No disconnections or evictions

Written By: notices and features - Date published: - 20 comments
Categories: health, health and safety, uncategorized, workers' rights - Tags: ,

Unite’s Joe Carolan on the Covid-19 pandemic.

“It’s time to freeze rent, mortgage repayments, electricity and all other bills at this time of crisis. No disconnections or evictions.”

20 comments on “No disconnections or evictions”

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  2. 2

    Agree with Joe. Other things that could be looked at as a cascade of no income and sackings for thousands occurs; is fare free public transport where available, free Wifi nationwide (I noticed ISP Slingshot have already removed data caps for residential customers), restore power generation and supply to full public ownership, and maybe regular payments of a few hundred to peoples bank accounts with no WINZ/MSD interference.

    A logistical problem is NZ, with the run down and sell off of public and state housing, has a significant layer of people who will no doubt tell us here shortly, that they are workers too that desperately depend on rental income to pay their mortgages!–in effect neo rentiers–as well as workers. But as long as there can be periods of delayed mortgage payments, frozen rent will be possible for the many people with no property “assets” as such. The banks will not like that up’em!

    Not the time to debate how we got here perhaps, but it is time to do something about it right now.

  3. 3

    Please Sir.

    Can I stop paying my Income Tax? I have been terribly hurt by the NZSX crash and I can't afford to pay any taxes any more. If other people don't have to pay their bills, why should I?

    Yours Hopefully.

    1. 3.1

      Dear Fool,

      If you have been terribly hurt by the the NZSX crash, then there are some obvious consequences.

      1. Any profit from those shares will be down as you sell them.
      2. Consequently your tax on income from the sale of the shares will be down also.
      3. Similarly you pay income tax only on the income from dividends. If you have no dividends, then you have no income.
      4. Bearing in mind what the NZSX is operating like at present, I’d be surprised if you have any realised income from it.
      5. Which means that you are unlikely to pay taxes on it.
      6. Of course you also don’t pay income tax on unrealised dreams.

      Yours in judgement

      1. 3.1.1

        I take it that means no? I should have addressed my appeal to my local MP I suppose.

        Oh well. Still FPH are being very nice to me, so I may still survive. And get a warm fuzzy glow from having contributed to a Company that is providing some products to help people suffering from the virus.

        1. 3.1.1.1

          You can hardly be anywhere near on the bones of your backside if you have the luxury of owning shares, and those shares are a gambling game that you entered willingly. You therefore deserve your measure of losses. Stop your whining, hypothetical though it may be.

          1. 3.1.1.1.1

            Investing in the Share Market is not purely a gamble, the way that Lotto is.

            Of course there is some luck but it isn't all luck as you seem to think.

            1. 3.1.1.1.1.1

              Like any TAB punter, stockbrokers have a system that they believe makes them more successful than the majority of participants.

              1. 3.1.1.1.1.1.1

                Warren Buffett may have a valid claim to that status. I can't think of anyone else, at least in the Share Market. Most of us have some flaws. They are mostly in the areas of refusing to accept, quickly, that we have made a mistake and get out of the Stock and the alternative, being too quick to take a profit on good picks and sell out of things we should have kept longer. I suffer form both, even though I try very hard to resist them.

                You should always keep in mind that Share Market investment is not a zero-sum game. If you invest for long enough you will almost certainly do a great deal better than you will if you stick to things like term deposits.

                1. 3.1.1.1.1.1.1.1

                  If you can afford to invest for long enough, and get out just before a crash.

                  Maybe Buffett is just the luckiest gambler around.

      2. 3.1.2

        i.e. people should pay their bills or starve. I'm sure you'll be there to pick over their bones for anything of value.

  4. 4

    Most landlords realise this is a temporary event and want to keep good tenants in place. It is however not a high margin business and unless our costs are constrained as well, there will be a limit on what can be done. Cash flow is a bitch like that.

    The tricky part I can foresee buggering everything is what happens if we get a flood of expat kiwis returning and pushing demand up.

  5. 5

    I know there has been a huge amount of extra turnover done at the supermarkets in the last few days, does anyone know if the liquor shops have also had record sales and demand?

      1. 5.1.1

        Well, some countries overseas have closed pubs and bars… So what do you expect?
        A run on home brew kits could be next…

        1. 5.1.1.1

          All you need are three ingredients:

          • 100% fruit juice
          • Regular ol' refined sugar
          • Yeast

          Mix juice and sugar, add yeast, loosen the cap to allow gas to escape, wait several weeks, et voila, wine.

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