Poll: Who's going to win on Saturday?

[MikeL]

Oh, lah de dah. You're one of those dope-smoking goatee-wearing peaceniks that go on about the validity of everyone's opinions? Yawn. Go form a committee and carry out a surgically-precise drop of strongly worded leaflets, you oxygen-wasting irrelevance.

Sometimes social ideals and the people who hold them are just wrong, dumb and ripe for a good old genocidal cleanup. Deal with it.

Should I dignify this with a reply? As an oxygen-wasting irrelevance it's hard to see what I could hope to achieve. Logic and reason would be futile, considering that his whole post is a non-sequitur. I could try irony but it would pass over his head at considerable altitude. Sarcasm would be unsatisfying: the word literally means "flesh-tearing" and in the case of this fish the flesh would have the same consistency as his logic: flaky.
An appeal to common human decency is ruled out on obvious grounds.
That rules out just about everything I could say.
I think I'll just roll myself another joint and go back to mending my sandals.

[SPman]

Got room on the front bench for another spectator? I've ordered in the beer, keep an eye out for the hotdog guy.

Yeah, I'll shuffle over a bit - I'll have a Speights, thanks, mate!

[froggyfrenchman]

Who knows, who cares!

[Hitcher]

Should I dignify this with a reply? As an oxygen-wasting irrelevance it's hard to see what I could hope to achieve. Logic and reason would be futile, considering that his whole post is a non-sequitur. I could try irony but it would pass over his head at considerable altitude. Sarcasm would be unsatisfying: the word literally means "flesh-tearing" and in the case of this fish the flesh would have the same consistency as his logic: flaky.
An appeal to common human decency is ruled out on obvious grounds.
That rules out just about everything I could say.
I think I'll just roll myself another joint and go back to mending my sandals.

Fifteen all...

[Indiana_Jones]

10:16 the night before the election. I donno who to vote for. Act or national? lol

-Indy

[oldrider]

My view of the election results for Saturday:

The left wing
Labour
Greens
Progressive

Center
National (largest party)

Right wing
Nill

Fence Sitters
United Future
Maori
NZ 1st

Labour, Greens, Progressive. Coalition, supported by the fence sitters IE: The Government

National opposition with modest support from the fence sitters.

More real taxpayers will probably leave the country leaving the pretend taxpayers supporting a bankrupt country full of unsupported beneficiaries. God defend New Zealand, because we wont be able to do it ourselves. Cheers John.

[MikeL]

More real taxpayers will probably leave the country leaving the pretend taxpayers supporting a bankrupt country full of unsupported beneficiaries. God defend New Zealand, because we wont be able to do it ourselves. Cheers John.

This seems to be a commonly-held view, yet those who hold it are not often able to support it with concrete evidence, relying on hearsay, gut-feeling, limited personal experience...
The idea that we are grossly over-taxed and supporting a vast contingent of benefit-bludgers needs to be subjected to some rational scrutiny, including international comparisons and some relevant statistics. I find it hard for instance to reconcile the fact of record-low unemployment with the "fact" of record-high dole bludgers...

As for the idea that people will desert N.Z. for countries where they pay less tax, those who take such a limited view of what this country is all about are welcome to exercise their freedom to relocate to Oz. To paraphrase the well-known saying, it will increase the average intellect and level of culture on both sides of the Tasman, and leave more room for the rest of us to enjoy the non-economic benefits of living here. When the rest of the world cottons on to the fact that there is more to life than constant consumption and economic growth, they will be queuing up to come here, and those who deserted what they saw as a sinking ship may find they have lost their opportunity to secure a corner of what still remains a small paradise.

[froggyfrenchman]

well off to vote... eeny meeny miny... fuck it just tick a box

[Wolf]

Scarely "most of his life" - two years hard labour , in fact.

And Vicky was rather notoriously randy (and complained loudly if Albert was away from home for too long).

Reason that female homosexuality was not illegal was much simpler (and more practical). 'Twas that homosexuality was not illegal (never was, since the middle ages at any rate). Sodomy, however, was, as was indecency. Since female homosexuals could not commit sodomy (or, at any rate the legislators' imagination was not equal to the task of imagining a way), and since they could not think of a way of defining in law what they DID do, it was decided by all parties to gloss over the matter. And especially since lesbian activity was hardly likely to affect discipline in the forces -which was what they were mainly worried about - (and , judging on the stories coming out of the US armed forces today, perhaps not with out reason)

They were very well aware that it existed. Few indeed of the educated classes of the day would have been unaware of the history of Lesbos, or of whom it was for that "burning Sappho sung".

