Posts Tagged ‘inequality’

Nats in denial about education and poverty

Written By: - Date published: 8:06 am, September 11th, 2012 - 57 comments

Shearer’s speech on Sunday has sparked the discussions that this country needed to have about education, about poverty, and about the sad link between them. With every statement the Nats show how deeply in denial they are about these issues.

National’s achievement: Highest ever inequality

Written By: - Date published: 12:55 pm, August 23rd, 2012 - 50 comments

The exodus to Australia is at record levels. Falling wages have seen social inequality rise to record levels. Good job National.

Petty politics as usual on poverty

Written By: - Date published: 2:33 pm, December 15th, 2011 - 37 comments

Key is playing petty politics as usual on poverty. He should have accepted Shearer’s call for a cross party process and his offer of help on the new “ministerial poverty committee”.

RWC final highlights inequalities

Written By: - Date published: 12:54 pm, October 21st, 2011 - 48 comments

A very thoughtful piece from Simon Collins in today’s Herald: “Deep divisions over $1000 for a Rugby World Cup game as poverty grows”.

John Key: Evidence please!

Written By: - Date published: 6:17 am, June 2nd, 2011 - 55 comments

John Key prefers his gut to real evidence, and it means that the policies he is implementing aren’t the ones that are best for our country.
Also: Steven Joyce & the Rail Loop.

Choosing to be poor

Written By: - Date published: 7:32 am, May 24th, 2011 - 24 comments

Prominent  scientist Sir Paul Callaghan thinks Kiwis are choosing to be poor.  I reckon he’s right too, but we probably disagree about the reasons.

Education and wealth

Written By: - Date published: 8:20 am, April 22nd, 2011 - 69 comments

Turns out the teachers have been right all along.  Family wealth is the overwhelming predictor of educational outcome.  That means there are no quick fixes.  The best way to improve educational outcomes is to improve the incomes of the poor.

Why are the “Right” terrified of equality?

Written By: - Date published: 7:21 am, February 14th, 2011 - 78 comments

Economic inequality is damaging to the fabric of society.  It’s a simple and compelling message, and it seems to have the political “Right” in a complete panic.  In fact if Deborah Coddington’s latest piece is anything to go by, the Right are terrified to the point of derangement.

Mind the Wealth Gap

Written By: - Date published: 2:41 pm, February 3rd, 2011 - 2 comments

The Onion, PARIS—At a press conference Tuesday, the World Heritage Committee officially recognized the Gap Between Rich and Poor as the “Eighth Wonder of the World,” describing the global wealth divide as the “most colossal and enduring of mankind’s creations.”

Equality of opportunity

Written By: - Date published: 7:20 am, September 13th, 2010 - 194 comments

“The Spirit Level” is a book with a simple message: An unequal society is a sick society.  It’s a message that has the right wing running scared, and trying to dodge the issue by pretending that they believe in “equality of opportunity”.  But across society there’s no such thing…

Lies, damn lies and desperation

Written By: - Date published: 7:45 am, August 26th, 2010 - 43 comments

It is time we got away from Mr Key’s focus on individual greed and got back to a focus on better hospital, schools and care for those who are struggling. David Clark argues that Key’s tax cuts are going to actually drive away our high-achievers while Mr Key is telling us it’s going to bring them home.

Daily Show on lucky duckies

Written By: - Date published: 1:53 pm, May 25th, 2010 - 7 comments

Seeing as the theme of the day has been inequality and class war, this video from the Daily Show is very appropriate. Interesting to see that in the US the Right is running the same ‘lucky ducky‘ line about the poor who are supposedly getting it easy because their incomes are so low they don’t […]

Nats floundering on inequality

Written By: - Date published: 7:16 am, May 25th, 2010 - 35 comments

Pointing out that a “rich get richer” budget is going to increase inequality in NZ seems to be making the Nats uncomfortable. Bill English tries to simply deny the facts. DPF tries to divert attention to “social mobility”. Lame efforts in both cases. The truth is that inequality isn’t on the Nats radar. They simply don’t care.

Inequality Aspiration Envy

Written By: - Date published: 11:04 am, May 19th, 2010 - 71 comments

Inequality is terribly damaging to society. National want to increase inequality by transferring wealth from the poor to the rich. They argue that this provides “incentives” for the vast majority of the rest of us to “get ahead”. But this aspirational argument is both incoherent and absurd.

“Creeping communism” a success

Written By: - Date published: 3:07 pm, July 20th, 2009 - 6 comments

Missed this from a couple of days ago: For the first time in 25 years, the incomes of those in lower brackets grew more quickly than those on higher incomes, the Household Income Survey by the Social Development Ministry found. It credits Working for Families with the turnaround and says it also helped avert a […]