Open mike 05/07/2012

45 comments on “Open mike 05/07/2012 ”

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1. mickysavage 1

   5 July 2012 at 7:48 am

   How about this for an envy tax?

   In France the new Socialist administration has hiked taxes on the wealthy and on corporates.  This includes an eye watering 75% marginal tax on those earning over one million euros a year. 

   No doubt if the RWNJs are right there will now be a mass exodus of France’s best and brightest as they head off overseas in search of regimes where their worth is properly recognized and they are taxed less.  Considerations such as the need to maintain a properly functioning health and education system are of no concern to them and in fact prevent them from owning that extra house or taking that extra overseas holiday.

   Ordinary French people may however hope that the policy succeeds in ridding France of some of its more anti social elements.  Because anyone that wealthy who objects paying their share when their country is in need is not someone who is of benefit to their country.
   • Fortran 1.1

     5 July 2012 at 10:02 am

     Have read that there are some 400,000 young, very well educated Frenchies now in London.
     They represented the second largest constituancy at the recent elections.
   • aerobubble 1.2

     5 July 2012 at 10:16 am

     Nonsense. People who live in France live there because of the lifestyle is conducive to their needs, and so nations are very invested in taxing them should they remain there for a considerable period, and if they were truly richer than rich they’d live in Monaco anyway. So its nonsense, tax invasion is not inevitable, people who don’t want to live in a first class, first food nation, can of course burger off to under and unregulated shonkey nations, and good riddance. Losing a few free loaders is hardly a reason to not regulate, if the free loaders leave since they weren’t paying their fair share already!

     As for the their too skilled to be lost, well that crap, there are growing numbers of very skilled people who under or unemployed just waiting to take over their niche, and nation states and their
     people eager to hire those who live using their services and pay tax to their government. Its never good government to make policy based on negatives, well unless of course, your government is a
     lazy self-serving bureaucracy itself.
     • gareth 1.2.1

       5 July 2012 at 10:40 am

       I have family (by marriage) who live and work in Paris both for banks. Interestingly they are paid through Luxembourg.
       Also of interest is the major French banks are steadily shifting the workforce into Bulgaria. They are bringing people into France for training then once up to speed they are shifting the departments into Sofia. A job paying @6000 euro a month in France pays about $1000 euro a month in Bulgaria.
       • Draco T Bastard 1.2.1.1

         5 July 2012 at 12:48 pm

         That’s obviously the bottom end of the pay scale. Bet it’s not like that at the top.
         • gareth 1.2.1.1.1

           5 July 2012 at 12:57 pm

           That’d be correct but the people on the ground floor a getting royally shat on, training the people that end up taking their jobs offshore, The couple I know are both reasonably high up hence the interesting arrangements to get round french tax laws….
   • Colonial Viper 1.3

     5 July 2012 at 10:59 pm

     This includes an eye watering 75% marginal tax on those earning over one million euros a year.

     The top tax rate is too low.

     There should be a 91% top tier, just like the US used to have, for those earning over €5M pa.
2. Tiger Mountain 2

   5 July 2012 at 8:44 am

   Could Somalia be suggested as a holiday destination? The tender mercies of the market left to its own devices there might be just what some of the French bourgeoisie need.
3. Jackal 3

   5 July 2012 at 10:07 am

   What else is missing from the news?

   A group of students has interrupted a speech from Prime Minister John Key as he opened the new Medical and Health Sciences complex at the University of Auckland yesterday.The students from protest group Blockade the Budget stood in the wind and rain chanting ‘We’re cold, we’re wet, we’re drowning is student debt!’ – One protestor was able to make her way into the ceremony to address Key directly.

   Why isn’t New Zealands MSM reporting on this? One can only presume that it’s because they’ve been bribed to not report on things that make the government look bad…
   • aerobubble 3.1

     5 July 2012 at 10:36 am

     Nobody has ever been sacked for pushing right wing talking points that support the wealthy end of town. As can be clearly seen in Australia where a women inherits a massive mining shareholding and now thinks they are more worthy than anyone to dictate media content. Never have so few been
     allowed to remain convinced that they are economic geniuses. Where’s the balance, the ridicule,
     the DEMOCRACY.
     • prism 3.1.1

       5 July 2012 at 12:51 pm

       arobubble
       I don’t quite get your point. “ in Australia where a women inherits a massive mining shareholding and now thinks they are more worthy than anyone to dictate media content.

