Ouch
October 30th, 2009 at 10:12 am by David FarrarGreat party last night, hosted by LM and J at the Green Room. They are a Wellington instiution.
This is why there has been no blogging this morning. In fact have just finished my NBR online column. It is on the forecast that income tax rates will have to increase by 5.5%, if we don’t make changes to superannuation. Apologies to NBR for missing the deadline.
Related posts:
- Writing for NBR
- Middle East politics
- The 1st Dispatch from St Johnnysberg
- Long Term Fiscal Forecast for NZ
October 30th, 2009 at 10:20 am
5.5%!
Glad we have that albatross as well as ACC.
Vote:October 30th, 2009 at 10:25 am
I’ve heard that Kiwisaver will probably lead to privatised super (a la Sweden eh ACT
?), how’s that work?
Vote:October 30th, 2009 at 10:28 am
We already knew – Busted Blonde has a pic of you applying lip gloss. Not to your own lips.
[DPF: Aargh I told her to destroy that photo or else]
Vote:October 30th, 2009 at 10:43 am
Water, oranges and ice cream might reduce the ouch.
Vote:October 30th, 2009 at 10:43 am
I’ve heard that Kiwisaver will probably lead to privatised super (a la Sweden eh ACT
?), how’s that work?
Really? I heard that Little is going to disband the Labour Party.
Vote:October 30th, 2009 at 11:03 am
Actually DPF, the higher taxes are not 5.5%, but 5.5 percentage points. For the lowest tax rate, that is an increase of around 40%. For the next one, it is over 20%.
Vote:October 30th, 2009 at 11:24 am
And what is John Key and Bill English’s response to the Treasury report? Paraphrased it is this:
“We have knowingly promised to mismanage public finances by maintaining an unaffordable welfare system. However, that is what the public wants and, as leaders, we must follow them. We know that future governments will have to raise the super retirement age and implement a whole lot of measures to turn things around, but by the time that happens we will be comfortably retired on our parliamentary super.”
It is not surprising that someone who maintains that their primary home is in Dipton, but whose entire family has lived in Wellington for years, would also claim super to be affordable indefinitely! It’s part of the same delusional complex.
Vote:October 30th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
DPF, make sure you visit Isfahan (about 340 k’s south of Tehran) – the architecture really is quite breathtaking, and get a Iranian to explain how the acoustics work in the Imam mosque for the call to prayer – technically amazing. You can get there by plane; takes one hour from Tehran but Iran Air uses an old Aeroflot fleet, and it was the scariest hour of my life, so its up to you! On the other hand, no one abides by the road code or the traffic lights amounting to real live dodgems on eight lane freeways and I was involved in two crashes there in two weeks so either way its pretty scary. They do use sherman tanks for cars though so general damage is not too bad.
You also get to have the full pat down by the big security guys (they look like something off a Frank Zappa album cover) at the airport, even when flying domestic. An absolute must-do is to go and watch the ancient persian wrestling in Isfahan. It is like nothing else on earth. You must take photos.
http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/koppel/iran/diaries/jay.html
An added bonus is that all the uranium Iran produces is processed in Isfahan!
The other thing to go and see are the Zoroastrian caves. You can do this on a day trip. Not as impressive as Petra – what is – but still pretty awesome all the same. Tehran has some fabulous museums, some pre-Islamic, which I highly recommend too. The persian rug museum was pretty cool. North Tehran is much wealthier and greener and has good souks. All restaurants are underground so look down if you are trying to find somewhere to eat. The national dish is chelo-kebab (lamb and rice) and you get this everywhere. Look out for the fluoro hot pink tomatoes!
Things not to do:
1> Don’t wear shorts or short sleeves when out in public.
2> Don’t touch women at all, don’t shake their hands, not even other tourists when talking to them. You can touch men though!
3> Don’t look at the national guards when you see them, they have very big machine guns and they don’t like to be stared at.
4> Quadruple this advice when you drive past the old U.S. Embassy – you can sneak a peek if you are careful but the guards there are very militant and are a law unto themselves. Even the Iranians who aren’t in the army refrain from looking at them. If you are stopped by them do not expect much help from the civilian Iranians.
5> When taking photos make sure you aren’t taking any of government buildings or spy facilities (no joke!). You will have your camera confiscated. It happened to me, but I managed to get mine back with film intact, though they were still pretty suspicious and this also possibly led to me being detained on departure.
6> There is no alcohol allowed. Period. You can drink zam zam (coke), bottled water (most tastes yuk), watermelon juice, tea, or non-alcoholic beer. If you put a bit of salt and lemon slice in it, it passes for Corona.
Good luck! (just kidding, I’d go back again)
Vote: