Written By:
Anthony R0bins - Date published:
1:07 pm, October 18th, 2012 - 115 comments
Categories: david shearer, jobs, labour, leadership -
Tags: government in waiting, jobs, speeches
This afternoon David Shearer gave a speech at the Hornby Workingman’s Club. It’s exactly the kind of speech I want to hear from the Labour leader, with plenty of substance to add weight to rhetoric. Here are some extracts:
Jobs that work for you
…When it comes to opportunities, it’s all about jobs. There is no challenge more urgent than addressing the lack of decent jobs available.
Jobs matter. And it’s not only about whether you’re earning enough to pay the bills. It’s because they say so much about you. Often, when you meet a person one of the first things you’ll find out about them is what they do for a crust. It’s more than just a weekly wage. It’s about recognising that what you choose to do with your life matters. It matters to you, your family and your community. It’s through your job that you’re able to realise your ambitions and give your kids a decent start in life. It’s a sense of identity and a source of dignity. …
Today, there are two paths in front of us.
One is the path we have been walking for the last four years. It’s a path that accepts second best as good enough. It’s one that manages NZ’s decline rather than builds a future. It’s a path in which Kiwis feel increasingly trapped – trapped in a job that doesn’t pay enough, trapped by unexpected bills, trapped by a lack of opportunity and a stagnant economy. Prices keep going up but for most New Zealanders wages aren’t keeping pace. Many of us worry about whether our kids will be ever able to buy a house. Instead we’re seeing them seek better opportunities in Australia.
This is National’s path – it’s a path to fewer jobs, lower wages and our kids living across the ditch. National’s attitude is that we just have to accept this future. But we are four years on from the start of the global financial crisis. New Zealand was not hit as hard as some other countries because we were well prepared. Labour ran 9 years of surpluses and paid off government debt. We brought unemployment to the lowest level in a generation. So NZ should be starting to turn the corner by now. Instead, things are getting tougher. …
I want to take New Zealand down a very different path. A pathway to a new economy that leads to a high wage, high skilled future. One that’s about being a confident, proud New Zealand. Not one that makes excuses for why we’re not doing well. It’s a path that recognises you can’t fix poverty without creating jobs. And you can’t solve growing inequality without decent jobs. It’s a path where government gets alongside workers, businesses and our heartland communities to help them grow. Where we are patriotic, trust in our ability to get ahead, and beat the odds, as we have done in the past. To succeed the government needs to be a partner, a player in the game. …
And here are the substantive policy promises:
We need to be bold and tackle the big issues holding our economy back. Our policies will ensure our high and volatile dollar doesn’t undermine the competitiveness of our exporters. We’ll give them the best possible opportunity to succeed.
We are a trading nation. We can only grow wealthy if we export. That means an independent Reserve Bank that’s given a wider mandate to support exporters and jobs, not just focus on inflation.
We’ll pursue pro-growth tax reform that includes a capital gains tax to take pressure off house prices and ensure people invest in businesses, not the Auckland property market.
And a research and development tax credit that rewards ingenuity and encourages innovation in our businesses.
We’ll expand KiwiSaver to ensure all New Zealanders have a retirement nest egg. But also to invest the money we save into our best businesses so they don’t get sold offshore.
We’ll make superannuation affordable for the long-term so we can guarantee NZ Super for all as well as invest in the future of education and health.
All of those policies are opposed by National. But they are needed. They are tough calls. As leader of the next government, I’m prepared to make them. …
We also need the Government to be patriotic – to make the most of the money it spends when it comes to creating. At the moment over 200 government agencies spend a total of $30 billion on goods and services, including infrastructure, each year. By changing the way government buys goods and services, we can create more opportunities for Kiwi businesses and young New Zealanders looking for a job. … Labour will require government agencies to do a wider economic analysis of major contracts to ensure they deliver the best price and quality as well as the maximum benefits of the NZ economy.
Labour will also introduce a ‘one in a million’ target for significant government contracts. It would require companies that are awarded major contracts to take on one apprentice or trainee for every $1 million contract it receives.
A start would be made in the construction sector and expanded into other sectors where it might also create opportunities for young Kiwis.
We’d also look at following Australia’s example and require tenderers to outline the use of NZ components and suppliers in every bid.
Excellent stuff from Shearer. Put this together with the joint summit on the manufacturing crisis, which saw the main opposition parties working together, and it’s obvious that we have a government in waiting. The change can not come soon enough…
Excellent stuff. This speech marks a change from others in that it is quite remarkable because, as one of the main reasons, the voice behind most of the words is distinct and it sounds like it is by a leader who has been thinking and who works at forming and presenting his thoughts well. If Shearer authored all that, good on him and there is some hope for the Labour Party come 2014. If he didn’t, let’s hope the oral delivery went well. The country cannot afford to stuff around for much longer for a real leader who governs for all of us.
Yes, Jim, this is the first solid speech I have heard from Shearer (after waiting all too long!), though I note your qualification “If Shearer authored all that” (are there doubts?). It is surprisingly different from his usual patter.
I think that the ‘real’ Shearer does deliver “different from his usual patter”.
I noticed a small sprig of hope on the Nation 29th September. Halfway through, after the usual wobbly start, Shearer appeared to shake off the probably ‘prescribed’ way, came into his own and in one pertinent word summarily dismissed the National Standards as “junk” when talking to a rather smug (because he had just published the ‘flawed and incomplete’ Nat Standards) John Hartevelt.
http://www.3news.co.nz/David-Shearer-eyes-2014-victory/tabid/1348/articleID/270945/Default.aspx
“Junk” summed these wretched standards up so perfectly and truthfully that I wondered why none of us had thought of describing them as this and nothing more before. I thought then that Shearer might eventually develop into a “smell the uranium on your breath” stunningly truthful line deliverer, as opposed to the unprincipled,indifferent,smart alecky type of one liner the pm delivers.
Here’s hoping, and this speech gives me a second small sprig.
And the I don’t read Blogs was a bit over the top. Bloggers should be ignored at your peril Mr Shearer. Also the bit where he reckons he will lead Labour to victory in 2014 is a bit ambitious. I think he should be rolled in November, or Labour will really start to hemorrhage support. When people know they cant get him out before the election. So Dunnokeyo will win by proxy, as more and more will just not bother to vote at all. And then watch the rape and pillage of NZ really get going full on.
Pull those market levers, contract incentives and pricing signals and after a couple of years, we should see a few new jobs appear.
JHC, CV, take the blinkers off.
Did you miss the apprenticeship condition on govt contracts, reinforcement of CGT, and changing the RBA to include exports(dollarval) and unemployment levels when determining the OCR?
boohoo, he ain’t Cunliffe. But at least give credit where it’s due.
Yes, I am being a bit harsh. But those initiatives will be really rolling into effect in year 5 and 6: just as Labour gets kicked out after 2 terms. The Tories will then promptly can half that list in year 1 term 1, and the other half in year 2.
Of course I know one big reason why Labour has taken this very indirect approach – it protects them from Key’s “Show me the money” attack, saving Labour from having to raise any real tax revenue.
Not really – they still need to cost the policies, and talk about the revenue and impact of a CGT, andof course Key (or his successor) will just make number up.
A big weakness last election (I believe pointed out here – is there a tag “labour campaign sucks”? 🙂 ) was that they waited until a gnat’s fart before the election before trying to frame themselves as the working class’ last great hope. That message, even if they were fully committed to it, was neutered by the obvious question “so why didn’t you say this 2yrs ago, when I was being laid off?” They also got pipped on most of their major policy initiatives by other parties like Greens or Mana.
At least this speech suggests they’ve learned from that error.
Although one poll result does not a trend make, so one speech does not a fundamental improvement demonstrate…
Good speech.
Let’s see: commitment to jobs with mention of inequality as issue, clear policy and perspective expressed >6weeks from the election, and some policy ideas that are innovative.
A nice change of speed.
Wiffle, waffle.
HS is wearing corduroy trousers again.
Why not give the job to the best person? Telling people who to employ is a ridiculous idea and shows how bereft of ideas Shearer realy is.
Still a deafening silence from Labour on whether they will reverse the welfare ‘reforms’.
Of course they won’t. They essentially support the fucking reforms.
Read the first para again. Jobs = dignity and it’s through your job that your ambitions lie and it’s your job that makes you ‘matter’. Erm And that’s wrapped up in ‘choice’…somehow.
So anyway, forget about the indignity of most jobs. Forget about any non-monetary ambition you might have. And forget about notions of self worth (the only acceptable measure of worth is that which is job related and definately not work related).
Is it worth mentioning that jobs and the market economy are a blight on human existence and the planetary systems our very survival depends on? Nah. Growth will see us right. Or maybe we should just adopt a mantra inspired by a set of gates not a million miles distant and repeat “Jobs Will Set Us Free – Forever”
+1
Please, tell me about the economic system you support where no one has to get a job and everyone can enjoy a high standard of living. I’m fascinated.
How’s about you understand this economic system first? The one where work is largely dismissed and devalued because the only activity of ‘worth’ is the job;ie, activity where people are subjugated to the profit motive and toil, not so much to achieve a higher standard of living, but to avoid poverty.
And maybe you’d also like to acknowledge that the current economic system stands in direct opposition to any sensible notion of democracy; ie, decision making is essentially determined on a $1 = 1 vote basis, that obviously hands power to those with the most $ and excludes the vast majority from participation in decisions that affect them.
