you think trickle down is a viable plan to increase wages?

Show me any NZ politican whose policy is, or even believes in, trickle down. Last time anybody in government mentioned that concept in all seriousness was about 1984.

Get out of the time warp.

By: ben

ben — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 20:15:18 +0000

But in a capitalist system any benefit from productivity increases goes directly into the pockets of business owners. You need a mechanism to translate that into wages. And that mechanism is decent employment protections and a unionised workforce that has the strength to bargain decent wage increases.

Nope. 100% wrong Tane. When you look at the data across countries, you find close to a 1 to 1 match between productivity and wages, and no or almost no relationship between wages and employment laws or unionisation. The reason capital owners must share gains in productivity is competition for labour.

New Zealand alone proves the point – employment protection laws do not force employers to share producitivity gains, and most of the workforce is not unionised, but somehow this non-unionised workforce pulls a decent wage. Indeed, since the decline of unionisation in the 1980s real wages have increased substantially. Unions, in other words, do not have much effect on wage levels.

By: rave

rave — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 11:28:11 +0000

Whiff of Marxism? I’m sniffing but I’m not getting anything.

By: Felix

Felix — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 10:11:44 +0000

I’m in. I need to clean some of the science out of the back of the fridge anyway.

By: RedLogix

RedLogix — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 09:55:30 +0000

Of course if they don’t pay out baiter’s bonus, we could have a quick whip around for the poor blighter. It would be all wrong if he didn’t get to feel some good old fashioned leftie solidarity in his hour of need.

By: Felix

Felix — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 09:38:24 +0000

Well he is consistent I suppose. (Not internally of course).

By: ak

ak — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 09:21:40 +0000

mmmm, Rosa, or vinegar in a Fanta can…. sour taste just starting to reach the buds…

By: Rosa

Rosa — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 09:14:26 +0000

Tane: “It’s actually quite concerning that Key has such cartoonish view of what the Left stands for.”

I don`t think its cartoonish so much as ideological. For all his campaign rhetoric about growing up in a council house, he is the first accountant (by training) to be Prime Minister of New Zealand since Muldoon, and if I am not mistaken, with the same narrow view of his opponents and experience of life.

He may be repackaged, but it`s old wine in new bottles.

By: RedLogix

RedLogix — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 08:21:48 +0000

I was thinking that The Standard should consider dropping the agency that allocates trolls a polite note of thanks for the ‘baiter. There are certainly far less capable trolls around on the net, while baiter seems to not only have passed his troll quals with flying colours (albeit with a blood-rage misty hue), but has applied himself to his assigned troll role with remarkable diligence and an engaging homely style all his own work.

I sure hope that Troll Central remembers to give ‘baiter the lump of mouldy cheese they are contractually obliged to pay him this year. It would be a real shame if this messy AIG business meant that bonuses went totally out of fashion, just when baiter is so richly deserving of his.

By: Tane

Tane — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 08:01:43 +0000

Cheers mate, but I’m labour with a small ‘l’. I’ve never voted for the party.

By: Tane

Tane — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 08:00:49 +0000

Yeah, that’s pretty stunning stuff from Simon-5. He’s banned, but I’ll leave it up to show why that’s the case.

By: ak

ak — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 07:48:55 +0000

(see, ethical? we get the occasional moronic pusball even lower than ratbiter…..actually, give it time, after a while ole bait sorta grows on ya, like a raving old uncle, or a benign wart… a crazy, repetitive counterpoint in ever-decreasing loops, relentlessly highlighting the melodic sanity of the Standardistas)

By: Simon-5

Simon-5 — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 07:24:09 +0000

Tane wrote:..

A law-abiding Maori bloke was on his way to work one day..

Thanks folks, I’ll be here all week.

[lprent: still banned - another ip added to automoderation]

By: ethical martini

ethical martini — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 07:10:03 +0000

Tane, thanks most amusing if not very instructive.
your post is actually on the money. The labour theory of value and a slight whiff of Marxism.
Keep it up, you almost restored my faith in the Labour left.
Pity about redbaiter though. s/he does tend to lower the tone of the neighbourhood. Good for padding out a thread and not much else, not even funny.