Tales from front-lines of the class war

Written By: - Date published: 10:24 am, December 6th, 2010 - 17 comments
Categories: class war, health, jobs, wages - Tags:

More go bankrupt from job loss
“Nearly 3000 New Zealanders went broke in the year to June because of losing their jobs.”

150 printing jobs lost
“Around 150 people face a jobless Christmas and a bleak future after a major south Auckland commercial printer closed for good on Wednesday.”

Wages a touchy subject among workers
“A long-serving Warehouse staffer could not understand how its chief executive was paid so highly when workers had been fighting for only a 3 per cent rise. “What can one person do to be worth so much money? I don’t mind what he earns particularly … but, in a company that’s described as one team, how can he be entitled to so much?”

Lifetimes of toil to equal bosses’ pay
“Wage gaps between workers and chief executives have grown so large that some staff would have to work for two lifetimes to earn the same as their boss’s annual salary.”

Goff says middle NZ feeling squeeze of stalled economy
“Middle income earners in New Zealand were feeling the impact of rising prices and a stalled economy, he said.

“They’re not poor enough to get much in the way of help from the benefit system and they’re not wealthy enough to find things pretty easy as higher income earners do.”… This isn’t about gimmicks, you’re not going to solve New Zealand’s economic problems through job summits and cycleways, it’s got to be about real plans, real vision about where we need to take New Zealand.”

Peter Jackson bringing private jet back
“Film director Sir Peter Jackson looks set to return his new private jet to Wellington with the aircraft’s management company obtaining a New Zealand air operator’s certificate and the city’s airport preparing to clear a spot for it.

Jackson took delivery of the top-of-the-line Gulfstream G550 in May but has been forced to park the $68 million jet in Melbourne due to a lack of suitable hangar space at Wellington International Airport.”

NZ should pay for royal honeymoon
“I don’t think the prince would find the $10,000 a night price tag too much of a problem. It’s a lot of money for most of us, but our overseas guests tell us it’s actually good value.”

Always check sore throat, mum warns
“Health experts say it reflects badly on New Zealand that it has one of the developed world’s highest rates of what is now considered a Third World disease.

Rheumatic fever is associated with poverty and household overcrowding.”

17 comments on “Tales from front-lines of the class war ”

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  1. Sanctuary 1
    6 December 2010 at 11:14 am

    More news from the class war…

    http://gawker.com/news/wall-street.s-underclass/merrill-lynchs-harsh-new-sick-day-policy-262292.php

    Now, who did John Key work for again? Oh! That’s right! MERRILL LYNCH! Oh, ummm, didn’t John Key’s government just ram through draconian changes to our labour laws around sick leave?

  2. Colonial Viper 2
    6 December 2010 at 11:27 am

    Seems that the few have been extremely able in waging a crushing class war against the many.

    With the many just sitting back taking it for far to long. No longer, and not in 2011, gentle peeps.

  3. climate justice 3
    6 December 2010 at 11:49 am

    All of that suggests to me that maybe it is time for a New Left party. Either the political establishment does something about inequality in NZ, or NZ needs a political shakeup…

    • Colonial Viper 3.1
      6 December 2010 at 1:03 pm

      I have been thinking its not just about a new left party, we need a new mass movement supporting innovative left leaning reforms.

  4. randal 4
    6 December 2010 at 12:18 pm

    of course they are winning the class war.
    that is what the last election was all about.
    i.e. transferring wealth from from the poor to the rich all disguised uinder a rehotoric of giving john key a “TURN”.
    now he has had his turn and it is up to the NZLP to provide policies that are fair and where everyone gets a share.

  5. randal 5
    6 December 2010 at 12:19 pm

    when I say transferring wealth from the poor I mean taxing them to the hilt and depriving them of all benefits.

    • TightyRighty 5.1
      6 December 2010 at 12:50 pm

      please explain how a tax cut, never granted under labour, is taxing the poor to the hilt?

      • Bright Red 5.1.1
        6 December 2010 at 12:56 pm

        there were tax cuts under Labour. Working for Families and the October 1 2008 cuts. they were targeted at lower incomes.

        • spam 5.1.1.1
          6 December 2010 at 1:03 pm

          As I read it, Phill say’s they’re “benefits”, not tax cuts…

          “They’re not poor enough to get much in the way of help from the benefit system and they’re not wealthy enough to find things pretty easy as higher income earners do.”…

          • felix 5.1.1.1.1
            6 December 2010 at 3:10 pm

            zOMFG!!! He said “benefit system”!!!!

            Oh hang on, he used a whole lot of other words, all strung together in some kind of… not sure what to call it…. some kind of communication syntax device.

            Wonder what all those other words… OH LOOK A MOTH!!!

            Where was I? Oh yeah, where does Phil say that WfF are “benefits? You quoted the word “benefits” so you must have a source where he…. OH SHIT IT’S A FLY!!! A FLY!!!

      • Colonial Viper 5.1.2
        6 December 2010 at 12:59 pm

        I’ll do better, ideally GST should be reduced back to 10% as it is a regressive tax and the difference in revenue found from PAYE from the top 1% of income earners, CGT and an estate tax.

        Oh, and just a reminder that 42% of NAT’s tax cut went to the top 10% of earners. Good targetting of your mates there NAT.

    • dave brown 5.2
      6 December 2010 at 2:19 pm

      You forgot to mention where the wealth comes from in the first place. While little item of information will soon loom at large.

      • KJT 5.2.1
        6 December 2010 at 5:30 pm

        The wealth came from the labour of the people who do the work. Money is just a token for work.

        Which is why charging for the “use” of money cannot continue for much longer. The Chinese can see that. They are changing their money into land, food supplies and resources as fast as possible.

        • mcflock 5.2.1.1
          6 December 2010 at 6:36 pm

          Wrong, KJT – money is created when rich people defecate. It’s perfume gives people that “can do” number 8 wire attitude which all us kiwis are famous for, and if you’re lucky enough to be up to your nose in it then you’ll suddenly become a “wealth producer” rather than a member of the bludging underclass.

          That is why the poor should be grateful when the wealthy 1% do something shitty to everyone else.

  6. Vicky32 6
    6 December 2010 at 6:56 pm

    My aunt died in England in the 1950s of heart problems caused by rheumatic fever in her childhood – it was that fact when I learned it, that told me my father hadn’t exaggerated when he told us about the poverty he had experienced as a child.
    (I got cross when Shortland Street, who built a plotline around rheumatic fever in the late 1990s said it was a disease *only* Maoris and Islanders get. Divide and rule! Fair skinned red-heads get it as well – in my own childhood, I spent time after a car accident, in the same ward as a very Pakeha girl with rheumatic fever..)

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