And maybe you’d like to sit down and consider the fact that this economic system’s principle product is poverty; that it mis-allocates resources (billions suffer malnutrition in a world that produces ample food) and grossly mis-prices resources too (no environmental, social or human factors taken into account and the economic factors skewed to favour already powerful actors)
And maybe you’d like to have a think about the jobs people do and (putting aside the profit motive for a second) make a guesstimate of how many of them are utterly pointless and/or destructive to individuals, society and/or the environment.
And when you’ve done all that and realised that the current economic system is an unmitigated disaster on all fronts – even by its own measures of efficienvy in resource use and allocation – maybe you’ll come back and tell me why we should persevere with it?
I hear a dog whistle…must be the puppy in me. I thought this was Winston Peters domain, obviously labour has decided it is anti-immigrant, anti-asian, anti foreign investment.
Pro-New Zealand.
Most of the policies cited in Anthony’s post are from Labour’s 2011 manifesto. I voted for them, and generally support the policies, like CGT, R & D etc. That’s fine.
The new ones are quite good headline grabbers (“one in a million”), so there will be some media coverage. As always, it’s the follow-up that counts. How will Shearer deal with that?
For example, I don’t hear the “dog whistle” that LBC says, but of course opponents might want to construe it that way. It’s dealing with the spin that counts. Not just delivering a speech and saying “job done”.
Take the last big speech, on education. Some things got traction, like feeding hungry kids in schools. Others have not, like reading recovery. So a pass mark at best. As stated before (by most of us!), Labour need to develop a narrative. Of course the best person to hammer that home is the Economic Development Spokesman. He should be in the media pushing this all the way. Will Shearer let him?
So yes, the speech is fine. It’s just the start. Follow up, please. Focus, discipline, passion, communication, all the basics. If this is what Labour want to talk about, then talk about it. Don’t spend tomorrow talking about an MP’s Facebook fart instead.
+1
Agree, gobsmacked, that if the craven indolent chooks can take their eyes of their love object for a minute or two, and engage what is left of their sodden brains, we might get a bit of a public discussion up on some of the bigger issues that Shearer raises. What’s the chances? More voodoo economics and snake oil and money printing and borrow and hope, is my bet. Any takers?
Solid and specific. More please.
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So, according to David Shearer humans are defined by employment and government is not fully accountable but, rather, simply a partner? What a twat.
😉
FIFY Dave
Fixed that one too.
And thus ignores reality. Poverty is a result of distribution, not jobs.
Being part of the community is the nest egg.
Really, all I’m seeing from that entire speech is just more of the same failed policies that got us here in the first place.
Definition of insanity is to keep doing the same things over and over again and expecting a different result.
This speech is full of insanity.
No, McFlock likes it, and I think, you know, it has some worthy merits to, ummm, consider passingly.
You guys certainly demonstrate that just as one can roll a turd in glitter, one can also drop a marble in a bucket of shit.
CGT, RBA expansion, kiwisaver expansion (yes, I’d prefer kiwisaver to be ditched in favour of higher-bracket income tax payments going to a govt fund, but it’s at least an acknowledgement of the problem), oh, and a boost of probably thousands of apprentices (based on multi-billion govt contracting expenditure under the one-in-a-million scheme) are only “slightly” different from the current Nactoid government?
In one speech he flagged policies that are probably equivalent to or even more left wing than 9 years of the Clark govt’s economic policies, and you reckon that’s pretty much the same as continuing under Dunnokeyo (love that moniker, btw)? Simply because the language around how we regard employment didn’t meet your expectations after your completely impartial (/sarc tag, just for the tories who are reading this, not you guys) deconstruction.
I think what bites my balls about this is that you guys aren’t offering solutions or constructive criticism: it’s just the same mix of hyperbole and bile that the tories use. As well as the Socialist Workers who’d get together on campus basically as a support group for their own superiority rather than actually doing something about inequality and hardship. You know what: giving 100k people jobs actually will go a long way towards addressing inequality in this country. It’s not the only part of the solution, but everything Shearer mentioned will help.
If their take on economic and employment policy is applied to social services, healthcare, education and entitlements then yeah, I think Labour stand to provide a better government than we’ve seen in the last few decades (not that it’s saying much). But If every other policy area is the same old “tighten our belts” shit, then the RBA & CGT changes will still make the next Lab govt light years ahead of the current fucktards.
So arguing this speech is only “slightly” different to current NACT policy is just dropping a marble in a bucket of shit and then complaining about the smell.
+1
I was under the crazy impression that private enterprise would simply end up padding their invoices to take into account the cost of the required new apprentice.
So basically Labour is going to subsidise the private sector apprenticeship position 100% anyways. You know, corporate welfare.
We’re entering a period of sustained global economic decline McFlock. Labour’s policies are predicated on growth-as-usual. CGT is an example of this. So is forcing people to put more money into Kiwisaver. (To ape Robert Atack, where the fuck are you going to put all that money so you don’t lost most of it over the next 10 years?)
