Posts by Paul Williams
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DexterX said:
IMHO the three term Labour govt squandered its time in office and the lost opportunity will be all they will be remembered for as the coming crisis hits home very hard.
I found it hard to follow your arguments supporting this conclusion, particularly the argument that many business required local/state subsidies. However, I do understand that you think WfF made people "welfare dependent". Matthew's largely run the response I'd have made and the debate has moved on. I will say though, that NZ wages are notoriously sticky, a point I think George also made, which is in part why Labour introduced WfF. Also, and Cullen made this point at the time WfF was introduced, delivering the kind of support he wanted to was just too difficult through the tax system.
I'm not sure it was the right approach, I only mentioned it because you ignored it when you criticised Labour's record on my words income equality instead focusing only on mimimum wages which is, IMO, wrong.
Matthew Poole said:
And decrease tertiary education funding? Way to ensure the population gets stupid, stays stupid, and anyone with any desire to get educated leaves: and likely never returns.
NZ has very high tertiary participation rates and currently also loses alot of people to overseas. I don't advocate decreasing tertiary education funding but we might want to acknowledge that, for the moment at least, we're not capturing the value of the investment and might need to do some rethinking.
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Speaker: Medical Journal, Chapter V, in reply to Bart Janssen,
Can't we just go to the cricket and talk about field placements?
I do that from time to time but generally with a bunch of lesbians... don't know what to make of that.
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Speaker: Medical Journal, Chapter V, in reply to BenWilson,
But I suspect that team would have no trouble filling a supertanker with jizz in no time.
You don't think there'd be a high degree of impotence amongst that mob?
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Speaker: Medical Journal, Chapter V, in reply to Danielle,
That's fair, imagine this thread at kiwiblog... wait, don't.
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Speaker: Medical Journal, Chapter V, in reply to Danielle,
You took it there?
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OnPoint: Election 2011: GO!, in reply to DexterX,
DexterX, you make a fair point but you might also recall that employment was comparatively high and Labour also introduced other income support measures like Working for Families. If that sounds like I'm making excuses, I don't mean too, I mean only to broaden the focus since, in fact, not that many people are paid the minimum wage so it's significance is best considered as part of bundle of measures (possibly even including access to training and other active labour market policies).
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Speaker: Medical Journal, Chapter V, in reply to Sarah Wedde,
Isn't it odd. I've attended two of my kids' births but I'd really rather my wife didn't attend for any future vasectomy. Also, just to acknowledge Hilary's points up thread, I don't for a moment imagine men's proceedures compare with women's.
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OnPoint: Election 2011: GO!, in reply to Jacqui Dunn,
Very sad but hard to comprehend too. After yesterday praising Metiria's speech, I gotta say I think this is a very poor performance by the Greens. A really important opportunity is missed through lack of half decent planning.
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Paul, thanks for this wonderfully funny and informative piece. As the father of three girls, I've no desire for more kids (nor room to park a car bigger than a Corolla). I've been so far saved the big V by the fact that our youngest has been a shocking sleeper suppressing most conjungal desires to the point where other forms of contraception are fine...
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OnPoint: Election 2011: GO!, in reply to George Darroch,
This a very fine speech. Turei is becoming a influential parliamentarian. Like many others I'm sure, I wondered how the Greens would cope when they lost Nandor and Bradford (and Donaldson and more recently Fitzsimons too) but I've been consistently impressed by a number of current and potential Green MPs. I've worked closely with Jan Logie and have enormous respect for her intelligence and integrity (though my politics are a little different). I've had a bit to do with James Shaw too and he appears to be someone who's helping the Greens extend their appeal to a wider audience.