Open mike 07/01/2011

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, January 7th, 2011 - 27 comments
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27 comments on “Open mike 07/01/2011 ”

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  1. Jenny 1
    7 January 2011 at 6:13 am

    Do vultures crow?

    In NZ they do

    “Perfect storm of climate and oil puts world into ‘danger territory’ ”

    By Sean O’Grady, Economics Editor The Independent

    From:The coming hunger

    But is this a crime scene?

    “Big global banks are fostering an orgy of speculation in world food prices.”

    Should the Feds be ashamed?

    Are price controls needed?

    Should GST be removed from food?

    Should a Financial Transaction Tax be imposed to catch the speculators?

    capcha – “temperature” as in, rising.

    • LynW 1.1
      7 January 2011 at 7:52 am

      Enough is enough! Greed is indeed ugly! Yes to all of Jenny’s above suggestions! A financial transaction tax stat closely followed by the rest.If NZ employment laws can be changed so hastily why not others!

    • john 1.2
      7 January 2011 at 11:36 am

      Hi Jenny
      The World is at Peak Overshoot of the Earth’s ability to sustain us. We are at Peak extraction of everything and the result is now to be rapid decline due to a degraded resource base. We have run through our immense inheritance of natural wealth. Refer Richard Heinberg’s book “Peak Everything” in the Public Libarary. We have reached the end of growth and what’s needed now is a massive retreat: !.Reduce human numbers as quickly as possible humanely. 2. Allow the Ocean’s fish stocks to start to recover by stopping most of the overfishing. 3. As a species we have to aim at “Small is beautiful” in everything and learn to live locally. This also means completely dismantling global trade which exponentially impacts negatively the Earth’s ecosystem and allows overpopulation and over consumption.
      If we don’t do this it’ll happen anyway due to Climate Change getting worse and worse and oil and gas and coal disappearing as economic fuels.
      Capitalism is exploitative and should be stopped in the speculative area that includes making houses unaffordable to young Kiwis by the banks loaning money to other kiwis to buy houses they don’t need so as to get rich by capital gain on the backs of working kiwis, this should have been stopped a long time ago!

      “The interplay of rising fuel prices, the growing use of biofuels, bad weather and soaring futures markets drove up the price of food dramatically in 2008, prompting violent protests in Mexico, Indonesia, Egypt, Cameroon and Haiti. Last year’s spike was provoked mainly by the freakish weather conditions in Russia and Ukraine, but one of the underlying trends is the growing and changing appetites of east Asia.”

      “The Tax Justice campaign has a two pronged answer to rising food prices: remove GST from food and tax the speculators instead.”
      “It’s obscene that the government insists on maintaining this horrible tax on food when people are struggling to buy the food they need,” says Gunson.

      “And New Zealand must join the global crusade against financial speculation. Introducing a tax on speculative money flows would go along way towards discouraging an economic activity that’s causing so much pain for grassroots people.”

      Definitely remove GST from food and tax the foreign holiday 3 home rich more!!!
      Also all immigration must be stopped, Industrial civilization is in its end game and we need to learn to be totally self sufficient as much as we can!
      This is the Century of economic and civilization contraction. The oil driven Fiesta of the 20c is in the past!

      • Draco T Bastard 1.2.1
        7 January 2011 at 12:44 pm

        Definitely remove GST from food and tax the foreign holiday 3 home rich more!!!

        Actually, just remove GST. It’s a regressive tax designed to put more of the tax burden on the poor and remove it from the rich.

        Also all immigration must be stopped, Industrial civilization is in its end game and we need to learn to be totally self sufficient as much as we can!

        /agreed

        There’s no way that NZ can support more people via agriculture in a world where access to oil derived fuel is severely restricted.

        • Lanthanide 1.2.1.1
          7 January 2011 at 9:46 pm

          “Actually, just remove GST. It’s a regressive tax designed to put more of the tax burden on the poor and remove it from the rich.”
          No, it’s designed to tax consumption, on the basis that consumption is something that should be discouraged. The fact that it’s regressive doesn’t mean it is designed to be a burden on the poor. VAT for example excludes basic necessities of life – no reason we couldn’t have that here. Fair Tax in the US is all about replacing income tax entirely with a 23% consumption tax, and giving out monthly stipends from the government to help the poor (essentially a form of universal income).