Infuriating.
All things being equal I would agree with you. But they’re not going to be.
IMO the private sector is going to shed jobs at least as fast as these new entry level ones are created. Lose a labourer you’ve been paying, gain an apprentice – for FREE. Paid for by the tax payer. And god help us if NZers start coming back from Australia when SHTF over there.
Give Me One Good Reason
Please clarify, for what?
Now that I have been led to understand my political position (and it’s critics, thanks muzza et al; ) is there any worth in further flanking of the battle-group?
I reckon. Lots of work to be done still, from my standpoint. We haven’t brought the main guns to bear yet, nothing like it, and I still don’t have an exact firing solution. Yet.
No, either it increases the business costs or it replaces labourers with apprentices, not both. And while there will be a little bit of either in different areas, H&S requirements and the value of skilled staff in productivity will be more cost-effective in many roles than apprentices (you have to take time to train apprentices, show them what to do and get them certified), and contracting costs will still be held down by tendering processes (although personally for infrastructure I’d just go back to a ministry of Works that has the resources at hand).
Any hints that a serious Ministry of Public Works is coming back, and I will be singing Shearer and Robertson’s praises until sunrise, mate.
I wasn’t comparing it to this government but to the last three decades. We’re not seeing anything different from that. What we’re seeing from Labour is more policies that are designed to prop-up capitalism and not benefit society.
Ok, you want non-capitalistic economic policies. Present them.
http://thestandard.org.nz/social-democratic-economy-part-2/
http://thestandard.org.nz/not-more-of-the-same/
http://thestandard.org.nz/universal-income-the-minimum-wage/
You can probably find more in my comments as well.
actually, fair call on that – you have come up with some interesting ideas.
But I don’t really see how Shearer’s jobs plan conflicts with your Reserve Bank tweaks. Fractional Reserve Banking is an issue, but I’m not sure it’s much more important than the amazing idea that inflation is not the only measure to be used in determining money supply. UMI as I’ve said I’m not so sure about (but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea – literally just that I haven’t made up my mind yet).
I certainly think that Shearer’s speech is a departure from National’s policies, even if in your opinion it might not go far enough.
Actually, getting rid of Fractional Reserve Banking is the most important thing that needs doing. Leaving it in place leaves the power in the hand of the private corporations and that will always impoverish the many for the enrichment of the few.
It is and no it doesn’t. We need real change, not tampering with the settings on the present system which doesn’t work.
Not sure why I have missed these links, other than working.
I appreciated your thoughts on housing. Check in Tuesday’s Herald a signal that the Waterfront CCO will merge with the Property CCO. With Housing Corporation long since a shell, Auckland still has a chance even in highly corporatised form to develop and redevelop itself for people-friendly urban form and higher home ownership. Could we have a better alignment post 2014 of mild left central and local government in Auckland and Christchurch, and would that be as optimum as one might ever expect in the course of one’s remaining life?
Without Capital Gains Tax at least on housing the old rentier tyranny remains.
What is your view on amalgamating Cullen Fund with ACC and EQCfunds to form a Temasek equivalent for patriotic firm-purchases?
Would you.recommend a return to the Growth and Innovation Framework or modern equivalnt or do you really expect that the stady state economy will happen starting now?
Temasek heh
Don’t you know that publicly owned enterprises can’t possibly cut it in the cut throat highly efficient corporate world 😀
Generally speaking, my view is that saving money is delusional and what we really should be doing is counting up the resources we have and determining what and how we can use what we have indefinitely.
We can’t go to a steady state economy now but we do need to start planning to do so and put that plan into action. If we don’t then the living standards we have now will collapse.
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Universal Minimum Income
. . . for starters. Then lets talk about The Spirit Level.
Help? You mean “ease the pain” . . . right? I’d rather see the situation resolved. Permanently.
Actually, I’m not sure where I sit on a UMI. The devil is very much in the details with it, especially given that people have very different requirements. Frankly, the tories would end up setting it at current benefit levels, which would be the worst of both worlds IMO. But on the flipside it does have its attractions.
But at least it’s a suggestion.
Do any Labour members know if UMI has been discussed at policy meetings, and if so what lines the debates went along before last election?
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Fuck the details, fuck the policy, fuck the regulations, and fuck the Tories too. Next Thursday, at 00.01 every single New Zealander will receive $500 from the government; and every Thursday after that – with annual upward adjustments. Not enough money to go around? Take it off the rich pricks and everyone who does business with them. Still don’t like it? Well, fuck off, then. Srsly.
(pragmatically) I would probably be in favour of this if all other forms of welfare were abolished. The MSD, “free” healthcare and education, all subsidies. Basically all spending except for UMI.
Of course, ideologically and logically speaking, it is a fuckn’ stupid idea.
