Which is why this sort of disingenous whining kinda sluts me off:

I noticed the by-line for the Granny article had Simon Collins' name on it. I still remember when he wrote for the late lamented City Voice in Wellington. Has he actually turned coats, or is he merely toeing…

For some franchisees that are close to the wall now, it could be the thing that tips them over.

And who hasn't noticed how cheap pizza is compared to days of yore? How many extra $$$ does this represent to a pizza joint wage bill? Wouldn't an extra 50c per…

It sounds like the old game: privatise the gains, socialise the losses. That's pretty popular these days.

And the minimum wage, if you added in inflation of 3.6%, would go from $12 to $12.42.

Which is why this sort of disingenous whining kinda sluts me off:

McDonald's, the fast food company, says it may be forced to increase prices and review plans for expansion owing to the Government's…

"For a salary earner with a steady job, the recession is not going to seep through the window and eat his money."

Nonsense.

That is exactly what's going to happen if we get inflation without commensurate wage increases. That's exactly what did happen in the early 80s.

Inflation is the…

Real wages are what matter. Wages after inflation. You young…

At least they're borrowing when the dollar's low. Shame they promptly send it all overseas again like the last lot. Darn balance of payments, it's the fuel imports…

And it's a national government. Consultants will be heavily in demand because the public service is going to be pared down, so the work will all be consulted…

Isn't that what we always largely do?

Oh, for sure, I was just wondering if this time thing might be skewed a tad more towards consultants and financial service operatives. There was some initial noise in that direction in the papers.

Surely we aren't going to survive this recession by having the poor weather the storm for the rest of us.

Isn't that what we always largely do? Most of the people shifting from employment to unemployment, will already have been below the minimum wage. Those who lose their jobs and…

The workforce isn't an amorphous blob. Not even the flexible workforce. A cleaner is not (necessarily) going to be able to drill concrete, a call centre worker can't suddenly drive a crane, and a receptionist won't turn into a fibre-optics technician overnight.

My thoughts exactly. Is there an unwritten social…

I think you take a narrow view. The flexible workforce you talked of earlier is the same workforce that would be absorbed, if not directly, by infrastructure spending.

The workforce isn't an amorphous blob. Not even the flexible workforce. A cleaner is not (necessarily) going to be able to…

I'll run all possible joke comments past you in the future, given your tendency to a complete lack of offence on all matters, huh?

I've got better things to do with my time, Gareth. But if your partner had worked in the rail industry for over forty years, and one…

I'll run all possible joke comments past you in the future, given your tendency to a complete lack of offence on all matters, huh?

The National Government said today that they would crack down on "children" as a priority after news that children threw stones at a train driver.

Oh, and Gareth, you might think that's a big fucking joke. You might not be yucking it up if one of those little pricks was…

I'm afraid my inner despot raises it's ugly head re "boy racers". They're not a new phenomenon. Some boys have always liked to drive fast -

And if you want to come stand at my front gate twice a day, you'll see plenty of "mortgage belt Mummies" who seem to…

my father being one of them

Carroll Shelby, Jack Brabham, Stirling Moss, Bruce McLaren... Woh, that's quite the "them"

Some boys have always liked to drive fast – my father being one of them

Your dad, eh? Wow! I watched him driving at Levin, a Maserati if I recall correctly, when I were a kid.

Some boys have always liked to drive fast – my father being one of them. However, some members of this latest crop of young men who like to drive fast are particularly destructive.

I blame technology: there was far less damage you could do in the days of walking and…

And is there such a thing as an infrastructure project that would benefit the nation as a whole, rather than just a single region like Auckland or ChCh?

Fuck Yeah! Te Aho a Maui !

Of course for those on high incomes their taxation decreases.

I personally feel this is not equitable.

Those on low incomes spend all their earnings – those on high…

I may be wrong but don't the tax cuts affect those lower wages most. In this climate it would seem unfair to increase their tax burden, but not their income.

Tax cuts (that is, cuts to taxes) reduce the tax burden. A well structured tax system will benefit the low…

I understand the comparison with Australia for minimum wage is just under $18 NZ.

No such thing as free money.

Oh, I wouldn't say that.

It's just that sometimes there is more free money and sometimes less. We are in the latter situation right now and there is frighteningly little we can do about it...

The projects themselves have a value, of course. But the indirect benefit that a cleaner in Christchurch receives from roads in Auckland is pretty bloody indirect. Sometimes, spending money is just spending money.

