Meeting a need

25 comments on “Meeting a need ”

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1. ghostwhowalksnz 1

   9 March 2012 at 10:23 am

   Beware of graphs that start in April 10 for prison bed numbers. Youll find double bunking has created the current gap.

   This is the same graph created in Dec 2009
   http://corrections.govt.nz/__data/assets/image/0020/433415/Prison-population-graph.jpg

   Quite a different picture?
   • bbfloyd 1.1

     9 March 2012 at 10:32 am

     so the government propaganda that is stating that the crime rate is falling is bullshit then?
     • infused 1.1.1

       9 March 2012 at 12:29 pm

       Crime Rate != Prison population.
     • ghostwhowalksnz 1.1.2

       9 March 2012 at 1:14 pm

       “crime rate ” is whatever you want it to be.
       They definitely have changed what’s in the statistics and who counts them. Its more a function of the type of society and the numbers in the relevant age groups. The forecast in 1999 for 2009 ended up being 20% more than expected , about 2000. There is no real reason to think it will be any different in 2019.
2. Foreign Waka 2

   9 March 2012 at 10:52 am

   Simple answer – jobs for the boys and profits for friends.
   • marsman 2.1

     9 March 2012 at 10:56 am

     And who pays for the profits? The taxpayer!
     • Foreign Waka 2.1.1

       9 March 2012 at 10:57 am

       Yep, certainly not the friends.
3. Clashman 3

   9 March 2012 at 11:00 am

   Because with increasing unemployment and inequality and the slow but sure reduction in Police numbers the plan is all going to come together nicely. More crap copied from the US no doubt.

   “Human rights organizations, as well as political and social ones, are condemning what they are calling a new form of inhumane exploitation in the United States, where they say a prison population of up to 2 million – mostly Black and Hispanic – are working for various industries for a pittance. For the tycoons who have invested in the prison industry, it has been like finding a pot of gold. They don’t have to worry about strikes or paying unemployment insurance, vacations or comp time. All of their workers are full-time, and never arrive late or are absent because of family problems; moreover, if they don’t like the pay of 25 cents an hour and refuse to work, they are locked up in isolation cells”

   http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8289

   Im sure we will see this sort of stuff too;
   http://www.forbes.com/sites/walterpavlo/2011/08/12/pennsylvania-judge-gets-life-sentence-for-prison-kickback-scheme/
   • Vicky32 3.1

     9 March 2012 at 4:19 pm

     Im sure we will see this sort of stuff too;
     http://www.forbes.com/sites/walterpavlo/2011/08/12/pennsylvania-judge-gets-life-sentence-for-prison-kickback-scheme/

     That’s happened a number of times, right? It even ended up being fictionalised in a cop show, Cold Case – with genders changed, so that the innocent naive judge had been conned by his unscrupulous sister (it’s a given in American cop shows that the ultimate villain must be foreign or female.)
4. shreddakj 4

   9 March 2012 at 11:28 am

   Every new development coming out of this government just makes me feel more and more disgusted. Amoral, unscrupulous neoliberal capitalists the lot of them.
   • aerobubble 4.1

     9 March 2012 at 12:14 pm

     National ignore liberty while they make life and happiness harder for everyone.
5. Olwyn 5

   9 March 2012 at 12:25 pm

   One could say that the problem with slavery, from an amoral capitalist point-of-view, is that it costs more to keep a slave than it does to pay someone a pittance. Slaves, however, are more reliable than workers who are paid a pittance. With private prisons you have your answer: you get your reliable slaves and the government pays for their keep.Evil no longer comes with excuses or future promises – it is now treated like business as usual.
6. Kotahi Tane Huna 6

   9 March 2012 at 12:47 pm

   Private prisons are a perfect candidate for nationalisation without compensation. The ferals who own them have been implicated in some of the most corrupt and disgusting practices in US “judicial” history.
7. Rusty Shackleford 7

   9 March 2012 at 2:35 pm

   No, no, no, no, no,no. You just don’t understand. It’s all stimulus. The target of the stimulus is irrelevant. We could pay people to dig holes and then pay other people to fill them in again. It would be even better if we printed the money to pay for it. Simple.
   • shreddakj 7.1

     9 March 2012 at 3:06 pm

     Stimulating some rich prick’s back pocket.
   • McFlock 7.2

     9 March 2012 at 3:14 pm

     Nope. That was Forbes&Coates approach.
     The 1st labour govt approach was to build shit the country needed – that greatly magnified the stimulus effect of the public works.
        
