Nathan Smith: You'll know when there's a real cost of living crisis

After consulting the Oracle, doing a Ctrl+F search in the Sibylline Books, and comparing last week’s Lotto numbers with the positions of the stars in the year 1856, I’ve decided that the main theme of the current election is the cost of living.

I know, big claim. Massive insight. That’s why they pay me the big bucks, etc. But it does seem like every party has picked fixing the so-called “cost of living crisis” as their central plank. Which is strange, because there is no crisis. Or, more precisely, some groups are struggling, and others simply aren’t, while the politicians pretend that there are no groups and we’re all struggling together. That’s simply not true.

Nathan Smith: You Don't Need To Defend Frivolous Speech

Come on, guys. We have to get smarter at this.

Complaining about the end of free speech every time someone gets a visit from the police for writing a few words online is childish. Just because you have to say something doesn’t mean you have something to say. And just because you have something to say doesn’t mean you know how to say it. Simply offering a blanket defence of free speech makes everyone dumber. Quality over quantity, every time.

Nathan Smith: Politics As Usual In An Unusual World

It’s a tired cliché, but this election feels a bit like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. In a post-Covid world, “politics as usual” comes across as just wrong, so hyperreal.

How can we still be talking about tax rates, defence spending and free speech? Have we forgotten what happened a mere five years ago? I suppose forgetting is a superpower. After all, as the Romanian philosopher Emil Cioran said, “without the faculty of forgetting, our past would weigh so heavily on our present that we should not have the strength to confront another moment, still less to live through it.” If only Cioran could see 2026.

Nathan Smith: How To Properly Fix A Shringking Population

Much of the talk about collapsing birth rates assumes that every generation must be replaced. Don’t believe it. A falling birth rate is not, by itself, a crisis. The real crisis is in figuring out why your children aren’t having their own children.

The only people genuinely worried about low birth rates are the farmers of men who want GDP always to go up. After all, they can’t make much money on only a handful of peasants. Rather, a low birth rate is simply a sign that an ecological limit has been reached.

Nathan Smith: Why the Boomers love NZ First

This week, the party of Winston Peters (Boomer) announced the Kiwi Kids Grant. The policy would offer tax-free payments of $5000 a year for the first three years of a child’s life, for up to three children. Peters said the goal was to reverse what he called a “population precipice” of declining birth rates in New Zealand and argued $400 million a year would ultimately be much cheaper than relying on increased immigration.

Nathan Smith: Let’s Bring Back The ‘Move-On’ Laws From Henry VIII

The government’s revamped Move-On powers have already had a positive effect on my life, but there’s so much more that could – and should – be done to fix the problem of the “sturdy beggar.”

Just down from where I live is a giant unused carpark. It’s flat and sits next to a major arterial route. It also has no restrictions on types of cars or campervans that can stay overnight. So, naturally, this carpark has attracted plenty of vagrants. At its peak, about three dozen shabby vehicles with shabby owners were semi-permanently camped for more than 18 months, going nowhere, doing nothing.

Nathan Smith: Change Comes From Within, Paul Henry

I like Paul Henry. He was always a bit of an unserious joker, but I think all his joking around has caused him to be confused about the reality of New Zealand politics.

Part of his stated reasons for getting into politics is to restore the country back to what he considers the “good old days” when he was growing up. He wants his grandchildren to enjoy the same benefits he enjoyed, and so his goal requires rolling back some of the more insane policies accrued over the decades.

Nathan Smith: In Defence Of AI Cheating

Good news everybody! Another piece of the tired 20th century may finally be on its deathbed. The university system is in terminal decline and I couldn’t be happier.

The news comes from a family member who teaches about artificial intelligence at one of the universities. In perhaps the juiciest of ironies, professors have given up trying to detect if the students are using AI to write essays and pass tests. You would think that professors of AI would be able to outrun their students, but you would be wrong. It’s over. The students have defeated the teachers.

Guest Post: If Nothing Changes, Your Daughter Will Be Wearing A Burqa

A Guest Post by Nathan Smith published on RCR

It was about this time, 11 years ago, when I was in London, news emerged about foreign men and rape gangs across the UK. The horror story of Rotherham was on all the front pages, and I remember thinking, surely this can’t go on. Surely something must be done.

Yet nothing has been done. In fact, it is getting worse because the importation of foreign men has not slowed down, men who have no kinship with the young women in the societies they now call home. Moreover, nothing can be done because the modern police have no idea how such men think about women on a fundamental psychological level. They think they do, but they don’t.