Well done NZ!

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This is probably going to sound a little patronising coming from Australian. Not to worry - its fully intended. 

I meant to write this a few months ago; but I was awaiting the result of a final undertaking in NZ, the sale of my car, and I never got around to it.

During Sept 2012 I travelled from Queenstown to Auckland in 10 days. The purpose of the trip was to move some possessions and to sell the car. During this trip, I would have to say that I met some lovely, generous people. 

Arriving in Queenstown..ok there was a little bit of suspicion when I arrived with just a small backpack. Clearly they thought I was running some drugs. Nope; just moving house. Anyway, on to Christchurch where my car was in storage. The people at A1 Storage were very generous. They helped me kickstart the car after 3 months of non-use; and they gave me flexible access until I confirmed by WOF, which had already expired. Fortunately, I only needed a new tire, and the guy who did that was wonderful as well, because he found me a prospective buyer for my car as well. No money? Fine, generous spirits all round.

I received great service from a motel in Christchurch; though fortunately I could rely on my Filipino partner in the Philippines to make the booking for me because the entire city is booked out due to the 'earthquake rebuild'. This period is a goldmine for motel owners. They were unsurprisingly generous with their service too. Perhaps that is the great news about hardships like earthquakes insofar as the turnaround is destined to be a great confidence builder...with all that spending. 

It was a rush up to Picton, and a ferry ride across to Wellington. During this part of the trip I was looking for some car repair work to cut out some rust and repaint. I found a guy in Palmerston North, and stayed in a local motel. Before I could fix the car I went to my NZ base of Wanganui. I absolutely love this town. It has a prison and some delinquent people, but there are some wonderful people there as well, and the town has a wonderful feel, and some lovely parks. Perhaps not as impressive as Taranaki, 2hours up the road, but special to me. Returning to Palmerston, these guys really worked hard to finish my car in time. It was a big ask, and I was pleased they were able to stick to their commitment. I had to board a flight on Saturday afternoon to Sydney, and I still needed to sell the car. They allowed me to drive up to Auckland to offer my car at auction. 

My original intent was to sell my car at auction with Turners. Unfortunately, I was not satisfied with the service I got from Turners in Purnell, Auckland. The service was far fairer and generous in Palmerston North, where they even drove me to the bus stop, and allowed me to set the reserve price at auction. In Auckland, I was told that there was an oversupply of cars, so they can only give me a very low price. I knew my van was worth $4500-6500 to an end-user, but clearly I was in a hurry to buy. They would not allow me to place my own price like before, so I rejected their $2500. An auto mechanic team up the road gave me $3000, and generously allowed me to sell through them. I decided to just give them any upside, since they did me a great favour, so I accepted their $3000 cash. I also just wanted to leave NZ freely; and also I worry with very generous people if its all a ploy to take advantage of your trust. I trusted him because of the positive sentiments of his staff, and because he was a business owner. It was a little hard though to trust as I felt vulnerable leaving the country. Fortunately, I was not disappointed. 

Thank you NZ. There are some tragic sentiments in the country; but I only saw the best of you on this trip. Rest assured, you will be akin to Arab oil sheikhs when the country discovers more oil & gas in coming years. Very beautiful country...lovely place to drive. 

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Author Andrew Sheldon| Applied Critical Thinking | www.SheldonThinks.com

Redefining the way New Zealanders think

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John Key might be a bit "queasy" but at least he has some sound thinkers on his advisory committee, with plans to radically overhaul welfare. The challenge for him is to incentivise welfare, such that people have a vested interest in working. The problem has always been:

1. The ease with which people can pretend to be working in order to get the payment they want.

2. The higher cost of providing the intervention needed to ensure they are looking for work, or are indeed prepared to perform it. i.e. Adquately trained.

3. The inability of governments to provide 'productive work' and complaints when they would have to displace 'real' jobs undertaken by people employed under standard arrangements.

The Australian scheme suffered because people would just do their minimal 2 job interviews a day, not really caring if they got the job or not. The other problem is ensuring that there is jobs at the end of the training or welfare 'conditionality' clause, which is what really provides the incentive to work. Not tried, is the prospect of engaging with these unemployed...selling the idea that working is actually good for them. Too many are disillusioned, and too many bosses have a short fuse for disillusioned workers with an attitude.

