Friday, January 14, 2005
Ammo
Interesting stuff. More ammunition for the ripped off in NZ theme or more of the same a couple of blogs down. A little more 'proof' that NZers are being forced to struggle to purchase goods due to low pay to start with and after tax much lower still. Common folks, knife to the bosses throat. Or just leave the country like everybody complains we do too much. It's the smart ones leaving in every sense of the word. Wink, wink.
NZ pay 'falling behind'
14 January 2005
By TRACY WATKINS
If you resolved on New Year's Eve to earn more money in 2005 you were probably not alone.
A new survey by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development has confirmed what most Kiwis probably already know - we are a "low middle income" country, despite the booming economy. We rank alongside the residents of Spain, Israel, Cyprus, Greece, Portugal, Slovenia, Korea [only difference is tax is 8% on an average annual salary here], Malta, the Czech Republic and Hungary.
Australians are ranked as high middle income earners, rubbing shoulders with the residents of countries we might normally compare ourselves to - including Canada, Britain, France, Sweden, Italy, Denmark and Austria.
BNZ chief economist Tony Alexander said New Zealand slipped badly behind in the economic stakes between the early 1970s and early 1990s and catching up will be a process that takes decades.
On the surface, New Zealanders aren't doing without. Kiwis seem happy to go into debt for the luxury items that their counterparts in richer nations have, Mr Alexander said. "Hence New Zealand having the worst savings rate in the OECD at minus 10 per cent."
But as a country we were missing out on better health care, education and infrastructure because of our lower tax base, he said. [That's right, you've got the poor masses earning sod all so paying sod all tax, and then you've got the rich folk avoiding and evading tax. It's no wonder the guvment is coming up with bizarre gimmicks about giving the Tsunami struck countries donations based on runs scored in a bloody cricket match. Surely they should be giving every cent they calculate they can afford and leave the silly bugger games to all our broke corporates out there that are hiding under their beach umbrellas on east coast beaches].
Government duty minister Mark Burton said yesterday the figures were only current to 2002 and the economy had grown strongly since. Growth was faster than Australia's last year.
National Party leader Don Brash said New Zealand was no longer drifting backward relative to other countries, but it was still not growing fast enough to close the gap.
The only way to do that was by increasing production - and that required a more skilled workforce, a bigger investment in primary school education, and getting people off the domestic purposes, sickness, invalid and unemployment benefits and back into work. [A more skilled workforce by investing in primary school education? Does Mr. Brash have some evil child labour camps in the early planning stages or something? Or is he then going on to say that our out of work are highly skilled? I'm confused. Or is Mr. Brash? Gee that'd be a surprise. Make some fucking sense man, you're trying to convince people you can run the country.]
One immediate change that could be made was overhauling the Resource Management Act, which was an obstacle to investment in New Zealand. [Or a bloody good Act that needs support and is doing quite nicely thankyou very much. The RMA and the politically correct movement. The two favourite punching bags of wankers NZ-wide.]
United Future leader Peter Dunne said other reports had already confirmed our poor cousin status - one showed that Australians were on average three times better off than their New Zealand counterparts.
"We haven't had a sufficiently strong focus in New Zealand on growing incomes. "What we've tended to look at is how we reduce costs in business. How we smooth off some of the rough edges." [Shit, I just agreed with Peter Dunne. I'm going to take a dump.]
So how to earn more money? Head overseas, Mr Alexander suggests. But a higher cost of living might be the tradeoff. Getting bolshier with the boss might be another option. New Zealand had a generally "acquiescent" work force.
"I think that one explanation for generally low wage growth in the past 10 years is the work force not demanding it – probably because of the memories of really high unemployment in New Zealand. It was pretty bad in the early 90s and late 80s in New Zealand. So I think there's a hangover from that which has made people reluctant to chase after the big money. We have preferred job security." [Not me mate, I've been in Korea saving plenty in part time teaching gigs along with 15,000+ other weygookeuns.]
