M. Dilger on Nostr: What can I say... The economy sucks. Incomes are only about 30% of what you would ...

What can I say...

The economy sucks. Incomes are only about 30% of what you would make in the USA, fuel is almost 10x as expensive, and most imports are about 1x-2x as expensive. Most enterprising people (especially men) tend to leave New Zealand after school so they can make real money somewhere else such as Australia. Many of the men left are criminals, and the police do not have the gang situation very well under control. The women get to pick among these remaining criminals, which means the next generation is even more criminal than the last. I'm being very hyperbolic here. Luckily there aren't so many murders, but there is a lot of theft.

There are thousands of laws pushing an extreme version of affirmative action, many of which actually just give massive power to the heads of certain Iwi (tribes), and others give special treatment to people who claim to be of Maori descent, or pacific islander descent, but even though many of these have been in place since 1974 they seem to make no difference to the outcomes of those racial groups. You could call it institutionalized racism. The right-wing folk believe it is wrong, but kiwis can stomach quite a lot... it is not like white people are going to rise up and start a race war. But the population is getting sick of Labour so there is a good chance National will take power next.

The government is pretty ineffective at everything they try, so you can usually just ignore them.

The media are bought off. You can't trust them. But that is the same all around the world now. In every country (apparently) people have lower and lower trust of institutions. I think for good reasons. What I don't know is why the institutions have become so untrustworthy. I do not believe that it is just that their failings have become more visible, there is evidence that their behavior has deteriorated.

Among farm communities, people are as good as they come. It's great to get to know your neighbors and work together as a tight knit community.

Nuclear war will never come to New Zealand so that's reassuring. Neither will nuclear power ;-(

There is plenty of space, and lots of beautiful rugged and "deep bush" country.

There are no poisonous animals (except a beach spider) and no natural animals of size that could maul you. So the animal life is very safe.

There are a lot more earthquakes than in California, but I prefer lots of tiny earthquakes to fewer larger ones.

Most of the land is not good for cropping due to low phosphate and low sulfur (you would think volcanic activity would deposit sulfur, but nope) so the highest and best use of land is grazing of animals which is why we are famous for sheep and dairy exports.

I might be wrong on some of what I have said. This is off the top of my head.