A constant gripe was the cost of living and trust me, it’s well justified, when compared with some other countries. Here’s some examples.
When in my Wellington office I don a lightweight thin V neck jersey for despite our offices being warm, even in the summer months I never feel comfortable in simply a shirt and tie.
Well, the other day I found myself jersey-less, having the previous day gone home wearing my office jersey and forgotten to bring it back. So I bowled across the road to Farmers large Lambton Quay store.
Farmers is a middle of the road chain store with a reputation for competitive pricing. There I found exactly what I was seeking, for the bogus price of $99.99, or $100 in reality.
Farmers is not the sort of store where I would normally buy clothing and until a month back I’d have thought $100 a terrific bargain.
But only a fortnight earlier I’d dropped into a large Glaswegian department store to seek black slip-on shoes. That’s because with age I’m shrinking and have had to give away my existing footwear, now too big for me.
I duly bought four pairs at £20 each, that’s a little over NZ$40.
In Auckland for the night a few months back I found I’d inadvertently brought with me black shoes now uncomfortably large so popped into a Queens Street shoe store and paid $250 for exactly the same shoes which cost NZ $40 in Scotland.
So too in the Glasgow store with the smart V neck jerseys for in my shoe quest I walked past a display of these, exactly as I paid $100 for in Farmers. They were £5 each, that’s about NZ$10.50 and I bought four different shades.
More mysterious is recently buying 10 bottles of Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc from the mini-market near our Glaswegian home for, £6 a bottle, or NZ circa $12.50. In New Zealand they set you back between $40 and $50 a bottle.
Living as I do in different countries the one NZ cost advantage lie with food prices. It’s a significant differential, perhaps, around 30% cheaper here, than say Britain and France.
All of this comes back to a base cost of living factor, namely wage differentials.
I could be wrong but my impression is that menial light skilled workers in Britain are paid similarly to New Zealand.
But our skilled and management level folk are paid significantly less than abroad.
Each year we lose 60,000 or so people moving to Australia. Most comment on the better material lifestyle the Aussies offer with higher incomes and lower house prices, whether buying or renting. If I was forced to live in only one country, I’d join them but having always been a having your cake and eating it too practitioner I can enjoy the different benefits of homes in different countries.
The irony of our wage differentials with Britain is that whereas Kiwis are by and large hard workers, one could never say that about Brits whose stand-out work characteristic is indolence.
We try and avoid employing them, reflected by my Glaswegian office being headed by a Canadian former Cambridge university Economics Professor. He’s backed up by two Kiwi property managers with the New Zealand work ethic. The two Scots are an accountant, she a middle-aged woman and a still active sports champion so is not workshy, plus a receptionist.
But we also employ six other men in Glasgow whose job is literally to do nothing.
It would be hard to find anyone in New Zealand to fill these roles for that reason but not so in Britain, where being paid to do nothing is coveted.
They are called concierges and sit in an open office in the ground floor foyer of each of our six office buildings, smiling at the tenants as they come and go. Just that, nothing else.
But remove them and the office tenants complain. It’s madness and greatly annoys me but reflects the fact that so much of Britain’s wealth is a legacy of its long and rich history of market economy, industrialisation pioneering, colonialism etc., etc.
With one exception to varying degrees that’s true of every nation. For example, a child born today in New Zealand inherits a massive going concern of roads, housing, hospitals, schools etc. etc. paid for by previous generations.
The standout exception is Haiti. A United Nations official I ran across there once, claimed Haiti was the only country on earth that has measurably declined since it became independent following the 1804 slave revolt.
In summary, the most basic current flaw in the New Zealand economy lies with our low wage levels, low that is compared with similar nations. And until that’s addressed our get up and go individuals, will continue to leave.
Sir Bob Jones is a renowned author, columnist , property investor, and former politician, who blogs at No Punches Pulled HERE - where this article was sourced.
Well, the other day I found myself jersey-less, having the previous day gone home wearing my office jersey and forgotten to bring it back. So I bowled across the road to Farmers large Lambton Quay store.
Farmers is a middle of the road chain store with a reputation for competitive pricing. There I found exactly what I was seeking, for the bogus price of $99.99, or $100 in reality.
Farmers is not the sort of store where I would normally buy clothing and until a month back I’d have thought $100 a terrific bargain.
But only a fortnight earlier I’d dropped into a large Glaswegian department store to seek black slip-on shoes. That’s because with age I’m shrinking and have had to give away my existing footwear, now too big for me.
I duly bought four pairs at £20 each, that’s a little over NZ$40.
In Auckland for the night a few months back I found I’d inadvertently brought with me black shoes now uncomfortably large so popped into a Queens Street shoe store and paid $250 for exactly the same shoes which cost NZ $40 in Scotland.
So too in the Glasgow store with the smart V neck jerseys for in my shoe quest I walked past a display of these, exactly as I paid $100 for in Farmers. They were £5 each, that’s about NZ$10.50 and I bought four different shades.
