Entry 1218, on 2010-09-01 at 21:40:24 (Rating 5, Politics)
We shouldn't expect the government to offer better pay to it's employees during a recession, should we? I mean, even if they wanted to they would be prevented from doing it by the principles of good financial management and if the money isn't there then they can't use it, can they?
So isn't it unrealistic for some of New Zealand's medical professionals to recently have gone on strike and isn't it irresponsible for teachers to be planning to do the same in the near future? After all the government hasn't got billions to throw around has it? Wait a minute... Yes it has! Strangely, even though the government says it doesn't have the cash to give hospital staff and teachers a fairly moderate increase (about equivalent to inflation) they do have almost $2 billion to rescue a failed private finance company.
So any claims that the money isn't there are clearly lies. Well maybe they aren't lies now because after paying out the equivalent of $400 for every person in the country to help a few farmers and business owners (who are very likely already fairly well off financially) they probably haven't got anything left for the people they are supposed to be responsible for, like teachers.
So who can blame workers going on strike when the government acts so grossly unfairly? I know that it's the patients from the hospitals who suffer and the students and parents of the schools who are directly affected but I hope this can be managed effectively so those people know it's our useless government who are ultimately to blame.
I am aware of the argument that South Canterbury Finance was involved with so much of the community in that area that allowing to to fail would have meant disaster for the local, and possibly the national, economy, but in the end it's just another case of the private sector getting all the rewards but being shielded from its own incompetence. And it's the rest of us who have to pay. I always thought business people got the big financial rewards because they took the risks, but if they get rescued by the government where is the real risk?
So the people's health and education has to suffer because of yet another failure of capitalism and the (so called) free market (which actually doesn't exist anywhere in the world because it's always a total failure). Maybe the National government's agenda is starting to become more apparent now. I think it's unrealistic to think they will be voted out at the next election but I can only hope they won't survive too much longer after that because the country will suffer, especially with some of the gross incompetents currently in charge like that awful minister of education, Anne Tolley (every time she opens her mouth she just confirms what a moron she really is).
So the best thing that could come from this debacle is it could work against the government and show people that business is not the great answer to all our problems (in fact it's the cause of most of them). Still, people never seem to learn from their mistakes or right wing governments would almost never be in power in the first place.
Comment 1 by Jim on 2010-09-08 at 17:08:36:
So no surprises here. OJB doesn't seem to like the National government much as shown by the nasty ad hominem attack against the Minister of Education. What's that all about? Let's attack the issues, not the person!
Comment 2 by OJB on 2010-09-09 at 09:29:26:
Yeah sure, I know all about ad hominems. But there is a point where a person does so many stupid things and makes so many ridiculous statements that their credibility is gone. At that point it's a bit more justificable to dismiss their opinion. I admit in an ideal world we wouldn't do that though.
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