Posts by Rob Hosking
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I have a distant memory of the superannuation traditionally kicking in at age 60, and being incrementally raised to 65 in the 1990s?
Yep. Muldoon moved it to 60. Before that it was 65. The Bolger govt gradually moved it up to 65 again, over the decade.
I don't know why the Seddon govt picked 65 when they introduced the first Old Age Pensions Act, but they may have simply copied the first modern scheme, which was the one Bismarck set up in Germany in (I think) the 1870s.
The mortality rate in Germany was even lower than in NZ but the odd war or two may have skewed that figure downwards.
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Foreign obscure word relevant to an earlier thread:
Tartle. It's Gaelic: it means 'to hesitate when meeting someone the name of whom you can't recall.'
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I'll go to vote, on a not-work-day, and be able to just walk straight into the booth and vote. I know I'll be on the roll. The whole thing will take five minutes. And when they've got my vote, know what they'll do with it? Count it.
Yeah. And one of the great things in NZ is we're one of the few countries which doesn't let anyone campaign on election day. We say 'OK, you've said your bit, Now, STFU for 24 hours while we have our say.' I love it.
Also I like the fact the nearest polling booth to where I live is an ordinary Kiwi garage, about 30 metres away.
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A few points:
A lot of discussion on super gets confused because people get the three 'tiers' of savings muddled up.
Tier One is the state pension. It's what the NZ Super Fund is set up to help pre-fund.
Tier two is workplace savings. This is what Kiwisaver is part of: it is also what the Australian compulsory savings scheme is. So its quite wrong to attribute any strong Australian fiscal position to this. Those are private savings. It is also what the 1974-76 NZ Roger Douglas compulsory scheme was: there was still a state pension on top of that but it was small compared with what Muldoon offered.
Third tier is any other savings people might have.
To me the biggest nasty trick being played at present is the con that everyone will still be able to get a full state funded pension at 65. It is utter bullshit. The age was set at 65 in 1898 when the average mortality age was 59.
We're now, what, late 70s? And projections are by the time those of us now in our forties reach peg-drop-off time the average mortality age will be about 85. The idea the taxpayer can fund us for 20 years at current super rates is just nonsense.
It is simply mathematically impossible for the taxpayer to pay the number of retirees we will the equivalent of an average wage for 20 years each. Even if the NZ Superannuation Fund makes some very big returns the money just will not be there.
It is a con all the parties have conspired on and its an utter lie.
What should be happening, right now, is an agreement to slowly lift the pension age to say, 70. Promise those over, say,45 or 50, they will still get super at 65, but send a message to all those under that age to plan on the pension at 70.
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uh ... um ... I'll go stand in the corner now, my bad.
See you do.
And we want those hands where we can see them.
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He'd probably be getting a bit of media mileage today (and putting the boot in to sundry monetarists) if he were still around.
If he's where I think he is, he'll have plenty of opportunity to do just that...
Actually, he's probably knifed Satan in the back by now. Taken over the whole show.
I can just see him with a pitchfork, cloven hooves, and going Heh Heh Heh as the next batch of the damned arrived.
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Which is somewhat ironic, considering that it was Nixon who dropped the gold standard.
<pedant> FDR, I think. Nixon nixed Bretton Woods. </pedant>
Which - I'm over simplifying just a little here - was an attempt to have a gold standard without gold. Or much in the way of standards.
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What is it with ginger cats?
The only ginger cat I've ever known was a kind of cat genius when it came to human behaviour. My mum got him and dad - a farmer - reacted in dubious fashion.
Cat worked out though dad was a softie underneath. Dad would come in from milking, wash, go to sit at the table and when he pulled out his chair ginger cat would be sitting on it. Looking up. Smiling, I swear it.
Dad would shoo the cat off. Cat would sit there and miouw happily. In the end dad would get up and exchange the chair with the spare one from the lounge. This happened every day.
After a bit, Mum notices catfood is going down too fast. Complains to my siblings about this - they deny it all. Dad then has to admit he gives cat a feed at 5am when he got up to milk the cows: cat would then get a second feed at 7am when Mum got up.
The season goes around. Cows dry off for winter. Dad gets to sleep in till 6am.
Cat is teed off. Miowwing loudly up the hall. Doesn't work.
So he goes into the den where the piano is. Stomps up and down the keyboard till someone comes to feed him.
Got named Mozart after that.
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Never could understand why the guy is supposedly held in such high regard.
Stuff he did with John Mayle's Bluesbeakers. And Cream.
Both bands with a superb drummer. I firmly believe a great guitarist needs a great drummer, otherwise its very boring, one hand clapping stuff you only find exciting if you're stoned.
Townshend and Moon; Richards and Watts; Cooder and Keltner....
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__Crusoe swims naked to the wreck then fills his pockets with biscuits__
then yells 'Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker' and shoots all the cannibals. This cross-over idea is growing on me.
Oh god, thank you for that. Made my evening. Pictured him doing it with cut feet and all.