If National wins ...

[elZorro]

So now we close the 42 reported fast food outlets in Queen Street because people need to be protected from themselves? That's left-wing social engineering at its finest.

I didn't mention food, Craic. (Must be profitable though, if they can all afford to rent in Queen St). I thought we'd already covered food in schools, that would be one good place to showcase sensible eating habits. I'm not just trying to get a bite here. Right from the first days of the Big Mac in NZ, people were buying two of them at once. There should be a law against that

[fungus pudding]

Yep,cost me $40 last night at the casino. Second time i've been there this year. Put off for another six months now. All my gambling now is done with NWE and TTE!

You are in danger! Obviously you will go far more often when they have more pokies.

[elZorro]

Come on FP, what about some facts. Half of the income made by the Sky Casino comes from problem gamblers. Slimwin lost $40 in there, that's just an entertainment cost for one person, of course that's not an issue. A much smaller proportion of the people that go in there, lose a lot more.

Q&A started off slowly this morning, then moved into a big discourse about income inequality in NZ. It had Bill English squirming, although he handled it a lot better than someone less proficient in front of the camera (even John Key). All the myths about 'trickle down' were exposed, the effect of QE overseas in boosting the stock markets (Prof Robert Wade from the London School of Economics). About policies being drafted by the top 1%, mostly helping to move income even more towards the top 1%. I have come to this conclusion already, and it looked to me like most of the watching public had a few bells going off in their heads.

All the comments streaming in from texts, affirmed the inequality going on.

If Labour can just simply encapsulate this sort of stuff in the leadup to the 2014 elections, National will have a huge task in staying on. 'The Nation' covered David Shearer a lot, and it's true he's looked quite shaky at times this week. Perhaps he does need a new team and some more coaching, but he'll never be as aggressive as the likes of Muldoon - maybe that's a good thing. A statesman is what we want to see. I'm sure there is enough wrong with the way the country is being run at the moment, for a Labour statesman to emerge.

Iceman, here's an interesting chart about pokie numbers that mentions the Labour deal. At the time, every pub in the country was looking hard at getting in a gaming cluster, because without one, profits were generally low. Rental fee income from the machines helped keep struggling pubs going, but it also meant wider hours of business, and it did remove 2/3 of the gambling losses from that local community. 37% at least, went back to local charities. Sky City's feedback to the community is just 2.5%.

National has carefully not exceeded the 230 pokie machines that Labour allowed years ago, but they have added in a lot of gambling tables. Maybe these are even more profitable for Sky City. It was Labour policy that started the sinking lid on pokie machines in local venues.

[craic]

There are several reasons why Professor Wade of the London School of Economics holds his present position and is not one of the richest men in the world or is not sailing around the Islands in his boat or some other nice place. The most likely is that he is a teacher and.....those that can, do etc.......
There are experts by the dozen out there and they can tell you the solution to any problem - but the soution seldom works, and another expert will tell you exactly why it didn't work and so on. A selection of these experts make it into Government and stuff up big time. At least John Key made his fortune on the markets before he went up onto the hill. I would say that he has a more realistic view of the market place that we are all in - and I would also say that, had the Labour party been in power, exactly the same deal would have been made with Sky City.

[elZorro]

There are several reasons why Professor Wade of the London School of Economics holds his present position and is not one of the richest men in the world or is not sailing around the Islands in his boat or some other nice place. The most likely is that he is a teacher and.....those that can, do etc.......
There are experts by the dozen out there and they can tell you the solution to any problem - but the soution seldom works, and another expert will tell you exactly why it didn't work and so on. A selection of these experts make it into Government and stuff up big time. At least John Key made his fortune on the markets before he went up onto the hill. I would say that he has a more realistic view of the market place that we are all in - and I would also say that, had the Labour party been in power, exactly the same deal would have been made with Sky City.

The same deal? I don't think so. It looks to me like the Labour government saw the effects of the rampaging pokie machine numbers sometime around 2003-2004, and passed a law to sort it out. I'm not from Auckland, and I haven't been into the current Sky City Convention Centre. It can hold over 1,000 people on each of two floors. There is quite a lot of flexibility in the layout. It's also integral with their accommodation and the casino. The new convention centre is apparently a lot bigger, it can hold... 3500 people at maximum. It will be across a street, using an interconnecting bridge.

I've never looked into it before, but does this mean the older convention centre will be changed into something else, and all those jobs disappear, meaning that the new permanent jobs might only be a few more than the status quo? And will Sky City convert the older space into cost-effective hotel rooms?

As for your disparaging remarks about teachers, that's uncalled for Craic. I tried tertiary tutoring once, it was really hard work. A tutor I knew, who was well thought of, left and worked in a local business, R&D section. It's now employing 80 staff here and overseas, exporting furiously.

Right-wingers eh? It's all black and white as far as they're concerned.

[slimwin]

I only saw q&a in fit and starts(i'm a solo dad with a three year old). Didn't Wade say QE was a bad thing as all it did was make the rich richer? Presenter got a laugh out of that considering our most left party was pushing for it.

[craic]

I have three reasons for disparaging teachers. The teacher who told me that my son was in "the bottom 5% in NZ in his ability to learn" and the next teacher who would not have him in the electronics class because his maths etc was not up to scratch. Fortunately, he had parents wise enough to let him leave from Form IV to go into electronics. From a full trade qualification, he went on to and Honours Degree from London University and employment at the top of his profession. His elder sister was denied University Entrance and had to sit the exams. She now owns a multi-million business in London The third is doing well too. I have several friends who are or were teachers but the problem is that they are so used to pupils that they are either instructing or standing for parliment - and some even get elected.

[elZorro]

I only saw q&a in fit and starts(i'm a solo dad with a three year old). Didn't Wade say QE was a bad thing as all it did was make the rich richer? Presenter got a laugh out of that considering our most left party was pushing for it.

It was a bit of a rushed synopsis that he made, but that was the gist of it. Of course the secondary effect would be that businesses held up better and more would continue to be employed, softening a hard landing.

I think the Greens suggested that a range of policies could be tried here, which were intended to have the effect of dropping the value of the NZ dollar. I read somewhere, that we have no real need to pay taxes, sending a portion of our income to the government. The government can always print any money it needs. But paying taxes and borrowing money for a budget shortfall, values the currency, that is the main reason for it. Stops runaway inflation I guess. Although if that was really a likely outcome, why hasn't it happened noticeably in the USA yet? The US dollar has strengthened, it's not helping to reduce their state borrowing interest overheads.

[iceman]

Thanks for the links EZ. Unfortunately I am very limited doing research/reading as I am off Cape Horn (in crap weather) and internet very very slow. So will leave the debating with you to the other Centrists (Craic, slimwin,FP, MTV etc etc) that are doing a grea job !
****e we don´t even have drinks, pokies or women down here. Or like the boys say, no twosomes, threesomes or foursomes, only handsomes down here. Pretty sad all around

[elZorro]

Thanks for the links EZ. Unfortunately I am very limited doing research/reading as I am off Cape Horn (in crap weather) and internet very very slow. So will leave the debating with you to the other Centrists (Craic, slimwin,FP, MTV etc etc) that are doing a grea job !
****e we don´t even have drinks, pokies or women down here. Or like the boys say, no twosomes, threesomes or foursomes, only handsomes down here. Pretty sad all around

I guess you're living up to your moniker, Iceman. I thought you guys were giving up on Argentina?