class war

How has the year been for you?

Written By: karol - Date published: 9:42 am, December 18th, 2013 - 145 comments

The government &  many of its cheerleaders are joining in a re-vitalised chorus of a brighter future right around the corner of “Christmas cheer”. Many Kiwis are struggling with the realities of poverty.  How was your year on the inequality scale?

Off The Pages…

Written By: Bill - Date published: 5:43 pm, December 15th, 2013 - 17 comments

…and into the world.

The party I will vote for ….

Written By: karol - Date published: 10:39 am, December 13th, 2013 - 157 comments

… will be one that has effective policies to make a more equal, inclusive and democratic society, will seriously address the concerns of those least well-off, and not just pander to the concerns of people on (comfortable) middle incomes.Values in need of a slogan?

What chance is there of a bipartisan approach to child poverty?

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:19 am, December 9th, 2013 - 354 comments

The findings of the child poverty monitoring report are being released today.  One in four or 265,000 children live in poverty and one in ten live in severe poverty.  Children’s Commissioner Dr Russell Wills has called for a bipartisan political approach to the issue but Paula Bennett has replied by saying that she is incredibly proud of the Government’s record.  How can you be incredibly proud of allowing one in four children to live in poverty?

Assets sales make Crown a billion poorer

Written By: James Henderson - Date published: 9:22 am, November 29th, 2013 - 122 comments

In the Budget, the Government said asset sales would increase the net worth of the Crown by half a billion dollars because eager mums and dads were going to snap the shares up for more than they were worth on the government books. As we know, it didn’t quite work out that way. The Greens have updated the Budget and found the impact is $1.5 billion worse than expected.

Boris Johnson thinks the super rich are a put upon minority

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 12:36 pm, November 26th, 2013 - 21 comments

From the you have to be out of your freaking mind file comes this gem from England.  Boris Johnson thinks that the ultra wealthy are a put upon bullied minority just like the homeless and Irish travellers and ex-gang members and deserve our thanks and gratitude.

Is it any wonder?

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:58 am, November 13th, 2013 - 90 comments

Never wonder again why National is opposed to any kind of wealth tax, including capital gains tax, and would rather tax hard work instead. Never wonder again why there’s hundreds of millions of dollars for uneconomic irrigation projects but crumbs to feed hungry kids. Just look at this table of what the richest MPs won, and remember their friends are of the same class.

“A Tale of two countries” – NZ/Aotearoa

Written By: karol - Date published: 8:11 am, November 3rd, 2013 - 81 comments

Yesterday David Cunliffe told a Tale of Two New Zealands.  Today 2 NZ Herald articles show where NZ has gone wrong with its fractured and increasingly unequal society: our ailing state supported TVNZ; a high-living property-buying elite.  Will Cunliffe talk about state housing today?

The anti-democrats NZ tea party

Written By: karol - Date published: 10:10 am, October 30th, 2013 - 82 comments

From the ranks of those working in the murky depths of dirty, disgusting and despicable politics, comes a piss take of a “union” of “taxpayers”, to lobby against a fair, democratic, caring and inclusive state and for the already greedy and powerful.

Outsourcing poverty: Paula Bennett’s shame

Written By: karol - Date published: 8:30 am, October 29th, 2013 - 51 comments

A charity is taking on the funding of the essential work on monitoring poverty, in the face of Paula Bennett, Bill English and John Key et al failing to do their job: a return to Dickensian & Edwardian times.

Is society collapse and inequality linked?

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:34 am, October 27th, 2013 - 61 comments

US mathematician Peter Turchin believes that mathematics can predict events such as the recent constitutional crisis in America and has constructed a model based on social and economic data that he believes predicts periods of instability and disaster for nations.  This work shows the negative side of inequality and neatly compliments the work of Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett in the Spirit Level that showed the benefits of increased equality.

Because it’s all about “me”

Written By: karol - Date published: 6:24 pm, October 22nd, 2013 - 22 comments

Cunliffe talked of moving from a “from a cost-based to a values-based” strategy. We need a new narrative: valuing all, including children of those on benefits; about long term benefits for all of less inequality & poverty, and more affordable housing & better public transport, & more.

Your Brighter Future: Burn.

Written By: Bill - Date published: 1:13 pm, October 2nd, 2013 - 15 comments

“I just utter one fear…”

Remember that?

The cleaner & the ugly face of National

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 7:05 am, September 27th, 2013 - 164 comments

Imagine that your job was to clean 130 toilets every day. Imagine the grinding unpleasantness of it. Imagine the horrors some disgusting person would regularly leave for you to deal with. Imagine you do that for just above the minimum wage, barely enough to support your family, far from enough to live a real life. And imagine seeing one of the people whose shit you clean sneer at you.

John Key’s anti-democratic government

Written By: karol - Date published: 9:31 am, September 17th, 2013 - 48 comments

John Key tries to smear the winner of Labour’s democratic leadership contest as “far left”, while his government continues in its anti-democratic, plutocratic ways: sale of Meridian to avoid referendum; Joyce’s Broadband pricing “arm twisting”.