like the supply-fixated neoliberalism powering both the NZ Initiative report and the Act-led 'Productivity Commission' which the govt so loves quoting.

Well, it will be if National can butt out and let Auckland find its way. Current rumblings don't give me much hope, though.

I do. It seems like a step forward.

Money.

You mean many of the things that are proposed for the Unitary Plan, then? The Council is not demanding intensification without providing the tools…

I agree with much of what you say here. You don't really get intensification just by banning sprawl. You have to take positive steps to encourage intensification, and that means density and building restrictions in areas where…

At Interest.co.nz BNZ chief economist Tony Alexander sees floating mortgage…

Who would try, when the pass is held? (that's the point of heading something off at the pass)

They were generally commissioned by the aristocracy or the churches, though. They happened because rich people wanted them to happen.

And lots and lots of things were paid for by groups that weren’t the idle rich.

The things you're talking about mostly came from idle time. Folk…

If by asset growth one means "the asset actually improves in some way" then it's a good. If we just mean "the asset's price went up" then we're talking about inflation which is not clearly either a good or a bad.…

Cognitive surplus! Nice phrase. In Praise of Idleness here by Bertrand Russell is something I read long ago on the same topic. It's interesting to see views on this topic prior to WW2, when Godwinning was not…

Yes. Clay Shirky's 13-minute TED Talk about cognitive surplus is worth a watch.

He's probably referring to the history prior to the mid 20th century. In those times the only people with the time available to create, invent, discover were the rich. Everyone else spent every waking hour staying alive (usually with mixed success).

As…

People who have the time, education, and inclination to write it. It should be everyone. Throughout history, including now, it hasn't been.

Well I did mean "for most of history". Recently, in the developed world, a lot more people have enjoyed levels of wealth and comfort that have given them time to work on things of their choosing. That's one of the best things…

Fair enough, but they made the creation possible in those cases. The "idleness' needed to make the works was supplied by the patronage.

Says more about who defines history.

Really? I would question your interpretation of history

The idle rich *may* employ or commission the intelligent creators but very bloody few of 'em…

I don’t think it will go on either. My point above is to show the madness of it, that there isn’t some natural minimum interest…

If the bank is too big to fail.

Say you had a long-term term deposit with hefty break penalties...

I've…

That's venture capital, and the success rate is about 1 in 10. (The model is that perhaps 1 in 30 do really well and compensate for the failures, around 1 in 10…

Getting the banking sector over its collective obsession with security against homes cannot happen soon enough. We're going to struggle to grow any parts of our economy that aren't primary production for as…

With so many small business loans secured against houses, NZ really has to grapple with this one.

The reasons I gave why it's difficult in NZ are only more so in the "Western" economy. Until…

though we've been reliably lucrative for over a decade now

If those investors went away (because their country restricted overseas investments, their domestic interest rates increased, they needed to withdraw money to live or the NZ dollar became downwardly unstable) then the supply of cheap fixed-term money will dry up.

NZ does not have low interest rates because we have decided in…

Yes, plenty of those in Houston.

No wonder they all have guns

Or levying stamp duty on absentee/non-resident house purchasers from abroad.

And I'm feeling cynical.

Interest rates are currently at an historic low, they are much more likely to increase than decrease. Doubling them from today will place them just about at historic averages. Tripling them wouldn't be especially unlikely.

And a…

Oh I agree, they have the most amazing natural history museum, possibly the best mineral collection I have ever seen, I think slightly better than the smithsonian collection!

And other bits of Houston were neat…

Do go on...

Which would be a great way of increasing the number of mortgagee sales among existing homeowners.

By doubling or tripling the interest rates charged on mortgages.

Add to Green movement suggestion of nurses in schools???

Particularly if you are poor/black/hispanic. Oh yeah we really want to be like Houston. We drove through Houston a few times while we lived in Texas and living in a concrete grey city – except for the burnt out black bits where the poor folks…

You could start by instituting a capital gains tax which would discourage people from owning 5 houses and never improving them because the capital gains make any improvement stupid. This would have the effect of putting more properties onto the market. That in…

I have no idea (which is why I never have anything to say in these threads). But since you brought up Houston – a city I know reasonably well – as an example of urban awesomeness, I had to note that your…

Awesome example in interview with delusional Housing minister Nick Smith on RadioNZ this morning (34mins, listening options)

Increased density closer to existing amenities means more housing available where people want to buy. At present all we're getting is 300-plus-square metre mansions that occupy 75% or more of the…

Sorry, three sets. I forgot about one that is nearly always green for the left-turn I have to make.

