What would it take for you to stay in NZ?

[Zapf]

BUT DO PLEASE TELL ME WHY YOU CHOOSE TO REMAIN IN NZ (IF APPLICABLE).

Funny you say that. I am planning on going overseas Jan / Feb 08.

[devnull]

Best way to decide is find out for yourself - get out there and see some of the world.

I've worked here, Oz & the US. Each place has its good and bad points

I like NZ for the hunting & fishing, plus, of course, our families are here.
But, as you get older, other things have a higher priority. So we're looking very seriously at moving to Oz for the sake of the kids (better health, education, etc).

If they can sort out education, health, law & order, then NZ would be first choice. But that'd involve some fairly major social upheavals that I don't think will happen

[inlinefour]

I clocked up a rather big student loan and thought about buggering off in an attempt to repay it quicker. Then I thought about spending a month up Corromandel living off the beach, once I finished my Ba of Nursing, but as it turned out neither actually happened. I honestly cannot say that there is anywhere that I would rather be and once I met the lady I'm with now, that just concreted my opinion of the place. Realistically, if the chap that started this thread was truely interested in bailing from NZ, he would. I looked into it and was surprised by how many jobs I was offerred. But the one job I applied for locally, I actually got. Tell you though, if I had come off my MX bike in many other countries overseas, I doubt that I would be alive to be doing anything about now. This just further solidifies my opinion that NZ is the best place in the world to be.

[Timber020]

I have lived and worked in AUS, the US and spent a month or so in Canada. (and have been back there in the last week)

Grass is always greener, if your looking at money then there are better opportunities to make more elsewhere, but then it can cost more to live elsewhere to, and not just financially. I found the racism, lazyness, arrogance and general backwardsness of people in Aus had a serious effect on my mental health(ie it really started to piss me off, a common thing I kept hearing was "now Im not racist but I hate blacks and gooks"). Their cops made the cops here look like hardworking saintly samaritans.

The money in Aus was better than here, but then they taxed us heavier, sometimes up to 49% from memory. It sometimes got to the stage that if you did to much overtime it actually caused you to earn less for working more. And if you think health and education isnt so hot here, the US looks third world unless you have the money to open doors.

Up to you, there are still plenty of opportunities in this country, you just have to stand up and work for them. Or perhaps you have to get outside NZ to see how good it is.

[Wolf]

If they can sort out education, health, law & order, then NZ would be first choice. But that'd involve some fairly major social upheavals that I don't think will happen

It won't.

Not if those of us who are here don't make it happen.

It is said "you get the government you deserve".

Perhaps, instead of saying "NZ's fucked, I'm going to emigrate" we should, as a people, make it known that we've had enough of the "rotating dictatorship" of Labour/National aided and abetted by Winston I'll-suck-up-to-whomever-gives-me-the-best-paying-job Peters and his troupe of ventriloquist dummies and vote the pricks out.

It's up to us to pressure our MPs into giving us what we want or refuse to vote for them.

Don't like the law, the health system and our schooling? News flash, nor do I - and I've got three, soon to be four, kids to think of. So we take matters into our own hands and work to change it.

We're being fucked because we as a nation choose to roll over and drop our daks. It's impossible to be swindled by anyone other than yourself; every conman needs a willing sucker and the way to avoid being shafted by conmen is to not buy into the bullshit.

I get tired of the whinges about how much the current Labour govt has fucked this country and turned it into a "nanny state" when the National Party supports the same policies and has done just as much in its time to achieve the same results. And we all know that NZ First will toe the party line of either of those two and that the Greens would have us all eating mung beans and lentils by candle light and cycling to work "for our own good".

Time for us as a people to get rid of them at the polls in exchange for any party or party member (we can form a largely custom-made govt out of MPs that will do our bidding rather than party-faithful puppets, remember?) that'll give us what we, as a people, want.

So ffs get out there, talk to the candidates, read the manifestos and vote for those who stand for a suitable legal system, better health and education etc etc.

Can't change NZ when voting in the Aussie or UK elections.

[Wolf]

Tell you though, if I had come off my MX bike in many other countries overseas, I doubt that I would be alive to be doing anything about now.

On the XT225 forum, the owner posted a tale of one of his mates who had a minor accident at a bike rally but bashed his brain quite hard. The hospital assumed he was not insured (he was quite well insured) and gave him fuck all treatment and bunged him in the basement with the other "deadbeats". As he was seriously injured he was unable to state his insurance status and got shit-all service.

If you'd been in the States, there's a good chance you'd be dead now.

The guy is slowly coming right but he would have benefited immensely from proper health care - as he would have been given here (or given there if they hadn't just assumed he was uninsured)

[MaxB]

For mine Davereids post sums up how things are in NZ right now.

