"2020: Millennial Fetal Contentment"

I've stolen the following from Anarchist History of New Zealand because it intrigues me. And Rick has more to say than I do on the first day of 2022:

" Heroic Generation archetypes thrive in structured environments; They love having clear rules laid out so they can follow them. Instructions are to be followed without questions and with clear consequences. They thrive on duties and obligations, rewards and punishments and countdown timers. They are stressed by environments requiring them to be self-starting independent individuals.

Heroic Generations

eg. Long March generation, China

eg. GI Generation, USA

eg. Blitz Generation, UK

eg. Summer Afternoon, NZ

eg. Millennials

When enough Millennials reached young adulthood in the 2010s they cried out in pain. The real world wasn’t like the highly structured environments of their daycare centers or schools. Suicide, self-harm, depression, deviancy, drugs, self-mutilation (eg tatooing,) shock-hair colouring, and piercings became epidemic. When enough young Millennials had the chance to be an influence they promoted ‘Safe Spaces’ and Feminism and Gender Pronouns and Climate Change Catastrophisation and Racism to try to change their uncomfortable world into a place they felt at home.

Since then the Millennials have continued to turn the whole world itself upside-down to make their point of view seem upright. For example, this meme (image, left) says “I don’t have to eat less! You have to stop body-shaming!” and ‘I am not racist if I’m antiwhite’ and ‘It’s not cheating it’s polyamorous’ etc. The old Conformity stressed the Millennial as pointed out in detail in AHNZ’s Millennials Hurting post. Since then the Millennial attitude has transitioned to becoming the Innovation group (Wokism) and now, as of 2020, the Conformity group (COVID Hysteria.)

At last the Millennial can sleep soundly at night. Now we are all living in an hysterical world full of rules and regulations the Millennial feels safe and secure. Other generations are stressed at what the world has become and have trouble sleeping or living a normal life at all. This is what it was like for the Millennial up until recently as they cried themselves to sleep in a fetal position afraid of the competitive material world and its lack of ‘social justice’. The Millennial dream is everyone else’s nightmare.

Needles (in the arm,) nostrils (test probes up the,) masks, ‘Traffic Light’ systems, QR code tracing, policed border crossings, lock downs, managed isolation and quarantine, closed borders, censored media, limitless money-printing, medical professionals made redundant, jab, jab jab, jab jab boost,…and all the rest of the new mainstream “normal.”

Other generations find the Millennials’ environment (they have colonised our world now) increasingly stressful. Even exhausting to the point of not knowing if we can endure. The Millennial has been prepping for this kind of space they are adapted to all their lives. They can do this all day, all week, all year,..for them it is never supposed to end."

More

Control what you can

At 20 you feel as if life goes on forever.

At 60 plus you are keenly aware that it does not.

It thoroughly disturbs me that so many young people are experiencing psychological trauma about climate change. To be precise "eco or climate - anxiety".

It's tragic that these anxious young people aren't living their lives with optimism. Aren't intellectually free to pursue ambitions born from their own unique desires and attributes.

Life itself is an amazing win. The odds of being conceived are less than those of striking Lotto.

It should be grabbed and relished.

Your life belongs to you and you alone. It's the only thing you can actually control.

Life

I especially liked this comment from my good friend Mark Wahlberg whose actions, as I have come to appreciate, speak even louder than his words:

' 35 years ago after leaping into the void at 5000ft and discovering my parachute had a mind of its own which didn't involve my participation, I realised for the first time the prospect of death was a traveling companion on my lifes journey.

I have written before about my battles with an inoperable cancer and the insidious poisons doctors introduced into my body to keep me alive while around me others died horrible deaths.

I stopped believing in the power of political healing so long ago I cant remember when.

I have no fear of dying from Covid or the vaccine they claim might save me.

Some suggest "Jesus Saves", but I would have to die for proof of that

I believe in the power of me and mine and leave the lives of others to sort out for themselves.

"Today is the tomorrow people worried about yesterday" '

Death

The panicked response to Covid is a feature of death denial. 

We all die. Everyday there is a death for every two births roughly speaking. In 2020 an average of 89 people died each day. Incidentally that is fewer than the 94 in the prior year, pre-covid.

