The Real Competition For New Zealand's Underclass
This weekend I returned to one of my favourite holiday places, Thailand, and the Island of Koh Samui.
I had plenty of time on a bean bag in the sun by the hotel pool to observe the latest state of the place as evidenced by the beach vendors peddling their wares to punters.
It is asked by the likes of comfie living, poorly travelled Grey Lynn hipster Martyn Bradbury why I am so hard on New Zealand's heaving pathetic underclass. I do not and never will back away from that description.
In terms of achieving something with your life, New Zealand is one of the easiest places in the world to make something of your life, no matter how badly it has started or who your parents are. The Prime Minister is the best example of such.
New Zealand as a country has a better standard of living, more opportunity and a better education system than most countries in Asia. A "free" education system at that. Laugh as you want, but New Zealand's public education system is better than most in the world. Despite their bad press, New Zealand's teachers are better than most. Any student without the reason of a major learning disability who is failing is doing so because they either aren't trying hard enough or their family isn't supporting them to succeed. Neither is it the fault of any government or teachers union. It's the fault of the rubbish that's going into it and parents with expectations that education ends when dropping and picking their child up at the school gate. One cannot expect teachers to turn dirty swamp water into Dom Perignon. I don't accept that New Zealand's school system is failing. No system will succeed unless parents and students alike change their attitudes towards education and actually value it. New Zealand has not reached that level of respect for education. It expects a system that tailors for each an every child. Which is impossible. What is needed is conformity by each and every child to the system in order to learn then leave and earn.
Currently the world is undergoing massive inflationary pressure, not insignificantly caused by the emergence of Asian countries in their desire for better standards of living and western lifestyles. Something has to give. Even the poorest Westerners after all, want big screen TV's and better cars. Fact is they're buying on credit, not their own but from welfare handouts from other taxpayers and public debt.
Even in Samui since Christmas, prices for massages that were 200 baht are now 250 baht (25% increase), corn that was 40 baht is now 50 baht, same with the ice creams. Chaweng Beach inflation is running around the 25% mark.
The largest competition in the world is at the lowest margins. It is also as I observe in dealing with people from what are deemed third world countries, the most fierce and brutal. At the upper end we see movies like Wall Street depicting corporate battles, these wars are but nothing compared with the basic human desire to survive at the lowest end.
Put simply Asia's poor and desperate are better than the poor and hopeless in New Zealand. They work harder, they have aspiration and desire to do better than they are. They are superior in every regard.
In New Zealand, regardless of the race of the poor or the underclass, you do not see that desire. Their response when things get hard seems to be to have another mouth to feed. Even on a benefit, the poor and underclass in New Zealand are better off than a working class Thai for example.
This woman sells mangoes, fresh fruit and drinks and cooks corn for 50 baht a cob on the beach all day and into the night in energy sapping 40 degree heat down on the burning sand and will never have the standard of living than that of a second generation beneficiary in New Zealand does.
If the corn seller had the hand-out attitude of a New Zealand underclasser she would starve and die in Thailand. The Herald has a beat-up on how 40,000 children in New Zealand are fed by charity. Why would you bother to feed your own child however when the school does?
Right now the biggest threat to the lives of the underclass and lower paid in New Zealand isn't John Key, Don Brash, Reserve Bank or a National led government. It's this seemingly harmless woman and billions just like her in China, Brazil and India. Her children will want a better life. They will push their governments to provide it. Eventually Thailand will get its act together, stop stealing money through corrupt practices and provide it. And at that time their country with 63 million people all working with a go-forward attitude will surge ahead of New Zealand. A country where now according to these statistics on Kiwiblog, 44% of households are net beneficiaries (a greater number of these people if you include their dependents). That is, not earning their keep and relying on the charity of others who are forced to pay taxes to survive.
Asian countries do not have welfare states. They will resist as long as possible. Because they've seen America. They've seen what paying people to do nothing brings. They've seen what happens when everyone is told they can have their own home despite inability to finance it.
It's not the act of payment of welfare that destroys the fabric of society. It is the attitude it breeds. That someone is owed a living by other people and can and will vote themselves an income.
The corn vendor with her entrepreneurial street smarts would kick the backside of any New Zealand low paid, beneficiary or underclass. She would do it with far less compassion than even I show towards New Zealand's poor and underclass. She bargains market pricing daily in a way that a Wall Street trader would be impressed with. Cutting deals for bulk buys and sales, she has her mark-up and knows what is required to break even. She hustles, uses a considerable amount of charm and instinct to wrestle every valuable baht from tourists. All of whom have more education and opportunity than she had.
