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6:00 am, November 2nd, 2025 - 5 comments
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Open mike is your post.
For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.
The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).
Step up to the mike …
Seymour DUH
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/577531/labour-say-david-seymour-s-media-event-where-people-getting-measles-test-showed-poor-judgement
Classic Seymour – frankly, I'm a bit sick of dropkicks too.
UK tax campaigner Richard Murphy on the Galbraith question: if affluence produces private luxury alongside public squalor, what does that say about the values and survival of our society?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPMKp1MkAiA
John Kenneth Galbraith’s The Affluent Society asked a question that still matters: how can we live with private luxury alongside public squalor? In this video, I explore why Galbraith was right about how markets manufacture wants, and why public goods are neglected. From billionaire rockets to broken hospitals, his warning is as urgent today as it was in 1958.
https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/10/02/economic-questions-the-j-k-galbraith-question/
An unemployed person, under or over 65, without home ownership does not have enough money.
The younger one needs parents or flatmates (willing to exploit freeloaders – all the housework for free power/internet in return for late-night couch/floor space) or hostel/car.
The older ones need to find a flatmate (2 bedroom unit or pull out couch-sleeper in lounge or non snorer with short arms) or child with a section for a granny flat.
https://www.1news.co.nz/2025/11/02/beneficiaries-pensioners-havent-enough-money-for-basics-report/
There is the rising number of couples who rent while raising a family and did not have enough in Kiwisaver to buy, even a one bed room flat.
Another is divorced women – when they lose property ownership they find they will not have enough in Kiwisaver to buy either (money into buying a home and then years not working raising children).
Solutions
1.A school in macro economics for political parties (limiting unemployment).
2.The state providing land for small builds. Village type areas with shared space. The state sub-dividing older type (renovated) state house sections for them.
Communal housing – self contained units and shared space inside and out (small build at the aggregate level).
Recently I watched a doco on homeless and housing in LA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFGap8jLMqg
Some people are renting bed space in a large property with a shared kitchen. Seems to work, but it is life on the edge.
Others are living in caravans parked on the street, hoping to get into a permanent trailer park one day. That is all they can expect.