The profile of deaths by age is similar to covid deaths though the lowest bars would be non-existent on a covid death chart.

So why the gripping fear?

The chances of dying from cancer are very high - the highest. By a long shot.

In 2019  9,773 people died from cancer. Just short of a 1,000 died from diabetes.

These are big numbers.

But more importantly, some of these deaths could have been avoided. And on their deathbed some probably regrettably knew that was the case. But they hadn't been frightened enough of the prospect of death to change their behaviours.

A good chunk of the population has that mentality. I include myself. I keep very fit but I drink more than I should. I shouldn't drink at all if I want the longest life possible. I should also probably knock off  cheese and red meat if I want to get a letter from the Queen ... except of course she will be dead by then. Yes, even the Queen is going to kick the bucket.

But I am also one of those quality versus quantity people. And I do want to enjoy my time here.

So if I am right, and most people indulge in some degree of life-shortening risk (and I haven't even got to the risk of death by accident) WHY this maudlin, unprecedented, pervasive fear of covid?

The answer matters because it is allowing our lives to be controlled in a way I never thought possible

The fear is driving glaring irrationalities that are more than something we can chuckle about and dismiss.

Why, in the Hutt Valley, is one local council banning unvaccinated people, and by implication their children,  from the popular Huia swimming pool while the neighbouring local council is allowing unvaccinated people in to the very popular H2O swimming pool?

Even our so-called leaders can't agree on what is safe and what isn't. Their decisions appear more about their own covering- my- back safety as opposed to public safety.

There are many inconsistencies about protocols and rules - too many to list and plenty of people have already pointed them out.

The only reason for compliance with such abitrary confusion must be fear.

But I go round in circles.

Fear of what exactly?

If this virus was killing young people in their droves I would be petrified of my children succumbing. That kind of terror I could understand.

BUT IT ISN'T.

The likelihood of dying from covid is miniscule.

So why am I wearing a mask then taking it off to scoff that glass of lindauer I shouldn't really be having?

I'm wearing a mask because fear-ridden zombies tell me to. But I'm getting to that stage where I am going to simply stop. I am not one of you. And I'm not playing along with this stupid charade any longer. Get a grip for Gods sake.

We are all going to die ... some day.

Green cynicism

More idiotic inferences drawn by the Green Party. 

Maori beneficiaries have more debt to MSD and so have, on average, higher repayments.

The figures were obtained by Green MP Ricardo Menendez March, who said it reeks of systemic discrimination.

But wait. If Maori had fewer and smaller benefit advances you can imagine the same outcry.

'Maori are being denied access to loans. That's racism.'

Maori Party co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer says:

"It's just scary, it is really, really frightening. The Minister ... we demand she take charge of this and explains to those and the rest of Aotearoa, what this government is going to do to take this burden off these whānau, off these wāhine and their tamariki." 

What a bind the Left has gotten itself into with their intractable refusal to blame individuals for problems of their own making.

The result is they are now pointing fingers at each other with the Greens and beneficiary advocates blaming the Minister for refusing to instigate a debt amnesty. It's her fault!

The other aspect of this business is very cynical. Politicians are using Maori to push their own barrows. Ricardo Menendez March is a non-Maori socialist but it suits his purposes to yell 'discrimination' at every opportunity. Accusations of racism not only shut detractors down but demand some sort of redress and recompense.

No matter that the redress is wrongful given no actual case of racism has occurred.

That's just how New Zealand rolls right now.

Maori demand for state housing surpasses every other ethnicity by a long shot

 New numbers released today show the inexorable growth in demand for state housing continues:

Someone clever enough might depict Dame Whina Cooper climbing the tops of the columns with her walking stick  given more than half on the list are Maori:

From a left-wing perspective Labour is failing Maori miserably.

Brand new episode in 'Govt War on Family Violence' launches today

The elimination of family and sexual violence. Expect a big announcement today about how government is going to achieve its elimination within a generation!

That's amazing.

In 1985 - forty six years ago - the Family Violence Prevention Coordinating Committe was created. More funding for services, far more inter-agency action required. Problem persists.

Move on another eleven years to 1996.  The next holy grail is a brand new Government Statement of Policy on Family Violence. Greater early intervention and support to the at-risk.