That's right, spoil my fun of slamming the Monarchy, especially the ugly trout-shaped ones...

[Oscar]

When the rest of the world cottons on to the fact that there is more to life than constant consumption and economic growth, they will be queuing up to come here, and those who deserted what they saw as a sinking ship may find they have lost their opportunity to secure a corner of what still remains a small paradise.

Ahhh, you appear to subscribe to Chairperson Fitzsimmons "Great Leap Backwards".

[Sniper]

Fuck, I don't really care. Anyone of those two will just fuck up NZ more than it is.

[Jamezo]

This seems to be a commonly-held view, yet those who hold it are not often able to support it with concrete evidence, relying on hearsay, gut-feeling, limited personal experience...
The idea that we are grossly over-taxed and supporting a vast contingent of benefit-bludgers needs to be subjected to some rational scrutiny, including international comparisons and some relevant statistics. I find it hard for instance to reconcile the fact of record-low unemployment with the "fact" of record-high dole bludgers...

As for the idea that people will desert N.Z. for countries where they pay less tax, those who take such a limited view of what this country is all about are welcome to exercise their freedom to relocate to Oz. To paraphrase the well-known saying, it will increase the average intellect and level of culture on both sides of the Tasman, and leave more room for the rest of us to enjoy the non-economic benefits of living here. When the rest of the world cottons on to the fact that there is more to life than constant consumption and economic growth, they will be queuing up to come here, and those who deserted what they saw as a sinking ship may find they have lost their opportunity to secure a corner of what still remains a small paradise.

seriously, MikeL for prez.....

it's a sad testament to the reasoning of our voters when they cannot look beyond a perceived shallow self-interest. the words that have resonated most strongly in me in the entire election campaign were those of dear old Jeannette:

"New Zealanders need to look up from their calculators, and see what kind of society we are building here"

National wants us to forget our common humanity, and lead us down the road of the United States: massive social inequality. I do not want to build that society, no matter how large the bribes we are offered for voting against humane society.

I found it interesting that the NZ media, which is largely responsible for setting the agenda of the elections, did not bring up one issue about a greater social malaise facing our country. namely, that while incomes in real terms have remained stagnant for New Zealanders over the past decade, those in the executive and capitalist sectors have seen their relative incomes rise over 200%.

no doubt if it were raised, the response of the Right would be to cut taxes, dampening the blow to social equality (at least initially....), but it hasn't even been mentioned. does this show how closely aligned the media is to existing power structures?

[Oscar]

I found it interesting that the NZ media, which is largely responsible for setting the agenda of the elections, did not bring up one issue about a greater social malaise facing our country. namely, that while incomes in real terms have remained stagnant for New Zealanders over the past decade, those in the executive and capitalist sectors have seen their relative incomes rise over 200%.

I find it interesting that you would quote that figure with nothing to back it up.

I call bullshit.

[oldrider]

This seems to be a commonly-held view, yet those who hold it are not often able to support it with concrete evidence, relying on hearsay, gut-feeling, limited personal experience...
The idea that we are grossly over-taxed and supporting a vast contingent of benefit-bludgers needs to be subjected to some rational scrutiny, including international comparisons and some relevant statistics. I find it hard for instance to reconcile the fact of record-low unemployment with the "fact" of record-high dole bludgers...

I am a beneficiary if you like. (pensioner) There is a very large growing number of people following in my footsteps (baby boomers) that will have to be supported under the present scheme. This has been a hot topic over the past few years. If too many "earners" leave the country the ability to support the current beneficiaries plus the increasing numbers will become stretched to say the least. That is the basis of my comment including all of the above. Cheers John.

[MikeL]

I am a beneficiary if you like. (pensioner) There is a very large growing number of people following in my footsteps (baby boomers) that will have to be supported under the present scheme. This has been a hot topic over the past few years. If too many "earners" leave the country the ability to support the current beneficiaries plus the increasing numbers will become stretched to say the least. That is the basis of my comment including all of the above. Cheers John.

That is a valid point. The phenomenon is not confined to NZ, of course, and other western countries are facing similar demographic trends. Since I'm not an economist I don't have a thorough understanding of all the factors involved, but I'm not convinced that the only solution is to artificially maintain economic growth through indiscriminate immigration, which seems to me to be a cure worse than the disease...