From: meachen@med.wcc.govt.nz
Newsgroups: soc.culture.new-zealand
Subject: Re: Sir Robert Muldoon Dies
Date: 18 Aug 92 03:41:10 GMT
Reply-To: meachen@med.wcc.govt.nz
Organization: Wellington City Council, Wgtn, NZ

In article <Geoff.1i4l@equinox.gen.nz>, Geoff@equinox.gen.nz (Geoff Mccaughan) writes:
>meachen@med.wcc.govt.nz writes:
>>
>>Well answer this would you rather be on the dole or in employment?
>>New Zealand will never be a self-sufficient country and borrowing is
>>not such a bad thing, its the way you go about reducing the national
>>debt. 
>
>Since you assert we will never be self-sufficient, just where do you expect
>to get the money to repay those loans?
>
>Borrowing to reduce the national deby makes about as much sense as fucking
>for chastity.

Well its easy to say that when you are sitting on a good salary, in a good
job isnt it? 

The cuts to the welfare state, this government have made have caused a 
breakdown of the social structure of New Zealand, crime is on the increase, 
just think about the increase in armed robberies, murders, rapes, serial 
murders (a thing that has happened in this country since the Muldoon 
adminstration. 

The selling off of Government assests to foreign interests is going to
have a larger impact in the future on our country, than what you expect,
this should help achieve the US's government stragety a one-world government,
as we are about to be made powerless. They turned Telecom around and made
it profitable, how much of this belongs to New Zealand and how much to the
US. Is this going to pay off the overseas debts in the future or what are
we going to scrounge from.

A good example of this is the mining that is going on in the Coromandel,
our gold is being mined by foreign interests, in the township of Wahi,
they have ruined the landscape, and are sending out to the locals who
have to put up with drilling and noisy land machines every day a 
propsal to drill in the area directly under their homes, the home I
stayed in recently was 160 years old, an historic house. Would a home
such as this survive the drilling without structual damage? 

Both governments have been in a bit of a hurry to sell, cut, slash 
everything they can, making this country the backside of the world
to live in. The cuts they have made havent done much to promote growth
in New Zealand for potential to export (kiwifruit industry in which the
bottom fell out of, why not avocados), or scientific research (DSIR has 
broken up into units), areas that need to be netured and developed in 
order to help the country grow externally, another example is the tourism 
industry. So many businesses, large and small have closed as they cant 
survive, putting people out of work. I could go on and on here.

>
>>Why should'nt these people be able to retire early, why not the age
>>50 and why should'nt they live in the style they have worked for all
>>their working lives. Leaving the vocations for the young people. 

>No it's not 'obvious', what is obvious is that generous retirement schemes
>are a good idea if and only if the country can afford them [i.e. the rest of
>the economy has to be up to scratch]. Muldoon's scheme would have bankrupted
>the country by the time my retirement comes around.
>
                                                           
Again, there are old people who can't afford heating, and cant afford
medical care, infirm patients with cancer having to pay high doctors
bills for regular visits, people dying because they cant afford adequate 
medical care. Medical insurance is not available for everyone who wants it, 
you need to be healthy to be eligible for most schemes. I dont think that
some of these people who have worked and paid into superannunation schemes 
all their working lives appreciate having their pensions taxed and cut.
Tell me if you were accustomed to a good standard prior retirement,
would you settle for todays environment once you retired?

What about the young unskilled workforce, what are they going to do when
they leave school, university? I have one frustrated friend armed with
a Comupter Sciences degree and work experince who searched for a job
in the Capital for a whole year with no results and has had to go to
Japan to teach English to students in order to work, there are many
others I can think of.

We already have indirect taxes such as GST, Road User charges, tax on
the Unemployent benefit and now taxes on Business Lunches (the effect
of this will mean staff cuts and the possiblity of small business
restaurants going under.) There are heaps of other little hidden taxes. 


>>Wasn't Muldoon in the IMF? The wage-price freeze hasnt had the effect
>>on this country like the dole cuts and employment contracts bill has.
>
>Agreed, but it also didn't achieve any positive result.
>

What kind of result is the one we have currently? I can remember that
wage rises and prices did resume to rise once things were relaxed, so
it can't have been that bad. 

>>>Really, I think the last two sucessive governments are into a bit of
>>overkill, some of the changes were quite unnecessary, attempts to
>>introduce a class system in New Zealand are culturally and morally
>>unacceptable and should'nt be allowed to continue. 
>
>The attempts have been [whatever their merits] to sort out the countries
>economic problems. Any percieved 'class system' as a result has been a side
>effect rather than the initial aim.
>

They havent even sorted the economic problems in the short term, what 
real effect is it going to have in the long term, NZ owned by foreign
interests, wide-spread unemployment, no money for scientific research
to develop new products i.e growing new strains of vegetables (lettuces etc),
Monopolies, etc. The class system was no accident, they would have known
it would have some effect on the people of New Zealand's living standards.

Did'nt Jim Boldger visit a Wellingtontian soup kitchen a while ago and
did'nt Jenny Shipley say that the people eating there did because they
spent their dole on alchol?
 
>>What kind of attitude is that? Maybe his family and close friends may
>>object to that, I would. I'll always remember him as the policitian
>>game enough to take on the role of the narrator in The Rocky Horror
>>Picture Show.
>
>A pity he didn't confine this energies to acting IMHO.
>

You mean ah like Ronald Regan?


>--
>Geoff, Sysop Equinox (equinox.gen.nz) +64 (3) 3854406 [4 Lines]


--
Red