The “Brighter future”.

Written By: - Date published: 10:36 am, March 21st, 2015 - 34 comments
Categories: capitalism, cost of living, economy, employment, equality, jobs, minimum wage, poverty, welfare, workers' rights - Tags:

Labour, in 1984, with Richard Prebble and Roger Douglas, promised that if we adopted their prescription we would have a “Brighter Future”.

Ruth Richardson in the 90’s promised a “Brighter Future”.

Again in 2014 John Key’s National promises a “Brighter Future”.

A “Brighter Future”.

For whom?

 

For those who were made “redundant” by “economic reforms” in the 80’s and still have a large mortgage, or no house, on retirement, as they struggled to re-educate themselves for another job to keep their family fed, or to fund starting a business so they could survive?  Who are now finding they have to also support their adult children.

For those who work an uncertain number of hours a week, for a minimum wage that costs the employer less than keeping a slave?

For those young people, often well qualified and willing to work hard, who cannot leave their parents’ home as their zero hours job, or unpaid “internship”/”work experience”, leaves them unable to rent, or buy, housing?

For those who spent years learning a skilled job, to find that their wages are dropping much faster than prices?

The shopkeepers and small businesses, who are closing, and the owners joining the “jobseekers”, because their customers do not have enough money. What money there is, is constantly taken out of the region by “big box” stores.

The many employees who are expected to be available at short notice for a job, so they cannot build up a portfolio of part time jobs, or expect a consistent income.

For the young Woman who is now on her third job. The first didn’t have enough hours to pay for food, and a flat, so she had to quit. The second the boss, and some other staff, were bullying and abusive. WINZ still gave her a 13 week stand down after both jobs. They are still sending “jobseekers” to the bullying  employer.

The third. She was sacked on the 89th Day when the WINZ subsidy stopped, so the business could get another employee with a WINZ subsidy.

The mentally ill young man who is now a “jobseeker”. The stress of visiting WINZ offices, courses and looking for work has him agitated for days. One day he was so upset he got angry in the WINZ office. He is now banned, but he has to visit the office to get any welfare. He has spent years couch surfing.

The teenager who went looking for an apprenticeship, to find the positions were all filled, by already trained, recent immigrants.

The young man who went to Auckland for a job after three years of looking. To find he couldn’t pay for transport to work, food and rent.

Another young man who is laughably called a “contractor”. He gets minimum wage, plus $3 a delivery, in his own car. He lives in fear of his car getting caught without the warrant and registration, he cannot afford, because then he would have no job.

The young woman with severe depression and a child. Her partner left her when she became pregnant. She is wondering how she will be able to work, and  and  look after herself, and her child, when she has to look for work.  Mental health services in Northland are so overloaded, and underfunded, she has to wait weeks, or months, for an appointment.

 

In the Northland region!

The “Brighter Future”.

 

34 comments on “The “Brighter future”. ”

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  1. One Anonymous Bloke 1
    21 March 2015 at 10:48 am

    Spot on KJT. The experiment proves that the theory is nonsense.

    The only question remains is whether those who still advocate for it are guilty of incompetence or fraud.

  2. just saying 2
    21 March 2015 at 11:48 am

    Well said.

  3. Shona 3
    21 March 2015 at 12:00 pm

    Thanks KJT. There are many more examples but you covered the economic reality of living in paradise well. Oh and you can’t talk about what’s really happening up here or the joy Nazis ,the eternal optimists who refuse to acknowledge the misery of the young or the fracturing of our communities will talk you down and deny, deny, deny . Utterly deluded and forever looking for the brighter future that never ever comes. So over it .

  4. tracey 4
    21 March 2015 at 12:06 pm

    Well said…
    the excuse has always been we didnt have a chnace to finish…

    so, between 1984 and 2015 ( 31 years), allegedly 9 years of a Labour Government is responsible for the failure to deliver a Brighter Future… a Labour Government with a MOF who could have been at home int he National Party, and a business-friendly Cabinet not prepared to really stand up for workers rights…

    BUT, as you point out, some people have had really bright “presents” in the ensuing 31 years of promised brighter futures…

    • Colonial Rawshark 4.1
      21 March 2015 at 12:45 pm

      The Left has brought no convincing political economic alternative vision to the table. Raising the retirement age, anyone? Another free trade agreement, anyone?