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Yep. No more Accommodation Supplement, no more Special Benefit, no more Disability Allowance, no more Special Needs Grant, no more Recoverable Advance on Purchase of Essential Items . . . fuck the regulations, fuck the details, fuck the cost of social welfare . . . every Thursday: $500 for every New Zealander.
Please clarify. I’m trying hard to see things from your perspective but I just can’t get my head that far up my arse.
What about high needs kids, for example? Someone who needs at least one 24hr caregiver? And needs special equipment, or shoes of a particular type or size? $500/wk is enough for me, and then some – but for someone trying to care for one or two very dependant people, it’s not enough. Those are the people you let down when you say “fuck the details”. Those are the people you leave at the mercy of people like dunnokeyo when you say “fuck the tories”.
Shearer is a real-world politician who is probably trying to effect real-world change, rather than short term back-of-the-envelope wanking about ideal societies. Because even if Marx himself were elected in 2014, after 6 or 9 years it’ll be back to toryboys fucking us. Does a UMI make it easier or harder to fuck us? I think it makes it easier, because it’s only one thing they have to tweak to fuck workers, beneficiaries, healthy people and people in need.
Universal = everyone, including the kids, gets it. If more is still needed then they can go down the MSD office and ask for more. They shouldn’t need to though as the amount paid in the UBI would be enough.
Embed it and why I say that I mean make it require a referendum with 75% or better to change it.
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Shearer is a sucker. He thinks its all about “management” and “partnerships” and “employment” . . . he’s just dribbling out platitudes to consumers. If that’s the “real world” he has never been hungry and without cash. His molly-coddled world-view is lost in abstract thinking which ignores suffering while it finalises abstract measurements. Is $500 not enough . . . okay, fair nuff: lets make it $1,000 a week. Now, tell me. How much more in tax would the 1% have to bear as a result . . . yep, you guessed it . . . 1%.
[edit: @DTB] Well, have a chat with BLiP, because they’d just closed MSD offices for that sort of thing.
Embedding might work for a while, but that means 75% support for the policy to be introduced. So it’s not a Labour problem, it’s a cross-party issue.
But then of course do you also embed the special needs stuff for disabilities etc?
@BLiP
okay, one person has special needs for ongoing care and equipment that runs to $3k/wk.
Does everyone get that under your ideal UMI?
Basically, the problems of 4 million people cannot be solved with a wave of your hand going “tax the 1%”. It takes a bit more thought than that.
THEN you tax the fuck out of the 0.05% 🙂
But I reckon targeting some benefits beyond a universal minimum has its uses. At best I’d probably go for a combo between a UMI and targeting, plus general economic policy changes, of course.
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That’s a health issue . . . now, where are you at? Is “health” a human right or just an opportunity for capital gain?
BLiP
Don’t forget Labour loves its complexity. The more complexity the more post grad policy analyst wonk types they can have hanging around to add additional layers of complexity.
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I blame that situation on Labour. They are the ones who opened up tertiary education to the corporates. Thanks Trevor – I’m lovin’ it.
Of course health is a human right. But you expressly said that disability supplements would no longer be available. So all you actually did was simply change the line item from “MSD” to “DHB”. Nice one.
And the complaints about “complexity” sounds like something from Jon Stewart’s “bullshit mountain”.
Hey McFlock, decomplexity is the future.
Increasing government deficits, tightening resource constraints and energy depletion guarantees it.
NZ gets away with it for now because we are doing relatively well.
“decomplexity is the future”
God, and people complain about Shearer’s wiffle waffle.
If anything the problems will become more complex.
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That’s what they want you to believe.
Answers are simple in times of plenty: “need something? Have some more!”
It’s in times of scarcity you need to balance need against need, e.g. Herceptin against more effective treatments for other conditions.
In energy shortage times, which areas do you brownout? This is not something you have to consider if the energy supply is plentiful.
LOL
You have it your way McFlock, you know best as always.
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There is no scarcity: its a matter of delivery. Neon advertising and aluminium for Japan or the elderly with heat for winter? You decide.
According to McFlock, you need to get a round table of ethics PhDs and some CompSci geeks to do some societal cost/benefit modelling, and then you’ll know the answer.
Herceptin lol do you have any idea the bill the public health system has had to pick up for the absolute damage that drug has done?
The “or” denotes scarcity. It means we can’t have both.
But of course the correct answer is “C: increase generating capacity so we CAN have both”.
But then we have to think “how? Where? With what?” Those can be complex questions.
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The answers have been available for a hundred years. Longer, probably.
Oh ffs CV.
You know what? The MSD got some gimp to organise web kiosks in their offices, and they were obviously unfettered by things like “knowledge”, “training” and “expertise”. Now imagine those morons in charge of healthcare or education in the country. Oh, wait, we fucking have that already: it’s called “Cabinet”.
That is the perfect example: you want people who aren’t fettered by education or experience in the area making all the decisions? I give you Parata, Tolley, Sgt Schultz and Dunnokeyo.
