The Current Direction of New Zealand - (aka Political Thread)

[CRX_VTiR]

^^^
I love his black power pictures! I only wish that our not so organised criminals still looked like non-speaking extras in Shaft!

[David R]

Originally Posted by Baxter

Seriously though, no point in debating it - if you're unlucky you'll see my predictions come true. Just off the top of my head, if National wins: -Private health insurance will become all but expected

I could argue most of your points, but this one will do. Is private health insurance already not pretty much a must-have for anyone earning more than the minimum wage and who actually gives a damn? Do you have it Baxter? Or do you have faith and rely solely on the public health system provided by aunty helen?

I'll set up a poll just for interests sake eh...

Originally Posted by Baxter

I'll throw in an extra tenner that says I'll personally be redundant within 2 years...

Do you work for SPARC or some other wasteful government department??

[CRX_VTiR]

Originally Posted by David R

Do you work for SPARC or some other wasteful government department??

I take it you're not a Krumping fan?

[BWDOWN]

I agree with DavidR I mean public healthcare in this country would be one of the worst in the third world..

I think the reason baxter will be redundent in 2 years is the reason he doesnt like National... Get another job already then...

[Soichiro]

Baxter, I'm not going to take your bet for the simple reason that it'll be years before Labours mess can be sorted out even if National does get in, let alone the further chaos they'll cause if they do another term. So what you're predicting is really pretty safe.

My issue with Labour is not specifically because they're Labour, after all I come from a Union era (Trade, not Civil), just that they're incompetent. Keys might surprise everyone and actually get some sense up there, IMHO it's worth a shot because things can't be worse.

And to anyone who wants to accuse me of being a hater, who was it took on Nationals Lockwood Smith about the student loan system and not only cost him his job as Education Minister but got a better deal that what it would have been? That's right. Me.

Guess I do have some political morals after all.

Peace and harmony

[Baxter]

Originally Posted by BWDOWN

I agree with DavidR I mean public healthcare in this country would be one of the worst in the third world..

I think the reason baxter will be redundent in 2 years is the reason he doesnt like National... Get another job already then...

If you really think NZ has bad or 3rd world healthcare that shows that you haven't actually lived overseas, and have no idea what your talking about. Probably just regurgitating National's mdia releases.

No our system isn't perfect (none ever will be), but it's actually better than most. My father's a very high up surgeon in the UK (and a very staunch National voter ever since I can remember btw) and even he'll happily say public health systems are pretty good.

Though he'll also agree that both National & Labour have screwed our set-up though (and hence healthcare is alread the norm for some, which is what I think is more what DavidR was actually saying btw). And that is indeed true - but the direction National wants to keep going down is the same as the USA - and there's no way you'd want that here.

He was back here in the early '90s and was offered a significant promotion, but seeing what National had in plan he went back to the UK literally because it was so bad.

Have a look at the world's top healthcare rankings see what they do, and you'll see both Labour and National are wrong, but National are more wrong by far... The cost of healthcare will increase more under National, while quality drops.

That might be fine and dandy for those rich ehough to afford health insurance (and fiy DavidR, no I do not have health insurance - actually I use to sell it and it's mostly a big rip-off - to you if you are). But just wait untill you have an accident far away from the flash hospitals and discover that that life-saving piece of equipment just isn't there... Game over, plain and simple.



Again, if you have faith in National's policies - take my bet and bet that under National wages will increase, unemployment will drop, crime will drop, etc...

[Soichiro]

Anyway after reading these threads and some of the stuff I post, even I'm starting to agree with what others have said - politics is boring. Seriously, I just can't be bothered any more and it makes no real difference.

I suggest posting all their pictures on a wall and throwing a dart, or just vote for your favourite wanker. They're gonna screw us regardless

Lets just get on with life

[Baxter]

Originally Posted by Soichiro

I suggest posting all their pictures on a wall and throwing a dart, or just vote for your favourite wanker. They're gonna screw us regardless

Well, we'll largely agree on that.

Originally Posted by Soichiro

Lets just get on with life

But that's just not a logical follow up. Politics controls your life, it controls mortgage and unemployment rates, boy racer laws, renting laws, university fees, tax rates, WOF standards, etc.