I watched her bargain with some of the worse of tourists - Indians and Israelis. Nasty bargainers themselves squeezing every cent they can get just for a cob of cooked corn. She was happy at the end of negotiations every time.
Then there are the children whom I haven't taken pictures of for obvious reasons. The gang leader in Samui is a girl around 10 years old. If you sit on Chaweng beach in Samui long enough you'll meet her with a connect four board and an entourage of much younger children. She speaks English better than any of the hustlers, even the adults. For 100 baht she will bet you in a game of Connect Four. Win and you keep it, lose and she takes your coin. She trades on the gift of the gab, knowing what tourists are drunk enough to take on or taken in by her charm. She entertains, is cheeky and above all knows her time is valuable so when she can't see a sale, sticks her chest in the air and moves on to the next punter. Her skill set is transferable to a woman who in New Zealand would have a career in sales and marketing, or if she was a wet - human resources.
Put her next to a New Zealand child living in a State House with a P or even pot smoking Mum and absentee sperm donor that some people charitably call a father and she would clean them up ruthlessly. Again in a manner more abruptly than I ever could.
Her basic math and finance skills would run rings around a New Zealand educated child the same age. She can communicate with adults better than anyone who has a drug or alcohol addled parent. And better still, she would soak up everything you taught her, as someone older has taught her the art of the street hustle.
Sadly in Thailand she will more than likely be working in the bars behind the beach when she reaches puberty and her life now is as good as it will get. She's the Little Princess of Chaweng Beach. Things probably won't change in her lifetime.
New Zealanders response to such stories is arrogantly to say "we don't want to be like Thailand". Thing is, eventually with modern globalisation the way it is heading New Zealanders won't have a choice and emerging countries such as Brazil, China and India will be sneering down their noses at New Zealand and its over generous tax and spend welfare state as New Zealanders now do at these apparent pauper states. All suffering inflationary pressures from the demand from developing nations for resources they have in the past had all to themselves. There simply are not enough resources in the world to go around. It will create winners and losers. If New Zealand wants to be a winner it will have to stop hugging trees, and start competing.
Martyn Bradbury can sit there in front of his taxpayer subsidised camera jeering as much as he likes about big business, rich pricks and corporate greed.
But the largest threat to Maori, the underclass and with it his comfie middle class lifestyle in good old Grey Lynn is the little old lady selling corn on Chaweng Beach and what she represents. And the ten year old hustler playing Connect Four.
While he's busy representing the past. They are representing for the future and what his world looks like. For Martyn and his bunch of hopeless, lazy underachievers in left-wing fringe politics - it doesn't look good.
Little wonder they trade on envy politics and the theft of even more taxpayers money to build a fortress around New Zealand from globalisation and the fear it creates for them.
The fear that none of them have a chance competing in the real world.
I had plenty of time on a bean bag in the sun by the hotel pool to observe the latest state of the place as evidenced by the beach vendors peddling their wares to punters.
It is asked by the likes of comfie living, poorly travelled Grey Lynn hipster Martyn Bradbury why I am so hard on New Zealand's heaving pathetic underclass. I do not and never will back away from that description.
In terms of achieving something with your life, New Zealand is one of the easiest places in the world to make something of your life, no matter how badly it has started or who your parents are. The Prime Minister is the best example of such.
New Zealand as a country has a better standard of living, more opportunity and a better education system than most countries in Asia. A "free" education system at that. Laugh as you want, but New Zealand's public education system is better than most in the world. Despite their bad press, New Zealand's teachers are better than most. Any student without the reason of a major learning disability who is failing is doing so because they either aren't trying hard enough or their family isn't supporting them to succeed. Neither is it the fault of any government or teachers union. It's the fault of the rubbish that's going into it and parents with expectations that education ends when dropping and picking their child up at the school gate. One cannot expect teachers to turn dirty swamp water into Dom Perignon. I don't accept that New Zealand's school system is failing. No system will succeed unless parents and students alike change their attitudes towards education and actually value it. New Zealand has not reached that level of respect for education. It expects a system that tailors for each an every child. Which is impossible. What is needed is conformity by each and every child to the system in order to learn then leave and earn.
