Open mike 13/12/2011

44 comments on “Open mike 13/12/2011 ”

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1. vto 1

   13 December 2011 at 6:54 am

   http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/6128874/Hubbard-managers-cost-51-000-a-week

   Nice work if you can get it. What a joke. Why do they not get the minimum wage like so many others? It’s not as if they add value to the economy or anything.

   http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/rebuilding-christchurch/6129528/EQC-staff-get-early-holiday-bonus

   Nice work if you can get it. What a joke. Why do they not get minimum wage like so many others? It’s not as if they add value to the economy or anything. Plus they claim that work is drying up……. wtf? Nobody in our circle has had their house repaired, replaced or settled in any form yet and our area was smashed so how can they claim the work is finishing. I am gobsmacked. Useless shits.

   It is no wonder that resentment burns and smoulders in our lands and random people get killed by the disenfranchised in Wellington.

   What do people expect?
   • Colonial Viper 1.1

     13 December 2011 at 7:38 am

     Crony cartel kleptocracy has now blotted this fine land.
     • Bored 1.1.1

       13 December 2011 at 10:09 am

       CV, face it we would all do it if we had the necessary “expertise”. In this case supply and demand for “experts” has pushed the price up HOWEVER..
       * with the recession we should make the laws of supply and demand push down the rate severely.
       * we should be questioning the “cult” of expertise much harder and deploying experts to only “expert” work, as opposed to functionalistic paper pushing at the same rate.

       A little bit of business savvy would go a long way, remember EQC grew overnight from 30 people to 3000 (figures open to question but to illustrate a point). They have to be praised for the “just do it” growth, but it is now time to bring some governance to bear.
   • Spratwax 1.2

     13 December 2011 at 7:56 am

     Stop whining! Canterbury people have been very happy with Wellingtons performance since the quake- just look at the election day results.
     • vto 1.2.1

       13 December 2011 at 8:03 am

       go shit in your own shit spratwax.

       The swing to national was nothing to do with national and everything to do with stability – any sort of stability.

       Best you keep your gate locked and drawbridge pulled.

       [lprent: what I want to know is what you have against long drops? 😈 ]
       • Spratwax 1.2.1.1

         13 December 2011 at 8:26 am

         Ouch! Wow, that was too close to the bone I guess. Stability? Bollocks!! Sounds like shit to me, and you’re going to have to suck it in. National = Stability…. you’ve been reading too much of granny or corporate press- get a grip!
         • Bored 1.2.1.1.1

           13 December 2011 at 10:01 am

           Sprat, you are going to find your concept of stability waxes then wanes really fast. Banksters like Shonkey and his Nact mates (and their injternational ilk) are about to deliver to you the mother of all financial crashes and subsequent ill tempered responses in an attempt to save their mates money. They wont be able to save their hides however. Enjoy “stability” while you can before the mob comes looking for you.
           • Spratwax 1.2.1.1.1.1

             13 December 2011 at 10:37 am

             I was actually mocking National providing stability, in response to previous vto reply
             • Bored …

               13 December 2011 at 10:51 am

               Apologies, hope the mob miss you and kill them (metaphorically of course)…will buy glasses for Christmas.
             • Draco T Bastard …

               13 December 2011 at 12:18 pm

               Sarcasm doesn’t do well in black & white.
         • vto 1.2.1.1.2

           13 December 2011 at 11:05 am

           spratwax, yep we do get snappy down these parts – especially when our builders who are sitting on their arses doing nothing waiting for EQC to rubber stamp about a million pieces of paper, all the while getting $75/hour while the builders get $25-45 /hour for dong the actual work. And then they have the cheek to say that their work is almost finished!!! WTF? Of all the people we know with damaged homes dealing with EQC, I would guess maybe 1 in 10 have got somewhere concrete and 1 in 20 have work started. Fact. (we ourselves have been seen once in 15 months. yep. once.)

           It riles.

           Then when you see a constant parade of headlines like the one mentioned about the amount being paid to people who are effectively just cleaners at South Canterbury Finance, after our family alone shelled out approx. $400 for each and every one of us, through the taxpayer guarantee scheme rort to bail this shitheap of a company out…..

           Maybe we are just still on edge – but all the above sits out of plumb and sparks ignite.