      • Murray Rawshark 4.1.1
        21 March 2015 at 4:00 pm

        Prebble and Douglas would say they didn’t want to raise the retirement age high enough. Some still in Labour would agree with them.

        • Colonial Rawshark 4.1.1.1
          21 March 2015 at 5:41 pm

          I suspect that’s why at Conference in 2012 the Labour caucus pushed Conference into giving caucus discretion in the Labour “Policy Platform” over any future Super age increases. The party delegates present approved that motion.

          Just fucked.

          • Murray Rawshark 4.1.1.1.1
            21 March 2015 at 6:03 pm

            I like your well researched and concise summation. Two words that say a lot.

  5. Paul 5
    21 March 2015 at 12:10 pm

    And people fall for such baloney

  6. johnm 6
    21 March 2015 at 12:13 pm

    The documentary ” Mind the Gap” explains the top 10% own over 50% of the nation’s wealth, the bottom 10% own nothing.

    Privatisation is perhaps the main driver of inequality. Public assets and income are stolen from the public commonwealth into private wealth. As the corporate wealth oriented government continues to lose its tax base it levies an unfair consumption tax but reduces income tax on the well off.
    Basically the likes of Key consider the public commonwealth as virtually communism, a prejudice imported from Yankeeland!

    1. Crazy to allow speculators to treat homes as wealth creating by capital gain green monopoly pawns.
    2. Crazy to sell off the public’s assets to private profit makers.
    3. Crazy to have rich PM’s Ordinary people with no more than $100,000 a year should lead the country.

    ” People who like money too much ought to be kicked out of politics, Uruguayan President José Mujica told CNN en Español in an interview posted online Wednesday.

    “We invented this thing called representative democracy, where we say the majority is who decides,” Mujica said in the interview. “So it seems to me that we [heads of state] should live like the majority and not like the minority.” ”

    http://collectivelyconscious.net/articles/worlds-poorest-president-explains-why-we-should-kick-rich-people-out-of-politics/

    Then we’ve had the GFC which has been used to rob blind the public commonwealth and tax revenue to prop up banks which should have gone bankrupt. We live under a financialisation tyranny. Our version is gifting a billion dollars to the South Canterbury speculators but we can’t give CHCH a billion to help them making them sell off their public wealth creating assets into private hands!

  7. Adrian 7
    21 March 2015 at 12:38 pm

    The “internships ” are the biggest scams, my daughter with a double degree ( fashion and business) and a lot of practical experience, has just got a job in London in the rag trade, not nessecarily an essential industry, but it has taken 8 months and over 130 applications with about 25 offers, all pretty much without exception offering 40 hours for 2 years NO PAY, with the vague promise of “possibly” a job at the end.
    Her uncle in Holland has said that bullshit is just creeping in there now as well.
    How long before it is the norm here?
    She was lucky to get an offer of a 1 month “internship” and fortunately another worker was moving up and a position became available. She was only able to do it because we could help her out for a few weeks but there’s no way on God’s earth we could have propped her up for months.

    • Colonial Rawshark 7.1
      21 March 2015 at 12:44 pm

      You kill that bullshit dead by offering young people a jobs guarantee – 40 hours a week paid work at the minimum wage to whoever wants it and can do it – and by toughly enforcing slave labour and minimum wage laws over employers.

      • RedLogix 7.1.1
        21 March 2015 at 8:20 pm

        Another more direct action goes like this:

        Walk into a fashion shop – pick up a dress and start to walk out. When you get stopped say “When you start paying your interns, I’ll start paying for your dresses!”

        In a loud voice.

    • Draco T Bastard 7.2
      21 March 2015 at 7:18 pm

      She was only able to do it because we could help her out for a few weeks but there’s no way on God’s earth we could have propped her up for months.

      So you ended up directly subsidising the profits of the business. That business probably also has direct and indirect government subsidies as well.

  8. Colonial Rawshark 8
    21 March 2015 at 12:42 pm

    Labour’s ideological collaboration with this insane political economic programme effectively silenced credible mainstream political opposition against it. We’re now quite happy to fuck over real people and real creative, productive enterprises in order to balance government and banking spreadsheet entries.