          • McFlock 1.2.1.1.1
            7 January 2011 at 10:20 pm

            But the consumption tax component is on flat monetary value.

            A real tax to discourage consumption would be heavily graduated, with “gold dust to sprinkle on your morning cup of tea” taxed at 90%, not just the same 15% as for whatever you class as “nonessential”.

            Much easier just to tax income progressively.

          • Draco T Bastard 1.2.1.1.2
            7 January 2011 at 11:18 pm

            Timing is important. GST was implemented when top tax rates were lowered (Technically they were all lowered but the rich benefited the most). GST was increased when top tax rates were lowered. All that GST has done is remove taxes on the rich and put them on the poor who, due to the regressive nature of GST, end up paying more as a percentage of their income than the rich.

            Oh, and BTW, all the incentives used in the US over the last 30 years to increase saving have failed to increase saving. They’ve managed to decrease the taxes paid by the rich though. GST is a tax that’s, supposedly, designed to encourage saving (Doesn’t seem to have worked here either).

          • Deborah Kean 1.2.1.1.3
            7 January 2011 at 11:19 pm

            The USA being what it is, Lanthanide, they’d bring in the 23% consumption tax, then forget all about the monthly stipends.
            Honestly, can you imagine the home of Birthers, racists, murderers and war-mongers giving a tinkers’ about the poor?
            Deb

            • Colonial Viper 1.2.1.1.3.1
              7 January 2011 at 11:26 pm

              giving a tinkers’ about the poor?

              Funny you should say that.

              *Healthcare Reform*
              http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/07/opinion/07krugman.html?hp

              Employee dumping. This is the most serious threat. Companies and unions across America are running the numbers and discovering they would be better off if, after 2014, they induced poorer and sicker employees to move to public insurance exchanges, where subsidies are much higher.

              *State Deficits Spiralling Out of Control*
              http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/07/opinion/07brooks.html?hp

              Yet Mr. Perry wasn’t lying about those “tough conservative decisions”: Texas has indeed taken a hard, you might say brutal, line toward its most vulnerable citizens. Among the states, Texas ranks near the bottom in education spending per pupil, while leading the nation in the percentage of residents without health insurance. It’s hard to imagine what will happen if the state tries to eliminate its huge deficit purely through further cuts.

              Reminder: the USA is the richest country in the world, by far.

    • Draco T Bastard 1.3
      7 January 2011 at 12:39 pm

      Quoting first link:

      The record breaking rise in global food prices announced today by the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation’s Food Price Index (FPI) is great news for farmers and New Zealand as a whole in tough economic times.

      Well, it’s great for farmers, not so great for everyone else who won’t see any of that money (as the farmers dodge as much tax as possible through trusts and other artificial constructs) and who are already struggling to pay the bills and to buy food. A land that grows huge amounts of food and people can’t afford to eat is a sign that our society is very very sick.

      • Jenny 1.3.1
        7 January 2011 at 9:29 pm

        I was in my car listening to the National Programme when the top Fed said that if farmers get a lot more money they will be able to invest in the stock market again.

        Whoo hoo!

  2. prism 2
    7 January 2011 at 11:02 am

    I like this skit on futures traders. Am trying to successfully give the address – hope it works.

  3. Carol 3
    7 January 2011 at 11:58 am

    I’m not that much into predictions for the future by soothsayers, but I was half attending to this item on TV3’s sports news a couple of night’s ago, and did a bit of a chuckle:

    http://www.3news.co.nz/Astrologer-makes-2011-sports-predictions/tabid/317/articleID/193317/Default.aspx

    It seems the Warriors will have a great year in 2011 – it’s their year! It looks like a problem year for the ABs & probably not winning the RWC, while it’ll be a great year for Robbie Deans. The astrologer also took a stab at politics, and said that John Key has some problems with Pluto & Venus (in his stars) in about October-November 2011…. so doesn’t look good for him for the elections.

