My thoughts from politics to housework

What is the point of privatization if the government is going to bail them out when they get into trouble? Does this mean that we get a share of the profits when they make them?

Rachel got me thinking about the link to rising the minimum wage and an increase in unemployment. In theory this is correct but I did my research and found that between 1999 and 2008 unemployment fell as shown on this graph . However the minimum wage went up 70%! Prior to this when National was in power the minimum wage only went up 14% over 9 years and unemployment was a lot higher in those 9 years than the next 9 years that followed. Now you can see the trend of the unemployment rate increasing again is history doomed to repeat itself? or will people wake up and learn from the mistakes of the past I guess time will tell.

Here is an interesting fact straight from the EQC web site

• In another year of volatile investment markets, the Natural Disaster Fund grew by $355 million during the year. The increase of 6.4 percent saw the Fund reach $5.93 billion at balance date.

And that is from the 2009-2010 annual report. Why is labour not making any noise about this money? Even though the first quake cost $1.5 billion this still leaves a considerable amount left in the fund. Have a look at this link from the New Zealand herald and what Bill English said just one day after the February earthquake http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10708149 and what about the part of our rates that is put aside for Emergency Services and Democratic Responsibility could these not be put towards the rebuild of Christchurch?

My mother has this friend a really nice lady who shall remain nameless because I am about to reveal her hourly rate. She works in the mental health field, some would say that she has personal experience lol! Here’s the thing she is only getting payed $13 p/h can you believe it! Now she is a single woman with no other income i.e no boy friend/husband/live in lover to help out with the costs. She’s not a stupid woman by any means as she has done several papers through the university of otago in counseling and passed with flying colours and she even did them through distance learning. Now her boss wants her to do an additional course, at a cost to her of $10,000 dollars and at her stage of life, not that she is that old lets say she is somewhere in her 40’s is not a debt that she wants to take on especially with the government making noises about making changes to the scheme and I think we all know know what they mean by that (charge interest) and for what maybe an extra$1 an hour if she is lucky! So instead of giving these tax cuts and raising GST that I’m convinced now stands for government sponsored theft why did they not put the minim wage up to $15p/h and given a subsidy to all workplaces that would have been affected for around 6 months?  It would have stimulated our economy, brought us a step closer to Australia (remember that election promise?) and narrowed the wage gap between rich and poor. It could possibly reduce the amount of people who are reliant on help from WINZ another saving for the government. So if someone from the government happens to be reading this can you please explain why this would not work?

 

In response to Rachel’s earlier comment here is a quote straight from the department of labour web site

There are three minimum wage rates:

• the adult minimum wage applies to all employees aged 16 and over who are not new entrants or trainees
• the new entrants minimum wage applies to employees aged 16 and 17 except for those who have completed 200 hours or three months of employment, whichever is shorter; or who are supervising or training other workers; or who are trainees
• the training minimum wage applies to employees aged 16 and over who are doing recognised industry training involving at least 60 credits a year.

There is no statutory minimum wage for employees who are under 16 years old.

There is also job op’s:

Job Ops targets unskilled 16 to 24 year olds with low or no qualifications who have limited employment opportunities. It will pump $20 million into funding around 4000 entry-level jobs.

Also Job Ops will subsidise employers $5000 for each young person hired into an entry level position for six months. This consists of an upfront payment of $3000, with a further $2000 paid once the person has completed six months in the job.

These are all things targeted to help youth into the workforce and don’t get me wrong I don’t begrudge them the help that is being offered in fact I think the government should be offering more incentive to employers to take on employees. But why put an age cap on it? Why not make it in relation to skills? If you have limited skills in a field that you want to get into would it not be better to give a more attractive package to an employer to take on that person and train them with some on the job training as apposed to a fully qualified person? This would make things more evenly spread between age groups and would also act in upskilling our workforce?

 

 

I find my baby boy doing the most gorgeous things and then respond “oh your such a gorgeous baby.” My husband has recently told me that I shouldn’t do that because he will grow up thinking that he is gorgeous and he wants our son to be modest. He also says what if he gets a disfiguring scar? My response to this is that he’ll always be gorgeous to me. But where do we draw the line doesn’t everyone think that there baby is gorgeous and doesn’t everyone say something along these lines to there baby. I know that my husband says to Noa “your such a clever baby” and every parent thinks there child is clever and is it wrong that he grows up thinking that?

With so many children growing up doubting there abilities and wondering if there pretty enough, to skinny, to fat or just not smart enough should we all not be making our children feel good about themselves?

I was wondering who the happiest countries in the world were and what made the people happy. So I did what I always do when there is nothing good on TV (no not housework!) I googled “happy countries” and was shocked that the happiest country in the world is a welfare state and has most of its services free! The top tax rate is 72% and VAT (kind of like our GST) is 25% It also has one of the best public transport systems in the world and most of the people ride bikes so they must be really fit! The happiest country in the world is Denmark! Doesn’t this make you think? Everyone thinks that having money makes you happy but the people of Denmark are the happiest people in the world and all it takes is a government that cares about all of there citizens! NZ doesn’t even get a mention here is the link http://www.financialjesus.com/how-to-get-rich/top-10-happiest-countries/ for the top 10 happiest countries in the world.

Are you kidding me 45 Million dollars spent renovating government house. There must be more important things to spend the money on. The Christchurch quake for example or health, education or transport!

My baby boy Noa, is growing up so fast. He’s almost 4 months old and just last night I was thinking that it’s time to move him out of his bassinet into his cot. I keep thinking that I should move him into his own room too but keep using the excuse that I’m still sorting it out! When did everyone move there babies into there own room?

Cutting kiwi saver working for families and making changes to the student loan scheme These are all things that directly affect me and my family and most low to middle income families Why doesn’t John Key make some of the people who got over $100p/w in tax cuts give some or all of that money back oh that’s right he’s all for the rich and shitting on the little people. And what happened  to them pulling us out of this recession?

I’m usually a staunch Labour supporter but am finding it hard to vote for someone with as little charisma as Phil Goff. Is it just me or are other Labour supporters facing the same dilemma? I was thinking that Jim Anderson’s progressive party would be a good option I was looking at his web site http://www.progressive.org.nz/index.html and really like his dental policy. check it out and let me know what you think.