           As for the national vote in Chch – my point was that the swing was to the encumbent not the national party. If labour had been the encumbent the same thing would have happenned. Whether or not they are stable isn’t the issue – the perception of stable government (i.e. not changed) was the driver.

           And finally, lprent, try shortdrop and you will get the picture…..
           • Spratwax 1.2.1.1.2.1

             13 December 2011 at 12:57 pm

             Do you know why your builders are sitting around on their arses? Because the Government gave Fletchers the exclusive contract for the rebuild- and guess who has shares in the owners of Fletcher building- John Key (and probably Bill English).

             I met a an elderly couple up here in AK visiting friends for a 2 week break from the misery and they have a son who is a builder in Chch and has no work apart from some demolition scraps- struggling to put food on his family’s table, apparently. The woman was in tears. That’s why I’m surprised Chch voted National- WTF!

             And now all this shit about EQC hiring the kids of EQC managers to assess at $75 an hr- I’m sure some of the out of work Chch builders would like some of that work! My son who is 19 had a classmate out of 7th form at his school in AK who is also down in Chch this year doing ‘assessing’- his father works at one of the banks.

             Rampant corrupt practices going on in the rebuild by the sounds of things.
             • insider …

               13 December 2011 at 4:52 pm

               Fletchers probably got it also because they are the only ones with the scale and systems to manage and bill/pay thousands of subbies. The Govt really doesn’t want to have to do that directly.
               • Draco T Bastard …

                 13 December 2011 at 5:23 pm

                 Fletchers probably got it also because they are the only ones with the scale and systems to manage and bill/pay thousands of subbies.

                 In other words, all they’re doing is clipping the ticket as it goes past. You don’t need a single group to hire thousands of subbies to do thousands of jobs. In fact, one of the supposed advantages of the “free-market” is that monopolies are removed.
2. Jackal 2

   13 December 2011 at 9:24 am

   Blinking Slater

   Speaking on Breakfast TV this morning Cameron Slater was going on about getting a couple of things wrong this year and posting an apology or retraction…
   • Bored 2.1

     13 December 2011 at 9:57 am

     Breakfast TV has got to be a worry, hosts like the cretinous Paul Henry and ill educated dimwits like Petra the skinny person. Then the need to have “guests” like the blubbery one. Whole thing is vomit worthy.
     • Tigger 2.1.1

       13 December 2011 at 10:39 am

       Ha ha, those are lying Tranzrail eyes! Why is he even on TV?
       • Draco T Bastard 2.1.1.1

         13 December 2011 at 12:21 pm

         My guess, because he’s a National Party insider (well, his dad is anyway).
     • Sam 2.1.2

       13 December 2011 at 2:23 pm

       Why watch it then. Stupid!!
       • Bored 2.1.2.1

         13 December 2011 at 4:55 pm

         I don’t watch it, which does not mean I don’t know who is on. We are constantly blitzed by ads for the program (which just about sums up its vacuity).

         PS Are you an aspirational type? See below.
     • prism 2.1.3

       14 December 2011 at 6:14 pm

       Recently I visited relatives and their complaint was that Petra talked like an express train. I watched Breakfast for the first time and had to agree. They actually can’t understand what she is saying. Is that how young people act when they’re on Speed? Television is all hokum these days it seems, Maori Tv seems to be the real deal though. And remember Bored that the cretinous Paul Henry has gone to Australia and got himself a good job on tv there.
   • Vicky32 2.2

     13 December 2011 at 6:42 pm

     Who even watches Breakfast TV? What a bizarre concept…
3. ianmac 3

   13 December 2011 at 9:52 am

   Uh ah. Ominous from Minister of Ed Parata:
   “She intended to pursue National Standards “unambiguously” saying they were a significant part of dealing with the one fifth of children who were not achieving at school.”
   Still wonder about the disconnect between NS and failing kids.
   http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10772883
   • Spratwax 3.1

     13 December 2011 at 11:25 am

     She will be the new enthousiastic female stooge for Key- just like Paula Bennett was last term.

