Category Archives: Labour

Getting ‘stuck in’ to employment

Recently, Rodney Hide related his experiences as a manual labourer, doing casual jobs for a builder, digger driver and retaining wall builder. Hide drew a lesson from his experience about the motivation of the unemployed. Basically, it amounted to the conclusion … Continue reading

Posted in Economics, Freedom, Human Nature, Human Wellbeing, Labour, New Zealand Politics | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Shearer on ‘How big is my politics?’

Q. What’s the difference between Donald O’Connor, Jimmy Durante and David Shearer? A. All three of them express the naive belief that “It’s bigger than both of us!” but only two of them have the excuse that they were singing … Continue reading

Posted in Earthquakes, Labour, New Zealand Politics, Political Psychology | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Cut throat politics

It doesn’t take long to collect examples of throat-slashing gestures on the internet: Here, here, here and here – and that’s just for starters on the first google page. Interestingly, they are all incidents in highly charged, competitive, high stakes … Continue reading

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The science and politics of the ‘politics of envy’

The release of Labour’s tax policies – which include a new top tax rate (39cents for income over $150,000), a Capital Gains Tax (at 15%), no GST on fresh fruit and vegetables and a tax free $5,000 threshold – have … Continue reading

Posted in Economics, Human Nature, Human Wellbeing, Labour, New Zealand Politics, Philosophy, politics of envy | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

The Right’s Dependence on Welfare

A recent comment by Don Brash [about 7mins45secs into the video] gave me the clue as to why the right are so dependent on the ‘welfare’ argument. They are, to put it bluntly, dependent on ‘welfare’ as the explanation for all … Continue reading

Posted in Free Market, Human Nature, Human Wellbeing, Labour, New Zealand Politics | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Digging Deeper – Why is mining hazardous?

As the personal and community tragedy of the loss of 29 men’s lives at the Pike River mine continues, further details about the nature of mining are worth considering. An initial point to emphasise is that Pike River is not … Continue reading

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Reflections on the Pike River Mine Disaster November, 2010

“As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods. They kill us for their sport” Gloucester in King Lear, Act 4, Scene 1: William Shakespeare The end of a person’s life is the end of the most diaphanous of … Continue reading

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