Kiwis discover they are spending more than what they’re earning. Go here to learn this shocking news. Tragic. Kiwis are not plastic people so this is a new trend, borrowing against your house like a Hansel and Gretal child’s tale needs to stop. This worship of a lifestyle no one can afford needs to stop around. The lifestyle is not real. Period. We are in a culture of delusion. Quit it.
The only one who wins not matter what happens is the Aussie owned Westpac bank and their Kiwi government based buddies dressed in blue (sadly) who out of the blue appear now, very uncharacteristcally to have a penchant for buying their fame and not considering future generations. Like a lot of government story’s in the ghost of the past, this government (a favorite of the people) now appear to be selling a nation out.
I base this on the sole statistical fact (politics is a mathematical science after all) of a political culture that is over-eager to sell off too much Kiwi owned assets to offshore buyers than what is best for the nation’s future flow and what we can afford. And why does Australia on 90% of New Zealand’s banking infrastructure?
Kaitiakitanga (a legally protected view of leadership) is supposed to guard against this trend. Legally kaitiakitanga as a concept (and spiritually) will do this. Where are Maori at the decision making table (at the point of asset’s sale final sign off/ or rejection of sale in this process), to put the brakes on this inane Tom foolery trend that is not wise for all Kiwis? One must ask from a distant shore this one question.
The NZ Herald reports, “Yet [New Zealand's] spending in total and wages rose over that period, as did population and spending per capita. How did we spend more per person than we earned per person?” Essentially, we borrowed from offshore too much under the visage of selling too many assets to foreigners.” Children’s children weren’t in this picture at any juncture of points of sale. That’s the basis of agreed upon Kiwi culture. How did this go amiss?
How did this occur? And why?
I need to do a swipe test of credibility soon as a safe guard against economic cancer pretending to be smart leadership if this continues. Immediately my brain starts busy with the words “pimped out” “keynesian delusional economies (create jobs by sending the unemployed off to wars to look good), “pied piperism politics” selling young people out, because of too much debt over their heads etc. That culture rising in all of this (if not curbed) appears to be key, apparently. Good politics is very basic. It’s about who gets what when and how. When you lose sight of this simple equation, you’re on grill on tax payers funded dime.
If you’re going to build an empire for yourself post political life jump now and fund yourself to further your own global spotlight. If you’re going to build an empire for future generations, you won’t sell off pieces of the country until there’s nothing left. Again, Maori ensure this doesn’t happen.
Don’t use tax payers funds to sell out a nation so you can shine if you’re a politician. Put honestly, NZ politics needs watching right now. The seduction of power of the current ‘cool’ peeps, is beginning to cost us a future. This is inexcusable in my humble opinion as a non politician, as a non financial adviser but just from a cultural stand point. Let’s talk beaches and who is best at this juncture to manage and take care of them. Clearly, such assets are at risk. This new news is really quite shocking. I don’t like it all. We have to faith and trust in our leaders, but stop bleeding the nation of blood, future hope and increasing despair over the peoples heads, to make them more susceptible to outside ownership in future years. Don’t talk strong mateship rhetoric, when that equals slavery of the people. In Hollywood terms, the nations ‘father’ (s) are beginning to look a little like Star Wars, meaning they’re playing into the Darth Vader game, without consent. No! What can pull them back from working for NATO after they quit politics, while having sold NZ down the creek of debt? one must ask (jokingly) on this Star Wars rehashed film? George Lucas (a real Hollywood film director, is signed up to give his personal wealth via The Giving Pledge to the poor), he doesn’t bleed his nation dry, with the nation’s own assets. Politicians should make more like George perhaps on a personal level, to keep their day jobs (outside of fantasies of grandeur, post office) in check perhaps. Or, am I just being a downer to a party that’s getting out of control? Or worse, that hasn’t even started yet. I write this on the back of American culture life, where a New York Times reporter, reports that all these games only benefit 10% of a nation’s elite, while 90% are bled to play these games. Go here to read that, again. The article is called Losing Our Way by Bob Herbert. Same thing occurring here.
Alright, that was a bit dramatic. Kiwis are frugal people as a rule, so I don’t get this trend. In the interim let’s keep it light and fresh… via Hollywood here we go… it’s showtime… Voting was strong today as ever. Here’s our top ten.
1. Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez
2. Golf romance
3. Performance – Maori girls and the poi – the art of sway
4. Gaston USA
5. Teen moms rule the tabloids with their antics
6. Owls and US in Hollywood ink as living art on people
7. Send offs by Dame Elizabeth Taylor‘s eclectic kids
8. Danielle Spencer & Russell Crowe
9. The most convincing Hollywood nose jobs
10. Jeremy Irons & US buds for Showtime advertisers
Perhaps New Zealand’s economic advisory team need to drop out of press and publicity for a bit and hang out withe family and local electorate communities to get a grip of what the gig is.
Bernard Hickey writes, “Over the 10 years of the naughty oughties (2000s), New Zealand borrowed or sold off a total of $350.3 billion. That’s about two times GDP. We used that money to increase our wages and income. We didn’t use that money to reinvest in new equipment or skills to boost our ability to produce more in the future.
Last year, New Zealand paid $15.5 billion in profits and interest payments to foreign investors and creditors.
Only $3.3 billion was reinvested. That is the size of the drag on the New Zealand economy. It is unsustainable. We have to stop spending money we aren’t earning. If we don’t, we will get poorer and poorer until either there is nothing left to sell or we can’t pay the interest on the debt. It’s time we stopped kidding ourselves.”
Alright Kiwis, it’s get out of debt time. Me included and into savings mode. And not selling off New Zealand properties to overseas investors to look good when in government. It’s vampirism.
[Photo courtesy of Japan and Reuters in Japan's recent rescue efforts midst crises]
~Posted by Horiwood.Com, Hollywood California USA. 3.27.11~