     Teachers (and particularly their unions PPTA, NZEI ) and schools are in for a rough ride- what

     with Charter Schools and other secret plans.
4. randal 4

   13 December 2011 at 10:53 am

   it may look like blubber to you but it looks more like whale shit to me!
5. randal 5

   13 December 2011 at 10:55 am

   and I see heka paratai is now minister of edimacation. she gonna teech the kidz to lurn proper and acheave and how to make 1 +1 = 3.
6. McFlock 6

   13 December 2011 at 12:52 pm

   Nice article arrived in my regular linkedn spam today – “Finally, A Rich American Destroys The Fiction That Rich People Create The Jobs”.

   
   The argument draws the analogy that entrepreneurs and investors are the seeds of the tree, but just as important is the environment that the seed falls into – soil vs rocky ground, bog vs desert, etc. The key piece of the commercial environment is the ability of customers to purchase the growing company’s products – so if you want lots of businesses to grow and employ people, you need to ensure that the middle-class customer base is big and “fertile”.
    
   I might have to look at my emails more closely from now on 🙂
   • ropata 6.1

     13 December 2011 at 1:32 pm

     got that one too. great article. deserves another plug

     http://www.businessinsider.com/rich-people-do-not-create-jobs-2011-12

     ([Trickle down economics is] like saying that a seed creates a tree. The seed does not create the tree. The seed starts the tree. But what creates the tree is the combination of the DNA in the seed and the soil, sunshine, water, atmosphere, nutrients, and other factors that nuture it. Plant the seed in an inhospitable environment, and it won’t create anything. It will die.)

     So, then, if what creates the jobs in our economy is, in part, “customers,” who are these customers? And what can government policy do to make sure these customers have more money to spend to create demand and, thus, jobs?

     The customers of most companies, Hanauer points out, are ultimately the gigantic middle class — the hundreds of millions of Americans who currently take home a much smaller share of the national income than they did 30 years ago, before tax policy aimed at helping rich people get richer created an extreme of income and wealth inequality not seen since the 1920s.

     The middle class has been pummeled, in part, by tax policies that reward “the 1%” at the expense of everyone else.
     • Draco T Bastard 6.1.1

       13 December 2011 at 3:31 pm

       Rich people don’t create the jobs.

       Our economy creates jobs.

       That’s it in a nutshell.

       Of course, jobs aren’t actually the problem – over consumption and massive misallocation of resources is.
       • Draco T Bastard 6.1.1.1

         13 December 2011 at 3:58 pm

         And this one which was linked through the others.

         This analysis revealed a lot of surprising conclusions, including the following:

         Today’s government spending levels are indeed too high, at least relative to the average level of tax revenue the government has generated over the past 60 years. Unless Americans are willing to radically increase the amount of taxes they pay relative to GDP, government spending must be cut.

         Today’s income tax rates are strikingly low relative to the rates of the past century, especially for rich people. For most of the century, including some boom times, top-bracket income tax rates were much higher than they are today.

         Contrary to what Republicans would have you believe, super-high tax rates on rich people do not appear to hurt the economy or make people lazy: During the 1950s and early 1960s, the top bracket income tax rate was over 90%–and the economy, middle-class, and stock market boomed.

         Super-low tax rates on rich people also appear to be correlated with unsustainable sugar highs in the economy–brief, enjoyable booms followed by protracted busts. They also appear to be correlated with very high inequality. (For example, see the 1920s and now).

         Periods of very low tax rates have been followed by periods with very high tax rates, and vice versa. So history suggests that tax rates will soon start going up.
   • joe90 6.2

     13 December 2011 at 3:54 pm

     snap
7. Bored 7

   13 December 2011 at 1:06 pm

   After all the Labour leadership nonsense I decided that some humour was in order so I trawled the Daily Mash and saw this line, “ The modern world has forgotten that masturbation can be an aspirational activity.” which instantly reminded me of an epithet I often apply to those aspirational types who vote National.
   http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/opinion/columnists/stylish-masturbator%2c-with-dermot-jaye-201112124664/
   Word association. I will never be able to hear the word “aspiration” again without thinking “******s…..
   Enjoy.
8. NickS 8

   13 December 2011 at 1:21 pm

   And it appears Canada’s going to withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol.

   Thanks a fucking lot Harper.

   Now we’ve got even more problems with a global climate change treaty eventuating as the greedy morons keep their heads in the sand over the rather real future costs of climate change, whilst yelling constantly about the compliance costs.

   And we can blame it people preferring to stick to the cognitive short cuts evolution equipped us with* instead of actually thinking critically. Especially when there’s big fat lobbyist payouts and donations involved.

