Land tax - short memories

If you ever had doubts of the degree to which the National Party could be a political whore (which the shift from Muldoonism to free market economics and the recent return to elements of Muldoonism ought to show), take this issue.

When it was previously in government, the Bolger government abolished Land Tax.

For the current government to even contemplate it, or to not hit it on the head absolutely and finally, speaks volumes about how easily swayed the National Party is to the winds.

More importantly, the idea that a party that sold itself in part on the basis of lower taxes is contemplating new taxes to offset tax cuts, tells you even more about how a vote for National is not, and (with the exception perhaps of 1990, 1993 and 2005) has never been about reducing the size of government.

Diet - Obama style

President Obama is going to freeze government spending for three years.

Wow, attention grabbing, looks like he's going to be tough on the growth of government and ensure better spending.

Well, not until you read the fine print. He's exempting:
Social security (20%)
Welfare (16%)
Medicare and Medicaid (21%) (oh but it's all private in America say the left!)
Veteran's affairs (1.5%)
Homeland Security (1.2%)
and about another 1% of spending.

Beyond that he can't cut around 5% which is debt servicing.

So about two-thirds of federal spending is untouched, and even his grand diet on spending will only slow down the growth of the deficit. So it will get fatter, a little bit slower. Because whatever cuts happen, they are more than offset by the burgeoning growth in these other areas and Obama's grand plans to invest waste money on pork barrel projects, and expanding healthcare.

So that inspired me to dream up a diet for people to lose weight the same way as President Obama proposes to bring government spending under control

Don't snack or eat high fat or high simple carbohydrate foods is how to announce it, but...

This does not apply to chocolate, fish and chips (and other deep fried food), pies, ice cream, pizza, burgers, cakes, biscuits, sugary drinks, beer, sweets and potato chips.

Call it the Obama diet, think of it as having diet Coke while you eat a double whopper burger with supersize fries at Burger King. After all, you could have had cheese with it.

(Hat tip: Not PC)

Britons wonder why young people commit brutal crimes?

Well take this case..

A thirteen year old boy attacked a 20 year old woman, in front of his two friends aged 10 and 11 (who told him to stop).

According to the Daily Telegraph "He subjected her to a severe beating then screamed at her: “Do what I say or I'll kill you”, before raping her".

The details are rather horrible, he stole her mobile phone and ipod. When he answered a call on it from her boyfriend, she bragged to him about what he did.

He now has only three years in a young offenders institution because he showed remorse. Well any good defence lawyer would have advised that. No doubt the Edlington case attackers were advised similarly, but are so psychopathic and incompetent to be incapable of following instruction.

So why did he get only three years? Well "By law, anyone under 18 years old faces a lesser sentence for rape than an adult, and for those aged 14 or under the term is reduced further".

Excuse me? So the message is, if you want to rape someone, do it before you are 18 because you'll get treated more leniently? So you can have a laugh, wreck someone's life and then get just a few years.

No. Just because you might have a smaller penis is not a reason to regard rape by someone under 18 as less of an offence. Is it because the victim is older?

You see the maximum sentence for rape in the UK is life imprisonment (which is absurd, as it means you may as well murder the victim as well). However, for a minor it is five years (worth noting that had the woman had consensual sex with the boy she would have faced 14 years).

In the UK it would appear that as long as you are under 18, you're given licence to be brutal and get a relatively light sentence, having terrorised your victim. It is one thing to give young offenders who commit property offences or minor assaults a second chance, another for premeditated attacks that are of the kind most women fear.

However, it demonstrates the dichotomy in criminal justice policy and public attitudes. At 13 when someone shows the capability and capacity to rape and commit violent assault, it also shows the capability and capacity to take an adult punishment, before being given a second chance to live a different life. Conversely, life sentences for adult rape are absurd and perverse, unless it is an ongoing process of preventive detention after someone has demonstrated recidivism.

So while the message should be that rape is unacceptable by any measure, it is warped by the subtext "unless you're an under 18 year old rapist, then it's not that bad".

Air New Zealand focuses on the premium

It is rare that a New Zealand company captures the global attention of the industry it is in, particularly one primarily state owned. Given that Air New Zealand retains minority private ownership, as is publicly listed, that has ensured that political pressure on how the airline runs its business has been very limited. However, it has also meant it has lacked capital to expand, so has focused on its core business.

The new long haul products announced today are reviewed on my airline service blog here. For economy class it is quite revolutionary for those taking the Skycouch, but is no overall advance for others in economy. in premium economy it becomes best of its class with maybe only one rival (although the legroom has been cut), whereas business premier is more of a tweak rather than a serious change.