Currently the world is undergoing massive inflationary pressure, not insignificantly caused by the emergence of Asian countries in their desire for better standards of living and western lifestyles. Something has to give. Even the poorest Westerners after all, want big screen TV's and better cars. Fact is they're buying on credit, not their own but from welfare handouts from other taxpayers and public debt.
Even in Samui since Christmas, prices for massages that were 200 baht are now 250 baht (25% increase), corn that was 40 baht is now 50 baht, same with the ice creams. Chaweng Beach inflation is running around the 25% mark.
The largest competition in the world is at the lowest margins. It is also as I observe in dealing with people from what are deemed third world countries, the most fierce and brutal. At the upper end we see movies like Wall Street depicting corporate battles, these wars are but nothing compared with the basic human desire to survive at the lowest end.
Put simply Asia's poor and desperate are better than the poor and hopeless in New Zealand. They work harder, they have aspiration and desire to do better than they are. They are superior in every regard.
In New Zealand, regardless of the race of the poor or the underclass, you do not see that desire. Their response when things get hard seems to be to have another mouth to feed. Even on a benefit, the poor and underclass in New Zealand are better off than a working class Thai for example.
This woman sells mangoes, fresh fruit and drinks and cooks corn for 50 baht a cob on the beach all day and into the night in energy sapping 40 degree heat down on the burning sand and will never have the standard of living than that of a second generation beneficiary in New Zealand does.
If the corn seller had the hand-out attitude of a New Zealand underclasser she would starve and die in Thailand. The Herald has a beat-up on how 40,000 children in New Zealand are fed by charity. Why would you bother to feed your own child however when the school does?
Right now the biggest threat to the lives of the underclass and lower paid in New Zealand isn't John Key, Don Brash, Reserve Bank or a National led government. It's this seemingly harmless woman and billions just like her in China, Brazil and India. Her children will want a better life. They will push their governments to provide it. Eventually Thailand will get its act together, stop stealing money through corrupt practices and provide it. And at that time their country with 63 million people all working with a go-forward attitude will surge ahead of New Zealand. A country where now according to these statistics on Kiwiblog, 44% of households are net beneficiaries (a greater number of these people if you include their dependents). That is, not earning their keep and relying on the charity of others who are forced to pay taxes to survive.
Asian countries do not have welfare states. They will resist as long as possible. Because they've seen America. They've seen what paying people to do nothing brings. They've seen what happens when everyone is told they can have their own home despite inability to finance it.
It's not the act of payment of welfare that destroys the fabric of society. It is the attitude it breeds. That someone is owed a living by other people and can and will vote themselves an income.
The corn vendor with her entrepreneurial street smarts would kick the backside of any New Zealand low paid, beneficiary or underclass. She would do it with far less compassion than even I show towards New Zealand's poor and underclass. She bargains market pricing daily in a way that a Wall Street trader would be impressed with. Cutting deals for bulk buys and sales, she has her mark-up and knows what is required to break even. She hustles, uses a considerable amount of charm and instinct to wrestle every valuable baht from tourists. All of whom have more education and opportunity than she had.
I watched her bargain with some of the worse of tourists - Indians and Israelis. Nasty bargainers themselves squeezing every cent they can get just for a cob of cooked corn. She was happy at the end of negotiations every time.
Then there are the children whom I haven't taken pictures of for obvious reasons. The gang leader in Samui is a girl around 10 years old. If you sit on Chaweng beach in Samui long enough you'll meet her with a connect four board and an entourage of much younger children. She speaks English better than any of the hustlers, even the adults. For 100 baht she will bet you in a game of Connect Four. Win and you keep it, lose and she takes your coin. She trades on the gift of the gab, knowing what tourists are drunk enough to take on or taken in by her charm. She entertains, is cheeky and above all knows her time is valuable so when she can't see a sale, sticks her chest in the air and moves on to the next punter. Her skill set is transferable to a woman who in New Zealand would have a career in sales and marketing, or if she was a wet - human resources.
Put her next to a New Zealand child living in a State House with a P or even pot smoking Mum and absentee sperm donor that some people charitably call a father and she would clean them up ruthlessly. Again in a manner more abruptly than I ever could.
Her basic math and finance skills would run rings around a New Zealand educated child the same age. She can communicate with adults better than anyone who has a drug or alcohol addled parent. And better still, she would soak up everything you taught her, as someone older has taught her the art of the street hustle.
Sadly in Thailand she will more than likely be working in the bars behind the beach when she reaches puberty and her life now is as good as it will get. She's the Little Princess of Chaweng Beach. Things probably won't change in her lifetime.