       Is it one woman who thinks she is, or all women who thinks they are, more worthy because of inherited massive mining wealth, or other wealth presumably, who want to control the media?
   • Vicky32 3.2

     5 July 2012 at 5:50 pm

     One can only presume that it’s because they’ve been bribed to not report on things that make the government look bad…

     Very likely!
4. Pete George 4

   5 July 2012 at 11:59 am

   Most New Zealanders back the Government’s plan to increase exploration for oil, gas and minerals, a Herald-DigiPoll survey suggests…

   It has also been welcomed by Labour list MP Shane Jones, who sees mining as the best bet to stem the flow of Northland Maori leaving for better prospects in Australia.

   27% supported the Government’s aim to increase oil gas and mineral exploration
   40% (almost ) cautiously supported it.
   30% strongly strongly opposed or leaned towards opposing increased exploration.

   Mr Jones said the result was a rebuttal for those opposed to mining in his Northland home region.

   “We in Maoridom must not buy uncritically into the hostile rhetoric from the Greenies.

   “It’s about time they showed as much concern for the brown Kiwis disappearing to Aussie as for the habitat of the brown spotted kiwi.”

   http://www.odt.co.nz/news/politics/215776/key-buoyed-backing-more-mineral-searches

   A big quandary, industry and jobs versus conservation. This balance will be challenging for a Labour/Green government to manage.
   • Pascal's bookie 4.1

     5 July 2012 at 12:11 pm

     You do realise that “cautiously supports” mining is the Green party position eh there Pete?
     • OneTrack 4.1.1

       5 July 2012 at 8:44 pm

       Yeah, right.
       • Colonial Viper 4.1.1.1

         5 July 2012 at 11:00 pm

         Yes, right.
5. Uturn 5

   5 July 2012 at 12:24 pm

   Far as I know, industry and jobs versus conservation isn’t much of a quandary for those with a understanding of their whakapapa. It doesn’t just stop with who was your father’s father’s brother’s sister. It runs right out to being related in a family way to the earth and environment; and when the people suffer the environment suffers and vice versa. Pretty obscure stuff for modern whitey to understand, but our ancient ancestors were just like them too, only we tend to forget so we can court mental illnesses and social diseases for profit.

   Shane Jones talking about “maoridom” and being “uncritical” in that context seems a bit oxymoronic. Sure people need to eat, but just because someone like Steven Joyce turns up on TV, with a cliché built from pakeha inferiority complex as justification, and says either you dig and work and sell yourselves, your past and your future or starve, doesn’t mean that’s the only choice. And since such an approach contradicts Treaty principles, it’s more complicated than the herald digipoll or the profiteers would like to paint it. Luckily, people with wider perspectives carry more weight than Shane Jones. At present Labour don’t know which way is up, so this sort of discussion would be out of their league. I’m not sure how you would “manage” the unethical.
6. Draco T Bastard 6

   5 July 2012 at 12:43 pm

   Why the sudden use of Captcha on some comments? Seems to happen every time I include a link. It’s really irritating especially when I put in what looks to be the right alphabet soup and the machine declines it.

   I just had a comment not get posted because of this change.
   • weka 6.1

     5 July 2012 at 9:16 pm

     Yeah I had a post go through that too, no link it though. I couldn’t figure out what triggered the captcha.
7. Draco T Bastard 7

   5 July 2012 at 12:50 pm

   And Labour proves it’s out of touch with reality.

   In fact, it’s almost looking like Labour don’t want to be part of the next government. Either that or they’re looking to go into coalition with National.
   • bad12 7.1

     5 July 2012 at 6:00 pm

     Have had the feeling that Labour are either ‘gun-shy’ of Government or are simply quite happy to play Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum and wait until the electoral pendulum swings again,

     Have thought this way since Phill Goff charged into the 2011 election blindsiding the voter with the pension raising policy that until them had not seen the light of day…
     • Anne 7.1.1

       5 July 2012 at 8:29 pm

       Phill Goff charged into the 2011 election blindsiding the voter with the pension raising policy that until them had not seen the light of day…

       Bad election strategy from Labour bad12.

