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| Puppy with a bow is cuter than a political related photo |
I tend to stay away
from discussing politics in a public forum as I believe it to be a contentious
subject. Political views are a personal thing and it is
highly unlikely that people’s comments (or rants) on news articles/social media
will influence the way that I will vote.
I am not going to
fight with people that have different opinions to mine as I cannot imagine that
I will change their opinions, nor have people change mine. On the odd occasion people
that make intelligent or well thought out comments/arguments have made me think
about things differently. But ultimately I will make my final choice based on
my own opinions.
I grew up in a ‘left-wing’
household and I have only voted Labour once. Does that make me ‘stupid’ or
‘unable’ to make my own decisions? No it does not. I think that I am a rational
person, and I can usually hold my own in debates where I know my argument.
However, I am not the type of person that just argues for the sake of it and
certainly do not try and argue a point that I know little or nothing about and
hope for the best.
ALL political parties
have made promises (at some time or another) that they have not kept for
whatever reasons. Left and right wing led governments have made mistakes and
then other governments have tried their best to fix those mistakes. It is
almost like a national sport to play the “blame game”. I think that sometimes people forget that
politicians are still human at the end of the day and we ALL make mistakes.
I have never studied
finance or economics but even I can tell that New Zealand is struggling
financially. Will a change of government fix that? Possibly not. Should individual people
also look at starting to change their own behaviour? Definitely!!
So I am going to
think of NZ in terms of my own personal financial experience as I know what it
is like to struggle under enormous personal debt as I did it for years. I could
never see the light and just got further and further into debt.
How did I clear my personal
debt?
- Took ownership of my
debt, consolidated it into one loan and stopped borrowing
- Reduced my cost of
living and lived within my means
- Stopped buying
unnecessary stuff and sold the things I no longer used or needed
- Got an additional
part time job
Now to ‘simplistically’
apply this to NZ
- Stop borrowing and
getting further into debt
- Reduce costs i.e.
politicians spending, benefits, student loans etc. Essentially "trim the fat"
- Put things in
perspective and stop wasting money on unnecessary things i.e. $36 Million to Team NZ (yes I know the current government were “contractually” obliged to give
it, but seriously?!)
- Before you spend the ‘big
bucks’ do your research first!
- Things this country
could learn from this town
By the way I am morally
against selling assets, but even I can see the benefit of selling off 49% of
some assets to try and ensure that they are more profitable and run in a more businesslike manner. If you don’t understand
what the implications of selling state owned assets are then ask someone that does before you cast your vote.
I know I had to.
Lastly, I did a
Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Education as I considered being a
teacher. I worked throughout my degree and I am bloody proud of it even if it
is not a science or business degree. I have an amazing job that I love and do
not regret the choices I made for my tertiary education as it has shaped who I
am both personally and professionally. It is ironic that I nearly studied
politics at University, but ended up choosing different subjects at the
eleventh hour.
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