From a business perspective what is particularly interesting is how dominant the premium cabins are becoming for the airline.

At present services from Auckland to London via LA, and some other services to Vancouver, San Francisco and LA are operated by Boeing 747s with the following configuration:
46 Business Premier
39 Premium Economy
294 Economy
= 379 passengers.

These are to be replaced with Boeing 777-300ERs, which are smaller than 747s but larger than the current fleet of Boeing 777-200ERs. However, look at the seat configuration:
44 Business Premier
50 Premium Economy
246 Economy (including 66 that will convert into couches for 44)
= 340 passengers

In essence, Air NZ is giving up mass market cheap economy class for targeting more discerning tourists, while focusing more on upmarket tourism and business travellers. Bear in mind that few know one of Air NZ’s most profitable routes is LA to London, because the fares that can be charged on that route are almost as high as Auckland to London – although it is a fraction of the cost to service. However, tourism from the UK to NZ has dropped dramatically due to the recession.

It is betting that given its cost structure is mid range among its competitors (Qantas is higher, Emirates and Malaysian are lower), it needs to pitch itself with something to attract discerning travellers. Not the bargain basement lot who are price focused and who really don’t care about legroom or food.

Still it faces a struggle for growth, given that it is undercapitalised and has missed out on realistic opportunities to plunder the Australian market (but that’s another story of corporate blunders combined with government interference).

Now is not the time to sell, but as the majority shareholder, it would be wise to consider at least some sell down of the airline ownership to get some new capital. Ultimately it will need a strategic shareholding by another carrier to have any serious hope of expansion, which means the word that too many in New Zealand politics are far too scared of – privatisation.

I've reviewed all of the product enhancements on my airline service blog:

The business case
Economy Class
Premium Economy
Business Premier
Catering and entertainment
How competitive is it?
Images of the new products

However if you want my quick summary of it all:

Economy - Skycouches are great for couples, but everyone else loses a little width and legroom. Most economy passengers are slightly worse off.

Premium Economy - A significant improvement with far more width, space and better seats, but the same recline. This isn't as good as business class used to be in terms of recline, and at 36" seat pitch it is frankly the worst for legroom in its class.

Business Premier - Business as usual, little change here, except the catering will leap ahead with freshly cooked food, not reheated.

It will first be seen on the new Boeing 777-300ER, the longer larger version of the current 777-200ER. The 777-300ER (dubbed 77W in the industry) will replace 747s for Air NZ, which means sadly losing the upper deck and nose cabins, both far more exclusive than main decks (with only one seat either side in Business Premier).

The first routes will be Auckland-LA and Auckland-LA-London. The existing 777 fleet will also be progressively retrofitted.

Some industry media coverage:
Business traveller
Flightglobal
Wall Street Journal

NZ Herald has great images of the economy seats
NBR has different coverage
Air NZ website has three press releases and a new website to reveal more in a week.

UPDATE:

Apparently Air NZ got a design company to profile passenger types - and they match Simpsons characters. I'm not thrilled to be a blend between Lisa Simpson and Mr Burns.

Full set of photos on flickr here.

Labour thinks you're too stupid to lose weight

Labour Health spokesperson Ruth Dyson says this "The Government apparently thinks people will simply be able to change their diet and exercise without any assistance or form of nutrition education"

I'm astonished. Changing your diet is impossible without the government. The carefully hidden knowledge that eating mostly vegetables, fruit, lean meat, fish and cereals, and avoiding high fat and high sugar foods helps you lose weight is something that almost nobody knows surely. In addition, without the government how COULD people go to the gym, or go for a walk or swim?

Does anything more clearly show the patronising and condescending attitude the Labour Party, and indeed many statists have for the general public than that? The idea that without the government, people can't look after themselves, don't know any better and wont change.

Ms. Dyson might wonder if one of the reasons Labour became far less popular is that people are sick of being treated as imbeciles, and sick of being forced to pay for bureaucrats to hand hold people.

If people get obese and do nothing about it, then it isn't anyone else's business. If you want to address rationing the health system, then maybe linking its provision to what people pay for it, might make a difference. Imagine, for example, if most people had health insurance and paid more every year if they were deemed to be obese. How much of a better incentive would it be if you paid more for healthcare because of your risk factors, than for some patronising do-gooder to give you nutrition education and tell you to exercise more?

Why is it that so many politicians prefer telling people what they should do than have them face the costs of their actions?