Posts by Rich of Observationz
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What they've done in the UK with stakeholder pensions is to set up approval criteria limiting management charges. I think NZ should do the same.
Possibly it should also be possible to invest into the Cullen Fund (maybe using Kiwibank as a retailer) allowing individuals to take advantage of the scale and low management costs (< 1%) of this.
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I prefer the Viz Chart. Placings are determined by amount of cash bribe.
Ben: you mean like the NZPost Prezzy Card. I'm surprised too but maybe they've deliberately soft-launched and are making sure the niggles (social and technical) are ironed out before they put pedal to the metal. Which is sensible (worked for SMS, unwittingly).
Incidentally it occurs to be that you could use these to shop on USA iTunes. Maybe I should get a few preloaded US VISA cards and sell them on TradeMe?
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mirroring Australia and making the first $5-$10k of income untaxed
For anyone with kids, tax is negative up to a much higher level than this. Working for Families benefits more than outweigh tax.
This is a big propaganda own goal though, because few understand WfF and the headline tax rates are what's quoted. If our tax system were aligned to Australia (medicare levies, state witholding tax, compulsory super levy) then each corresponding rate would be massively lower (at the price of a system more complicated, bureaucratic and unfair).
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You are assuming that wage levels are set in a perfect, isolated market.
Employer contributions to Kiwisaver are being phased in at 1% annually for four years. How this affects wage increases will be determined by many factors.
We just had a 1 week increase in statutory holiday, which equates to an hourly wage rise of around 2%. I don't have figures, but it certainly seems that this has not depressed wage rises in NZ measurably.
There are many, many factors affecting wage increases including:
- desire of employers to trade negative HR consequences (strikes, staff turnover, unfilled vacancies) against wage increases
- comparison of wages with Australia and further afield
- levels of employment in specific sectors
- ability of competitors to offer better wages through improved efficiency
- ability of market to absorb wage-driven price risesSo I think all we can say is that the negative effect on net wage growth will be between zero and 1% annually.
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I'd say force everyone to learn driving in a something like a manual MX-5
Plus, the lad might get laid driving one of those. More likely than a '90 Corolla with imitation chrome hubcaps..
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Simon: I drove around a bit of Bali last year. While crazy, I think the drivers are actually quite skilled at avoiding impact. Plus I guess the cost of a smash in typical hours worked is a great deal more than NZ?
Also, at Bali speeds I suspect more accidents are survivable.
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Hey russell: Can you get PAS upgraded to do images in comments so we can all post pictures of our cars? Like on nzrave
To whoever said 'driving is not a right', it is. Like sex, duck shooting and loud music. In a society ruled by law, everything that isn't a crime is a right. It may be reasonably restricted, but essentially if you're an adult, pass your test and haven't been banned by a court, you have the *right* to drive.
BTW, road death rates in NZ are not way out of line with other countries. We're about the same per km as Germany or the USA. Given that we have pretty dodgy roads, I'd suggest that means that NZ driving behaviour isn't all that bad really.
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OTOH, I don't understand why we don't have compulsory insurance. And a no-claims system on ACC so your rego goes up if you have injury accidents.
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It's the fact that nothing much happens in New Zealand. So the media has to focus on that little which does go on.
Go and look at www.guardian.co.uk or www.nytimes.com.
How many road accident stories do you see - almost none? (For today the Guardian has none and the New York Times has a bus crash with two fatalities. Dumb kids rolling cars? I'm sure it happened, but it's not newsworthy in a city with real stuff going on.
If kids get succesfully stopped from hooning around in their own cars, what's going to happen? Chances are they might start stealing cars and racing those - cheaper than building one and risking getting it confiscated. Could end up in something like the Blackbird Leys riots.
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Acceptance of blogs by the mainstream media is all very nice, but you'll know it's gone to far when Tony O'Reilly realises that there are 40,000 people out there writing content for *free*.
When that happens the Herald (Indy, Irish Indy, Cape Times, etc) will become "the free newspaper that anyone can edit".
Of course they will be packed full of tendentious, opinionated, bollox. But how will we tell the difference - Garth George actually has a (presumably) paid column.