capitalism
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More jobs and pay bad – JPMorgan
Written By: - Date published: 11:19 am, November 13th, 2009 - 7 comments
I was sent a press release from financiers JPMorgan in Australia. There’s a line in it that reveals much about how the capitalist class views the rest of us. “labour shortages and wage pressures probably will rear their heads again. This will, of course, be a concern for the RBA [Reserve Bank of Australia]” Let […]
McCarten on capitalism
Written By: - Date published: 11:25 am, November 8th, 2009 - 32 comments
Matt McCarten’s Herald column this week is a call for every working New Zealander to go and see Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story. I haven’t managed to catch it yet, but judging by McCarten’s review Moore’s latest will be a must-see: Some of the points he raises – such as workers having representation on […]
The myth of upward mobility
Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, November 6th, 2009 - 62 comments
Yesterday, we looked at what a vastly unfair and unequal system capitalism is. The control of the fruits of production by the few means that wealth accumulates to them and the rest of us get a pittance. The wealthiest 10% of people own over half of the wealth of this country – net worths of […]
Is this as good as it gets?
Written By: - Date published: 10:59 am, November 5th, 2009 - 66 comments
Most of the wealth in New Zealand is owned by a tiny fraction of the people because our political/economic system makes it that way. 10% of people have more income than 50% combined. That’s just income. The inequality of wealth distribution is far greater. The net wealth of 10% of people is 20 times […]
NZ’s capitalists dream of absolute power
Written By: - Date published: 6:49 am, November 5th, 2009 - 20 comments
From Stuff: “Richlister Alan Gibbs will host former National Party leader Don Brash and ACT founder Sir Roger Douglas to discuss what they would do as “New Zealand’s dictator for a year” That New Zealand’s rich and powerful have invited their political hirelings from ACT and National to fantasise about eliminating any last shreds of democracy that […]
Remember who they’re fighting for
Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, October 28th, 2009 - Comments Off on Remember who they’re fighting for
This memo was sent by the Insurance Council to its members in 2005 but it may as well have been sent this week. Because as sure as National was keeping its agenda secret and having clandestine talks with the insurers about privatising ACC in 2005 they will be having the same talks under wraps while […]
Big business demands to pillage state
Written By: - Date published: 5:49 pm, October 24th, 2009 - 18 comments
Fran O’Sullivan runs up some more big business proposals today unsubtly reminding Key that big business, which put up the cash to get him into power, expects pay back by being allowed to pillage the State: Behind the scenes the two task-forces investigating capital markets and tax reforms are taking a look at whether a […]
Management: clueless
Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, October 23rd, 2009 - 5 comments
Saw this article on Stuff yesterday: Employers and employees have dramatically different opinions of why workers remain in their jobs, says research released on Tuesday showing US companies may struggle to retain employees in an improved job market. Employees cite benefits, financial compensation, and their career growth and earnings potential as the top three reasons […]
Govt tax advisor told Westpac how to cheat on taxes
Written By: - Date published: 10:17 am, October 22nd, 2009 - 3 comments
John Shewan is a member of the Government’s Tax Working Group. A decade ago he was advising Westpac what minimal amount of tax it should pay to avoid arousing IRD’s suspicion as it perpetrated the single biggest tax rip off in New Zealand history. Here’s the key bit from the High Court judgment: [563] In […]
Key’s divide and rule to cut wages
Written By: - Date published: 8:28 am, October 22nd, 2009 - 20 comments
John Key says that if school support staff want pay-rises then teachers should sacrifice the ones they bargained for. Tell him to get stuffed. I don’t see him and his rich mates handing back the hundreds of dollars a week each in tax-cuts that National gave. I don’t see Key or his buddies Mark Weldon and Rob Fyfe […]
Poor managers hurting NZ
Written By: - Date published: 1:23 pm, October 14th, 2009 - 22 comments
What a sad state the management workforce of this country is in. Just think about these recent stories: Open Country, locking out their workers, employing scab labour, creating an environmental mess and blaming it on the workers they locked out – all because the workers joined the union and wanted some guaranteed hours. The appalling way that […]
Why no punishment for Westpac?
Written By: - Date published: 8:26 am, October 13th, 2009 - 80 comments
You would have seen that Westpac was found to have undertaken the largest theft of tax money in New Zealand history. From 1998 to 2002, they hid $586 million in tax due to our government. Add about 6% interest a year and the total they owe us is $961 million. My problem is that the […]
Dead peasant insurance
Written By: - Date published: 3:33 pm, October 10th, 2009 - 18 comments
In case you needed reminding how completely deviod of morals and ethics unbridled capitalism is, meet dead peasant insurance. Here’s Mark Ames of Exiled Online‘s beautiful rant against employers making money off their workers’ deaths, and the whole screwed up, unethical, inhuman system:
Capitalism: A Love Story
Written By: - Date published: 4:45 pm, October 5th, 2009 - 19 comments
Just found the trailer on youtube. No word yet when it’s coming to New Zealand.
Crocodile tears from Crafars
Written By: - Date published: 3:20 pm, September 29th, 2009 - 36 comments
I saw one of the Crafar brothers on the TV last night. Crying fake tears over calves that a whistle-blower had revealed were being left to starve on one of their farms. The Crafars are prime examples of what’s wrong with the capitalist class and, because capitalism is essentially a system that rewards sociopathy and […]
Reverse Midas Touch
Written By: - Date published: 1:41 pm, September 26th, 2009 - 14 comments
And so ends a great day’s trading under the erstwhile eye of Mr Key. Looks like they won’t be inviting John back to give the opening bell at the NYSE.
