Taking Control back

Three years of passing laws that suit the few at the expense of the many is the legacy of this National led mixture of strange bed fellows. The Hobbits episode, where labour laws were changed to suit almost bankrupt Warner Brother’s demands for compliant workers and a bigger subsidy was but one example. This almost criminal behaviour rushed in under urgency in the dead of the night typifies the arrogance of the Nats and their coalition of the willing, Act and the Maori Party and side swapping expert Peter Dunne.

Back in 2001 Andrew Greeley wrote:

·         “It should be no surprise that when rich men take control of the government, they pass laws that are favorable to themselves. The surprise is that those who are not rich vote for such people, even though they should know from bitter experience that the rich will continue to rip off the rest of us”.

This strange mixture of Act Party nutters, Maori Party bed mates and political prostitute Peter Dunne have made some weird choices and passed some laws that prove the validity of the quotation of Greeley. The increase of GST favoured the few, The massive downward tax changes for the rich favoured the few, the massive bale out of South Canterbury finance favoured the few, the massive increase in roading spending at the expense of public transport favoured the few, the gifting of 42 million to Mediaworks by Steven Joyce favoured the few and the latest effort of subsidizing our biggest polluters favoured the few.

While all this rewarding of the haves was taking place, unemployment has boomed and wages restrained all in the name of the world melt down which was caused by the very people passing these one sided laws.

Why do we put up with this? Is it because we want to be like America where crooks are rewarded…may be we should open our eyes and look at what the USA is really like. This is the latest info on poverty in the USA:

·         “The new Census data reveals that a stunning 46.2 million Americans, 15.1% of the population, lived in poverty in 2010. This is an increase of 2.6 million people since 2009. While these are staggering statistics that represent the highest number of American people to ever live in poverty, and a dramatic year-over-year increase, it significantly undercounts the total. The Census Bureau poverty rate is a highly flawed measurement that uses outdated methodology…. We can estimate that at least 56 million Americans, roughly 18.5% of the population, lived in poverty in 2010 according to NAS methodology, approximately 10 million more than the Census Bureau is reporting.”

Copying the Americans is like committing suicide…and believing in the tooth fairy.