Posts by Sacha
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I thought you were in china, old china.
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Thank you, Russell, for fostering and protecting a community of heart and mind. Wonderful few days.
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Thanks so much, Malcolm for the tour and for the company. Very much enjoyed the after-function and meeting even more PAS folk. What a week.
My favourite moment was when the "sky" opened.
Hell yeah. And the vertiginous vistas. And the silent shooting star. Someone needs to bring a video camera next time.
Now, I want to see Fiona's photos.
And Geoff's.
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I can report that a certain applepiebed earworm is still with me. Damn that man can write hooky tunes.
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I love how people you meet or have known connect with other people - that was a great social evening. So many wonderful surprises. Thanks to Jackie for rescuing me from our underperforming taxi services.
I understood they're moving the Birdcage/Lils rather than demolishing it. Heritage building. Doubt it will feel the same as enjoying fine company under a motorway overpass with gauche statuary, 80s brickwork - and authentic Auckland leakiness as someone described it.
there are 40 readers to each post that's made. A little scary, really. I had this vision of people standing in a room in two groups. One yakking at a hundred miles an hour to each other, and the other group? Just listening. Very strange dynamic, and only one you could get away with online I suspect.
That was counting the number of responses and the number of views here. Usually works out at 20 to 40 depending on the topic and other random factors. I think it was Tim who reminded me last night that they're probably page views rather than unique people (doh), so ratio is probably slightly smaller. Verifies what Clay Shirky and others say about proportions of activity in online communities, anyway.
There's always a group of head-nodders per yakker, and that's just fine. It's like civic life - many voters, few active supporters, even fewer candidates. We each contribute in different ways and move from one group to the other from time too time. They're not fixed, distinct blocs, and as you say certainly not when gathered face to face. We blend.
I realised last night that nametags might replicate some of us being more visible than others by reputation and I probably prefer a more level playing field offline. Everyone's interesting and wonderful to meet, though I do appreciate differing levels of comfort with that.
Oh, look, Ben's already talked about this generously and well.
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if you're going to be at Emma's book launch tonight
Was. Can't believe I missed you again. Not saying Rudman is always on the mark but that particular story had a striking clarity of tone. Well, it struck me.
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Ooh, O'Sullivan's stablemate Rudman goes for the jugular.
Have faith in this medicine, says Dr Brash, and the gap will close. Trying to explain why these drugs didn't work the first time round, the taskforce claims "the reforms of the 1980s and early 1990s represented a very significant step forward" but "the pattern of policymaking over the last decade defies the well-established international evidence about what works. So it is no real surprise that New Zealand is not doing better."
But a comparative study of economic policy and outcomes in Australia and New Zealand since 1984, published in the June 2006 Australian Journal of Political Science suggests just the opposite. Auckland University Professor of Economics Tim Hazledine and Queensland University fellow in economics and political science John Quiggin say the medicine served up by task force member David Caygill as Labour Finance Minister in the late 1980s, and by his predecessor Roger Douglas, and successor, Ruth Richardson, is the cause of the wage gap, now standing at 35 per cent.
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The taskforce's woeful understanding of productivity is highlighted by that scanty passage Keith highlighted about the people component of it.
Part of this is because of our national psyche and tall-poppy syndrome: we don’t do enough to encourage or celebrate business success, and are openly hostile to people with wealth. Our heroes are mostly sportspeople.
As a result, our businesspeople don’t generally create large companies, take risks, or invest hugely in infrastructure and capital. So productivity suffers.
Business investment in smarter systems and better management skills is essential. I'm unconvinced our widespread failure to do so is down to lack of praise for businesspeople. Pride in being good at it is another thing, however.
Capital depth is a problem that seems hard to separate from both our poorly governed and enforced investment markets and our distorted penchant for unproductive real estate that comes with untaxed gains and writeoffs. The Aussie super fund has to be a major difference too.
Amidst her despair at Key's lack of resolute ambition to reimpose the glories of the 80s and 90s, Fran O'Sullivan again trots out the tired neolib mantra that somehow cutting government spending and taxes will single-handedly improve private sector performance, just like that.
The Brash taskforce inevitably pinged out-of-control Government spending as the behemoth which must quickly be slaughtered so that competitive tax rates can be introduced to give incentive for businesses, entrepreneurs and wage and salary earners to invest here and strive hard to build a successful future.
This is a no-brainer.
Uh huh.
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Have to give credit for a sense of humour though.
Personally i was hoping for a few plumbers or electricians to sign up.
Heh
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all the handwringing about how unambitious our entrepreneurs are, all wanting to retire to their baches and go fishing, which is to say redefining the parts of our national character that are most humane and admirable as being a problem
In the wake of recent opinion by NZTE's chief economist, Gareth Chaplin, market researcher Jonathan Dodd concurs.
Well, Chaplin misunderstands the Kiwi psyche if he thinks that business growth is the only avenue to a better quality of life, and likewise many would question his inference that quality of life is best indicated by income.
...Chaplin's lament at the so-called malaise of "enoughism" misses this difference between people who want to build an empire or who need to expand out of sheer necessity, and those whose satisfaction and drive comes from different sources.