    • Draco T Bastard 8.1
      21 March 2015 at 7:20 pm

      We’re now quite happy to fuck over real people and real creative, productive enterprises in order to balance government and banking spreadsheet entries.

      Chasing balanced budgets is the excuse used to fuck over the majority while the banks rake in the interest from creating money in such a way that the books can never be balanced.

  9. Ad 9
    21 March 2015 at 12:52 pm

    The great restructure began thirty years ago.
    It has been getting worse for 90% of New Zealand since then, and it is continuing to get worse. I blame both Labour and National. They were in it up to their eyeballs.

    There’s plenty of sustained economic growth for an increasingly narrow base of New Zealand. 3% growth masks as much as 5.7% unemployed.

    I don’t see any political, social, or economic alternative on the horizon here.

  10. joe90 10
    21 March 2015 at 1:40 pm

    But sharing ….. TEDx talk on the sharing economy, market economies of failed and near-failed states with the convenience of a smartphone app.
    /

    How the ‘sharing economy’ disrupts civilization – Ed challenges the foundation of the so-called sharing economy.

    http://www.salon.com/2015/02/10/robert_reich_america_is_heading_full_speed_back_to_the_19th_century_partner/

    • greywarshark 10.1
      21 March 2015 at 10:09 pm

      Thanks joe90 excellent links. I listen and I can see a shape emerging that seems viable for the future and taking hold of systems that will start working and be there when the zeitgeist of the wealthy class strips away our present cultural norms.

  11. Ennui 11
    21 March 2015 at 2:09 pm

    The 1994 Labour government ended the Post War concensus between capital and labour by way of stealthy revolution. Lenin would have been proud of their methods if not purpose. Who saw it coming? Bugger all of us.

    I have absolutely no doubt that we need to do the same in reverse. Having an overt agenda may harm the Left. The real need is to install the revolutionary cadre within the left parties prior to the next election.

    • Colonial Rawshark 11.1
      21 March 2015 at 5:42 pm

      Yep. Because that’s exactly what they did to “workers’ parties” all around the world.

  12. Clemgeopin 12
    21 March 2015 at 2:33 pm

    “A “Brighter Future”.
    For whom?”

    That is a no brainer : Definitely a brighter future for Northland if Winston wins!

    • b waghorn 12.1
      21 March 2015 at 4:09 pm

      Will it be a brighter future for us all if Mr Little wins in 2017?

      • The Murphey 12.1.1
        21 March 2015 at 4:14 pm

        No

        • b waghorn 12.1.1.1
          21 March 2015 at 4:25 pm

          In answer to you’re very simplistic NO. His future of work talks so far have caught my attention ,I’m interested to see where it will lead.
          I do think we need radical change but I understand that you can’t scare the pigeons, this market driven world we’re living in leaves to many behind.

          • Colonial Rawshark 12.1.1.1.1
            21 March 2015 at 5:42 pm

            The pigeons either need to be scared, or they are going to make a nice bbq lunch for the power elite.

            • b waghorn 12.1.1.1.1.1
              21 March 2015 at 6:13 pm

              Unfortunately scaring the pigeons enough to get real change usually means lots of suffering .

              • Colonial Rawshark …
                21 March 2015 at 6:52 pm

                It’s as if we don’t have any more aspirations for NZ society, all we can think about is avoiding maximum pain and fear.

          • The Murphey 12.1.1.1.2
            21 March 2015 at 7:24 pm

            Anything less than radical change is the end of life as most people ‘know’ it to be

            Those at the bottom have already experienced what that life feel like as they live it every day

            As more people fall into the abyss those living the ‘neoliberal dream’ will grow in ever greater numbers until there is only the upper percentage remaining

            This is what is wanted by the controllers

            Tweek around the edges of that if you like because that is as much as could be expected from Little

            It’s almost game over

  13. SMILIN 13
    23 March 2015 at 8:23 pm

    It used to be an expression we use to hear from my parents generation in relation to the experience of the Depression years and WW2
    Keys barely old enough to even to have experienced that first hand as a kid which shows a trend of arrogance and ignorance of what they are even fuckin talkin about so piss off Key and give us our money and country back