New Zealanders response to such stories is arrogantly to say "we don't want to be like Thailand". Thing is, eventually with modern globalisation the way it is heading New Zealanders won't have a choice and emerging countries such as Brazil, China and India will be sneering down their noses at New Zealand and its over generous tax and spend welfare state as New Zealanders now do at these apparent pauper states. All suffering inflationary pressures from the demand from developing nations for resources they have in the past had all to themselves. There simply are not enough resources in the world to go around. It will create winners and losers. If New Zealand wants to be a winner it will have to stop hugging trees, and start competing.
Martyn Bradbury can sit there in front of his taxpayer subsidised camera jeering as much as he likes about big business, rich pricks and corporate greed.
But the largest threat to Maori, the underclass and with it his comfie middle class lifestyle in good old Grey Lynn is the little old lady selling corn on Chaweng Beach and what she represents. And the ten year old hustler playing Connect Four.
While he's busy representing the past. They are representing for the future and what his world looks like. For Martyn and his bunch of hopeless, lazy underachievers in left-wing fringe politics - it doesn't look good.
Little wonder they trade on envy politics and the theft of even more taxpayers money to build a fortress around New Zealand from globalisation and the fear it creates for them.
The fear that none of them have a chance competing in the real world.
posted by Cactus Kate at 11:37 PM
30 Comments:
Kate
The corn vendor does not have all the red tape we have in NZ, heath and safety , hawkers license , OSH , ACC ,GST, etc.
If someone in NZ tried to do what she does they would be arrested. The public need to be protected from dodgy/unsafe vendors , thus the reason for the Red tape.What are the repercussions for her when her customers end up in hospital from food poisoning ? (none) I had my stay at Phuket in a nice Hotel ended from a nice looking restaurant serving seafood that was not up to scratch. no come back on said restaurant because of no safety rules /tax .
I spent my vacation @ the Andaman hospital, lucky to escape alive .
The Land of Smiles has so much unrealised growth potential it's scary.
Another delight of Thailand is the lack of a min wage, which of course you know about - which allows everybody to get market wages according to their skills. Your corn lady would be exceptionally popular as it is a snack loved by locals and farang alike and is cheap to run. Her work ethic would put Bombers entire work history to shame... although he'd prefer that Thailand was strangled by a minimum wage and regulations that would consign most poor to begging and thieving from tourists.
Thailand has a reputation as being friendly and hard working, surely proof that Governments are the enemy. I am sick of arrogant (non travelling) Kiwis who think we are better than these so called "worse off" countries. I remember when Singapore was an example of a place worse off than we were and look what happened to them.
A country where now according to these statistics on Kiwiblog, 44% of households are net beneficiaries
Nope - it's much much higher than that Kate.
For a start, there's less than 10% in public school.
Count hospitals & sponsored GP visits, up it goes again.
It's more like 90% - only 10% of Kiwis who pay 95% of all tax.
Hmmm, seems more accurate to say your Chaweng Beach hustlers represent the past. Victorian England, to be precise.
Ironic too that you claim Thailand will only 'conquer' NZ and the rest of the decadent west after 'corn lady' demands a .... welfare state.... for her kids. Surely their present Victorian free market capitalism should drag them into 1st world living standards.
Mad Marxist.
P!LL - food poisoning happens everywhere, NZ included. Usually untraceable and therefore unpunished.
Mad Marxist - no I didn't say anything of the sort so stop your usual bullshit. Here are my words
"Her children will want a better life. They will push their governments to provide it. Eventually Thailand will get its act together, stop stealing money through corrupt practices and provide it".
Government just has to
a) get its act together
b) stop stealing money
c) stop corruption
China is surging ahead, not by providing a welfare state.
Good post Kate.
But does China have chickens yet to roost?
To recommend this country requires both eyes open - No?
If you were sitting on the pavement in New Zealand selling apples from your garden, you would first have to get a vendors license, a certificate of Health and Safety, before you could sit on the pavement.
A local shop would call the council and the police and complain that a "man is selling apples on the pavement, this is disgraceful", the man selling apples would be approached by the Police and would be asked to please move on?
It takes two to tango.
This is an excellent post. You have said it all. Socialism in New Zealand has successfully killed the trait of aspiration, but on the other hand, given us the politics of envy instead.