I’m not saying it should only qualified people discussing it, just that your GWBush-style anti-intellectualism is as stupid as a dictatorship of academics.
We have to measure what we have and then decide, democratically, how we use it. Can’t get away from that because there really is scarcity.
”
The answers have been available for a hundred years. Longer, probably.
”
Really? Wow. Saves all that pesky business with the RMA…
Anti-intellectualism? Nah just anti-academicism.
A vast difference, and not one that you have thought about much I suspect.
Funnily enough, I considered the difference between the two when I met my first BCom (Marketing).
But I think you’ve gone a wee bit too far the other way.
Yeah you can do that simply by saying – use and consume less shit please. Flat screen TVs, Holdens, fertiliser, palm kernel, iPhones. But no not allowed to say anything like that.
Too radical.
greenies have been saying it for decades. Are we getting better, I wonder? Shearer’s fault, obviously…
Yeah Greenie talkfests have been going on since before Limits to Growth.
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Greenie talkfests have been going on since before Morris Dancing.
“Dignity” is Not attained through one’s ” Job” at all
Ambition? read Ellul
“Identity”? Politics
“Dignity”? work out your own salvation
“unexpected bills”? Get off the grid
Those who have abandoned NZ for greener pastures will remain, or return in shame
There will be no “high wage, highly-skilled future” for Aotearoa; American Dreaming
Support the RB Act amendments a la Winston
C.G.T
F.T.T
How much R@D credit ??
Super? Whatever, that chicken has flown
Patriotism?
http://community.beliefnet.com/shawnf/blog/2010/05/25/interpreting_the_tao_te_ching:_verse_18_
No, but high skills and a reasonable living standard will be available – as soon as we get the greedy off our backs.
“That means an independent Reserve Bank that’s given a wider mandate…”
So, thestandard.org.nz is in favour of fractional reserve banking now? Confusing.
[gets popcorn]
🙂 yeah I see what you see lol
I wonder if a moderator will catch it before I get up tomorrow? 🙂
[lprent: I’d have to do a search in the post – a feature that safari on an iPad lacks. And I’m not getting out of a warm bed at nearly midnight… In the morning if none of the early morning people get it first.
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@lprent
Let me see if I got this right: you’re in bed – with Lyn – and you’re on the internet? That’s sad, dude. ; )
While I have your attention – I would like a couple of line-breaks between the comment title and the text of the comment – its not technical, just aesthetic – in a typographical manner. Many thanks.
Yes…. I have lift my hand from doing required/demanded back massage to type this. Complaints arose.. Did I mention the lights are out?
I will look at the swallowing of leading white space later. Neck massage awaits.
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If the lights are out, a maestro would be working the inner thighs by now . . . the neck muscles massage comes aferwards. Surely. Also, pics or it didn’t happen.
Get a room!!! Oh ok you have…
turn off the webcam!
“Yes…. I have lift my hand from doing required/demanded back massage to type this.”
Got two hands, haven’t you? Carry on…
Need a third hand.. One hand to hold iPad, one to type on iPad… Darn, I am out of hands 😈
But seriously, got home at 2000 after work, cooked for Lyn who was off shopping for her cousins 21st (with the forthcoming filming in India she is working pretty damn hard as well), watched an hour of Lord Bryon on QuickFlix while eating and doing washing, went to bed and read the moderation. Bed is the only time to mod in the evenings and I have to multitask to do it.
Oh well looks like release candidate for first product is out of the door. Next is nearly there. Holiday in a few weeks…
🙂
It’s good to know Phil Goff’s speechwriter still has a job.
tough calls…prepared to make them…yadda yadda.
Policies list is mostly recycled.
Capital gains tax, expanding Kiwisaver and reinstating contributions to the Cullen Fund (if that is what he was saying) and making Government departments consider Kiwi workers when awarding contracts are all good.
Jury’s out on the currency tinkering and R&D tax credit. I can see both of those being well-intentioned but completely useless.
The one-in-a-million thing is a real stinker. Forcing businesses to create apprentice positions is daft. To have a good experience an apprentice needs an employer who wants them there and is prepared to put the time and effort into training them. Not an employer who had no choice and doesn’t want them.
You know, it all sounds like pretty good stuff, except, oh, what’s this?
Jobs matter. And it’s not only about whether you’re earning enough to pay the bills. It’s because they say so much about you. Often, when you meet a person one of the first things you’ll find out about them is what they do for a crust. It’s more than just a weekly wage. It’s about recognising that what you choose to do with your life matters. It matters to you, your family and your community. It’s through your job that you’re able to realise your ambitions and give your kids a decent start in life. It’s a sense of identity and a source of dignity.
