4 ms·
Early-rising New Zealander here (it's 5am folks!). Bullet points for starters: 1. We are genuinely relaxed people, life is good, weather not too hot or too co
by antipodean 12y ago
Early-rising New Zealander here (it's 5am folks!).
Bullet points for starters:
1. We are genuinely relaxed people, life is good, weather not too hot or too cold, food easy to get or grow, housing not horribly expensive, healthcare obtainable for all, education as close to free as we can make it and an overall low crime and corruption rate. So the majority of us go to sleep at night, overall, not worried about losing our livelihood one day to the next or not having enough to eat. Similar in this respect to the Northern Europeans.
2. Tall poppy syndrome. We don't like people standing out from the crowd in terms of personality, flamboyance, income - to fit in, you maintain a level of 'bloke/girl next door'. Even if you have tons of money or you are flamboyantly dressy. If not, cue media outcry and attacks, so you move overseas where you can disappear among the masses.
3. Geography! You have no idea how expensive it can be to live here. We work hard to export all our fine goods to you and work harder to import the things we love.
4. The knowledge economy
We are messing up here. Internet is too expensive, kids are not getting properly schooled in computing skills and we don't place a high enough value on STEM. If the government really really focused on STEM the next 10 years our next gen kids could have incredible lives, where distance is no barrier thanks to internet access and quality of life is incredible (those mountains, sheep and rivers/lakes are totally as amazing as you see in the photos).
- silvestrov 12y agoItem 1 + 2 are true for Scandinavia too (except weather).
- lostlogin 12y agoHousing is horribly expensive in Auckland and the cost is rising fast. Compared to wages, Auckland's prices are unaffordable. https://www.interest.co.nz/property/69289/barfoot-thompson-reports-march-sales-slightly-down-year-ago-figures-median-price-surg https://www.interest.co.nz/property/69289/barfoot-thompson-r...
- owenwil 12y agoYes, as another person who resides in NZ here, this is the problem. Our government doesn't realize just how important the Internet is and high-tech companies are to the economy and does nothing to foster them. The PM often refuses to meet even the largest, most promising tech companies (the biggest three) because he sees most of the countries value in agriculture. As someone who works in high-tech company, I can't see any reason to stay here once we've got a big enough base to support ourself. We'll probably shift to the US.
- niels_olson 12y agoHi, how expensive is it? I mean, I live in Southern California, and a 3 bedroom house 17 miles inland is upwards of $500,000. Checking real estate in NZ, houses can readily be found within blocks of the beach for $300,000 NZD (257,000 USD). Seems like a pretty good deal to me...
- bitserf 12y agoOutside of Auckland, it's reasonably affordable. In Auckland, the average price is quite high relative to incomes. Most of my friends who entered the market recently were looking at prices of between $650k-$850k for something smallish in an OK area. This was for houses which were not new builds (70s/80s) and would need a bit of work to get up to scratch (insulation, plumbing, kitchen/bathroom remodelling). So I've just been sitting and building equity and cash reserves. Who knows when/if it will return to earth, but I don't feel comfortable leveraging up that much, so as a single buyer, I'm sitting this one out.