Still no joy.

In 2005 a Taskforce for Action on Violence within Families was established which carried the 'it's not OK' message.

It's still not OK but it still proliferates.

So today government will roll out another grand plan. A  " 'whole of government plan' for a $2 billion-a-year sector."

Launch to be held at Te Papa this morning. How exciting. I wonder if there's a red carpet?

Expect the next in the series of  'Govt War on Family Violence' to be ready around 2030.

Luxon is a "big fan" of state control

That's what he said.

He's a big fan of increasing the minimum wage so long as the economy is growing.

Most of the time the economy is growing. So most of the time he's a big fan of the minimum wage.

I'm not. Why?

I go for a part-time job after being out of the work force for 30 years so am happy to accept less than the minimum wage.  Or I go for a job as a sole parent with no work experience whatsoever happy to accept below the minimum wage. Either way I probably won't get the chance/advantage to show my value because the employer must pay what the GOVERNMENT has decided my labour is worth with no UNIQUE KNOWLEDGE of the situation.

It's one thing for a large company like Air New Zealand to absorb minimum wage increases, but this is a country of small to medium enterprises. People trying to get businesses off the ground need to be able to offer work based on remuneration that reflects early-days risk.

I've heard leftists say, if employers can't pay the minimum wage they shouldn't be in business. Come to think of it, that might be their argument for paying the living wage! Everyone in business is 'rich'. Everyone who just started a doggy daycare centre or nail salon.

What New Zealand badly needs from Luxon and National is a freeing-up of laws around employment.

Not an endorsement of state control of the labour market.

Today's protest in Newmarket

Today's protest in Newmarket was described as "anti-vaxx" by Radio New Zealand.

On NewstalkZB the same protest was called "anti-mandate".

There is a world of difference.

I wouldn't join the first but I'd eagerly join the second.

Note which news outlet is paid by the state.

Latest poll

 

Stand-out result, at 30% ACT is the most popular party among 18-49 year-old males.

Kids crying out for their mothers

Oranga Tamariki released two companion research papers on the last day of November. The topic is Making sense of being in care, adopted, or whāngai.

The first canvasses the available literature on the subject; the second canvasses the views of young people and their caregivers.

The first contains this observation:

    "Within the Māori world view, children do not just belong solely to their parents, but belong to their wider whānau. Therefore, whāngai does not undermine a child’s sense of belonging if they come to live with other relatives."

Let's take that at face value. A Maori child's connection to their wider whanau is just as important as their connection to their parents.

Says who?

I ask because the second 'qualitative' paper contains quotes from Maori children (and caregivers) that would indicate their connection to their mother, especially, is of utmost importance. Apparently, "Almost all said ... they’ve struggled in some way with feeling unwanted, unloved and abandoned by their birth parents. This happened across the board – whether they were adopted, whāngai or being raised by whānau or non-whānau caregivers."

Each of the examples below is a distinct case.

On the death of a mother:

“It was hard for everyone losing Mum. It was bad enough for me trying to deal with it let alone her losing Mum. Mum was her soulmate; Mum was her everything…She wouldn’t talk to me, even though I’d sit on her bed and ask her things or take her out shopping or to the beach. She’d just sit there in silence.” Whāngai sister/caregiver

On abandonment by a mother:

“I was definitely a mum’s girl and my mum had left me. It was hard. When your best friend leaves you, you just don’t understand…. You want to be loved and feel loved from the people you thought loved you but at times I haven’t felt that. I felt that love from my whāngai whānau, and it was just hard you know – people that weren’t my own whānau loved me more than my own.” Rangatahi whāngai

Another case described by an adoptive parent:

“There’s been a few traumas with his mother along the way… with each new relationship, she’d just disappear so it was like no one else existed. He’d ask, ‘where is she, what’s she doing? She doesn’t care about me’…. He’d see her with a new baby and it’d be like, ‘she cares about that baby, why doesn’t she care about me like that?’.” Whāngai parent

The paper continues, "For some children and young people who are in care, it’s meant struggling with being separated from their birth parents and missing and wanting to see them. Whānau and non-whānau caregivers told us they’ll sometimes get extremely upset when their parents leave after visits, kicking and screaming, or will come back from visits with them angry and churned up."