Ah, yes. The eternal centrist love of the notion that only paid work can give you dignity or identity. Meanwhile, capitalism churns on, dependent on a pool of unemployed people who presumably are kept in some kind of making-no-contribution-to-their-community stasis until a Real Income comes along, and let’s pay no attention to the unpaid, unrecognised, and certainly worthy of some fucking recognition work of stay-at-home parents. Who are predominantly women. Coincidentally.
I love the smell of job-worship in the mornings. Smells like patriarchy.
and I enjoy your fragrance
Ewwww! Rogue that over-aestheticisation will get you in jail one day. Careful if QoT doesn’t devote an entire post to you in which your manifold Jungian entrails are dried into beef jerky.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, beyond the Spiral commune and a regular Potlatch, non-patriarchal economy in QoT terms looks like Kawerau, Westport, and Flaxmere. Not fun.
non-patriarchal economy in QoT terms looks like Kawerau, Westport, and Flaxmere. Not fun.
Bullshit. All I said was that acting like paid work is the only valuable way to contribute to your community is horseshit, and it’s horseshit traditionally served up by patriarchy/capitalism because it *depends* on people’s unpaid labour going un-financially rewarded.
Of course well-paid jobs are good (so are kittens. I look forward to Shearer’s next speech on Kittens For Everyone). But they’re not the be-all and end-all of human existence, and progressive/left politics is just screwing itself by buying into that kind of rightwing, money-is-the-only-morality thinking.
Well I would put it to you that those outside paid jobs are outsiders.
Like stay-at-home parents who are raising the next generation of Kiwis?
Without the support of a wage earner, most likely. So, sadly, yeah.
That’s just it, they shouldn’t need “the support of a wage earner” as the community should be supporting them.
I’ve found it really interesting watching this community respond to Karol and the Queen of Thorns almost simultaneous promotions to blogger status. (Personally I was hoping for the trifecta with Adele…but maybe another day…).
A few flounces.
I think it will continue to be interesting for a while yet. Since I started coming to TS a couple of years ago, its culture has evolved with the gradually increasing numbers of strong, confident, and fearsomely intelligent, Left-wing women participating all its various conversations. It goes without saying that the same is true of the strengthening voices of all the other “othered” “identity” group members, which is a whole lot of other comments in themselves
I can think of conversations from my early days here, which would be unthinkable now in anything like the form they took, the assumptions unchallenged, and the language that was used unthinkingly. And I know some here will think that a bad thing. But I reckon – Vive la difference 😀 And long may we keep learning
We travel as equals or not at all. Joseph Arthur:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSWir4yxDyU
In the dark of grave yard chatter
In the light of freedoms call
In the heat of any matter
We travel as equals or not at all
Bloom disgust and class divide
I saw it written on the wall
The only way we can survive
We travel as equals or not at all
You can’t be in greater comfort
As my pain prevents your fall
The truth will come and tell us brother
We travel as equals or not at all
And when we get to where we’re going
Past the divide past the stall
Past the wind that’s always blowing
Travel as equals or not at all
You might have a greater income
Or you might be dumb and dull
But either way I won’t leave you
Travel as equals or not at all
So help me too in my slumber
If I’m blind in madness hall
If I’m deaf amongst the thunder
Travel as equals or not at all
Lift the way forget the ransom
Free the chain and kick the ball
Let our love take us higher
Travel as equals or not at all
And down the road
And thru the sky
And on the tracks
Hear the gull
Fly above us
Without worry
Travel as equals or not at all
I hope your road takes you homeward
And may you always outrun the law
If I’m with you we will always
Travel as equals or not at all
I will catch you if your lost
I will catch you if you fall
Yes if I’m with you
We will always
Travel as equals or not at all
Yes if I’m with you
We will always
Travel as equals or not at all.
I am finishing up anyway’s, was just hanging around for you; ” It’s all over now baby blue”
ya gotta know when to hold them, know when to fold them; I got plenty of mahi to be going on with now.. inAdvertently, or contrariwise, thanks to you.
Any last thoughts? Blogging has definitely been enlightening, but as I have indicated frequently, beware our habits do not form us, and it is time to break another habit
(blogging is certainly multi-dimensional though) and fun? well, that’s coming to end for many day by day (nothing inappropriate about being an open book, the more windows you open, the more light you let in)
P.S; await reply, otherwise, good bye every body, I have mat my match (in Little Match Girl terms)
🙂
(Stuff Politics)
You have a weird and old/atavistic voice which is playful for its spiritual age. Great fun. Night.
stay in touch Rogue, creativity is perception’s friend
view refuel return
this world to be visited
rest maps new pathways
I think that posts, comments, and notes dedicated to eviserations at a highly personal level are more my kind of thing than QoTs. She tends to rail more widely at the the essential stupidities of the world without too many of the nasty personal touches.
With the wisdom of age and experience I can usually twist the knife in so the subjects remember the experience for the time required for jerking really old hard jerked beef. Disembowelment of others is something to savor and should not be wasted on the youth.
