Fantastic idea! I would be all for it, except for one thing; the arid place is full of bluidy Australians

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Yep! National will sell us down the creek!

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Optimist

I didn’t say it was easy and I didn’t say it wouldn’t hurt but there isn’t a fncking way in hell you are going to “attract investment” from overseas to “grow” this economy over the next few years.

If you build on the sands of credit whatever you build WILL collapse. “Growth at any cost” does not work in the long run. It works for debt based banking capitalism, but it doesn’t work for anyone else. Especially not on a planet that is already 20-50% over its sustainable carrying capacity.

You are wrong to say we have “no money”. We’ve been borrowing to buy overpriced fncking houses and shipping the interest overpayments to Oz as though it actually was a sane thing to do. That’s because that process makes money for the debt capitalism the banks love so well. We’ve borrowed to build stuff we didn’t need and we’ve failed utterly to build the society we did need but we’ve done better than most other countries on the planet simply because we AREN’T overpopulated…. yet, and we only have a few people who really enjoy pretentious wealth. Our GINI index is too high and we’re not really investing in ourselves very well, but there are a lot of places in worse shape.

When you have a spare planet to serve as a control we can experiment.

respectfully
BJ

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If he said ‘currency trader’, then it was probably to do with it being a risky business, wouldn’t you say? If he wanted ‘rich’ he could’ve just said ‘Key has a house in Hawai’i ‘ or something.

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> Building a strong economy here means investing OUR money here, and screw the rest of the world.

Without putting too fine a point on it, we don’t have any money. We have a current account deficit in the billions. Capital inflows have been going on for years.

Which is my point. We need to worry less about environmentalist scams and more about generating some serious wealth for us and future generations.

We need to mine all the coal we can find. drill for oil, and get some serious power generating running. The snails will just have to cope.

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# michaela Says:
October 22nd, 2008 at 3:07 pm

> Kahikatea

> You forgot to mention that he was initially trained & financed by the US

and Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction were supplied by the US too. Hold the presses, folks! I think we’ve found that missing connection between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden ofter all.

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I love Australia and have great Australian friends and family members too – but we aren’t Australian and wouldn’t be even if we tried.

For example, what BB describes as PC rubbish is (I think) the rather adult acceptance of the indigenous people as equals – in contrast to the uneasy situation in Oz where indigenous Australians are really at the bottom of the heap.

The situation around water is dire and not looking to get better.

A lot of farmland is unusable because of water shortage and salt pan both due to unsustainable farming practice.

Of course we should always have a good friendly relationship with Oz, but maintain our identity too.

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nommopilot

My sixteen year old thinks it is hilarious that we oldies (anybody over 30 is an “oldie” in his eyes) were taken in by the Y2K scam.
In 20 years time our kids will fall about laughing that this generation was so mind numbingly stupid to be taken in by the climate change con.

The will ask us “how come you guys did not speak out against this con, how come you let the socialists and communists wreck the economy in their naked lust for power”?

They will also ask how it was that NZ elected a corrupt Labour PM for nine years and how the Yanks were so stupid as to elect Obama…….. but thats another story.

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Kahikatea

wow, we get to kill Iraqis in retaliation for an attack carried out by a group of Saudis and Egyptians who met and planned their attack in Germany under the leadership of a Saudi man living in Afghanistan. that really makes sense!

You forgot to mention that he was initially trained & financed by the US

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“in 20 years time when all the stories have faded away our children will be much more worried about what we did about the economy”

they’ll be worried about all the messes we’re creating for them now, but in 40 to 60 to 100 years our descendents will certainly be more worried about our environment.

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Optimist –

Building a strong economy here means investing OUR money here, and screw the rest of the world. Which, oddly enough, is Green policy and agreed by National of all groups. It means being independent of energy imports and the resulting price instability. Our economic situation has little to do with the sins of environmentalism and everything to do with the distorted version of capitalism that was practiced here and perfected in most of the rest of the world Which rather explains the perfect storm of economic difficulties it currently is experiencing.

respectfully
BJ

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Re Mexico – a very poor country next to a very rich one. About 10% of their population now lives in the USA, and 1 in every 7 workers migrates there.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/05/21/MNGFQIVNAF1.DTL

We have a similar situation with Aus, although not yet as bad, largely because the standard of living difference is not as dramatic.

I don’t think this is very hard material to understand!

You can put your heads in the sand and worry about silly environmental scare stories, but in 20 years time when all the stories have faded away our children will be much more worried about what we did about the economy.

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“…create some wealth in NZ so we can own our own assets and companies.”

…in other countries? Heh.

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The Australians own Mexico?

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>Ironically, you and the Greens seem to agree that foreigners buying into NZ is a bad thing.

Of course having your destiny set by another country isn’t a great idea. The way to stop that is to build a strong economy and create some wealth in NZ so we can own our own assets and companies.

The environmentalists seem to think we can just ban foreign ownership.

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Er, what did happen in Mexico?

“The land, the businesses and all our capital will be owned by rich Aussie tourists,”

Ironically, you and the Greens seem to agree that foreigners buying into NZ is a bad thing.

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Gerrit: Have a look at the Acts which established the Australian federation. In the opinion of some legal scholars, New Zealand can choose to join without the consent of the rest of Australia.

Most people forget that Australia became a country much later than New Zealand, even though European settlement was earlier, and that at the time New Zealand was a lot more prosperous and seen as a desirable addition to the fold.

The Optimist: So your spare planet is where?

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Has any asked if New Zealand would be welcomed into the Australian federation?

Heck they may not want a basket case!!

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See Norm has slagged Key off for being a currency trader on Cambell Live tonight. Just like Cullen, what a complete wanker. Rich Pricks, tax them all.

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I think the point here is that we can head back towards Zimbabwe or we can head forward towards Australia. No one would claim that Australia is the perfect country, but at least in terms of the economy they are well ahead of NZ.

We need to get our heads our of our butts and start rowing in the right direction, or our country will be torn apart by its proximity to a much richer, better managed and less taxed nation. Either that or repeal CER and close the borders.

Go take a look at Mexico and what happened there. They are MUCH poorer than us, but we are falling behind Aus at a truly alarming rate. In a generation it could look very ugly for us. The land, the businesses and all our capital will be owned by rich Aussie tourists, and and we will no longer be in control of our destiny.

Environmentalists carry the most blame for this. Virtually every policy is taking us backwards towards oblivion. What is amazing is that they actually think this is a good thing.

The original signpost on your website is remarkable when you consider that every item on it is supposed to be a ‘good’. In actual fact there is a good case to be made for each that it is a ‘bad’. That you would promote such policies with a straight face speaks volumes.

Also I think your post above is patently incorrect. Copying Aus’s success is a huge vote winner.

The Optimist

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