    I usually take such predictions with a grain of salt, and forget them a day or two later. But I don’t see anyone in the MSM talking this lot of predictions up. And curious that the reporter couldn’t believe that JK would not win the election.

  4. the pink postman 4
    7 January 2011 at 1:56 pm

    The news that youth unemployment has reached 20% is frightning and a worry to us all. Now just watch Bennett fluf it over and Key will smile wave and tell us it’s Labours fault.The Right-Wing followers of ACT/NAT will tell us the lazy sods don’t want to work so we should cut the benefit. However I bet the Employers Federation and their allies will demand that the youth-rate is lowered and the mininum wage is reduced .
    Just wait and see and dont forget the PP tol;d you first.

  5. grumpy 5
    7 January 2011 at 2:32 pm

    Something for summer reading, the logic of which straddles simple ideological pigeon holing.

    http://www.politicsandculture.org/2010/12/30/the-new-%E2%80%9Cmanichean%E2%80%9D-left-the-old-far-right-tolerating-the-intolerable1/

  6. ZeeBop 6
    7 January 2011 at 4:20 pm

    A very power car just ran up the driveway down the side of my home. It was oozing
    noise and vibration and has been doing this on and off for the last six months.
    I could use lawyers but the idea that this person could pay for all that fuel to
    feed that noise and vibration and I should pay lawyers to do some work that
    peak oil will achieve anyway. But it does remind me how oil is still cheap as
    chips and stupid stilly rules the legislator.

  7. Draco T Bastard 7
    7 January 2011 at 5:26 pm

    The Texas Omen

    Given the complete dominance of conservative ideology in Texas politics, tax increases are out of the question. So it has to be spending cuts.

    Yet Mr. Perry wasn’t lying about those “tough conservative decisions”: Texas has indeed taken a hard, you might say brutal, line toward its most vulnerable citizens.

    Right now, triumphant conservatives in Washington are declaring that they can cut taxes and still balance the budget by slashing spending. Yet they haven’t been able to do that even in Texas, which is willing both to impose great pain (by its stinginess on health care) and to shortchange the future (by neglecting education).

    People used to say that the future happens first in California, but these days what happens in Texas is probably a better omen. And what we’re seeing right now is a future that doesn’t work.

    Sounds like our present government and the path that they’ve committed us to. Tax cuts followed by cuts in government and a perpetual deficit that pushes society ever closer to complete collapse.

    • Deadly_NZ 7.1
      7 January 2011 at 6:16 pm

      And at some stage in the procedings the populacde that have been made to pay and pay finally they snap and take over, and the Fat Cats end up against the wall on the wrong side of the argument.

      Unfortunatly we are just to civilised to do this anymore but in the end there is always a limit to what people will take!

  8. Red Rosa 8
    7 January 2011 at 9:12 pm

    Cactus Kate has it all worked out for Labour in 2011.

    http://asianinvasion2006.blogspot.com/2011/01/labours-top-10-tax-policies-of-2011.html

    Easy peasy. A serious Opposition might even pick it up and run with it.

  9. Jan 9
    7 January 2011 at 11:52 pm

    With greed and consumption the focus of much in these postings and thinking of the obscenely lavish wedding taking place in Auckland tomorrow – and sick of the fawning media oohing and aaahing over the details I was reminded of a good article by Arundhati Roy in a recent New Statesman (SEE http://www.newstatesman.com/international-politics/2010/10/india-police-essay-war-mining) >the article which describes some of the downsides of the Indian economic miracle – privatisation and even greater inequality. According to the New Statesman Roy was later threatened with arrest for these and other comments
    http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2010/10/india-roy-kashmir-government

  10. logie97 10
    8 January 2011 at 1:05 am

    Education and National Standards.

    Mixed messages coming from the UK where they introduced Tolley’s Standards a few years back. Seems they might be getting the message that not everyone can expect to be a brain surgeon after all and that they simply will not meet the Academic Grade being trumpeted here. (Can’t believe they would admit that “Standards” don’t work… surely they haven’t given up on a certain group in society.) Or is common sense prevailing at last
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/jan/07/students-opt-out-academic-education-14

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