Last Updated: Nov 19th, 2009 - 11:07:39 Newsletters : 2005 Newsletters : 29 April 2005 Thought for the Day The new Employment Relations Act makes it harder to do business. It makes it more difficult to hire staff and more difficult to fire them if things don’t work out. It imposes very real risks and costs on employers. It’s now easier for a man to marry and divorce the boy next door than it is to hire and fire him. Rodney Hide speech to New Zealand Large Herds Association Conference. Apr 28, 2005, 11:30 Newsletters : 2005 Newsletters : 29 April 2005 Slowing Economies The Treasury and The Reserve Bank are predicting that our economy will slow down to a 2% growth rate (or less) by the end of the year. It is interesting that Helen Clark held up France and Germany as the ideals to which we could all aspire. "If only our economy was modeled along European lines we would all be better off." Well, sad to tell, but it looks as if her efforts are successful. Germany and France are running deficits (at variance to their commitments to the EU) and their growth rates are under pressure. Things are looking more grim than ever as they struggle to maintain their union dominated work force in the luxury to which they have become accustomed. Even in the face of our impending slow-down this government has persisted with its strategy. Will a 5 cents (plus GST) increase in petrol help our growth? Will increasing the bureaucracy by thousands (Michael's Capacity Building!) help our growth rate? Will increasing union militancy help increase our growth rate? Does the government have any policy that will help to increase our growth rate? This report from the Economist about German growth prospects is very educational. The German politicians cannot seem to break out of their socialist mind set and tinker round the edges as the German economy sinks further into the mire. France has the same problem but read about Germany and ask yourself why we are headed in the same direction. Apr 28, 2005, 10:58 Newsletters : 2005 Newsletters : 29 April 2005 Mrs Dogood and the Worker One of the pleasures in life is to work. Now I don’t mean slaving down a salt mine in Siberia. I mean gainful employment at some useful occupation which provides goods or services to people who appreciate my efforts. I also mean things like gardening or painting the fence where there is no monetary reward but the end result and the pleasure of a good job well done is reward enough. This brings me happiness. I think it is a good idea to help people find happiness and fulfillment by these means but it seems that our leaders think that work is a bad thing and that people should not have to work in order to live or even to get some pleasure from their lives. Take the case of Mrs Dogood (not her real name) and the intellectually handicapped (or is that differently abled?) chap down in Dunedin in the 1960s. There it was on television – The people of Dunedin had been shamelessly exploiting this worker and paying him a pittance to slave up in the hills of Dunedin picking up rubbish and paper flying about. Mrs Dogood really laid it on the line. This poor worker was being underpaid and in any case he should not be forced to work but he should be provided for properly by “the State”. What a terrible case of exploitation. Talk about taking advantage of the poor and disabled it was a shame and a disgrace on the people of Dunedin and so on and so forth. Now being a proper TV show they then interviewed the worker. How interesting. Yes he enjoyed the work. He felt he was a normal part of society doing his job like everybody else. He thought it was a good thing to be paid for his work and he wasn’t concerned about the rate of pay. He enjoyed walking up in the hills each day. He was upset at the thought that the do-gooders of the world were going to take his work away from him. He didn’t appreciate Mrs Dogood’s help! Mrs Dogood won the fight and the worker was a worker no longer and the hills were covered in flying paper and plastic bags. I see that Nanny State is still do-gooding and by insisting that disabled workers get paid the minimum wage it is ensuring that they become unemployed and lose a very valuable part of their wellbeing – the feeling of being a normal part of society and “doing a good job”. Do-gooders seem to have a limited understanding of people and the real world but insist in imposing some sort of “ideal world” idea on other people. It never works and they produce more harm than good. Do-gooderism must be banned and do-gooders must become an extinct species. At least let us keep them out of parliament. Apr 27, 2005, 10:55