Originally Posted by
elZorro
Lindsay Mitchell is an artist, and also someone who believes the welfare state is indefensible. If the cost to rent a small three bedroom home in Auckland was similar to that paid in much of USA or Australia, and our supermarket and energy costs were lower, maybe people would be able to get by more easily. But that is not the case. Basic living needs eat up most of any welfare payments, which are designed for a holding pattern at best. Even minimum wages are below a living standard, considering the average costs to get to work in the first place.
So either landlords cut rents, housing becomes more affordable, the costs on fuel and energy are dropped, and supermarkets trim back harder on suppliers, or we start exporting higher value goods in bigger numbers, and pay decent minimum wages. Now go looking for the parties that had real policies to do that. Labour and the Greens.