Ralston

Written By: - Date published: 10:36 am, March 23rd, 2009 - 28 comments
Categories: Media - Tags: , ,

Bill Ralston:

Key used a great example at a Combined Trade Union conference on productivity when he pointed out only 10 luxury 7 series BMWs were sold in the whole of the USA last month.

Ah, so that’s what CTU stands for. Why would anyone employ this fool as a commentator?

28 comments on “Ralston ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. Daveski 1
    23 March 2009 at 11:17 am

    Perhaps because of the preceding paragraphs:

    Actually, the good news is many of those top trading partners are across the Tasman or in Asia and, as Key points out, those economies are in a better position than elsewhere in the world not only for a faster recovery but they may come out of this stronger than before.

    He is right that we are in a better position than, say, the United States. There, the economy is in freefall.

    We still have a flow of credit, our mortgage rates are dropping fast, our banking system is stronger than most with better lending practices.

    Apart from a few lemming-like finance companies and property developers we haven’t had what Key calls the “rinky-dink housing and finance deals that led to bad-debt problems in the rest of the world”.

    And, as he pointed out last week, even in a recession the world still has to eat and we export huge amounts of tucker not high-end electronics and high-priced cars.

    Quite compelling evidence is to why he should be employed I would think.

  2. roger nome 2
    23 March 2009 at 11:28 am

    Bob – because Tane’s analysis usually goes beyond knee-jerk, glib, uninformed and cliched rubbish. The same can’t be said for Ralston unfortunately.

  3. ieuan 3
    23 March 2009 at 11:37 am

    OK, I had to check, it’s ‘Council of Trade Unions’, to be honest I always thought it was the ‘Combined Trade Unions’.

    You learn something new every day.

    How come you guys aren’t all over Heather Roy and her comments about independent schools?

  4. Killinginthenameof 4
    23 March 2009 at 11:48 am

    Link me up ieuan!

    On the topic of 7 series bmw’s, when will National be trading them in for corollas, you all remember what a big deal it was at the time, massive waste of money.

    • Kevin Welsh 4.1
      23 March 2009 at 2:30 pm

      Apparently they will be trading them in on Hummers.

      More gallons to the mile, helping out their GM mates, a poke in the eye for Labour, and no left leaning greenie is gonna tell them what car to drive. Goddam nanny state.

  5. ieuan 5
    23 March 2009 at 12:01 pm

    Heather Roy article on stuff at:

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/2281083/Private-schools-await-10m-boost

    I like her line about private schools being more ‘efficient’ and state schools should emulate them – I guess charging twice what a state school gets per pupil makes you more ‘efficient’.

    Sorry to thread jack.

    • QoT 5.1
      23 March 2009 at 12:30 pm

      Curse you! *shakes fist* Nothing annoys me more than private schools whinging about how hard life is. (Okay, not nothing, just very little)

    • Killinginthenameof 5.2
      23 March 2009 at 12:46 pm

      IQ is quite hereditary, and is a good indicator of how much money you are likely to be earning. Quite simply private schools do better academically cause the parents who can afford to send their children there, generally have quite smart children. Heather Roy seems to be treading quite a fine line, sure they would like private education to be cheaper, but they have to keep the riff raff out some how.

      • Tigger 5.2.1
        23 March 2009 at 1:13 pm

        How does not being able to run your school on your received income (and therefore having to integrate) make you ‘efficient’? Shouldn’t NACT be slamming these schools as examples of the market separating the weak from the strong (ie. the weak schools go under, the strong ones survive – isn’t that capitalism at work?).

        How many NACTs went to private school and how many wanted to go to private school? I’m wondering because I suspect some of this love for private schools is about them feeling they missed out when growing up rather than wanting to continue some privileged life. All the right wing voters I know when to their local high school so to paint them all as rich private school pricks (as I would love to do) is possibly wrong.

      • Ag 5.2.2
        23 March 2009 at 2:56 pm

        I guess your parents were pretty dumb then.

        But this is silly. I knew plenty of kids who were sent to private school, and they were all pulled out of the state system because they weren’t doing well. That’s not because the state system was bad, but because they were thick.

      • Ag 5.2.3
        23 March 2009 at 3:17 pm

        Besides, our schools stopped sorting for IQ years ago. One of the things I find funniest is that the same ambitious parents who promote “excellence” and “competition” in schools are the same people responsible for the dumbing down of education.

