actually, they sort of do.

kind of.

NZ’s a lot stricter about the whole ‘bribery’ thing than the US is.

the Problem is that the current government consists mostly of people in the same/equivalent class as the US corporate types who lobby for this sort of thing. They Benefit From It. they also don’t actually give a damn about the country or people, for the most part, or have clue bloody One about macro-economics. they can make money on a currency exchange or share market and think that means they understand economics, and that everyone else, no matter how badly off, can too. nevermind that the vast majority of NZ citizens have 2000 or less NZD in the bank and an income of under 30kNZD a year. the ‘average’ kiwi apparently earns somewhere around 40. said kiwi is a myth. my family is on a government benefit for various reasons, and we Look downright rich from the outside compared to most. this is entirely due to a lack of Debt. most people here owe a Lot (mortgages are the prime offender, but there’s hire-purchase, lay-by, credit cards, car loans… ) then there’s bills, shifting the tax burden from income to sales (and hence from the rich to the poor. the ‘average’ kiwi would gain… a couple of dollars a year. most Real kiwis lost out something closer to ten or more a Week, to my understanding. richer folks, on the other hand, often came out thousands of dollars better off a year, though that’s only from memory. they Did close up a lot of loopholes in the system though, supposedly.)
on top of all that, mum Did have substantially more saved up… the vast majority of which got spent on repairing the house. a lot of what she had to pay for was just damage from age, but with the way the earthquake recovery is going (actual inspectors inspected and said this and that were major problems and earthquake damage and needed fixing. random ‘inspector’ on behalf of whoever would have to pay out comes into the room, doesn’t even LOOK at half the things, and then says all but the most insignificant issues couldn’t Possibly be earthquake damage and talks to mum like she’s an idiot to think otherwise. my mother is well enough educated to know that it’s a load of bullshit and calls him on it (politely.). which doesn’t change anything, as he’s the one signing the forms. this kind of thing is Common.) if i have kept track properly, Mum’s ended up paying for fixing a fair bit of actual earthquake damage too. (if you can manage it, actually having money in the bank is MUCH better than having an insurance policy if anything goes wrong. it also Gains you money rather than losing it in between times. too bad our entire economy, and the government’s welfare/tax system, are set up to discourage any attempt at saving while ALSO being set up to cause most of the money you spend to leave the country rather than move around our internal economy and actually benefit anyone here…)

*sigh*

the pet rants escaped again. sorry ’bout that.
not sorry enough to kill the comment, mind you. but still.