     Although there might be something to be said for slightly relaxing RBA inflation targets – but then that’s only one of the many issues with that particular piece of legislation. 
     • Colonial Viper 7.2.1

       9 March 2012 at 3:57 pm

       I’m amazed that Rusty has to use that unimaginative filling holes example when this country is full of needed work left undone.

       The inflation targets are rubbish anyway; every householder knows that real household costs inflation has been well over 3% pa.
       • Rusty Shackleford 7.2.1.1

         9 March 2012 at 4:57 pm

         CV, you’ve advocated for inflation on here before, so you are hardly qualified to comment.

         If the work is so needed which I agree it is by definition. There is no bound to the amount of work that needs to be done. This being the case, what is holding up the works?
         • Draco T Bastard 7.2.1.1.1

           9 March 2012 at 5:48 pm

           This being the case, what is holding up the works?

           The profit motive.
           • Rusty Shackleford 7.2.1.1.1.1

             9 March 2012 at 6:30 pm

             Bingo. You pile on the taxes and regulations and the profit, and therefore the motive to produce, evaporates.
             • Draco T Bastard …

               9 March 2012 at 8:26 pm

               Wrong.

               It is profit that prevents the work being done because those who scramble for profit see paying workers as an expense and so try not to pay it either directly (casualisation of the workforce) or indirectly( taxes).

               Regulations are there to ensure that all costs are properly accounted for which really should go quite well with your Austrian School ideology.
               • Rusty Shackleford …

                 9 March 2012 at 8:31 pm

                 “It is profit that prevents the work being done…”
                 erm, even if that were the case, wouldn’t it be easier to get the work done, and thus achieve your goal of building infrastructure, if businesses did under pay their workers and dodge taxes? As opposed to more difficult, as you claim. I’m not seeing the cause and effect there.

                 “Regulations are there to ensure that all costs are properly accounted for which really should go quite well with your Austrian School ideology.”
                 Which regulations and how?
8. tsmithfield 8

   9 March 2012 at 3:23 pm

   “Can anyone tell me why the Nats are spending $300m to build and $36m pa to run a 960-bed PPP prison”

   Perhaps replacing aging assets, solving temporary accomodation problems, i.e. double bunking, container cells. So, a nice modern prison has to be better for prisoners.

   “Or why Joyce is cutting a dirty ‘convention centre for pokies’ deal when international convention numbers are falling?”

   You can never have too many convention centres. 🙂 Having a half decent one might attract more conventions.:

   “Or why they’re spending $1b a year on low BCR highways when vehicle numbers are falling?”

   For one thing, new highways are green if they reduce travelling distances and reduce congestion. A lot less vehicle emissions in the atmosphere. Also, according to the report you provided, trucking is increasing. Furthermore, the long-term trend has been for an increasing population. This will eventually mean more cars. Finally, even when petrol becomes unaffordable, petrol cars will have been replaced by something else in that time. So we will still need roads.
   • Colonial Viper 8.1

     9 March 2012 at 4:00 pm

     Oh bullshit. “You can never have too many convention centres”. Fucking ridiculousness.

     For one thing, new highways are green if they reduce travelling distances and reduce congestion.

     The stupidity of it. Lke saying its green to double the number of cars on the road if each car is 10% more fuel efficient.

     Not to mention that using petroleum byproducts to make roads just encourages the oil industry more.
   • ChrisH 8.2

     9 March 2012 at 4:19 pm

     Predicting that cars are the way of the future is like predicting disco on vinyl was the way of the future in music in 1976. Looked like it at the time.

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