You can't really just "get on with it" and not regard politics unless you have your head in the ground, or unless you simply don't give a toss (in which case stop whining about things ).



Anyway, I'm off to to make the most of my day off to fix the Niva's overly zealous WOF defects...

[Dionysus]

Originally Posted by Soichiro

Anyway after reading these threads and some of the stuff I post, even I'm starting to agree with what others have said - politics is boring. Seriously, I just can't be bothered any more and it makes no real difference.

I suggest posting all their pictures on a wall and throwing a dart, or just vote for your favourite wanker. They're gonna screw us regardless

Lets just get on with life

Does no one else just vote for the pretty colours and unusual sounding names?

[Soichiro]

Originally Posted by Dionysus

Does no one else just vote for the pretty colours and unusual sounding names?

Now there's an idea...

True Baxter, but I was thinking more of this

I love those little things...

[David R]

Originally Posted by Baxter

That might be fine and dandy for those rich ehough to afford health insurance (and fiy DavidR, no I do not have health insurance - actually I use to sell it and it's mostly a big rip-off - to you if you are).

HA! If you think private health care is a rip off, wait til you have to try to lodge a claim with ACC!! My mother broke her heel just over 12 months ago (she's a 62 year old school teacher BTW) and is still unable to stand for a whole day in front of a classroom (but she is back 1-2 days a week trying to make a go of it, if half the country had her work ethic...). ACC have pissed away so much money on utterly useless things that I believe the sooner it is scrapped the better.
For example, something was not explained correctly to her and she spent weeks trying to claim for money she thought she was entitled to. The woman at the whangarei branch never set her straight and explained the situation. Instead, they set up a mediation, hired a meeting room, paid someone to spend the day driving up from auckland to mediate with them. In about 2 minutes flat she had discovered what hadn't been explained and that they weren't actually entitled to the money.
In another instance they were paying a woman to drive down from keri keri twice a week to meet with mum. They have also been looking at other forms of employment for her, such as re-training her to me a bank teller. WTF! Why would you try to re-train a 62 year old with little computer skills for a position like that, which still requires her to be standing for most of the day!

I doubt you would ever see such wastage and inefficiency from a private company who actually had to watch their bottom line. You say private health insurance is a rip off, well perhaps if we took ACC and their taxpayer-funded-monopoly out of the equasion the marketplace would be a whole lot more competitive.

As for your bet, I'm not going to accept it as although I believe a National-led government is a step in the right direction, I think it will take more than a couple of terms to really sort the country out and fix the mess labour has created over the past 9 years. And I'm also skeptical as to weather Key/National have the balls to really cut back on the excessive bureaucracy and p.c bullshit that has become so excessive in recent years.

[Baxter]

Yep no arguement DavidR, ACC certainly has problems (and they're problems with management and competence that can be fixed given the will; not a problem with the actual system) - but the US model is worse.
A lot worse. If you want to live somewhere you see people dying because they can't afford healthcare, feel free to move there...

But it's not just worse for those that can't afford health insurance!
I know you don't believe a word Mike Moore says, but check out Sicko - it follows several people with health insurance after the companies have basically stopped paying out.

I have a buddy who's an ambo in Australia, and believe me the difference between having insurance* and going to a good hospital and not having insurance and being dumped at a bad one and dying after a serious accident is quite real. F that.

I'd rather have a poorly managed ACC system than no system at all. Of course I'd prefer ACC to be improved dramatically, but given the choice between Labour's poorly managed ACC or National's nothing, poorly managed > nothing anyday.


* ps - when I said health insurance was largely a rip-off, obviouisly it's worth having for overseas travel though.



Soichiro, I though you had a CRX?
They're much the same to drive as a kart, and just as much fun. Now if we could only persuade they to allow the CRXs on the kart track...

[Soichiro]

Originally Posted by Baxter

Soichiro, I though you had a CRX?
They're much the same to drive as a kart, and just as much fun. Now if we could only persuade they to allow the CRXs on the kart track...

Nah have a EF Si Civic now, had this one for a year and a half that's a long time for me. Maybe one day... just as a project of course...