Hard News by Russell Brown

Just to note that I accidentally left Arena Williams off the speaker list.

Excellent. Impressed by what little I've seen of her.

If I'm not much mistaken, the speakers' list are the founder members of the Institute for Policy Initiatives, which is a direct response to the NZBR's takeover of, oops, merger with the NZ Institute:

"We believe that the need for this independent “think-tank” was created by the recent merger of the New Zealand Institute by the Business Round Table, which meant that a previously unbiased and admired source of intelligent discussion is now subject to an agenda."

We've also seen a takeover, and I suspect also, its dilution, of the NZBCSD by Biz NZ.

That's a great initiative and a fantastic opportunity for Aucklanders.
Any chance of a live stream?

Good work Rus.

That’s a great initiative and a fantastic opportunity for Aucklanders.
Any chance of a live stream?

I has been discussed, but there's some concern about spoilers for similar events in other centres. I'm keen on it.

Needs to be seen, http://inthehouse.co.nz/node/12781

Eventually, and it look like a very long eventually, the only way is up.

which is a direct response to the NZBR's takeover of, oops, merger with the NZ Institute

Yeah, I was a bit disappointed to see the NZ Initiative is just a front for the Centre for Independent Studies in Oz.

I has been discussed

Egomaniac! :)

Folks, if you're thinking of coming along, click through and get your ticket now. It's very nearly full up.

it determines the way we live our lives, but most of us are shut out from discussing it – by language or privilege, or simply because it seems too hard. Thus do assumptions go unchallenged and thus is the debate left to technocrats and their ministers.

And maybe that is where we are going wrong. This situation has not happened overnight, but over the past few decades economics has risen to becoming a spectre we must all adhere to. And has given rise to an indecipherable language for many.
While our predecessors on this planet were wrong about one big imponderable (there being a realm of ultimate caring or a god) they understood people and the best way for us to get along was to care for each other on a wider scope than just within a small group or within those who thought along the same lines shared by a common ancestry, not money, ok, economics.
And how we have f*#ktards like Blinglish and the other one saying its all about appearances John Key was the best Prime Minister in a generation at articulating that confidence.
So talk it up the little people will understand.
Cue Tui tag line.

to care for each other on a wider scope than just within a small group or within those who thought along the same lines shared by a common ancestry

I'd argue the problem is exactly the opposite - that most of our time as humans has been in small kinship groups and we're still only learning how to function in larger groupings than a clan or village.

Developing ways to sustainably manage resources is part of that (many cultures have answers), and economics is just a tool that we've allowed to run amok. Time to rein in the money-lenders and those who enable them to prance about with invisible clothes.

We function perfectly in larger groups, Sacha, we do as everyone else does so as to not be the one who gets burned as a witch for having notably different ideas. Mob mentality. Totally works; not particularly enlightening but.

It's how advisors end up telling Key what he wants to hear, and how he can't hear things that sound different. So saving half an hour on your holiday drive twice a year is totally worth more than schools and hospitals and such, because no one in that room wants to be the witch.

Also, economics are awesome. The massive spending increase by the National government since coming into office has certainly saved us from the horrible state of the US and European economies. Y'all probably thought they'd cut spending in real terms, but out here in the world those tax cuts are spending too (in that they're a cut in negative spending). Obviously it creates a less equitable society, rewards only current status rather than anything practical, has mostly served to shift private debt to the public ledger, but people overall are still vastly better off than if they hadn't done it (not as good as if they'd done something productive with it, but they don't believe in governments doing that sort of thing, and the tax system demands rich folk become landlords rather than entrepreneurs).

Thank you Tussock that is a very insightful comment.

And it is now fulled up, which is a bit of a shame.

Y’all probably thought they’d cut spending in real terms, but out here in the world those tax cuts are spending too (in that they’re a cut in negative spending).

Well, I saved my tax cut, and most of it’s piling up in a Kiwibank cash PIE, so it’s being lent to someone to buy a house or perhaps get consumer goods on credit. It’s churning through the economy, in an unplanned way. Productive? Depends on your definition, I suspect.

we’re still only learning how to function in larger groupings than a clan or village.

Depends who your referring too. Most have had at least a couple of thousand years to get their mind around it. Does that mean we're slow learners or just normal?
Im not against economics, no ideological objection at all, as you and others say it has just got out of hand.... literally.

Dunbar is stil relevant when you look at how groups of humans regulate group decisions.

This more recent publication extract might also help explain where I'm coming from above.

A good starting point but at some stage we have to accept, maybe understand in a wider sense our biological imperatives, and come to accept and value individual variation in a society. Not say this is the individual norm based on a single grouping's ideas you have to fit in.