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Our growing stress is everywhere

Written By: - Date published: 9:38 am, May 24th, 2025 - 22 comments
Categories: crime, Deep stuff, economy, housing, unemployment - Tags:

Insolvencies and bankruptcies are at a nine year high. It hasn’t been as bad as this since 2015.

Over half a million New Zealanders need food from food banks to actually eat. 

The New Zealand economy is at least 1% smaller than when National got back into power.

24,700 home loans have fallen behind with banks, and that’s the highest for eight years.

69,000 New Zealanders left last year, mostly for Australia. A further 53,000 non-citizens also left us.

Consumer confidence is low, particularly in the North Island, and has been low for the time National has been in power.  Purses and wallets have closed.

Over half of New Zealanders aged 15-24 have been or are depressed. That’s doubled since 2016-17.

Violent crime has increased by 51% since 2018, though it did go down a bit in the last measure.

Downtown Auckland and Wellington are ghost towns, and Christchurch isn’t much better either.

House prices across New Zealand have sunk by 17% across the country and 20% in Auckland and Wellington which is about half of the population.

Our birth rate is plummetting. 

630,000 of us now need welfare to keep going, and that goes to 1,500,000 of us when you include NZ Superannuation.

The state can’t cope with much of it unless it sinks into debt, and I haven’t even started on our own private debt that’s actually sucking us dry into immobility with stress if we were honest.

We are stressed right across the country and I haven’t even got to environmental impact or long term welfare reliance or underemployment or broader economic prospects.

This is more than a single budget problem though it’s certainly that. 

We don’t know where this country is going and it’s getting worse. 

It’s multi-year leadership. And the leadership of New Zealand isn’t working.

22 comments on “Our growing stress is everywhere ”

  1. Bearded Git 1
    24 May 2025 at 10:33 am

    Yes it's a worry.

    Those house price falls are actually even worse when adjusted for inflation.

    Reply
  2. Derry Gordon 2
    24 May 2025 at 12:06 pm

    Actually I am pleased that house prices are down, hope they go further. Good for the country to have them down, even more. Better for the poorest in rent or own.

    Reply
  3. Ted Ed 3
    24 May 2025 at 9:29 pm

    This what happens when you spend more than you earn. Yes most people in nz spend more they earn, they borrow too much whether it be on housing or credit cards. They drive cars they shouldnt just so they can look wealthy, they go on extended holidays. Govrnments of the past are the same, high salaries and poor results. Time to trim the fat cats and consultants and save costs.

    Reply
  4. Ffloyd 4
    24 May 2025 at 10:32 pm

    Lovely photo of the totally emotionally and intellectually corrupt sorted FAT CATS . In every sense of the word…. I can barely look at them… The next time they scream ‘liars’ at the opposition,everyone should hold up a mirror to these poor excuses of humanity. I cannot believe that every ordinary New Zealander cannot mobilise and turf these grinning,imbecilic ,self satisfied, sanctimonious, self serving, scheming, sneering,sub human, sorted, Non New Zealanders, slaves to Atlas out on their substantial arses. They are all horrible human beings. Greed not needis their mantra. They need to go. SOON!!!!

    Reply
    • Janice 4.1
      25 May 2025 at 8:38 am

      I would add malicious and gloating. Both obviously promoted beyond their ability.

      Reply
      • tc 4.1.1
        25 May 2025 at 11:22 am

        The required skillset includes being able to BS, getting an empathy bypass and keep bashing those who cant fight back.

        Willis, luxon, seymour, collins, stanford, upston, peters, jones and many more have that in spades.

        They are enjoying this and it shows through a facade they dont care to maintain.

        Reply
  5. Jon Wrightson 5
    25 May 2025 at 7:43 am

    Verity Johnson put it like this:
    ‘Running the country like a household’ is a political con
    https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360699486/verity-johnson-running-country-household-political-con

    Reply
    • ianmac 5.1
      25 May 2025 at 4:27 pm

      Thanks Jon. I sort of knew that the "like household debt" can't be true but now I know why it is such a Con trick. So well done Verity.

      Willis couldn't cope on Q and A this morning when Jack pointed out that in the COC timeline for 5 years, this Government will have borrowed a lot more money than 6 years of Labour Government. When she is not happy her lips tighten into a teeth gritting line. Yhanks Jack.

      Reply
      • Nic the NZer 5.1.1
        25 May 2025 at 8:34 pm

        Verity is actually understating the case quite a bit.

        First a digression to Greek economic history. In 2010 Greece was having an actual govt debt crisis. Greek govt debt was at risk of default and importantly the only bailout/ rescue plan supported by the ECB was an austerity one. As a result of going through with this austerity plan (instead of dropping out of the Eurozone and reinstating a Greek currency) the Greek economy went through high unemployment and low GDP growth for many years. Critically the plan failed on its own merits with Greek govt debt to GDP ratio increasing (because GDP, the denominator shrank).