* time to duck * 😈
I think the focus on jobs by opposition parties is important…. However,
It’s because they say so much about you. Often, when you meet a person one of the first things you’ll find out about them is what they do for a crust.
Yes that’s the bit that bothers me – that and what also is not said. This still seems to go back to some of Josie Pagani’s comments when she was under fire from the left blogosphere over the alleged fiddler on the roof. She said that the Labour party had started as the party for workers, and needed to get back to that.
What also is not said by Shearer in that speech, and in recent comments: has he ever apologised for the roof story smearing beneficiaries? Or has he just stopped talking about it, while he continues to hold the same attitude toward beneficiaries?
And is the Labour Party ever going to pledge to repeal all the anti-worker legislation? or is it really about focus on supporting NZ business and industries?
Ah, yes – an indication in that part of Shearer’s speech, of where capitalism and patriarchy meet. This is where I have my main mis-givings about the current Labour leadership team. They do seem to support both a softer form of neoliberalism, and a paternalistic, “caring” form of patriarchy.
There are some MPs within Labour caucus who seem to represent a less neoliberal and/or patriarchal attitude. And MPs who, even if they are pretty neoloberal in outlook, are working on issues that could take the party in a different direction: Chris Hipkins on education, Phil Twyford on transport, Annette King on housing, Sue Moroney on PPL (was also very good on education when on the front bench), Clare Curran (on public broadcasting and public libraries).
On the skills and entrepreneur category let in a 100 thousand each of the following:
Danes, Dutch, Germans, Austrians, Swiss –
and this country will experience an economic boom NEVER seen before!
But that is of course too daring, as it will upset the whole social and local economic system and agenda, right?
I also met numerous French so keen to come and work and live here.
Why the damned hell do we have a pre occupation with restaurant operators offering Asian foods, maybe a bit of Turkish “cuisine”, Thai tilers, Indonesian and Philipino farm workers, Filipina caregivers in homes for the elderly, nurses and doctors to replace leaving Kiwis all over the place, entrepreneurs (admittedly a BIG German amongst them), paying their way into the country, but otherwise not doing much for the benefit of NZ at all?
This to me is DUMB immigration, DUMB economics, PRIMITIVE social and other policies. Indeed I met some many promising migrants from all sorts of countries, and once they realised what goes on here, most said, they could not be bothered coming to live and work here!
NZ can do more and better, there is an ability to assist refugees, also allow some lower skilled migrants, but the “entrepreneurs” and “investors” that are atttracted so far, do hardly do much good for NZ.
But the challenge is NOT wanted, as smart people as migrants are NOT really wanted, they will challenge the local elite and stake holders. It is the agenda to keep this country “simple”, “primitive” and lowly educated and informed, as that makes it soooo easy for the existing elite to keep running this place in a convenient, dumbing down manner, which is really what they want and love.
No hope really, it is all really the best scenario for migration – OUTWARD!
Been there, done that. It’s why most of our wineries have European names.
Nope because a) Been there, done that and b) Growth has finished.
Actually, the people already here would do that as well – if they had access to the needed resources. The rich/elites/greedy do as much as they can to prevent that access.
Most people i had contact with, being migrants from Europe and even other places, they were not that entrepreneurial or high shot people, who once came here, but just offered their skills, and goood work, they have almost ALL LEFT for good.
I had so many say: It is a total waste of time to live and work in NZ! That is the truth, and so many said to me, why do you waste your bloody time and talent in this backward, DUMB country!?
Yeah, I get that too. I tell them: “te tangata, te tangata, te tangata”. Some get it; most go home.
It is your fucked up system here, for a start, throw out this damned British Crown crap, get rid of this old rotten system, get real, draw up a constitution, which will include Maori rights, I am all for it, but get this sorted, nobody wants to come into a totally divided, manipulated and corrupted country as NZ has become, run by a corrupt NatACT elite.
Constitutional issues have very very little to do with the friction and resistance your mates faced.
You have a better place in mind? Do tell…
PARADISE early death, have you heard of the “near death experiences”? That is why Jihadis do what they do. It is a quick path to “salvation” and peace. But that is a bit too heavy, right? Because we cling to physical lives and supposed “enjoyments”. But once those supposed “enjoyments’ do not, never or no more exist, an “alternative” may be the best way out, right?!
Good night! Enjoy your trip through the veil. You may find some thing out much more worthwhile than bothering to hang about in this place.
All in good time my friend. But not yet. Not yet.
This works for me tonight, boa noite!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYhF56heGxw&feature=endscreen&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=rwDLu_u2GHI&feature=endscreen
Another nuance do musica do brasil.
Maybe back, after time travel, now in South America, for the rest of il noice.
Shake up your country and docile lot, sedatives do not help, I feel.
Get on moving.
Revolution of sorts, just the mind will do!