Would you say that all the citizens in prosperous countries, which you keep comparing NZ with, are really better off than we are. Even in USA there are millions who live in poverty, yet it is seen to be the lucky country with untold wealth.

NZ would be well off too if we threw our beneficiaries on the scrap heap and had no Retirement pension or free hospital. Obama is trying to lift the plight of the poor but the the Republican mantra has no place for Social Welfare.

Where would you rather be, Jens? Sharing or gloating with cash in the bank? The Nats struggle to wipe out Social Welfare but know they will be out on their ear if they do. So they chip away bit by bit and pick on the most vulnerable by using propaganda to label them as bludgers.

We paid for our retirement wage through taxes, which were used to prop up bad Govts. spendthrift ways and now, it is a struggle to find money for future retirees. Bill would love to get his hands on the Super fund, and who knows, he just might succeed.

Joybel, haven't you understood yet, that our welfare state can't cope with the widening welfare needs which can be met only by ourselves through govt. as taxpayers, or directly?
Obviously something has gone wrong, when instead of our pretty generous welfare having reduced welfare dependency, the latter has been increased, i.e, expanding poverty has only been "papered over" by our welfare, but not cured.
In other words, our generous welfare state - which I support in principle but not in its economically self-defeating and flawed practice by relying more on income redistribution than on personal wealth creation - actually generates widening, not narrowing poverty, by neglecting and ignoring the basics of economic sustainability - an adequate savings and investment rate to deliver what we desire on a sustainable basis.
That is also the cause of poverty amidst plenty in America, and they will not succeed in eliminating their poverty unless they raise their savings and investment rate on a far wider - preferably all-inclusive - basis.
I was very happy to arrive here and pay 1/6 in the pound (7.5%) into our "super fund", supposed to have matured by the 1960s, for non means- tested universal super from age 65.
It's investment ended up wrongly, when through political pressure it was borrowed by govt. to finance the welfare our majority demanded.
If it had been accumulated and invested properly as our current NZ "Cullen" Super fund, and for transparency on our Personal Accounts - it would have been obvious, that the richest of us finance their own NZ Super 100%, and your P.Account might have financed your NZ Super for many years, and would have been a smaller cost to govt. and taxpayer, than what it is now.
And I am embarrassed, because young people owning nothing and on "beginners wages" have to pay for my and your NZ Super, without building up any super security for themselves - other than an "entitlement" potentially not backed up by anything, if all our earnings are being consumed, and no wealth created.
Do you really prefer the wealthy alone being involved in wealth creation, and be happy with the "crumbs" dribbling down, like a medieval serf?

Squirter, is the above empty chatter, or a good basis for a more active drive to urge amending the NZ Super Fund into a permanent institution of Personal Accounts, with contributions into them built into our taxation system, under the condition of its immediate investment in NZ infrastructure and productivity (under our own ownership) at least until excessive unemployment has been overcome?
There is no doubt whatever that the only way of wealth creation - (which is not the same as winning on lotto - lotto wealth is created by the ticket buyers - only for the winner) - is through saving, and the key to increased productivity is more to apply more capital (savings) per worker.

Matter of fact - each one of us - including welfare beneficiaries etc - is able to raise his/her profitable productivity by the simple act of consuming slightly less (i.e. a bit of healthy "belt tightening") at any given rate of income to create a profit or "surplus" or saving for wealth creative investment.

Most of us would be happy to experience the results of it, so it should be possible to get most of us enthusiastic about it!