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>They have government-sanctioned monopolies in everything from office property to ski resorts. Telecom industry is even more of a joke than Australia or US. TI

>They have government-sanctioned monopolies in everything from office property to ski resorts. Telecom industry is even more of a joke than Australia or US. TIL resisting neoliberal market ideology = corruption. Why is this hard to understand? A tiny nation cannot rely on private capital to establish massive projects like national telecom or even office buildings. So people band together through government to do it. Sorry that government ownership of anything but a global war machine seems to offend you.

abiox 10y ago
(Not being familiar with New Zealand myself) my impression was that they were referring to govt accepting or accommodating private monopolies.
deleted 10y ago
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wallace_f 10y ago
We apparently just disagree about what I am assuming to be a right: People to have just and fair competition in a law-abiding marketplace. In a marketplace, people get to choose with their dollars which goods and services they want the most. In socialist or an authoritarian regimes, a government decides for you what you need, who gets it, who gets the profits, but they make you pay for it. Whether they use their citizens wealth to produce Wars on Drugs, ski resorts or office buildings is up to them. While I'd rather they produce ski resorts or office buildings, the idea that a government needs to intervene in order to develop any of those is ridiculous. >Sorry that government ownership of anything but a global war machine seems to offend you. That is not fair, and it's insulting. Nowhere did I say I support war.
- cylinder 10y ago
  I don't even follow what you're talking about. There are three telecom networks in NZ, the government owned one was privatized long ago and is publicly listed. There are private ski resort companies. In a lot of ways, Australia and NZ have gone far deeper into the neoliberal privatization rabbit hole than the US. NY airports run by the Port Authority isn't corruption? NY has government run ski resorts too. And either way, socialism != corruption. You may not like it, but that doesn't mean it's corruption.
lacampbell 10y ago
You really don't think Chorus needs any competition!?

abiox 10y ago

(Not being familiar with New Zealand myself) my impression was that they were referring to govt accepting or accommodating private monopolies.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

wallace_f 10y ago

We apparently just disagree about what I am assuming to be a right: People to have just and fair competition in a law-abiding marketplace. In a marketplace, people get to choose with their dollars which goods and services they want the most. In socialist or an authoritarian regimes, a government decides for you what you need, who gets it, who gets the profits, but they make you pay for it. Whether they use their citizens wealth to produce Wars on Drugs, ski resorts or office buildings is up to them. While I'd rather they produce ski resorts or office buildings, the idea that a government needs to intervene in order to develop any of those is ridiculous. >Sorry that government ownership of anything but a global war machine seems to offend you. That is not fair, and it's insulting. Nowhere did I say I support war.

cylinder 10y ago
I don't even follow what you're talking about. There are three telecom networks in NZ, the government owned one was privatized long ago and is publicly listed. There are private ski resort companies. In a lot of ways, Australia and NZ have gone far deeper into the neoliberal privatization rabbit hole than the US. NY airports run by the Port Authority isn't corruption? NY has government run ski resorts too. And either way, socialism != corruption. You may not like it, but that doesn't mean it's corruption.

lacampbell 10y ago

You really don't think Chorus needs any competition!?