The odds seem to be stacked against those, like SkyCity, at the bottom of the corporate heap.
I've heard that children of SkyCity executives are turning up at their Auckland private schools without having had a decent cafe breakfast. At playtime the kids have to fill their bottles with tap water.
Even worse, Auckland's rising housing market has forced out some executives from Remuera and Herne Bay into nearby ghetto suburbs such as Meadowbank and Westmere, forcing their children to attend decile 9 schools.
The pain is not just being felt in Auckland.
I hear one or two large-scale dairy farmers have actually been forced to pay a bit of tax this year. The worst thing about corporate inequality is the social stigma that the "have nots" like SkyCity must endure.
When SkyCity politely asked the taxpayer for a top-up they were met with a FeroCity of criticism from Kiwis who couldn't believe the AudaCity of a massively wealthy corporation asking for a government SubCity.
But SkyCity is not just a business. As their television PubliCity shows, it is a community, charity and a business - employing people of different EthniCity - rolled into one.
SkyCity simply uses money it makes from gambling and bars to fund charities to help combat social evils like gambling addiction and alcoholism.
And Prime Minister John Key was dead right to warn New Zealanders that without the state top-up, the convention centre would be an eyesore, which will be rebranded as SkySore.
That's a pity because as any architect knows, some of the world's most beautiful buildings are convention centres.
That's why tourists flock to Guangzhou, Ottawa and Houston just to see them. Imagine Wellington without the gorgeous Winter Show Buildings, Queens Wharf Events Centre or Renouf Foyer in the Michael Fowler Centre.
Sadly, journalist Mike Hosking, who freely admits his previous commercial links with SkyCity in a disclaimer on his column, was the lone voice to demonstrate the public benefits of SkySore.
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Originally Posted by oldrider
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