The demand side is the most difficult side to address. The problem is that NZ is at the end of the world. It is difficult to attract investment here. NZ has to find something the rest of the world wants. I have several suggestions:

1. Drop the minimum wage - you have to earn a wage - an attempt to short up wages only creates unemployment

2. Wage differentiation between a 'recession wage' and bonuses retained by employer trust fund for bad times, to help the country build savings. I actually don't like the idea of government intervention in people's income, but in the context of current problems, people need to be encouraged to support themselves. The NZ economy is not doing that, so people need to be encouraged to save. Better if people are individually incentivised, so they take responsibility. i.e. They are required to save their pension until they have a surplus above minimum, thereafter they spend their money as they will.

3. Immigration - I am not a fan of governments using immigration to stimulate economic activity, but NZ needs growth, so siphoning off some of the better-skilled Asians is probably a good idea, at least until the nation's population reaches 8-10mil. i.e. Double current numbers. We all love contemporary NZ as a place to visit...what about escalating it to a place we want to live. Of course greater integration with Australia effectively will help, so the required number could be considerably smaller.

4. Oil discovery - The NZ government ought to be offering subsidises for NZ oil explorers to go out and find oil in its vast offshore basins.

5. Social reconciliation - The problem in democracy is that there is no effective reconciliation of interests. People are able to delude themselves, to retain a self-righteous vested interest group and lobby govt. No respect for facts. Its all about influence. There are people like the animal rights groups who need to be challenged. Parliament needs to be opened up and accountable to meritocrats in the community. At the moment, parliamentarians are as accountable as welfare recipients. I would argue they are honorised welfare recipients at the moment, except they receive it as extortion of taxpayers rather than as a passive recipient of 'entitlements'.

6. Redefine Christchurch as a 'modern city' rather than attempting to 'prop up' its stilted old buildings, only to see them fall over with the next earthquake. Use modern design to create a futuristic city, and at the same time build innovative products that can be exported around the world. We no longer need big homes if we are living in public spaces. Find new economic ways of living, commuting and develop those schemes. Make eco-living an affordable and sensible concept so NZ can absorb 10mil people, and gain the respect of the world. Do that for Christchurch and people will want to live there, irrespective of the earthquake. I would allow Japanese companies who have already designed such schemes to come in and develop a 'mini-Japan' for Japanese retirees. This could be the basis of a free trade agreement with the Japanese, giving NZ'ers the opportunity to live and work in Japan.

There are too many NZ'ers living in a delusional world of government support, and these people are sanctioned by taxpayers who stand too readily to indulge their every indulgence and hard luck story. The fact that people were hurt by the earthquake is a testament to their unpreparedness for life. Those better NZ'ers need to require more of the 'other half' lest this country stays a nation of parasites. I know a number of aspirational New Zealanders overseas and they convey the psyche of parasites, manipulators and con men. Its the welfare mentality permeating this nation. A Christian-socialistic-collectivist culture that needs to be eliminated. A nation of perpetrators and victims, but always with a delusional smile. They can endlessly drop their expectations or standards, but at the end of the day...someone is going to pay. The brain drain is the inevitable result of the moral discourse in this country. Is John Key brave enough to confront it. On two levels, one is inclined to think he is:

1. He came out critical of those on welfare....I hope to does retain a level of engagement with welfare recipients....not a detached, self-righteousness. They do have legitimate issues, i.e. There are few jobs.

2. He has embraced the need for welfare reform.

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Author Andrew Sheldon| Applied Critical Thinking | www.SheldonThinks.com

NZ - a nation of rorters?

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There are few countries in the world where one feels like one is in a free society. I have lived in a number of countries, and among them I would have to say that in terms of 'freedom from some form of extortion', I probably most felt extorted in New Zealand and the Philippines. NZ is probably worse, but then I feel richer in the Philippines because things are generally cheaper. In Australia or Japan, I did not feel so much of a problem, at least not at a commercial level.

I have been living in a short term rental lease in Queenstown, NZ, and I must say that the property managers in this place are abysmal for the following reasons:

1. Their contract was wrong from day one - they could not even calculate the right some. I can't remember if it was in our favour or theirs.

2. The property condition report was very adverse to us - in as much as they had not picked up a lot of the property damage. This is a potential rort. I complained about this. The problem is that when the agent 'misses' so many items, you are destined to miss some as well.

3. The property manager did not provide me with a copy of the property report. This is strange. I have never leased in NZ before, but it strikes me as strange that the tenant does not get a copy of the report. I asked for acknowledgement that they have received my copy. It was a struggle to get even that.

4. I was required to clean the apartment when I left the property. This might have been appropriate if I had in fact been in there more than 3 months, and the carpet needed cleaning. This strikes me as another rort. What I will do is that when I leave, I will require that they produce evidence that the carpets had been cleaned prior to my entering the premises, because I remember otherwise.

