4 ms·

My opinion may be controversial, but I never understood this logic... I live in New Zealand at the moment. I am not Kiwi though, my wife and I moved from Russia

by kovrik 8y ago

My opinion may be controversial, but I never understood this logic... I live in New Zealand at the moment. I am not Kiwi though, my wife and I moved from Russia. And I disagree. First, stats show that foreign buyers own ~3% of homes. Everything else is kiwi-owned. Second, there is another thing going on here -- KiwiBuild. Basically, government funds and builds 'affordable houses'. Prices (in NZD) are $500-650k, but now they want to have even more affordable houses - $300k. For comparison, actual average house price in Auckland is above $1kk. My wife and I work really hard, NZ is not our country, English is not our language, the culture is different, we have nothing to inherit here. Why should we pay (with our taxes) for poor kiwis who can't afford a house? Shouldn't they work harder instead? Get education, get better job. We wish we could buy a $1kk+ house in Auckland too, but we can't. If you can't afford a house, then buy an apartment because they are much cheaper. Yes, it is not that fancy, but at least you'll have a place to live in. I mean, yeah, Labour party is in power in NZ at the moment, hence such policies like 'Let's increase salaries to poor workers, let's give them houses, let's increase maternity leave etc.'. The problem is that somebody has to pay for that. UPD: another problem in my opinion is that Kiwi culture is very different. NZ is isolated from the rest of the world. It is very quiet here, people are very relaxed, everything goes slow. People are not used to work hard (in my opinion). It is common here to spend a year or two doing nothing, just traveling around the world after graduation. Many people don't want to build a career, they want to 'try many different jobs, find themselves, enjoy life'. Many people live with their parents, start thinking about career at the age of 30-35. At work, if it is 4pm (sometimes 5pm) -- people just leave and go home. "We have an urgent task" here means that it must be done within a week. In schools they teach children that everyone is a winner -- even if you have poor marks. Also, if there are any competitive games/sports, then sometimes they make it that the winner is not the one who actually won, but the one whose turn today is. And so on. Hence many people here, when they grow up, are not used to fight for survival. Just enjoy their quiet life in a beautiful country. But then they are 35, have no money, no career, but want a fancy house... Sorry if I'm being too harsh, don't mean to offend. But this is my take on Kiwi culture, the way I see it as a non-native.

vilmosi 8y ago
> Why should we pay (with our taxes) for poor kiwis who can't afford a house? Why pay taxes at all for a country you're not citizen of? /s Seriously now, it's because you live there. Their government makes the rules, you decided to live there and, by extension, decided to follow their rules. > I mean, yeah, Labour party is in power in NZ at the moment, hence such policies like 'Let's increase salaries to poor workers, let's give them houses, let's increase maternity leave etc.'. The problem is that somebody has to pay for that And, given which democratically elected government is in power, it's their right to choose how to spend their money.
- kovrik 8y ago
  Yes, you are right and I don't disagree with you. I understand this. And I really love New Zealand, no regrets moving here at all! That is just my view on such policies. As you might have guessed, I'm not a labourist.
  - lancewiggs 8y ago
    All the political parties here have similar polices - it's a country with a social welfare system. On the margin National/ACT (blue) like to cut taxes and spend less social welfare and Labour (red)/Greens the reverse. After 3 terms with blue we had overshot, and Labour iOS having their turn at the well. I encourage all voters to be swing voters - that way they have a chance to influence policy. There are good politicians across all parties here, and we are lucky for that.
Tade0 8y ago
Coming from Poland I had a very similar fist impression when I started living in-and-out in Italy. Nevertheless at some point I started thinking: Maybe these guys are right and I'm wrong? Maybe there's more to life than this "fight for survival" and I shouldn't value my ability to do so so highly? There's a level of, for lack of a better word, satisfaction I see on people's faces daily in Italy that I know I won't achieve, because I was born in a poor country in a rather poor family and had to claw myself out of poverty. I think it's precious. I wish my (future) children lived in a world where they can have, like my SO likes to put it, "two youths" - one spent on doing personally meaningful, fulfilling things, and the other doing what's necessary to live an independent life.

by kovrik 8y ago

vilmosi 8y ago

> Why should we pay (with our taxes) for poor kiwis who can't afford a house? Why pay taxes at all for a country you're not citizen of? /s Seriously now, it's because you live there. Their government makes the rules, you decided to live there and, by extension, decided to follow their rules. > I mean, yeah, Labour party is in power in NZ at the moment, hence such policies like 'Let's increase salaries to poor workers, let's give them houses, let's increase maternity leave etc.'. The problem is that somebody has to pay for that And, given which democratically elected government is in power, it's their right to choose how to spend their money.

kovrik 8y ago
Yes, you are right and I don't disagree with you. I understand this. And I really love New Zealand, no regrets moving here at all! That is just my view on such policies. As you might have guessed, I'm not a labourist.
- lancewiggs 8y ago
  All the political parties here have similar polices - it's a country with a social welfare system. On the margin National/ACT (blue) like to cut taxes and spend less social welfare and Labour (red)/Greens the reverse. After 3 terms with blue we had overshot, and Labour iOS having their turn at the well. I encourage all voters to be swing voters - that way they have a chance to influence policy. There are good politicians across all parties here, and we are lucky for that.

Tade0 8y ago

Coming from Poland I had a very similar fist impression when I started living in-and-out in Italy. Nevertheless at some point I started thinking: Maybe these guys are right and I'm wrong? Maybe there's more to life than this "fight for survival" and I shouldn't value my ability to do so so highly? There's a level of, for lack of a better word, satisfaction I see on people's faces daily in Italy that I know I won't achieve, because I was born in a poor country in a rather poor family and had to claw myself out of poverty. I think it's precious. I wish my (future) children lived in a world where they can have, like my SO likes to put it, "two youths" - one spent on doing personally meaningful, fulfilling things, and the other doing what's necessary to live an independent life.