“They love their mum…. I said to their mother the other day when she rang, ‘Look, pull your head out of your backside. These kids miss you. They want you to look after them, not us.’ They keep asking for their mother, even their father, and they get all upset. But they come right.” Whānau caregiver

And:

“I’ll never forget the time when she was nine; it was some photo on Facebook or something. She saw her other siblings having fun with their mum, some trip somewhere and she felt like she was missing out and just cried and cried.” Whāngai parent

And:

“I stopped the mother from ringing him without me being there because she would make promises to him and not follow through…. He’d get really, really excited and then it doesn’t happen…and I’d have to pick up the pieces.” Whānau caregiver

Finally:

“I started off with the ‘of course she loves and cares about you’ and then I changed tack because I could see he was getting emotionally upset over what she was doing and the inconsistencies…. I switched to, ‘this is how she is; it doesn’t mean we can’t love her, it’s just how she is’. It felt like pouring a bucket of cold water on him every time but I actually think it was helpful for him ’cause it shifted him off a fantasy mum.”Whāngai parent

My point?

I wonder if the lesser importance the Maori world-view places on biological parents - mothers in particular - is actually an adult world-view? The world through the Maori child's lens may be quite different.

Lazy thinking

Regarding National's leadership crisis, Tracy Watkins extensively quotes a "frustrated former MP" presumably National.

“Most of Act’s vote is National, if they get their s....t together, it'll go back to National. And as long as (Act) are sitting at about 10%, that's actually good for National, it gets them across the line. So, ignore them.”

This assumes the voting bloc is static which it certainly isn't. But it is characteristic lazy thinking from a conceited Nat. 

The voting bloc is all the time refreshing with new voters via demographics and, to a lesser extent, immigration. Every election around 100,000 of the most reliable voters disappear and around 180,000 potential voters arrive. By my observation  ACT events are well-attended by the young. They may have only ever voted ACT.

There are oldies like me who went from Labour to ACT and never changed back, and the 'blue rinse' brigade are falling off their perches.

There are immigrants from countries which have drilled into them a true understanding of democracy and appreciation of free markets. ACT actually knows what it stands for; National doesn't.

But most importantly, in an undeniable and unavoidable age of personality politics  ACT has never had such a young, engaged, and even charismatic leader whose keen nose for publicity is balanced with judgement and conviction. He also has a sense of humour.

So it is lazy to just assume if National picks the 'right' leader ACT's polling will plummet.

Those desperate for a change of government will get it voting either National or ACT, but given the worsening economic and social situation in New Zealand, they may want an insurance policy for real change and opt for ACT.

Woke feminist BS

I am sick to death of women crying victim because of so-called offensive comments. 

I am not sick to death of women who have genuine, almost or non-recoverable experience of male sexual violence.

But Jacqui Dean shouldn't be a representative of the people if she takes offence at something only a tiny minority would. 

She certainly needs a head-check if she thinks her dealt-with complaint should be revisited and escalated five years down the line.

For Judith Collins to comandeer such a lame duck, limp, poster girl for 'safe' workplaces is an abuse in and of  itself. What was going on in her head?

Men and women have co-existed, and procreated together forever. 

Can't we all grow up and learn to deal with each other one on one without the government telling us how?

Are you ready for Air Aotearoa?

A Stuff reporter writes, 

"Air New Zealand says it is cancelling more than 1000 flights between Aotearoa and Australia from now to the end of the year due to border uncertainty."

Cancellations aside, it makes no sense for a country increasingly called Aotearoa to have its airline cling to the old name of New Zealand.

Is it time to get ready for another major re-branding?

I don't know about you but Air Aotearoa doesn't conjure up that warm sense of familiarity felt from near and afar, and pride in the airline's quirky professionalism.

But my reluctance is probably just a facet of subconscious racism. I should succumb to the educators.

As for the rest of the world, international customers, private and commercial, they'll be left to wonder where Air New Zealand disappeared to.

Something rotten in the state of New Zealand

There's a feeling afoot, backed with evidence, that the state is increasingly on the side of wrong-doers. 

Take the issue of forcing blameless people to live next to anti-social, criminal neighbours.