More mysterious is recently buying 10 bottles of Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc from the mini-market near our Glaswegian home for, £6 a bottle, or NZ circa $12.50. In New Zealand they set you back between $40 and $50 a bottle.
Living as I do in different countries the one NZ cost advantage lie with food prices. It’s a significant differential, perhaps, around 30% cheaper here, than say Britain and France.
All of this comes back to a base cost of living factor, namely wage differentials.
I could be wrong but my impression is that menial light skilled workers in Britain are paid similarly to New Zealand.
But our skilled and management level folk are paid significantly less than abroad.
Each year we lose 60,000 or so people moving to Australia. Most comment on the better material lifestyle the Aussies offer with higher incomes and lower house prices, whether buying or renting. If I was forced to live in only one country, I’d join them but having always been a having your cake and eating it too practitioner I can enjoy the different benefits of homes in different countries.
The irony of our wage differentials with Britain is that whereas Kiwis are by and large hard workers, one could never say that about Brits whose stand-out work characteristic is indolence.
We try and avoid employing them, reflected by my Glaswegian office being headed by a Canadian former Cambridge university Economics Professor. He’s backed up by two Kiwi property managers with the New Zealand work ethic. The two Scots are an accountant, she a middle-aged woman and a still active sports champion so is not workshy, plus a receptionist.
But we also employ six other men in Glasgow whose job is literally to do nothing.
It would be hard to find anyone in New Zealand to fill these roles for that reason but not so in Britain, where being paid to do nothing is coveted.
They are called concierges and sit in an open office in the ground floor foyer of each of our six office buildings, smiling at the tenants as they come and go. Just that, nothing else.
But remove them and the office tenants complain. It’s madness and greatly annoys me but reflects the fact that so much of Britain’s wealth is a legacy of its long and rich history of market economy, industrialisation pioneering, colonialism etc., etc.
With one exception to varying degrees that’s true of every nation. For example, a child born today in New Zealand inherits a massive going concern of roads, housing, hospitals, schools etc. etc. paid for by previous generations.
The standout exception is Haiti. A United Nations official I ran across there once, claimed Haiti was the only country on earth that has measurably declined since it became independent following the 1804 slave revolt.
In summary, the most basic current flaw in the New Zealand economy lies with our low wage levels, low that is compared with similar nations. And until that’s addressed our get up and go individuals, will continue to leave.
Sir Bob Jones is a renowned author, columnist , property investor, and former politician, who blogs at No Punches Pulled HERE - where this article was sourced.
8 comments:
That's why I have bought leather footwear and cotton pants on Aliexpress & Temu. The footwear is brilliant and only had the confidence to do so after buying a pair here from a local shop and found they were made in China. Sizes are spot on. The footwear was $100 less landed than what I paid here & the pants a 1/3 the price. I had looked in Farmers for pants but was not going to pay $100 for basic pants. This now brings me to coffee. Eight dollars for a large in Whangarei & if you want oat milk etc. add a dollar. I don't buy coffee out now which means I don't buy food (mostly of astoundingly poor quality) when I used to be in a joint. My brother persuaded me to try Maccas for coffee - with a gold card it $3 for any size. Quality is great, the environment is appalling !
As a property tyconn, Bob naturally favours high wages with high inflation etc. At the bottom, our minimum wage is astonishingly high.(It has to be otherwise all would be on the dole). We may not have concierges but we do have cone shepherds.
Although not indigenous, the folk of Haiti have enjoyed the great advantage of no colonisation since very distant times.
Food prices are 30% cheaper here than in uk? That doesn't seem right.
Good article, Bob that demonstrates how we are being rapaciously ripped off here in New Zealand.
However - all is not lost !!
We in NZ can now buy from TEMU, where prices are about 1/5 of retail stores.
You would be surprised anonymous at 8:44 am.
A lot of food items are quite inexpensive at places like Tesco, lidl, Asda, and Aldi. You can actually get by quite well on a limited budget if you want or need to.
I would often see NZ lamb at a cheaper price than in NZ. coffee, tea, things like that.
I often thought though people there were quite snobby about where they shopped. They also tended to waste food too. You could tell by what was discarded.
There was often food refuse on the streets before the council had time to clean it up. There was a time when European refugees could find food easily in the supermarket dumpsters. Probably still can.
I lived in the UK for almost 17 years. No way is food cheaper in NZ, we couldnt believe how expensive it was when we returned. Perhaps Bob has someone else to do the shopping?
The hard working Kiwi? Maybe two generations ago and working overseas. Ask any teacher about the work ethic of most Kiwi students today.
We forget that for much of the 1990's there was a serious push to drive down wages in NZ. Education was the tool. We allowed thousands from the subcontinent to come and sit for invented courses. After passing/failing/passing 5 years had elapsed so they became residents and immediately embarked on careers that bore no resemblance to their studies. Today they dominate large areas of our economy
Post a Comment
Thanks for engaging in the debate!
Because this is a public forum, we will only publish comments that are respectful and do NOT contain links to other sites. We appreciate your cooperation.