       I’m not in the habit of sending emails to politicians, but I do remember sending one around June/July to Phil Goff’s office pleading with them to… put any new policy out there before the start of the RWC. My view was: voters would have a bit of time to digest the broad outline and once the RWC was over, Labour could fill in the details.

       I don’t know whether it would have worked, but it was better than blindsiding them 3 weeks before the election.

       My experience with Labour is that they seem to over-estimate the ability of the average voter to swiftly comprehend often complex policy platforms.
       • Colonial Viper 7.1.1.1

         5 July 2012 at 10:56 pm

         Labour is overly fond of overly complex policy platforms.

         They should learn something very simple: complexity does not last.

         Savage made more change for the ordinary person in a few years in power before he died, than Labour has done in its last 5 terms in power.

         Fucking sucks.
       • bad12 7.1.1.2

         6 July 2012 at 12:24 am

         “Bad election strategy”, i would err more on the side of attaching expletives to that particular piece of ‘strategy’ as out-right stupidity,

         That’s the sort of policy that need be fronted from a position of already being in Government where the ‘discussion’ can then take place over a 2 year period…
8. Dr Terry 8

   5 July 2012 at 1:18 pm

   This seems true Draco – Labour plodding along its weary way, if anything finding it hard to distinguish its policies from those of National. Maybe there could be a coalition! Then the Greens would be main opposition!
   • Colonial Viper 8.1

     6 July 2012 at 1:03 am

     A Grand Coalition between national and labour has been mooted before.
     • muzza 8.1.1

       6 July 2012 at 7:27 am

       Yes it has, quite a few years ago..

       I’m not sure if the public would actually tweek at that point, the “democracy” they believed in really was just a charade..

       It would be a moment of honesty from those who already own both parties, showing themselves!
9. captain hook 9

   5 July 2012 at 1:19 pm

   WAH WAH WAH.
10. Dave Kennedy 10

    5 July 2012 at 5:29 pm

    ACC used incentives to deny support for those who needed it and now financial incentives are being used to force guilty confessions from those on legal aid: http://localbodies-bsprout.blogspot.co.nz/2012/07/unethical-incentives-skew-service.html
11. smokeskreen 11

    5 July 2012 at 5:40 pm

    I wonder how Auckland ratepayers feel about picking up the tab of $10.6 million over 5 years for V8 Supercar racing at Pukekohe especially after the fiasco in Hamilton which has left the Council there with a $40 million debt as a result of this race.

    Auckland Council voted today at its Strategy and Finance Committee meeting by nine votes to five to bring the V8s back to Pukekohe. This meeting was held behind closed doors apparently with only a summary of the risks being made available to councillors (rather than a detailed risk review of the proposal being made). Why was it debated behind closed doors when so much ratepayer funds are involved in this risky event?

    In Auckland’s case, V8 Supercars Australia would own and underwrite the event to protect ratepayers from future shocks which is something that did not happen in Hamilton. The perceived “benefits” are already being touted by proponants – these of course are almost always overblown.

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10817251

    Hamilton City Councillors were also supposedly kept in the dark about the “details” and look what happened there. I thought Local Government was supposed to be sticking to “core business”. Is this core business? I don’t think so.
    • Draco T Bastard 11.1

      5 July 2012 at 6:12 pm

      Well, this Aucklander is absolutely disgusted by it. Haven’t the morons heard of Anthropogenic Climate Change?
      • OneTrack 11.1.1

        5 July 2012 at 8:48 pm

        They have heard about it. They just don’t believe it (just like all those troughers that went to the Rio conference)?
    • higherstandard 11.2

      5 July 2012 at 6:26 pm

      Gross waste of ratepayer money and council time and resource.

      But then what more do you expect from these twerps that get voted in.

      http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/7227905/Len-Brown-gifted-warrior-title
      • muzza 11.2.1

        6 July 2012 at 7:49 am

        HS – Be more concerned with those working inside council (some employess, many contractors, who are not voted in, and who are currently doing, and will be doing even more damage to Auckland, and Aucklanders over coming years!