But with a tightening labour market, that would change.
NZ pay 'falling behind'
14 January 2005
By TRACY WATKINS
If you resolved on New Year's Eve to earn more money in 2005 you were probably not alone.
A new survey by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development has confirmed what most Kiwis probably already know - we are a "low middle income" country, despite the booming economy. We rank alongside the residents of Spain, Israel, Cyprus, Greece, Portugal, Slovenia, Korea [only difference is tax is 8% on an average annual salary here], Malta, the Czech Republic and Hungary.
Australians are ranked as high middle income earners, rubbing shoulders with the residents of countries we might normally compare ourselves to - including Canada, Britain, France, Sweden, Italy, Denmark and Austria.
BNZ chief economist Tony Alexander said New Zealand slipped badly behind in the economic stakes between the early 1970s and early 1990s and catching up will be a process that takes decades.
On the surface, New Zealanders aren't doing without. Kiwis seem happy to go into debt for the luxury items that their counterparts in richer nations have, Mr Alexander said. "Hence New Zealand having the worst savings rate in the OECD at minus 10 per cent."
But as a country we were missing out on better health care, education and infrastructure because of our lower tax base, he said. [That's right, you've got the poor masses earning sod all so paying sod all tax, and then you've got the rich folk avoiding and evading tax. It's no wonder the guvment is coming up with bizarre gimmicks about giving the Tsunami struck countries donations based on runs scored in a bloody cricket match. Surely they should be giving every cent they calculate they can afford and leave the silly bugger games to all our broke corporates out there that are hiding under their beach umbrellas on east coast beaches].
Government duty minister Mark Burton said yesterday the figures were only current to 2002 and the economy had grown strongly since. Growth was faster than Australia's last year.
National Party leader Don Brash said New Zealand was no longer drifting backward relative to other countries, but it was still not growing fast enough to close the gap.
The only way to do that was by increasing production - and that required a more skilled workforce, a bigger investment in primary school education, and getting people off the domestic purposes, sickness, invalid and unemployment benefits and back into work. [A more skilled workforce by investing in primary school education? Does Mr. Brash have some evil child labour camps in the early planning stages or something? Or is he then going on to say that our out of work are highly skilled? I'm confused. Or is Mr. Brash? Gee that'd be a surprise. Make some fucking sense man, you're trying to convince people you can run the country.]
One immediate change that could be made was overhauling the Resource Management Act, which was an obstacle to investment in New Zealand. [Or a bloody good Act that needs support and is doing quite nicely thankyou very much. The RMA and the politically correct movement. The two favourite punching bags of wankers NZ-wide.]
United Future leader Peter Dunne said other reports had already confirmed our poor cousin status - one showed that Australians were on average three times better off than their New Zealand counterparts.
"We haven't had a sufficiently strong focus in New Zealand on growing incomes. "What we've tended to look at is how we reduce costs in business. How we smooth off some of the rough edges." [Shit, I just agreed with Peter Dunne. I'm going to take a dump.]
So how to earn more money? Head overseas, Mr Alexander suggests. But a higher cost of living might be the tradeoff. Getting bolshier with the boss might be another option. New Zealand had a generally "acquiescent" work force.
"I think that one explanation for generally low wage growth in the past 10 years is the work force not demanding it – probably because of the memories of really high unemployment in New Zealand. It was pretty bad in the early 90s and late 80s in New Zealand. So I think there's a hangover from that which has made people reluctant to chase after the big money. We have preferred job security." [Not me mate, I've been in Korea saving plenty in part time teaching gigs along with 15,000+ other weygookeuns.]
But with a tightening labour market, that would change.
Comments:
As there is no "push this button" solution, the first step taken should be to ensure that the money that you do earn goes further. Mans gotta eat, so that's where it should start. No GST on whole foods. Fruit, vegetables, meat and milk.
# posted by 
: 15 January 2005 at 09:57
: 15 January 2005 at 09:57
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