        Back to NZ. Unlike Greece the NZ parliament sits above our central bank. This makes govt debt an unimportant subject anyway. Like in Greece however by implementing an austerity budget our govt is setting up a low growth, high unemployment economy and so one likely to be seen carrying higher debt to GDP ratios into the future due to this trajectory getting there to boot.

        Reply
    • Phillip ure 5.2
      26 May 2025 at 12:18 pm

      That is a well-written/lucid unpacking of that t.i.n.a. debt-bullshit from the cocs..

      Verity Johnson deserves a journalism award nomination for that one..

      And it should be a must read for all MP's etc..etc..

      Reply
    • thinker 5.3
      26 May 2025 at 5:11 pm

      Yes,

      It's a bankers/government trick (to mislead people in comparing the economy to households)

      I'm still pretty raw at understanding all this, but since money stopped being a piece of paper that was backed by a certain amount of physical gold, money is nothing more than an intangible promissory note, backed by the blessing of the government. What was an asset became a debt, of sorts.

      This is because for every real dollar the bank holds, it can lend, I think, 9 more, even collect interest on them.

      So, when the government tightens the economy, some companies go under, from being marginal in the first place. So, the bank calls in some of its commercial debt to even up the ratio, sending more under and so on.

      Remember, although businesses sell things, many borrow capital to do it.

      Now, inflation isn't about prices going up, it's about the value of a dollar shrinking, as the banks lend more money. So, as the economy shrinks, the value of your dollars either gets bigger or doesn't shrink as fast. That's important for cash investments because although you get interest on your money, some of the interest is offset by inflation eroding the value of the money you invested for, say, 12 months.

      So, if you want to maximize your investments, you reduce inflation. If you want to reduce inflation you stifle growth.

      If you stifle growth, it hurts the common person.

      The above is a summary from many sources, but a good start is a book called "The Creature from Jekyll Island" by someone with the surname Griffin. You don't need to buy it, there's lots of summaries on the web and YouTube.

      Reply
  6. Thebiggestfish7 6
    25 May 2025 at 3:59 pm

    Yep grim times. But this is a multi party issue. Nearly all the negative trends in all these key stats started under the Ardern & Hipkins Labour government. They are now being exasperated by the Luxon National government. It’s seems pretty clear to me that the two major parties have failed this country miserably in the last 7 years. Whether there is an alternative who could credibly step up, I do not know. At least it was good to see the Greens release an alternative budget. The math didn’t stack up to me personally. But I hope that it drives at least Labour to a conversation around a semi joined up vision for 2026. Labour getting elected in the mold of the last Labour government will not help us and could arguably make things worse.

    Reply
    • Patricia Bremner 6.1
      25 May 2025 at 4:32 pm

      That is a big lot of reckons. It really is not about the money, it is about who this government is working for. It sure is not us. It certainly is for the "Sorted".

      Don't worry about what Labour or the Greens will do. Worry about Seymour and his second go at The Treaty with his R S Bill. He made comments about a "Civil War", but when tackled denied it. He is a dangerous Trojan horse for Atlas thinking.

      18 months of his boring into our Political Infrastructure, talking about our freedoms and meanwhile increasing the ability of the rich to pillage our country.

      Luxon said “We are aligned with Act, but we don’t know Winston” Well let us hope Winston brings their house of entitlement down.

      Reply
    • Obtrectator 6.2
      25 May 2025 at 11:38 pm

      They are now being exasperated by the Luxon National government.

      I'm sure the Luxon government is indeed exasperating Labour (and with good reason), but I think the word you actually wanted was "exacerbated".

      Reply
    • Res Publica 6.3
      26 May 2025 at 8:18 am

      I don’t think the real issue is just the two major parties. It’s the structural interests they’re bound to: a landlord-dominated economy built on property speculation, agricultural exports, and low-wage labour.

      Both Labour and National have poured resources into building polling and policy machines that respond to the existing political class and media consensus. And that consensus is shaped by what’s considered acceptable to say, do, or propose: the Overton window is real.

      That’s why I reject the “both sides are bad” framing. It lets us feel smart and frustrated without doing the harder work of shifting the framing itself. Of pulling the public conversation leftward so bolder solutions even become politically viable.

      If we want change, we need to stop reacting to the existing terrain and start reshaping it.

      Reply
  7. Phillip ure 7
    25 May 2025 at 6:15 pm

    To handle stress:

    A healthy diet..

    No alcohol…

    Physical exercises..of your choice..

    Cannabis as a relaxant…

    It works..!

    Reply
  8. thinker 8
    26 May 2025 at 4:49 pm

    Don't want to be critical of the article per se, but superannuation is not welfare and retirees aren't beneficiaries, just in case any readers form that view.

    Reply

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