        It used to be the case that, if you lacked academic aptitude, that no amount of hard work would ever allow you to win, because examinations were more or less designed to filter for academic aptitude. But Mr and Mrs Ambitious parents were horrified that their hard working moronic kid should be disadvantaged by such a system, so when I was at school, it started to be changed to reflect internal assessment and other things that the bovine hard working could “succeed” at. Now it seems to be most like that.

        Hell, we’ve even abandoned education in favour of job training, which is a perverse thing for a supposedly democratic society to do.

        The funny thing is that the very same people now complain about grade inflation and a curriculum that allows any idiot who puts in the time to do well… and they can’t even make the link. Well, you get what you asked for. Tomorrow’s schools was perhaps the worst educational initiative in the history of the country. Schools worked better when they were free from meddling, and when education wasn’t seen as a consumption good.

    • Evidence-Based Practice 5.3
      23 March 2009 at 3:38 pm

      Private schools are actually more dangerous for kids as they don’t have the accountability that ERO demands of state school boards. Their boards of directors merely have to show that they make some gesture to teach the curriculum but apart from that they are a corporate business and can hire and fire who they want, teach what they want, enrol who they want, charge what they like, and have the working and physical conditions they want within the law. Ask to see their bullying or education trips policies – they are unlikely to have them – and even if they did, they don’t have to tell the parents anything.

      • Tim Ellis 5.3.1
        23 March 2009 at 5:02 pm

        EPB, I don’t think your comment is very evidence-based.

        All schools registered under the Education Act, including private schools, are subject to ERO reporting requirements. The standards for workign and physical conditions, curriculum, employment standards, health and safety practices, bullying, etc, are no different for private schools than they are for public schools.

        If you really are interested in evidence-based practice, then I could maybe suggest that you read some ERO reports before making such broad, sweeping statements about the quality of teaching in schools.

    • lprent 5.4
      23 March 2009 at 6:35 pm

      That’s ok. Interesting link and the thread wasn’t going anywhere from what I can see.

  6. Tim Ellis 6
    23 March 2009 at 12:01 pm

    KITNO, I missed John Key or the National Party making a big fuss about the BMWs. I remember TV3 took a few pot-shots at it, and I seem to recall Jeanette Fitzsimons taking a swipe at the purchase. Have you got any references for a big campaign from National to get rid of them and promising corollas as their replacement?

    • Killinginthenameof 6.1
      23 March 2009 at 12:46 pm

      Oh sorry, must have just been David Farrar then.

      • Tim Ellis 6.1.1
        23 March 2009 at 1:09 pm

        DPF appears to have written two posts about the issue KITNO, both of which criticised the political strategy of making such a decision in election year given the perception that they are luxury vehicles. There weren’t any calls for the BMW fleet to be replaced or ditched, let alone a replacement with Corollas. I can’t find any such statement from John Key either.

        There was however criticism from Jeanette Fitzsimons for the decision, at http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/183247 .

        • Pascal's bookie 6.1.1.1
          23 March 2009 at 1:16 pm

          Tim who said anything about John Key or National making a big deal of it?

          • Tim Ellis 6.1.1.1.1
            23 March 2009 at 1:37 pm

            PB, I took KITNO’s comment above, which reads:

            On the topic of 7 series bmw’s, when will National be trading them in for corollas, you all remember what a big deal it was at the time, massive waste of money.

            To mean that National and/or John Key did make a big deal of it. Which they didn’t.

  7. QoT 7
    23 March 2009 at 12:16 pm

    Christ on a bike.

  8. ben 8
    23 March 2009 at 12:26 pm

    Why would anyone employ this fool as a commentator?

    Well, you think wages depend on employment law and unions.

    Call it even.

    • Quoth the Raven 8.1
      23 March 2009 at 12:35 pm

      Wages depend on a market. Unions increase the bargaining power of workers and allow them to bargain collectively in the market. Employment laws regulate the market. Sometimes to the advantage of workers usually to their detriment creating a buyers market not a sellers market. So what’s your problem? Not enough voodoo economics.

  9. Ground2Work 9
    23 March 2009 at 5:25 pm

    Corollas rule

    captcha: cernible sudden (dis?)