        Cut cut cut!
    • muzza 11.3

      6 July 2012 at 7:46 am

      Maybe they think costs can offset the savings from outsourcing more functions from various council departments, which is the agenda in play by members of the “transformation” team!
12. bad12 12

    5 July 2012 at 5:52 pm

    The American bankster in London, Diamond, telling the British Parliamentarians having a look at Barclays Bank’s defrauding of the people via LIBOR pulls a Sergeant Shultz ”I knew nothing,nothing,do you hear,

    We all should just believe that the 14 on the Barclays trading floor all dreamed up the scam on their own,for their sole benefit and the Banks cut of the loot was all incidental,

    The whole f**king lot of them from the 14 on the trading floor on up to the board of directors should all be tossed in an old,cold jail cell until such time as they detail the extent of the LIBOR and other frauds Barclays has continually involved itself in,

    Barclays Bank itself should be seized and become a state owned bank as it’s obviously part of the proceeds of criminal activity by an organized criminal gang with the legitimate areas of its banking activities nothing more than a front…
13. Draco T Bastard 13

    5 July 2012 at 6:23 pm

    A good breakdown of the bollocks of raising the retirement age.

    If society were organised in a different way – based on production to meet human needs of all rather than production for the private profit of the few – an aging population would be no problem at all, simply something to celebrate as a wonderful human achievement.

    Indeed, it could be added, the only thing stopping us from having a 20-hour week, free health, education and childcare, full employment and no worries about surviving economically in our old age is capitalism. Isn’t it time we saw it, rather than an aging population, as the problem?

    The problem isn’t the retirement age or even how we’ll pay for it but the theft of the wealth by the capitalists.
    • bad12 13.1

      5 July 2012 at 8:46 pm

      Even under the auspices of the ugly little neo-liberal winners and losers system of capitalism we have today the pension for all is affordable,

      Given the actual numbers of those retiring and the amount of those pensions payments it’s a simple matter for Government to print the monies required to cover any shortfall, the drop in the bucket that would be the total required would move inflation to the tune of sweet f**k-all and the dilution of the value of the NZDollar would be negligible,

      Stunts such as the raising of the age of retirement are simply the ‘haves’ attempting to ration what the ‘have-nots’ get so as to, under the present means by which the beans are counted, put more into the hands of the haves…
    • joe90 13.2

      5 July 2012 at 8:47 pm

      The html fairies are at it again DtB.

      http://rdln.wordpress.com/2012/06/29/pensions-and-the-retirement-age-the-problem-is-capitalism-not-an-aging-population/
      • Draco T Bastard 13.2.1

        6 July 2012 at 1:16 am

        Thanks joe.
    • weka 13.3

      5 July 2012 at 9:21 pm

      Draco, can you please repost that link, it’s not working properly.
14. McFlock 14

    5 July 2012 at 6:30 pm

    Nice to see private prison operations are exceeding all expectations of efficiency – oh, wait…
    • Draco T Bastard 14.1

      6 July 2012 at 1:19 am

      And they aren’t even being held to the standards that corrections was achieving.
15. joe90 15

    5 July 2012 at 10:48 pm

    Dirtied myself at Slaters and thought the name of the author of a piece he’s citing, Roberts, Blankenhorn, and the Power of Liberal Intimidation sounded familiar.

    Jezebel reminded me.

    Conservative pundit and marital rape apologist Dennis Prager has some advice for you ladies with faltering marriages: don’t think that just because you don’t want to have sex your husband shouldn’t try to fuck you.
16. bad12 16

    6 July 2012 at 12:07 am

    The Herald is reporting tonight that ‘the plods’ have finished looking for criminality within ACT’s John Banks electoral returns, and,the file is now with the Crown Law Office to decide whether or not to lay charges, a decision that might take up to 2 weeks,

    Bank’s seems to have taken the vows of silence for the duration of the investigation and i have to wonder at the latest events as i would have thought if ‘the plods’ had found no criminal behaviour there would have been no need for the referral to Crown Law,

    Should Bank,s be charged and convicted then He is gone, and, the Slippery led National Government is effectively without a majority until a by-election could be held,

    That sounds like fun…

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