In 2018 the HNZ chief operating officer said:

"We measure our success by not having any evictions. Every eviction is a failure [so] the lower the number, the better."

Evictions fell from over a hundred during the last National government's term to zero in the last 3 years.

Yet HNZ 'success' is leading to social cohesion failure highlighted by a number of recent nightmare cases which we read about and quietly murmur to ourselves, "There but for the grace..."

When challenged about gangs Stuart Nash says there is nothing to fear. In May:

“In terms of feeling unsafe, unless you’re a gang member, you have no reason to feel unsafe."

Tell that to the poor pensioner in Northland who was told by a gang member neighbour he would cut the old man's throat. Stop and think for a moment how you would feel if that was your father.

I grew up in a time when we took for granted that actually the police - or other authorities - would act to safeguard innocent people. I now think that trust is a faded memory.

If it was merely a matter of inadequate resourcing it would be fixable.

But the application of inverted thinking is far more difficult to confront.

It wouldn't surpprise if  some on the left, some of academia, some of the brain-washed graduates secretly think the 'privileged' are on their own. Suck it up as punishment for what your colonial ancestors did.

That is a very dangerous rejection of a system of laws, and consequences for breaking those laws, that must treat all citizens equally. Yes, there are systemic failures but the principle must still hold fast. The alternative is unthinkable.

This soft-on-crime attitude must have preceded the current government because I well recall then ACT MP Stephen Franks' observation about the naivety which expressed as "If we just keep being kind to crims for long enough they'll start being kind back."

Unfortunately I now think the proliferating philosophy is under-pinned, at least in part, by more sinister motivations.

NEWSFLASH: Huge drop in Jobseeker numbers!

Wow.

Net Jobseeker numbers dropped by nearly 5,000 in the week to November 12. That's fantastic. 

The number of people cancelling their Jobseeker benefit  numbered 8,280 - an increase of 5,535 on the prior week. The economy must really be picking up!

Too good to be true?

It is.

What happened is around 5,000 Jobseekers were transferred to Sole Parent Support on November 8.

Because of a policy change, sole parents with babies and toddlers added to an existing benefit no longer have work obligations. The government has told them not to worry their heads about looking for a job. 'The taxpayer will keep on funding you for as long as you keep on having babies.'

What looks like a great news graph is actually a very bad news graph. People who keep having children when they are already reliant on welfare have a habit of staying on benefits for years.

But thanks all you hard working young couples who are either delaying starting a family or putting your children in daycare everyday to go to work to pay your taxes. 

Without you the government wouldn't be able to be so kind and compassionate.

Ardern's untenable position

The Prime Minister's cause du jour, reducing child poverty, is a cover for communistic cravings. Left-wing governments always want to tax the rich to give to the poor in the name of greater equality. Do this under the pretext of alleviating child poverty and sympathetic voters will support you. If redistribution was advocated for the reduction of drug-addicted poverty it might find less appeal. That some children in poverty have parents burning money on their addictions remains a fact ... but never mind.

There is no excuse for taking money off productive people to encourage bad decision-making. Many of the welfare reforms instigated under Ardern will encourage people without independent means to start or grow families. The obvious error is to pay new mothers substantially more - $3,120 annually to rise to $3,380 next year; to increase existing child payments, benefit rates and tie them to wage inflation.Then remove work obligations from mothers of young children EVEN if they have been added to an existing benefit, add in the removal of financial penalties for not naming the father/s of the child/ren, thereby letting him off the hook, and, in a certain sector of society, any sense of personal responsibility around producing children is suspended.

Fortunately it maintains in the majority who are waiting longer, to have fewer children or none at all. The average age of first time mothers is climbing steadily and recourse to fertility assistance is increasing.

Meantime other mothers start young and stay on welfare as a 'career' exposing their children to the greatest level of hardship (red):

Under Ardern's leadership the number of children in benefit households has risen from 172,299 to 208,347 - 21 percent. Most are in sole parent families.

In 2013 Ardern railed against the rise in benefit numbers (particularly the DPB) in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis describing the increase as an "epic fail" by the National government. So clearly she doesn't think being on a benefit is a great thing.