I'm glad we don't have the huge slums, diseases, human traffiking, mortality rate, murders, and rampant child prostitution that they have in "The Land of Smiles". I'm glad that our entire country isn't awash in cheap asian heroin like they are.
I live in the Philippines most of the year. The people have my utmost respect. Although poor by our standards, they are happy, hard working, lovely people. I left NZ coz I was sick of paying for other peoples irresponsible breeding.
Muzza
Brazil has quite an extensive welfare state. Just saying, it doesn't really compare to the other welfare-free countries you're bracketing it with.
Alas, poor Kate, where to even begin?
Possibly with your blue-tinted spectacles which magically transform even the beach vendors of Phuket into Randian heroes.
Unfortunately, those same magic glasses blind you to the real story unfolding in Thailand.
What the rest of the world is watching is the painful emergence of Thailand's poor from the marginal existences forced upon them by that country's wealthy elite (the "Yellow Shirts" if you've been watching the news).
What the "Red Shirts" are seeking are precisely the statutory protections and redistributive fiscal policies you claim the Thai poor despise.
Schools for their children, hospitals for their sick, pensions and benefits for their elderly and infirm. Unions to keep the boss honest and OSH to reduce Thailand's appalling number of industrial accidents.
They're a long way from getting it, I concede, but it's what they're fighting for.
Not to see the world dragged down to their levels of crushing poverty and unhindered exploitation, but to see themselves uplifted to enjoy the sort of existence we take for granted.
Take those silly spectacles off, Kate. You'll be amazed how much more you can see.
Absolutely spot on. A great essay.I see much 'fun' if ever we are faced with living within our means.
From our brief forays into China, my observation is that 'envy' is transformed to 'aspire' there. If you run around Beijing in a Lambo, the thought there is, 'I will/can work hard and get one of those'. In NZ it is envy and I can just steal it anyway... or coin it.
So hard to undo the state we find ourselves in with NZ tax funded lifestyles.
great commentary- finally someone who has the guts to say what you have said- yes- asian poor are much hard working than our silly nz poor who dont appreciate a cent how lucky they are with all the free $ they get. The poor in NZ dont know what poor really is- send them to thailand/india etc and see how they could survive there. Agree with you on this one Cactus.
In terms of achieving something with your life, New Zealand is one of the easiest places in the world to make something of your life, no matter how badly it has started or who your parents are. The Prime Minister is the best example of such.
John Key is hardly Delcelia Witika.
Cactus are you sure you don't have any kids? You sure know our education system...
You have described Thailand exactly the way I remember it and what impressed me most about those people, you negotiate a price , they smile and pass you sticky rice wrapped in a leaf through a train window for a few measly baht and get on with life.
They live a far more meaningful and productive life than and Martin will ever do.
PS Cactus, Big Bhudda beach gets my vote, a little more out of the way.
Mikeyd
if you're paying 50bht for a corn cob ,you are being ripped..10-20 bht max!As for the rest of the rant...wake up...the world is in financial turmoil because of the actions of the rich who run WASHINGTON and are in a mood for resource wars to enforce/pay their way of life.The powerful have cleverly managed to direct the angst of the middle class taxpayer toward the lower classes ,when it really belongs to them.Nothing truer than privatise profits and socialise losses.The worst is yet to come.Btw have you seen Inside Job yet?
P1LL, I'm sure that Kiwis are safe from killer corn and plus if she was selling dangerous corn the people would keep away in droves.
Simple market forces, no need for regulation whatsoever.
People get food poisoning all around the planet and seafood is one of the main culprits. Not just in Thailand but also in NZ which is swimming in regulations.
Not too sure why you think regulations are so wonderful, must have been the mercury in the fish going to your brain.
Depends if Age 10 has access to capital or not? You don’t have shit unless you have access to capital.
China & Brazil are toast for the next 5 to 10 years. China’s centrally planned economy will crash & burn at some stage. Just as the hardest working unconnected Chinese still starved during the cultural revolution the hardest working unconnected Chinese today will go to the wall.
China is entering into a period of stagflation which will take out China and both Brazil & Australia. (The Chinese property bubble when it busts will take out 2 of NZ’s trading banks as well.)
In 1990 Japan was supposed to take over the world and after 2 lost decades later the lesson is if the government is fucked up (just like it is here for 44% of the population) the average citizen pays for it.
GREAT post Kate :)
Please travel to Brasil, South Africa, Cuba, Peru and Venezuela before making overgeneralised comments about "underclasses". And if you care about New Zealand why aren't you here looking after our beautiful country???
