MONEY, BANKS, FINANCES AND CURRENCIES WITHIN NZ Please contribute

The inequality gap between rich and poor in NZ
my analysis is from myself who is a ordinary citizen of NZ with not a lot of means.
What it seems to come down to for me is how money seems to be the power that leads to corruption and determines how different people live their lives within the widening gap between the rich and poor in NZ.
Understanding the life of money and how it is used is the first step and I give you this link which simplifies a take on money for most people to comprehend.
http://collaborativehomeownership.co.nz/what-is-money/
In my opinion it is through the power of money that allows the politics of government to not act in the best interest of all its citizens

Kia ora Pamela, that's my biggest concern too. The concentration of money in the hands of fewer and fewer people gives them the power to call the shots and brainwash others into their way of seeing things, which is almost always for their own benefit and never mind anyone else's.

I grew up in postwar NZ when it was quite difficult to become rich because of a high top tax rate and most of the rich guys were large sheep or beef farmers who had spent the Depression years building up their assets in readiness for the good times that came with the increased needs of a country at war.

Most people were much better off then. Unemployment and inflation were both below 3% and among the lowest in the world, hospital care was 100% free and so were ambulance and similar healthcare services.

Infrastructure was mostly Government-owned - who remembers Government Life Insurance, State Fire Insurance, State Hydro, State Advances, State Housing, State Forestry, Government Tourist Bureau, the Post Office and its POSB and Telephone Services divisions, NZR and the Ministry of Works? All now either privatised or close to it. Between them they could comfortably generate significant employment when times were bad, so there was much less need for welfare services - the State Forest Service had jobs tree planting, Railways needed track maintenance staff, MOW could use construction workers, and so on. That gave Government considerably more control over employment than it now has, and it didn't matter too much if some Government enterprises made a loss because we were getting forests planted and hydro dams built in return for money that today gets paid out as benefits and spent on consumer goods instead of something lasting.

I know we can't go back to those days, but I do think taxing the rich much more heavily and spending that money on social services would be a good starting point.

Put simply, I think a Government's first priority should be looking after its citizens, and I give this one about 2 out of 10. It's the worst I've known in my lifetime.

Cool. I'm keen to have a discussion about quite a few things that affect us internally too, but also interested in the part we play as global citizens. I'll just list a few things briefly for now.

• Unrest in the middle east and the immigration crisis. How can we aid internationally and what hospitality can we provide internally.

• TPPA, and ensuring economic choice, freedom and power remain in the hands of residents at the grassroots.

• Restructuring our democracy. Until it happens, perhaps the best that can be done in the meantime is create civil prefigurative proxy democratic systems that begin to build momentum and bring it back to all of us as we speak (eg Loomio).

• Suicide and community health & wellbeing

• Grassroots community development - encouraging and supporting the people in everyone's efforts to build sincere and well interconnected and integrated communities. The emergence of a wholesome network of wholesome networks.

• Supporting the emergence of social enterprise and entrepreneurial startups, and the transformation of traditional corporate organisational and ownership structures.

• Enhancing governance by better tapping into e-tools of the digital age.

• I like your reflections on past times and state owned property Alan. Very interested in exploring the new evolving ideas about sharing of resources in the commons - the emerging new forms of "public" that aren't necessarily state regulated, rather it is regulated by distributed, decentralised community networks.

• Restructuring the taxation and currency system into something that is more voluntary, but also more inclusively democratic (and therefore "neo"-socialist)

• Advancing the emergence of 21c educational possibilities - supporting the growth of alternative education opportunities, and transforming the traditional educational establishment also

• growing and evolving 21c disputes resolution, reparation, and restorative justice system

• Grassroots community empowerment and the transition from a nation-state to a stateless nation.

And the development of sustainable local produce. Homegrower and community gardener workshops - make the most of our suburban lands and learn how to survive without complete dependence on the market and grow capacity for semi-subsistence to begin with.

Most food is produced a long way from the people who eat it, with no thought for what would happen if the oil ran out faster than we could replace all those trucks. Supermarkets only carry enough stock to last five days. No food in the shops? What would you do?

Something similar happened in Holland in the last few months of World War II when the supply chain failed. Many families had to eat tulip bulbs to survive.

IF YOU ARE NOT WEALTHY YOUR STUFFED.
The government has reached a fiscal surplus Yaaaaaa
Good for NZ citizens ???? nah its at our expense
How did they achieve this:???
By reducing expenditure on public services such as:
health, education, police, environment, armed forces, biosecurity, etc
Privatisation of services like prisons, education, health, etc. to remove expenditure off the government books
State owned enterprises: e.g.: ACC, Air New Zealand, TVNZ are compelled to make greater profits through denying the resources they need.
Voluntary organisations are forced to close down for want of proper funding.
Unemployment rate remains so high, growth slows, the gap between rich and poor widens

http://thestandard.org.nz/social-democratic-economy-part-2/

I agree with Pamela that the gap is widening. My view is that economic growth is unachievable if the working class are struggling. The rich put their money in their pockets, low income earners put their money back into the pot so to speak. Not to mention recently it was discovered that in NZ there are at least 250 nzers that are being watched by the IRD because their assets are considered millions but claim they earn less than 70K a year. If anyone that was on low income and put the wrong tax code by mistake it would be deducted immediately after it was discovered, why are the rules different? I'd be very interested if anyone can answer that.
I also want to expand on some of Williams ideas especially the sustainable local produce. I have a similar idea that could possibly target child poverty. I believe that all schools primary, intermediate and high schools should have a garden that they all tend to. Even growing fruit trees on the grounds instead of pines etc. It might cost a lot at first but the return is far more beneficial on more than one level.
Alan the NZ you grew up in sounds amazing. It is sad that things seem to be going downhill.

I reckon a cool thing to do would be, once we've had a variety of in depth consultations on various topics, then to assemble the outcomes into appropriate letters and address them to the relevant govt ministers that have the portfolios covering those areas. My experience with the ministers so far is that they have actually been quite responsive which is confirming, so it would be really interesting to see what changes could potentially happen and added to the plans as the result of just sharing a few really cool ideas we've come up with.
Would also help build up the portfolio & reputation of NZ's very own open & participatory "civil society" portals - attracting more people to join in and have a say too.

Re your :'assemble the outcomes into appropriate letters and address them to the relevant govt ministers that have the portfolios covering those areas. '
I think we could also address these to all parties portfolio holders an see what response we get.