   Oh, and the whole “it the Liberal’s fault!” excuse is oh so cute, given Harper’s government has had two terms to come to grips with Canada’s Kyoto obligations and chose not to, creating the situation.

   ________________
   *in terms of the environment we evolved in, if you didn’t make use of a limited resource asap, it probably wasn’t going to be there in future, unless you hid or cached it away. Unfortunately it’s so useful today, where it’s exploited to make you get yourself in debt and buy shiny things just because they’re on sale (hello steam sale…).
   • Colonial Viper 8.1

     13 December 2011 at 1:29 pm

     Harper’s turned Canada into a petrostate where the wealthy are rewarded with oil dollars either directly (contracts) or indirectly (tax cuts), we can hardly expect anything different.
     • prism 8.1.1

       15 December 2011 at 1:16 pm

       Is that Harper bizarre?
   • William Joyce 8.2

     13 December 2011 at 5:47 pm

     O Canada!
     Our home and native land!
     True patriots love in all shale oil demand.
     With slowing hearts we see demise,
     The True North melting, wildlife free!
     From far and wide,
     O Canada, we see no ice on thee.
     God keep our land glorious dead sea!
     O Canada, we want money for thee.
     O Canada, we want money for thee.
9. Ianupnorth 9

   13 December 2011 at 3:46 pm

   Meanwhile in a far away land http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/dec/12/britain-press-fighting-class-war
    

   Britain’s press are fighting a class war, defending the elite they belong to
    

   and

   Crime and antisocial behaviour are represented as the predations of the poor on each other, or on the middle and upper classes. “Blonde millionaire’s wife raped in luxury home by asylum-seeking benefits cheat” is the transcendental form of a thousand tabloid headlines, alongside “Pippa Middleton’s bottom gets £1m makeover from top designer”. Though benefit fraud deprives the exchequer of £1.1bn a year while tax avoidance and evasion deprive it of between £40bn and £120bn, the tabloids relentlessly pursue the petty crooks, while leaving the capos alone.
10. William Joyce 10

    13 December 2011 at 4:29 pm

    OMG – these people really do think they are a class apart!

    Trevor Allan Ludlow [A former director of National Finance] entered his pleas in the High Court in Auckland on Tuesday relating to charges brought against him by the Financial Markets Authority.
    The related to making false statements and mistatements in a registered prospectus.
    He is already serving a near-six-year jail sentence for defrauding investors of about $3.5 million.
    Earlier in the hearing, Ludlow asked the court to sentence him this week so he could get out of Mt Eden Prison to study, saying that it is a horrible environment.
    Justice Priestley denied the request to sentence this week, saying it will occur in January.
    – Source

    Perhaps we should all be ashamed that we, as a nation, are putting this poor man through so much. The food is insufferable and the view sucks. Oh the inhumanity!
    Next minute he’ll be running for prime Minister!
    • McFlock 10.1

      13 December 2011 at 6:33 pm

      I’m moderately surprised that garth mcvictim and senseless-sentencing haven’t taken up his cause as a gross injustice.
11. Jackal 11

    13 December 2011 at 9:07 pm

    A blighted future

    Is this what John Key meant by a brighter future… children getting third world diseases in what used to be a first world country? It’s shameful!
12. AAMC 12

    13 December 2011 at 9:21 pm

    “China’s Deserted “Fake Disneyland”; Shanghai Prices Down 40% from Peak, Inventory Clogs”

    http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2011/12/chinas-deserted-fake-disneyland.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MishsGlobalEconomicTrendAnalysis+%28Mish%27s+Global+Economic+Trend+Analysis%29

    And surreal pics of deserted Disneyland from link in article, Mickey reclaimed by corn farmers..

    http://blogs.reuters.com/photographers-blog/2011/12/12/chinas-deserted-fake-disneyland/
13. AAMC 13

    13 December 2011 at 9:24 pm

    More on that brighter future.. investigative piece on Charter Schools in the States.

    http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/09/19/2541051/florida-charter-schools-big-money.html
    • rosy 13.1

      13 December 2011 at 9:45 pm

      Why does this remind me of the privatisation of care for the elderly and infirm?
14. Di 14

    13 December 2011 at 9:48 pm

    More bad news on charter schools.
    http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/12/11-3

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