The voter in Wonderland

Consideration of some of the current policies really makes one wonder just where we are heading or are we just experiencing an adventure such as that of Alice in Wonderland .

• Tertiary education funding shortfalls for students to meet the requirements of the escalating University fees have been made up by capital loans not only provided without regard to future problems but using a taxpayer subsidised debt collection agency to recover the debts . The level of debt is such that many students will take an extended OE possibly to never return . The Minister claims there is no problem and quotes a study that shows that 75% of graduates travelled overseas in the five years after graduation but only 3% remained overseas after five years BUT this is from a study of students who graduated in 1990 , two years before the loan scheme was introduced . No-one seems concerned that the Universities treat their students as cash cows to fund their ambitions.
• Reduced Govermnet expenditure on police , fire service , education , health , benefits and then provided tax cuts to a section of the public.
• Continual criticism of the public forsaving in non taxable items like housing instead of in baks and investment schemes where it is taxable .
• Blamimg the unemployed for not having jobs while continuously removing tariffs and thus local manufacturing jobs , all the while proclaiming that it is better to consume than produce
• Loudly proclaim the virtue of dobbing in your neighbour and friends if you think they may have erred against bureaucracy because bureaucracy has inefficient checking methods .
• Raise the rentals of low priced housing so that money can via the accommodation allowance be siphoned off to private landlords
• Create a system of ensuring by asset sales that the money that would normally reamin in our economic system is siphoned off overseas as obviuosly the overseas people can spend it far more wisely than we New Zealanders
• Continually , as an economic concept , preach that we need overseas money , as we don't have any ourselves , by offering the highest worldwide interest rates for overseas speculators thereby ensuring that we will never have any money .
• Legislate so that public money can be used without any Ministerial or public review to purchase health services from private providers to the detriment of public hospitals effectively creating a profit driven private health provider system using public money .
• Require elderly patients to pay from assets and income for their long term residential and hospital care while everyone else receives treatment without charge .

Is all this real or did we actually fall down the rabbit hole and will encounter the Mad Hatter any time now !

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