Posts by Danyl Mclauchlan
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I never said that without the threat of prison violence people would run riot(or some such nonsense) nor did I suggest it is an explicit part of the sentencing process. I am saying that you can't have police, courts, and prisons without the violence that necessarily goes along with that. It's meant to be frightening.
If you look at our criminal justice system, the threat of violence etc appears to be frightening to people who are unlikely to commit crimes in the first place, and not at all frightening to people who are desperate, stupid or themselves a violent criminal, so is basically worthless as a deterrent.
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everyone here, truly deeply wishes and hopes it will all turn out that arie fell and tripped, on his own.
He also could have been injured in that earthquake they had down there recently.
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Only if I thought the rule of law were a good thing.
Sounds like you've really thought this through.
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A couple of people have mentioned that things like police beatings and prison rape are not meant to happen in civilised countries. They are dead wrong. Whether it is consciously acknowledged or not, civilised society (i.e. the rule of law) absolutely requires such threats as police beatings and prison rape to function.
Assuming most readers are law-abiding members of the middle classes, think about your own attitude to going to prison. Sure, the loss of freedom is by no means an insignificant factor, but can you honestly say other fears play no part?
That's a fascinating hypothesis. So if you were arrested by mistake you'd be comfortable being beaten by the arresting officers and raped in your cell, on the grounds that you were contributing to the wider social good?
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Key wants to put all the tourists in cruise boats. In early spring. What could go wrong?
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Right now a hundred right-wing bloggers will be googling Peter Hyde to see if he's ever joined a union, or written a letter to the editor about climate change.
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Economists should and do think about issues like fairness, morality and being a fricking human being. Some give it more consideration than others.
And the answer is always shit - but that's just because the question was shitty to begin with. If there's not enough, *someone* will have to miss out.
It's the suspiciously high proportion of economists who conclude '90% of the population should miss out and the 10% of the population I happen to be a member of should get everything' that casts the wider profession into question.
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Plan now for a post-oil city, a chance to do it right.
With Brownlee in charge a 'post-oil' city is going to involve an awful lot of coal-powered cable cars.
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And the reverse dynamic has increased the “average” wage over the last year (as the media breathlessly echoed Key recently) – but by removing a heap of the lower paid from employment altogether, not because things are rosy in everyone else’s pay packets. Statistics, lies, etc.
I think the increase in the average wage is mostly due to the tax cuts. I believe the median wage has declined over the last two years.
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Re-categorise everyone as seeking work, get a computer to test their ability to work, et voila!
Actually, under the WWG it's a lot worse than getting a computer to test your ability to work. They get a private contractor who gets paid on their number of work placements to test your ability to work.