Australia has a rather good regulatory system for managing the relationship between tenants and landlords. In fairness to landlords, they are probably not making much money. At least not the owners of apartments like these. You are buying a depreciating asset, you have high property management fees. The property manager can be viewed standing around talking to people. Property managers are making easy money probably, when the asset owners get a raw deal. It is of course the owners of land who get the sweet deal.

I don't like living in a police state. Neither do I like living in a country where you are inclined to feel everyone is our to squeeze you for a buck. Nor do I like living in a society where you accept the requirement to pay tax, you live in fear of the system, but you deceive everyone around you by rorting the system. i.e. You set up a business, you rort the system with all these false or dubious business expenses, in order to keep your taxes down. People with a respect for reality, or honest people are penalised. Pretty soon there are no honest people left.

Welcome to the real world. Its not so pleasant. Everyone is a con, but only because they have to be in order to survive. No one questions the system because no one can change the system. You suck it up, then one day there is riots. We are witnessing them today in the Middle East. Its like a domino effect. Repressed individuals seemingly become incensed overnight and protest. We saw the same in the 1990s with the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles.

One day consumers, taxpayers, maybe everyone is going to say they have had enough. I just hope that they don't turn to government for solutions, because they are middlemen; they are the problem.

If you are thinking my contempt for the practice of a Queenstown property manager is enough. I am accustomed to being rorted. I have dealt with the building trades. Same in Australia mind you. The building trade in Japan I believe is pretty clean...at least in the cities. I think when you are dealing with businesses reliant on their reputation, you get better service. There will come a time when people will go online looking for services, and for people with a good reputation. We are not there yet, but it will come. Accreditation. People will start to care about their reputation, just as they did in the old days. I love the internet. It will give me the freedom I ultimately deserve.

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Author Andrew Sheldon| Applied Critical Thinking | www.SheldonThinks.com

New Zealanders getting rich from business

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Michael Hill has some important advice for New Zealanders....if you want to be successful...as I guess he thinks you ought to be, then you need to 'get out of your comfort zone'.

This is undoubtedly a problem in NZ. The country is inherently less aspirational than places like the USA, southern Britain or Australia. I do feel these places are 'the land of the free', and NZ has the sense of a retirement 'backwater'. The reality however is that NZ is among the freest countries politically in the world. Sadly this is a relativist view, and statism is a sorry legacy in all countries.

The problem for NZ is that with little population growth and the entrenched government controls means the country cannot depend on population and debt stimulus that other countries do. So either the government has to resort to winding back government or stimulating population growth. I hope the former.

What I find particularly interesting about Michael Hill is that he really only made his break from the age of 40yo. This means there is still hope for me. :) Actually, his perspective is much the same as mine, but for different reasons. According to the NZ Herald, he lost all his possessions in a fire. In my case, I had a life-changing girl friend. She was kind of the first positive person in my life. A best friend....but a kindred spirit in the sense that we were both out to make a difference. I truly believe I am on the path to success now, whereas before I was just a lot of great ideas with no execution. She most importantly changed my view of people. Before I just did not see potential in people. One of the great aspects about the internet is the ability to meet people who think as you do.

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Author Andrew Sheldon| Applied Critical Thinking | www.SheldonThinks.com

The 'other worlders' of NZ - according to WikiLeaks

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WikiLeaks has revealed some US embassy perceptions of NZ people, describing them as 'first worlders' or 'other worlders'. Former NZ Prime Minister regards these comments as disrespectful. The reality however is that they are value judgements, and it is the role of each of us to make value judgements, and respect 'the right' of people to make them. We do not have to be defined by others judgement, and nor should we. We ought to live our lives by our own standards and values, and not substitute others values and judgement uncritically for our own.

If we are efficacious in our thinking, then we have nothing to worry or point of vulnerability. We are prepared to adjust, and we are able to anticipate. The fact is that NZ is a socialist welfare state with a small productive sector. It needs to grow the economy, so it needs to curtail that aspect of the nation which Helen Clark feels compelled to defend....welfare, intrinsic love, i.e. unconditional care for others. Those are the values which have been a disservice to NZ, and those are the values which the US Embassy detests or 'disrespects'. Of course Clark is not going to value any such judgements, because they are antithetical to her own values, as a liberal/socialist.

NZ Property Guide Philippine Real Estate Guide Japan Foreclosed Guide

Author Andrew Sheldon| Applied Critical Thinking | www.SheldonThinks.com