"Belladonna - at least part of the trouble is, that we have allowed our "basic needs" to become much more than what they were 50 years ago - "


50 years ago Jens,electricity prices weren't so high. Nor were food,rent etc. etc. The difference is low wages & high costs.

And a free education from 5 - 14 really was pretty much free. Jobs were near where workers lived. You could walk or bike to work. There was an efficient & affordable public transport system.

Now our brilliant city planners have built dormitory suburbs miles from the workplaces and linked them with motorways designed for CARS. Public transport in many parts of NZ is non-existent or at the very least sparse & expensive.

Our factories have closed down and cheap goods imported from o/s. Our wages have barely kept pace with inflation over 30 years. Unless we are the 20% at the top who are just breaking even or better still, the 1% who are creaming it.

And who are these top 20% and 1% I wonder? Well, guess what - they are not actual business owners, rocket scientists, brain surgeons, captains of industry. No, what we have now is Managerial Capitalism. The biggest pay packets and perks are going to the Managers, the CEOs, the very same people who set the pay scales for themselves and their mates, manage ours down, manage our jobs offshore and close our businesses down, and they do it all on other people's money not their own. They don't have skin in the game. At the end of it, they manage themselves off to another position with their golden handshake in their very deep pockets.

And I wouldn't mind betting, if we all save all we can and all we must, the managerial capitalist will simply raise our rates, raise our taxes, raise his salary and perks, sell our assets, raise the price of everything and stuff us all over again.

After all, every time NZ starts to do well business-wise, what happens? Up goes the dollar, up goes inflation, up go the interest rates, in come the speculators, and down goes our ability to spend and save.

Only those who have all they need can afford to save more. The rest must spend to live. And the managers manage to make money. It doesn't compute and it never will while we have the economic system we have.

Many Russians are unhappy that Communism has gone. The small farmers who were given back the land to produce food are going bankrupt as the large consortiums are growing cheaper than they can. What qualifies a Third world country and how far is the West from joining them.

Yes arandar, manager capitalism - similar in principle to bureaucracy capitalism in a "socialist" state - really does seem to be a corrupting factor of sound ownership (managed) capitalism.

Well, we cannot do away with managers, but reasonable restraints of excessive "manager capitalism abuse" should be possible.

Especially, I believe, this "manager capitalism abuse" does happen with the NZSF because it is being watched closely by govt. and the public, and would be even more closely and effectively scrutinized if amended into a permanent institution of Personal Accounts.

Therefore, would not the NZSF be the ideal economic institution to run the long term child poverty elimination effort through just delivering better retirement prosperity and widening NZ investment (jobs creative) wealth ownership?

Hasn't the NZSF done a superb and trustwofrthy job so far, and might have even been able to help retain NZ ownership of the Crafar Farms, if it had more public backing in contributions?

I think I read that the Superfund managers will be investing in other farmland.

Yes Joybel - read forum "Saving New Zealand", and how that can really CURE and eliminate poverty, and not just "cover it up" at someone else's expense, nor by excessive borrowing (for consumption).