Then everyone in NZ could move into central Auckland. If you consider the absurdity of that you will understand why Auckland prices are not at all unaffordable; they are only unaffordable for some.
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I see in today's Herald we have the lowest net loss of immigration to Australia in 20 years! NZ must be doing something right.
BP, thanks for the background. But as I suspected, the NBR article was written to please their paid clientele, and it might have been short on facts. I don't think there would be a Labour MP who hopes the downtrodden in NZ become more numerous, so that their own job is secure.
I agree with you that micro-loans might be a better way of helping out with poverty overseas. We don't seem to try the same thing here.
But the problem in NZ is bigger than you think. Because there is a shortage of unskilled work in particular, and plenty who will work for near the minimum wage, there are large sections of the population who are either out of work, not looking for work, working one or more part-time jobs, working at or near minimum pay, and going nowhere fast.
If there was a shortage of workers and more jobs, employers would have to pay a bit more to hold staff. At the moment there are tradespeople reaching middle age, who find that they are on less than $20 an hour, and even that is casual, if they stay in the regions where they are based. This situation is not good for them, or their families. In turn, their children are finding careers hard to come by after leaving secondary school with NCEA passes.
While the situation may be recovering, National watched, and even helped out, while 42,000 manufacturing jobs disappeared from NZ. 42,000 jobs. That's a lot of families with some readjusting to do, not to mention the downstream effects.
Hi EZ, always feel somewhat miserable after reading your posts about how bad things are in NZ. Labours propaganda seems to work :p. However - there is one thing I don't understand. As NBT pointed out as well - all the people who fled NZ during the last Labour government (remember, when things have been just great in NZ thanks to aunt Helen) are now coming home again.
Can you help me to understand why they would do this, if things are really that bad over here? Wouldn't they be much better off migrating instead to one of the big workers paradise (not sure, whether there is a plural of that word ... there can be only one)? I hear China, North Korea or Cuba have still quite socialist governments?
As always it depends on the trade and the location. Decisions have consequences,
As far as kids leaving school goes, I have found out a bit about trades training for school leavers as there is a 17 year old in our family who started out on that path in the middle of this year. He is doing pre-trade training, so far he has no fees and gets a travel allowance. (Lives at home.) The polytech made it really, really easy to sign up and get started, they are very supportive and seems there is plenty of demand once qualified.
Possibly there are fewer trade training options in some areas so maybe some travelling would be needed. We are in Wellington, and our boy has a long commute from city south to city north. Just needs organisation and the will to do it.
I'm not a socialist, merely concerned with how much better/fairer we could do things in NZ.
There is reason to be worried about the economy in the medium term. It's costing dairy farmers to put milk in the vat at the moment, if they are feeding supplements as well as grass. As Stephen Toplis from the BNZ says: NZ's export revenue will be $5.5billion less than the previous year if we are lucky, and that's twice the level of the Christchurch rebuild.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/indu...economist.html
It would have made sense for the National govt to actively support manufacturing, for at least two good reasons. It provides jobs for those who are often otherwise unemployed, a net cost to the state instead of a revenue, and a stronger manufacturing base has the clear potential to add stability to our exports.
Supporting manufacturing doesn't mean that they turn up and pretend that they have had anything to do with an overseas firm buying in a massive robot that makes 100 people redundant in NZ. That's not it, and they know it.
1) Define fair. I don't find a government effectively forcing someone to give up money to someone else who can't be bothered working harder fair. What about user pays for certain things, that's fair right? Keeping someone out of a job they're the best candidate for because they have male genitalia, that's fair is it? Sounds more like discrimination to me!
2) What do we manufacture? How do we compete with cheap Asian labour closer to the major markets? Sure we can develop high tech goods which will employ a few at higher wages, but not the masses. Lovely idea but if it was that simple why didn't Labour establish this in their last nine years in power? Surely nine years is enough? Do Labour not care about us el Z?
Any industry worth having doesn't require support.
The industries worth having pay their own way.
Supporting certain industries is a charge on worthwhile industries which would otherwise grow more and produce more tax dollars and employment than manufacturing.....e.g. tourism, which is also the saviour of regions rather than regional subsidies.
NZ doesn't have a Constitution (thank God) and if we did there would be nothing in it that said "Manufacturing is sacred and must be supported at all costs. Only Manufacturing can produce jobs."