Socialist America
Written By: - Date published: 9:21 am, September 26th, 2009 - 8 comments
The health care debate going on in America is a very serious debate, and who wins it has important implications for what kind of direction America takes from here (more in a later post perhaps). The Republican / Conservative / talk back radio framing of the debate is as dishonest as it is predictable. This […]
No pay freeze at the top
Written By: - Date published: 9:28 am, September 23rd, 2009 - 11 comments
It seems the trend of rewarding company bosses with extravagant pay rises regardless of performance isn’t limited to Telecom’s $7 million man, Paul Reynolds. The Dom Post reports the bosses of Contact and Skellerup have been given huge pay rises, despite both companies’ profits taking a dive in the last year. Contact’s managing director David […]
No, I’ll pay, I insist
Written By: - Date published: 1:08 pm, September 21st, 2009 - 18 comments
So trucking companies are unwilling to pay for the extra damage that 53 tonne trucks will do. Companies trying to privatise the gains and socialise the losses? Gotta love those capitalists. And there’s Joyce telling us to harden up and cop it. Thank goodness we’ve got the Tories helping private business pocket gains at the taxpayers’ cost. […]
Corporate bully-boys step it up a level
Written By: - Date published: 6:14 am, September 18th, 2009 - 16 comments
The Open Country Cheese dispute is underway. Workers are striking against the bosses’ attempts to casualise their hours and reduce their conditions. They are not striking for huge pay increases, despite the lies of Open Country. Open Country Cheese, part-owned by the notorious Talleys and tied to various National MPs via the Dairy Investment Fund […]
What next, Soylent Green?
Written By: - Date published: 5:31 am, September 16th, 2009 - 29 comments
The Wall Street financiers crapped out on their sub-prime gambles, inflicting economic devastation on the taxpayers who generously bailed-them out in return. Now, they need a new gamble, a new game in which they bet using other people’s money while skimming off the cream for themselves until it all collapses. The new game? Betting on […]
Battlelines
Written By: - Date published: 2:00 pm, September 11th, 2009 - 7 comments
We’re seeing a new pattern in work relations emerging. The big employers, emboldened by having their party in power and using the recession as an excuse, are attacking workers’ pay and conditions. But this isn’t 1991 redux. The unionised workers of today have joined voluntarily and believe in collective action; the unions are no longer […]
Capitalism, it’s not a love-in
Written By: - Date published: 5:10 am, September 2nd, 2009 - 38 comments
I find the Right’s assumption that the bosses are acting in some greater interest fascinating. There’s this unwillingness to believe that the bosses would be acting in their own interests and that what’s in their interests are often not in the interests of the rest of us. Look at the comments yesterday on the Telecom […]
Benefits, wages and anger
Written By: - Date published: 11:51 am, July 31st, 2009 - 69 comments
The recent furore about benefit levels has brought a lot of comments along the lines of ” I don’t get it why should they?” out of the woodwork along with a lot of hardluck stories from low wage earners such as this one from Phoenix on Colin Espiner’s blog: I am 6 months pregnant with […]
Break the Power of Money.
Written By: - Date published: 8:33 am, June 14th, 2009 - 30 comments
For some weeks our media has been distracted by various sideshows. Worth, Swineflu, Mt Albert, Flight 447 and of course David Bain, have all in turn captured our national psyche… but meanwhile the most pressing political issue, the global fiscal crisis, grinds on with little comment. The crisis response more or less worked. Historians will […]
Zimbabwe leads the world
Written By: - Date published: 2:00 pm, April 24th, 2009 - 38 comments
It seems that Zimbabwe is, after all, a world leader. Mugabe’s government which followed the IMF and World Bank’s neo liberal plan for their economy to the letter, has shown us all how these policies will finish up. The austerity medicine prescribed for Zimbabwe by the world Bank, Included oppressive and harsh debt repayment, and massive […]
Capitalism losing its allure
Written By: - Date published: 9:09 am, April 13th, 2009 - 36 comments
The capitalist doctrine sure has taken a beating lately. Not only have its raw excesses created a global crash which shows no signs of abating, not only has it been bailed out and propped up everywhere by nationalisation and trillion dollar taxpayer funded handouts, but now it seems that the people are starting to lose […]
Gordon Campbell states the obvious
Written By: - Date published: 2:21 pm, March 8th, 2009 - 26 comments
Gordon Campbell has been having fun pointing the finger at Treasury in “How Treasury put us on the hook to finance companies“. Essentially the treasury and therefore Bill English appear to have been somewhat idiotic. If a firm stopped taking deposits last September, and was heavily exposed in the current economic climate to a major […]
“We are all socialists now”
Written By: - Date published: 12:09 pm, February 17th, 2009 - 21 comments
“We are all socialists now”, or so says the cover of the latest Newsweek. And to be fair, you’ve got to start wondering when the United States is in the process of nationalising the means of exchange and a Tory Prime Minister of New Zealand is looking at effectively buying out a chunk of one […]
Debt
Written By: - Date published: 9:19 am, December 27th, 2008 - 11 comments
A couple of good but not quite satisfying articles today. The first is Brian Gaynor’s analysis of the economy in which he lays out where we stand financially as a nation and blames the housing boom for our current account deficit: But the message from both the GDP and current account figures is that New […]
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