You ask 'BUT DO PLEASE TELL ME WHY YOU CHOOSE TO REMAIN IN NZ (IF APPLICABLE)'.

I have spent about half my life overseas, mainly in Europe. I'm married with kids and a house. One of the lucky ones maybe? It is not one thing that makes you stay but heaps of little things that add up. Like the kindness of strangers or the way people help each other out if they can. Kiwis generally are not brought up to hate others. Also there isn't much of a class system like there is in other countries. In other posts I've mentioned I was on expenses for my old job. I could bowl up on the bike to just about any hotel in the country wet and dirty from the days ride and I got treated like anyone else. I tried that in Europe a few times and got refused service more than once. I ended up leaving the bike behind.

I could go on about the great outdoors, great for raising kids blah, blah but I reckon you need to leave enzed to appreciate it when you come back. Root some of their women, drink some of their beer and earn some of their euros and come back with a new lease on life. Good Luck.

[Macstar]

When, and how much??

No plans yet mate... I'd put it on KB first before TM.

[Finn]

Just off the top of my head...

1. Get rid of this Government
2. Scrap MMP
3. Tear up the Treaty
4. Sell off all state assets apart from public land and privatise the fuck out of the place
5. Make NZ the tax haven of the South Pacific
6. One Council per State (yes I said State) and make the fuckers accountable for once
7. Scrap Resource Consent (It's our fucken country)
8. Dig up all the roads and start again. Do it properly this time and go left hand drive.
9. Negotiate trade agreements with every developed nation
10. Go nuclear
11. Free and open access to ALL public land
12. Educate the fuck out of people with REAL, USABLE education.
13. No skills, no enter our country
14. Create a real military force
15. Lower personal & business tax to a flat rate of 10%. 0% for overseas investors. (Keep GST as it is - user pay) GST money goes directly back into the state that produces it.
16. Ban Shortland St.
17. Ban Unions and abolish the Employment Contracts Act
18. Totally reform our justice system.
19. Make welfare available only for the REALLY, REALLY needy.
20. Ban cats. Pointless bloody things.

Easy.

[Curious_AJ]

1 billion dollars.... *pinky to corner of mouth*

[Finn]

1 billion dollars.... *pinky to corner of mouth*

Yes AJ, but would it make you any happier?

[onearmedbandit]

Just off the top of my head...

1. Get rid of this Government
2. Scrap MMP
3. Tear up the Treaty
4. Sell off all state assets apart from public land and privatise the fuck out of the place
5. Make NZ the tax haven of the South Pacific
6. One Council per State (yes I said State) and make the fuckers accountable for once
7. Scrap Resource Consent (It's our fucken country)
8. Dig up all the roads and start again. Do it properly this time and go left hand drive.
9. Negotiate trade agreements with every developed nation
10. Go nuclear
11. Free and open access to ALL public land
12. Educate the fuck out of people with REAL, USABLE education.
13. No skills, no enter our country
14. Create a real military force
15. Lower personal & business tax to a flat rate of 10%. 0% for overseas investors. (Keep GST as it is - user pay) GST money goes directly back into the state that produces it.
16. Ban Shortland St.
17. Ban Unions and abolish the Employment Contracts Act
18. Totally reform our justice system.
19. Make welfare available only for the REALLY, REALLY needy.
20. Ban cats. Pointless bloody things.

Easy.

Keep it coming. Music to my ears.

[The Lone Rider]

You've left out that NZers currently are considered to accept being in debt more then they should - ie.. getting everything on finance when they dont have the money

I think it also has a lot to do with parents in terms of student loans. Yes, some of it can be extremely expensive but I think it's also part of a parents job to put money aside to pay for a good deal of the education needed for a good job. Bun in the oven, some money in the bank every week from then on. $10 a week for 18 years gives you a good $10000 grand towards it- that'd cover a year or two at poly eh. Most people drink and smoke way more then $10 a week.

[Wiki Drifter]

I'm in my 20's too (27) and one of he reasons I'm working for a multi-national at the moment is so I can go overseas to work.

We'll rent out the house, go, earn some decent coin, and probably come back.

NZ, for all it's faults, is home.

Same situation here, hopefully I could piss off overseas in the near future whilst working for my current employer. Its not a matter of the grass is greener for me, but its the need to live in a different environment for a while. Auckland / NZ gets pretty F-ing mundane after spending most of your life here..

[Curious_AJ]

Yes AJ, but would it make you any happier?

I'd get a vehicle. then just ride/drive/sail around.

it would make me happier. I'd be further away from things.


but im not talking about this here. so this is the end of this.