27 November, 2005

I wonder what next year will hold for us. We have been given warnings about water levels again but continue to water our lawns frivolously. We have been warned about deficit spending and the impact it will have. We have been warned about the cost of oil and that with the northern hemisphere going into winter the cost will likely only keep going up at an ever increasing rate. All of these issues have a delay on them but all of them are dangerously serious. I’ve always tended to think that those who laugh in the face of danger tended to be a little unstable.

My partner watches TV in the morning before work and sometimes I am unfortunate enough to catch it. This week I was sitting in my usual morning daze watching something called ‘Breakfast. I think it’s meant to be a sort of journalistic talks how. Anyway, they were interviewing Michael Cullen (finance minister) about interest rates, tax cuts and in general trying, and succeeding, to be abrasive. Despite the really stupid questioning Mr Cullen said a few things that made sense [to me]. The first was that he thought we needed to find controls beyond interest rates to slow spending. The second was that one of his priorities was to make a viable market for first home buyers. This struck a nerve with me anyway but he went on to say (after some confused questioning) that he meant a ‘home’ and not an ‘investment’. He very carefully made the distinction that real estate could be a great part of any investment portfolio but that NZers tended to put all there money into it as a single investment…because we tend not to save enough in general. You have got like that guy. He knows full well that when the deficit spending comes home to roost people will blame whoever the finance minister is. I’d be getting my sound bites recorded on TV as proof of my warnings as well.

When I started my business the one predominant piece of advice was “run it as a business and not a hobby”. The idea is that a business makes money, a hobby tends to spend it. Both can be fun and be based on ideals and values but the distinction is definite. It has occurred to me that the ‘investment housing’ market is mostly bollocks as is reflected in the general lack of professionalism in the rental market. The phrase “it’ll be good enough for a rental property” is common place now which should scare the willies out of any human out there as it effectively defines someone who rents as being somewhat less than someone who owns. Class is alive and well in New Zealand make no mistake.

During the course of a discussion recently I discovered that there are approximately 2.2 billion [human] children on this planet. 1.9 billion of them live in developing countries and 1 billion of them live in poverty. Kinda puts things in perspective when I look at a classroom of students each with a computer and most of them not caring. This is a very challenging world.

We have started harvesting from the garden. I can still hold my own in that area at least.