And is there such a thing as an infrastructure project that would benefit the nation as a…

It's not shuffling the misfortune about – it's shuffling who pays for it. With minimum wage, it's the employer. With WFF, it's the taxpayer. It's businesses who are most fragile right now, and it doesn't make sense to put the pressure on them.

I see your point, but I think…

In countries like France,

The economy and rules around doing business are *so* rigid it is surprising they even have an economy...

I suspect mechanisation rates between France and NZ are not so different but have no proof of that. They subsidise an inefficient rural sector which soaks up manual…

Not exactly "heaps". Govt. expenditure on infrastructure allows money to filter out into the wider community without costing the country, as a whole, a great deal. This increases the tax tack and in turn gives the Govt. more money for infrastructure. It is a money go round.

No such thing…

[The Standard are] playing up that the report saw no loss of jobs if the minimum wage was increased inline with inflation. Of course, we are now in a very different employment market.

As you say, things have changed an awful lot in the past year or so.

In…

I always laugh when our productivity is compared to France. They have had unemployment running at 8 to 12% for the last 10 years at least, ours has been 3.5%.

Now that overtime and unemployment is going up our productivity stats will start looking…

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4836545a13.html

People on the minimum wage are "relatively expensive"? How can this be?

If you have reletives on the minimum wage, you'll understand.
;-)

Infrastructure is great for creating jobs, of course, but there are heaps of people who won't benefit from it.

Do we have expectations of which sectors will be shedding more jobs? Are we sure it's going to be the people on the lower rungs that will be hit the most?

I disagree about the desirability of more money for families also. The best thing that can be done is to bring forward infrastructure spending.

Yes, but new jobs for fibre-optics technicians won't be terribly useful for poorly educated workers now, nor will, say, new building and road-works job be…

Now it seems that the NZ meaning of the word has come to prevail.

I'm reluctant to consider that meaning of hoon – as a young reckless driver – to originate from New Zealand. The Oxford English Dictionary has that usage dating back to a 1969 mention in a Brisbane…

I presume the DoL paper that recommended the increase to $12.50 had at least an assumptions-based analysis of the effect of that increase on employment numbers? Anyone seen it?

Odd to quote myself but I looked around le blogosphere and the Standard had this linked from the last review.
They're…

umm spoilers don't help you do burnouts

Right. Spoilers are for guys who haven't discovered penis gourds.

I'm sure there's an Aussie equivalent because "double overhead grease-nipples" seems to ring a bell

Almost right – it's chrome plated grease nipples and double reverse overhead twin cam door handles

Query regarding de-pimping: what happens if you take a big-assed spoiler off a Honda Civic hatchback? Does it lose speed immediately?

Don't spoilers work like an upside-down aeroplane wing? Kind of force the tyres into contact with the pavement in order to maximise traction. Remove the spoiler from a hot…

And if families on a low income…

Sasha-linger-sundry minute taker

Limited market, to be sure, but another possible tee-shirt.

I was inspired by the YourViewsery on display down south and in its original home.

maybe we should just all start waggling out little fingers at the hoons driving down town to show off their broken mufflers ....

Stab 'em — at the very least you'll get a flattering front page puff piece in The Herald.

"hoon" is also more useful than "boy racer" since it can also be used as a verb

You haven't come across the appalling boy-race in our wonderful news media, then?

maybe we should just all start waggling out little fingers at the hoons driving down town to show off their broken mufflers ....

de-hooning

Somebody is writing these down, right? We need a Sasha-linger-sundry minute taker.

At the turn of the 20th century in Australia, the term "hoon" (and its rhyming slang version "silver spoon")[3] had a different meaning: one who lived off immoral earnings (i.e. the proceeds of prostitution – a pimp or procurer of prostitutes).

Definitely still alive in that sense in the early…

I'm sure there's an Aussie equivalent because "double overhead grease-nipples" seems to ring a bell

It's colourful, poetic, and... well, pretty damn sweet

I thought you were about to mention a kiln.

"hoons" – a good kiwi word that doesn't get used enough.

I didn't think of it as a kiwi word so I had to look it up. you are right, but check out the etymology

At the turn of the 20th century in Australia, the term "hoon" (and its rhyming…

"Excuse me, do you know that your muffler doesn't muffle, you've got a leaky valve going *pssssh* all the time, and that you're in the wrong gear? Also, did you run over a Christmas tree? You have some lights stuck to the bottom of your car."

Hah! Best smile of…

In the mean time I'm tired of hearing them…

But I agree with you that right…