"China is surging ahead, not by providing a welfare state."
China does have a welfare state. The process of awarding state sponsored contracts provides a generous and ongoing flow of 'welfare' to corrupt officials.
For all its faults, that's not a problem we generally encounter in NZ.
oh Puhleez Anonymous,
We progressed from Victorian times largely because of the Protestant work ethic , an education system that believed in rote learning and conformity (Note: not mindless obesiance ) and certainly not because of a Welfare state. You forget that this is a construct of the 20th century that has now been universally bastardized by successive Governments . When Thailand and the rest of Asia are given that same opportunities we have had , that European western cultures took from them by colonisation or outright theft, LOOK OUT, because they will leave our collective welfare ridden arses in the dust . Worth noting that we are still collectively trying to stop the 3rd world from gainig any economic advantage because they aint "Green enough", no cheap coal fired electricity for them , "let them eat solar and wind power baked cake ", horrendously expensive , impractical and UNsustainable but ever so GREEN
Chris T - the red shirt/yellow shirt conflicts are far more complex than that. Had LASIK many years ago. No spectacles.
Arto - reading the left's discourse in NZ however you would think NZ does.
Mikeyd - no kids but advantage of a schoolteacher mother. I don't hold teachers responsible for the sort of product they are given to work with. Parents to blame before teachers.
I love it that Chris Trotter has publically said that the Red Shirts went out on the streets and put their lives on the line because they wanted OSH regulations and Unions.
Are you planning on taking your comedy tour international or are you content being a laughing stock just in NZ?
Either way I want tickets to your November shows, front row seats.
Red Shirts were quite happy to take payoffs and bribes from Thaksin when he was in power in return for their votes - and they were quite unhappy for that to end, hence their protests. You accuse CK of needing spectacles when in reality you are looking through a kaleidoscope instead of a telescope at the issues in Thailand.
Hugh, the Brazilian welfare state has been boosted by popular reforms of recent times - that are also business and growth friendly. Silly how the left choose to attack the message without offering any solutions that don't involve giving away more of other peoples money or getting people off welfare.
funnily enough inequality regarding distribution of wealth is far worse in the U.S.A than Thailand.The elected govt in Thailand have a min wage policy.As for welfare,what do you call the handing out of 16 $trillion(more than the U.S debt!)being handed out at virtual zero interest by the Fed reserve to the usual suspects to 'lend' back to the govt ..Morgan Stan,JPMorgan,Goldman Sachs,etc the crooks in drag.You have no idea of world geo political reality and what it is predicated on.
Simplifying our size of government, tax system and (more generally) our legal framework, would also threaten some middle-class lifestyles, any chance that will happen ?
"Currently the world is undergoing massive inflationary pressure"
Oh right, so that's why the Fed did QE, because of the massive inflationary pressure and really low employment... Inflation is always around the corner for Libertarians, because they don't know squat about the real world, they are just referencing their approved dogma.
Austerity = long term high unemployment = fundamentally slow growth = the dollar you earned today will be worth less than it could have been worth in a years time.
But Libertarians have their own fantasies about what money is; the math is too hard for them so Fuck'em we are all worse off for their 'insights'.
Come on Kate, theres honour in being on the right wing of say the Labour party; fighting for pragmatism, against bureaucracy and inefficiency. But there's no honour in crossing that line, embracing selfish individualism, vested interests, delusional elitism.
Smart people know everybody across that line is fundamentally an asshole, or atleast appears that way on TV, or acts that way at BBQs, or preaches that crap at conferences. What has ACT really got to do with being a tough opinionated woman? Nothing. They are a bunch of rejects, bad writers, bad jokes, bad policy. This is not the elite, they couldn't inspire their way out of a paper bag. They are insecure yet financially secure dorks, or worse, they arent financially secure yet spend their time working for Libertarian think tanks (thats a failure of self interest if I ever I saw one).
What is it? You think ACT has a better grasp of policy/macro or cares more about principles or has a better sense of humour? That's an absolute lie, show me the proof of that.
People with some fucking rock n roll, some brains and a sense of social justice are going to win out over obnoxious right wing wind bags.
How can you even share a political party with... Fundies.
Can the corn lady program a computer or read? I hope she doesn't take my job once she does learn Black-Scholes! One asset NZ has going for it is that we are not corrupt and not a bunch of assholes (I guess ACT is trying to change that last point though).
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