Omg, I had no idea. Yikes!

but Peter [redacted text] so could have some insights that might be of interest to David

What is the redacted text?? “owns a spy network” “has assassinated several people”… “is a connisseur of snapchat”???

We don’t have one right now and are enough people currently getting helped in those ways?

Definitely not. Which I keep seeing as scarcity, whereas it’s actually a result of priorities.

Having this conversation makes me feel a bit ashamed as I’m realising I’ve been brainwashed over the years by internalising what Work and Income and Ministry of Health keep telling me.

Thanks for being patient in your explanation!

I think you are right. It’s bizarre the number of US “culture war” talking points and polarizations seem to be creeping in. I think the other thing is probably a huge number of New Zealanders now have spent their entire lives in the neoliberal economic paradigm and it’s hard for them to imagine alternatives to things like SOEs and revenue-driven media.

but we don’t have one now and is the Govt helping you right now?

I’m not sure I understand what you mean by this question. It feels rhetorical but I’m not sure what conclusion I’m intended to come to? The answer is in some ways and not in others.

One of my parents was very fond of that proverb. <3 Literally as well as metaphorically.

I meant more I have a mindset in terms of society’s scarcity.

The messaging drilled into me is always that the government can’t afford to give us all the things we need. So when people say the government should give everyone, say, a UBI, part of me panics thinking at that rate the day when the government decides it can, say, finally afford to help people like me to get a wheelchair, or help the homeless people up the road get shelter, or cut hospital wait times to under 12 months, will never come because all the money will go to UBIs.

But that’s a false dichotomy.

They’ve spent more money administering it than actually providing

I get the impression this happens a fair bit with change to social programmes that is designed to send project an ideology. Sometimes it almost feels like there are two NZs, one that wants to help everyone become a prosperous society and one that wants to not have social support at all.

Oh, yeah I agree with the gist of this. I think you are right. In our legal system we have the principle that jailing innocent people is worse than accidentally letting a guilty one go unpunished, and I really wish we could apply that same logic to social programmes.

The kind of witch hunting that goes on mostly affects and hurts those in need.

I think my problem is I have a mindset of scarcity and should probably study macroeconomics or something.

Idk I’m in two minds about that. When I was at university I knew plenty of people who were living rent-free in their parents’ houses. One guy was even having his mum cook meals and do laundry.

Whereas I was just out there by myself, so without an allowance my loans would have had even more of a chilling effect. In practice most suggestions for a UBI seem to involve lowering the amount poor people get. I guess the devil’s in the details.

If I were in charge I’d make tertiary free instead.

The procedure is homelessness.

Seriously though I remember for student allowances, when I was studying there were circumstances in which you could apply for a parent not to be counted (serious estrangement for example) so it actually wasn’t as unfair as it seemed.

I wouldn’t be surprised if all that has fallen by the wayside though.

larva

So most likely a maggot or a moth caterpillar? My money’s on maggot.

This lunch saga was already Kafkaesque without bringing in an actual insect.

That’s by Ian Wishart. He’s a conservative christian climate change denier who runs a dodgy conspiracy magazine called Investigate which runs allegations about things like Muslim terrorists infiltrating NZ.

In other words you should probably independently verify all claims and images before believing them.

I wish social policy were driven by results and best practice instead of these weird ideological gestures.

Me too, especially the undemocratic stuff, e.g. this bill’s having David Seymour pick a board of people who property developers etc can complain to about NZ’s existing laws.

Tldr it seeks to enshrine Libertarian principles in how laws are made in NZ, including retrospectively. So it’s a constitutional change.

Here’s a good article explaining how its focus on protecting wealth and property would make it much harder to have any legislation that promotes social good or benefits the environment.

And here is a Maori perspective on how it prevents lawmakers from taking Te Tiriti into consideration.

It’s been around - and rejected - for years, having been first proposed by Roger Douglas. The fact that National agreed to make a worse version of it law is quite weird.

Tldr it seeks to enshrine Libertarian principles in how laws are made in NZ, including retrospectively. So it’s a constitutional change.

Here’s a good article explaining how its focus on protecting wealth and property would make it much harder to have any legislation that promotes social good or benefits the environment.

Elon is always what he claims to destroy.

Everything from bot use on Twitter to the carbon fuel use.

I think this is an important point that needs more coverage:

Many submitters were more worried about how the Regulatory Standards Bill would impact Treaty obligations than the Treaty principles bill.

As I understand it, the Treaty bill is a sideshow and the Regulatory Standards Bill is where the actual damage is quietly being done.

The housing crisis is unfortunately a feature not a bug.

New Zealanders are overcapitalized into housing so any real drop will hurt middle-class wealth. This is probably why everyone treats CGT as some crazy idea that will make a party un-electable, rather than a normal tax in most of the OECD.

Makes sense. I would think that would exclude those sticky roll up things too.

Microplastic and saturated fats, lunch of champions. /s

I guess dried fruit is way more sugary than fruit fruit?

Idk, anything for novelty? If another kid gets chips or roll ups a lot they might want a marmite sandwich?

Yeah chips weren’t the norm at my primary either. Sandwiches, fruit, those mini packets of cinderella raisins. The technology of lunch has moved at a clipping pace by the sounds of some of the recipes in here.