Wealth creators
Extracts from an article by Dr Campbell Jones (Senior Lecturer in Sociology, University of Auckland). Who creates wealth? Is wealth evidence of merit?
Economy
class war
Angry Old White Man Party to attack young people
Angry Old White Man Party (ACT) Leader Don Brash is to launch another attack on young people. It’s strange that this once significant and principled party has sent its dying days picking the on the young. The latest stupid idea is to remove the minimum wage for under 20s altogether and cut spending to cut taxes that the rich pay.
Sepuloni on why voting matters
Celebrating Youth Unemployment
The tidal wave of unemployment is all the more heartbreaking because we have been here before, last time we had a 1st term National government. But have the Tories learned the lessons of the past? Not a bit of it. Paula Bennett, who had her hand up from the government when she needed it, says there’s “a lot to celebrate” about 58,000 disconnected youths.
The Pernicious Food Card
Or how the food card will inevitably push beneficiaries into all types of deeper strife.
The cartoon (since it doesn’t show up clearly and you might be wondering) is a lifebelt being thrown in the “Welfare” cell and a book titled “Learn to swim” being thrown in the second “Welfare Reform” cell.
Buffett calls for rich to stop class war
Today Warren Buffett, the third wealthiest man in the world, has come out demanding his mega-rich friends play a part in the American economic recovery. He is recognised as one of the smartest and most successful investors alive, his words should not be dismissed lightly, especially as we approach our own election and grapple with the issue of tax reform.
Epic fail
Like most of us, Fran O’Sullivan was expecting so much more from the Nats at their conference…
The kids aren’t alright
What are the baby-boomer elite doing to our kids? Our rulers, drawn from the selfish generation, have taken more and more of the world’s wealth for themselves, wrecked its environment, and failed to invest. Now, with National in power, they’re asking the young to pay off their debt. And when the kids get pissed, the elite doles out repression.
Q+A interview – Key still lying
A better than usual interview of John Key by Guyon Espiner on Sundays Q+A. On the plus side Espiner was raising some serious issues. On the minus he let Key get away with his usual lies and evasions.
Hickey on the fall of capitalism
Bernard Hickey writes compellingly on the coming fall of capitalism.
Compassionate conservatism
Fran O’Sullivan reveals her softer side today. No, she’s not against National’s benefit cuts for the unemployed, the sick, and invalids. Nor against cutting the wages of the 103,000 working 15-19 year olds on the half-baked premise that will create more jobs. But leave single mums alone, she says, because she had one. It reminds me of something I saw on the Daily Show.
Welfare fraud and reform
National will keep demonising the most vulnerable members of society for electoral gain, while turning a blind eye to much bigger problems.
London riots
There have been two nights of rioting, looting and burning in London. The trigger was the police shooting of Mark Duggan. But the cause is the alienation of the permanent underclass, and the stresses of the current austerity programme.
Crisis? What Crisis?
Cuts are good for you.
Greens tackle child poverty
The Greens have launched their policy to get 100,000 kids out of poverty. It’ll cost just 0.3% of GDP. We have a moral duty to do what we can to eliminate child poverty. Labour made a start. WFF basically ended working poverty. But there’s the kids of beneficiaries. 270,000 kids below the poverty line while the elite live in mansions. Not good enough.
Key’s own goal on poverty
A bad mistake by John Key in the House yesterday. Phil Goff asked him about the gap between rich and poor. Key cited a new report on falling inequality. But he should have read the report properly. It credits Labour policies for driving down poverty and inequality.
All hail our vampire overlords
How did the wealth of the 151 richest people grow by 10% of GDP when the economy grew only 1.5%? Mostly by revaluing existing assets. Not a lot of ‘wealth creation’ from our self-appointed Randian Heroes, just book changes. But, apparently, we owe everything to the elite and need to let them suck up more of our wealth for themselves.
Breeding for a business?
A typical shock horror headline on Stuff in the weekend – “Pre-teens dream of kids and dole”. So what’s going on here, and is it an argument for “welfare reform”?
All the World’s A Square
Some inspiration as Monday morning looms.
Out of sight out of mind
Many other countries have cleared beggars from the streets in advance of big international sporting events. Such a thing would never be needed in New Zealand though. Would it?
Indeed
A classic from stuff:
Prime Minister John Key said the Government had had very little room to move on the economy.
”The public recognises that the rest of the world isn’t in great shape and so New Zealand is having to contend with that global environment,” he said.
Many a true word
Bill Maher on taxes, the deficit, and why 49% of Americans are voting away their future.
The problem is not in the schools
According to a recent report, disadvantaged NZ youth are at the “bottom of OECD league”. The report recommends various interventions in schools. The recommendations completely miss the point, because the problem is not in the schools, the problem is in society.
Inflation, growth, hard times
Back in October 2010 the Nats were quick to claim credit for low inflation. No doubt they will be just as quick now to accept the blame for inflation at a 21 year high.
The straw that broke the Randian hero’s back?
I’ve been thinking about that lawyer Casey Plunket who threatened to leave for Australia over Labour restoring the 39% top tax rate at the stratospheric threshold of $150,000. It means a couple of thousand more tax for the wealthiest Kiwis. Would anyone really move countries over that? Do we need the kind of people that would?
The politics of greed
In response to Labour’s tax proposals the Right is trotting out their favourite mindless catch phrase – “the politics of envy”. Should the Left fight fire with fire, and get stuck in to “the politics of greed”?
Another right whinger
There’s an odd contradiction in right-wing ‘thought’. On the one hand, they’re Randian heroes, the wealth creators, modern day Atlases who support the world while ‘parasites’ try to take their wealth and bring them down. On the other hand, they’re victims who need subsidies and special treatment. Fed Farmers CEO Conor English embodies the contradiction.
Squeezing the life out of the economy
Are we “roaring out of recession”? No. Is there an “aggressive recovery”? No. What’s going wrong? The problem is that the Nats are squeezing the life out of the economy.
Nats testing the waters on eugenics
John Key “thinks” that parents on the DPB are “breeding for a business”. Now his government is testing the waters for a eugenics program, to single out these undesirables and forcibly control their fertility.
Time for a cross party consensus on crime
All of a sudden National and ACT are sounding vaguely sensible on crime and prisons. There seems to be a golden opportunity to reach a cross party consensus, and get some evidence driven policy and practice in this area. Who is going to make the first move?
Campbell on welfare reforms
Good old fashioned benefit bashing. Another electoral battle line has been drawn – arm yourself with the facts!
Simplest way to get 100K off the benefit
Elect a Labour-led government. Create 100K jobs.
Just like Ruth, Jim and Jenny
Having wrecked the economy and put tens of thousands of workers on the dole queue John Key is now planning to give them another kick in the guts by cutting their benefits.
And of course that’ll help drive wages down too.
To anyone that lived through the 1990’s this bullshit should be very very familiar by now.
March against the budget cuts
A new organisation, the Coalition for Social Justice, is calling for a march in Auckland tomorrow.
CTU research on minimum wage
The response to two recent posts here at The Standard have shown what a contentious topic the minimum wage is. So it’s timely that yesterday saw the release of the CTU’s summary of research on Minimum Wage and Jobs.
Choosing to be poor
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.