Yet, as outlined above, the actions taken by her government are resulting in the same outcome.

The cake is not finite.One person's piece does not have to be cut smaller so the next's can be cut bigger. Ever increasing redistribution will not reduce the material hardship too many New Zealand children experience. If NZ stays on the higher welfare = decreasing inequality track, we will all end up poorer.

What is most needed right now is for more people to take ownership of their actions. To create children responsibly, as part of a family unit able to care for and nurture them. With an attitude that their needs are an absolute priority.

All Ardern does is encourage the worst impulses in people. Perhaps she needs to start acting a bit more responsibly too.

Why the ideological attachment to state housing?

The latest MSD report measuring material hardship shows that among children aged 0-17 those in social housing have much higher hardship rates.

Rates of hardship are measured by items lacking such as a, "meal with meat, fish or chicken (or vegetarian equivalent) at least each 2nd day" or shortfalls like "could not pay an unexpected and unavoidable bill of $500 within a month without borrowing." (See p14 for full list)

But a state house tenant should have more money left over after accommodation costs due to lower income-related rents.

Many state house occupants are young. According to Kainga Ora, with around 68,000 properties: "Approximately 82,000 of our household occupants are under the age of 20, and 39,000 are under the age of ten: a critical time in child development. More than 30% of our tenancies belong to sole parents." 

The next graph depicts under 65s with the red bars representing greatest hardship, dark green, the least.

Again, the worst hardship is in social housing, followed by private rental with accommodation supplement.

If social/state housing does such a poor job of alleviating material hardship, why the continued ideological attachment to it? At least subsidised private rental housing does a slightly better job bearing in mind those percentage differences represent thousands of individuals.

From the report, one final related graph for you. 

Of all the household type profiles below, which most closely resembles social housing/ private rent with AS?

Sole parent families - many in subsidised state or private rentals - continue to harbour the greatest hardship.  Coincidentally the high incidence of these families is another result of a failed ideological fervour - the rejection of nuclear families.

Only 8,800 Kiwis unemployed for a year or more

The NZ Initiative this week released a paper arguing against introducing unemployment insurance. One reason advanced is that relative to other countries  NZ doesn't have a problem with long-term unemployment:

"Perhaps more importantly, long-term unemployment, that is, people who have been unemployed for 12 months or more, is also relatively low in New Zealand ... In 2020, long-term unemployed was only 8.9% of total unemployed in New Zealand."

Is that a surprise to you?

Their statistic comes from the OECD which in turn derives its data from the NZ Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS).

According to the latest September HLFS quarter supplementary tables (Table 4) only 8,800 individuals had been unemployed for over a year.

I summed the final row which shows a total lower than the reported 98,000 unemployed. The explanation is, "These categories will not sum to total unemployed due to the exclusion of unemployment durations not specific enough to fit into one of the stated categories." I take that to mean if  the respondent had been unemployed for 4.5 weeks for instance they couldn't be categroised. But 'over 1 year' is very specific so we can stick with 8,800.

Yet according to MSD Sept quarter benefit data tables, of 193,635 Job Seeker recipients 121,110 had been dependent for more than a year. 

Yes it is possble to be getting Job Seeker and working part-time. The following table is unfortunately a little dated but at the end of 2019 only 6.8 percent of Job Seekers were working part-time:

That leaves 93.2 percent not working.

The Job Seeker benefit is obviously ill-named as so many of its recipients are not actually seeking jobs. 98,000 officially unemployed versus over 193,000 Job Seeker beneficiaries (I  blogged earlier that many have no work obligations because they are too ill to work and would have previously been on the old Sickness Benefit).

But this latest anomaly regarding duration of unemployment is both baffling and absurd.

Furthermore the mismatch between Statistics NZ and MSD data is getting worse.

Ardern dead wrong

The Prime Minister says the thousands that descended on Parliament today are "not representative"  citing vaccination rates to support her claim.

Bollocks. Getting vaccinated does not indicate support for the government and their approach to Covid.

The march was an anti-government protest. It was anti lock downs and vaccination mandates, and whatever else each participant is holding against Ardern and her ministers. Look at the signs and listen to the chants.

If she truly believes that crowd isn't representative of a much bigger group she has lost touch with reality.