Major reforms in first 100 days

Well if labour had have been re-elected chew on this!!! It's all good in the world when the rich pay more. Just recall the bitching and moaning from the poor people when tax cuts are announced and the rich get more cuts than the poor. At least National know where the money comes from in this country!! With that in mind read on.......

Bar Stool Economics

Ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.

The fifth would pay $1.

The sixth would pay $3.

The seventh would pay $7.

The eighth would pay $12.

The ninth would pay $18.

The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that's what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. "Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20. Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes, so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 Windfall so that everyone would get his "fair share"?

They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth and sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.

So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so: The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings)

The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).

The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).

The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).

The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).

The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant the men began to compare their savings.

"I only got a dollar out of the $20,"declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man, "but he got $10!"

"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than me!"

"That's true!!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!"

"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!"

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

It's easy to see you are a worker and not an employer Dav. Sue Bradford's proposal to increase of the minimum adult wage to $15.00 an hour would have crippled many companies. Many firms would have laid off workers as they cannot afford to increase their total wage bill so instead of employing 100 workers at $13.00 an hour they could only have employed 85 workers at $15.00.

Years of low unemployment have made it difficult to get low skilled workers. With unemployment rising workers will have to increase their productivity as there will be more competition for the lower skilled jobs.

NZ's track record with regard to productivity on the international stage is nothing less than embarassing! Years of low unemployment coupled with the inability to sack underperforming employees have made us the laughing stock of the industrial world. At least now we've got a government who will listen to both sides of the argument rather than just the workers.

It's the same old faces of the last National Government re-emerging....And what does John Key know about tourism???

The sight of gay, immigrants dancing around and celebrating John Key and Nationals win in Auckland last night was a joke. Where has the real NZ gone ? And you wonder why we in the South want our political independence from the North.

Kym Parsons Zealandia Independence Project

I have just returned to Australia, from my first trip back to N.Z. in 25 years.

I returned to N.Z., to investigate the possibility of repatriating - bringing with me, the wealth & experience garnered from 2 and a half decades of trade employment, that is now sadly lacking in the land of my birth.

I left N.Z. in the 1980's, after the former National Government provided me with no other option, by retrenching my position, (as a newly qualified tradesperson), along with several thousand of my similarly qualified colleagues.

This, and other short-sighted acts perpetrated by former Governments, have served only to leave N.Z. bereft of the skilled and highly trained workforce that is now required to re-build & fortify N.Z. against the economic challenges of a global financial crisis.

Alas, I fear that the election of another National Government in 2008 will only serve to re-visit the mass exodus of bright, qualified young Kiwis - as was the case with my generation, in the 1980's.

Until N.Z. can offer the wages, conditions of employment, and most importantly - hope, to it's current generation of job seekers, I fear that the people of New Zealand will be re-visited by the malaise that punctuated the N.Z. psyche over 25 years ago.

That is the challenge that confronts John Keys, and may he serve to prove me wrong.

what a sad day in NZ's history!back to the bad old days.

With Roger Douglas back in the fray, I am seriously considering leaving New Zealand. Such a shame people have voted for personality over politics.

I fully support increasing political education in schools. There seems to be little understanding of the implications of a centre-right government.

This choice has now made me more determined to move to Australia

I fully agree. Beam me up Scottie there is no intelligent life down here

We're Screwed. Conman in power.......... They'll only get 3 years to screw the country, just hope we can get out of the mess again at the end of it...