(It actually *is* pretty cool culturally, I'll admit that, but the driving distances are *immense*. I caught public transport regularly there and it was terrible. The entire city is bisected by giant 12 lane freeways…

Not in any morning or evening peak I’ve ever seen. Again, peak. I know that 20 minutes gets you a good, long way off-peak, but our peak…

Given that I haven't substantially developed what I bought, the same principle is at work. The main difference is the scale, and the risk. Buying rural land can be hugely risky. If it's not zoned for development, it's a…

Especially those where you literally cant really live unless you
a)have a vehicle or
b)have a kind neighbour with a vehicle.
There…

I do wonder how much that is affected by cars that are no longer registered because the owners cannot afford to and/or don't want to. It will be an issue everywhere, but Auckland is home to…

(Full disclosure: I have family members who fit the “5 non-mobile car” description, though none also with mobile homes.)

I suspect that it's distorted by all the places in NZ where the average is a home that's mobile and five cars that aren't.

LOL strong words. Or one could say that there’s exactly as many “greedy fucks” as you’d expect for the…

New Lynn is definitely more awesome than it was, but it’s no rival for the city and inner suburbs when thinking of a place for a night out. I frequently go there…

I have a sister-in-l;aw who is a highly qualified rural GP: my brother is her business manager. You're right: that set-up is an whole other kettle…

This was happening, at least in Waitakere City, before the Super City struck. Seems to me this form of centralisation was another means for the neo cons to dissipate community and hobble democracy.

Also some doctors aren't fine, we have a serious problem attracting…

Yep. Some of the booing was captured on camera, halfway through this Campbell Live piece (one of the few balanced pieces on the plan in the mainstream media).
http://www.3news.co.nz/Is-Aucklands-30-year-plan-heavy-handed/tabid/367/articleID/296215/Default.aspx

The absence of any other choice in large parts of the city is a principal part of the problem.

Fair enough, but there is and will continue to be a large majority of full sections in residential Auckland. And if you want the full quarter-acre for cheap, I can direct you to some delightful regional centres. Major cities? Gonna be…

What's proposed is sane. What many opponents are calling for, though, is actual decentralisation; many business centres spread across the city, spread out the employment, etc. The town centres will have small clusters of employment, frequently dedicated to servicing the locality. The opponents…

The proposed Unitary Plan includes other strong centres already. Not building the Core Rail Link for instance (because it's seen as 'in…

The way I understand what is proposed is that the goal is not so much decentralisation as increasing density around certain local centres in…

Auckland is getting there in some ways, but some of the proposed "solutions" will destroy much of the headway that's been made in recent years. The calls to decentralise and…

These days that's no longer the case for people who use public transport, what with smart-this and mobile-that. Drivers, however, are stuck with the grind, though I do at least use my commute to listen…

I live on a street made up of one fifth acre blocks, many with bungalows (mostly rotten), others with slightly more modern homes. My own home is on one tenth acre (410 sq m) with a shared driveway. Next door we have had two…

Wealth also gets passed on, so a twenty-something who grew up in Remuera is likely to reap the benefits of their parents' wealth in a way that someone who grew…

20 minutes at peak was still not terribly far. Onehunga or Avondale, maybe.

Older people tend to have accumulated more wealth, so yes. Interesting to see which suburbs are making the most noise.

I recently moved back to Auckland after five years in Sydney and my opinion is that Sydney is in many ways what…

So true. Takes family time away from far too many people.

How does the Unitary Plan ensure good quality urban design?

Six-year degree before specialisation. At this year's rates that's $6,344 (average of the range) for the first year of BHS plus a further five years at $13,274 (total $66,370),…

1) As a general rule, med school loans only get massive (i.e., 6 figures) when the students get suckered into other loans (e.g., MAS loans). I lived with med students during my time accruing $50k worth of loan myself (over 10 years, and includes 2…

This is all true. Luckily for med school graduates, they are on a career path which will see them earning in the hundreds of thousands…

Young doctors have six figures of student loan hanging over them, with mandatory repayments consuming 12 cents in every dollar they earn…

Oops. My bad. Fixed now.