families

What Value Life?
Placing an economic value on our life is unavoidable in a world of limited health resources. But the allocation of those resources is sufficiently arbitrary to tell us we have no conistent view on the value of a life....
19 November 2003 - Gareth Morgan

Mitigating Misery - The Sequel.
Two incomes is no protection when you've dedicated it all to long term contractural obligations. Politicians are now warning people to reduce their debt....
6 November 2003 - Gareth Morgan

Property, P, and Prosperity
The bidding war for preferred suburbs has many victims. Sheet the blame for the fallout on our education and welfare systems....
23 October 2003 - Gareth Morgan

Down on the Kibbutz
Taxpayer-funded paid parental leave is another step on the path to confirming earning mothers as the government's preferred family model. All that remains is establishment of 'State Sperm Bank of New Zealand' and the alienation of any role for the male should be complete. Seriously though folks - while the transition in and out of the...
16 May 2001 - Gareth Morgan

Sorry, Who did you say the Selfish Generation was?
A lot was made of the behaviour of the so-called "selfish generation" when they dominated the ranks of political power in New Zealand over the 1970's and 1980's. Expanding welfare and mortgaging the next generations of taxpayers was the main...
17 November 2000 - Gareth Morgan

Property Relationships Bill, Anti-Liberal
Division of property on the breakup of a relationship has never been easy. The formula is being changed according to a formula devised by middle-aged, insecure women who have a rigid view of a sterotypical relationship they wish to apply to us all. The division of property after a relationship is set to be revolutionised in New Zealand by the...
15 November 2000 - Gareth Morgan

Labour to be Congratulated for Matrimonial Property Initiative
The decision to debate in the House the limitations of the Matrimonial Property Act insofar as the entitlements of non-earning spouses is concerned is bold and admirable. Currently the Act's provisions on property split-up are biased toward the earning spouse and in all probability a conservative government would never have cared to address that...
5 April 2000 - Gareth Morgan

Together Alone
Whether it is the numbers of single person households or the numbers of adults living alone, the trend is clear. The drivers of the trends include; (a) decline in number of marriages (b) rise in number of divorces (c) ageing population (d) the...
1 October 1999 - Gareth Morgan

Saving - Out of Sight
Households in New Zealand save a lower proportion of their disposable income than those in most other developed countries. The household sector’s saving rate has fallen steadily since 1982 to under 1 % in 1994/95, despite a range of policy measures which were expected to improve savings. Efforts to make saving more worthwhile and attractive for the saver have fallen on deaf ...
21 August 1996 - Andrew Comber

Addressing The Bias in Tax and Social Policies
Recent estimates calculated for Australia have measured the value of work done in and around the home as equivalent to 58% of measured GDP. This compares with earlier estimates of the non-monetary portion of the economies of NZ and Canada of around 50%. Recognition of these production and consumption activities within conventional GDP measures has yet to be made. While attempts to measure ...
12 October 1994 - Gareth Morgan

Year of The Family Response To Welfarism For The Rich
The current generation of taxpayers are footing bills their predecessors escaped. These include record levels (expressed as a proportion of GDP) of interest on public sector debt; superannuation payments for the preceding generation; and welfare payments. In addition, this current taxpayer generation is increasingly having to directly fund the education and health needs of itself and its ...
2 March 1994 - Gareth Morgan

Nouveaux Pauvres
A family of two adults and three children, one at University and two at school, have a set of expenditures that could reasonably be the following; Less ...
5 February 1992 - Gareth Morgan