Ready to explode
Editor,
The Sky’s the limit by Gordon Campbell [KMN, May 22], quote: ‘‘One paradox of the free market is that it needs to be regulated to remain free.’’
This is also rot and socialism. All that needs to happen is that coercion and deception of all sorts be kept out of the market so people can get on and freely exchange, thus a policeman is necessary given human nature likes to deceive and coerce.
But when the policeman, who also likes to deceive and coerce, starts showing favouritism towards some sellers or buyers (perhaps as a result of bribes) or starts telling some buyers or sellers they can’t buy or sell as they choose etc., then we don’t have a free market.
The essence of the free market – free economic exchange – is freedom and service. The better the service provided, the more people there will be who want to be served, and the wealthier the servers become.
Customers constrain the baser motives of those who serve, because they can always – in a free market – take their custom elsewhere. Regulators, who also deceive and coerce and protect their patch (and are not entrepreneurs but bureaucrats whose main aim is to maintain the bureaucracy), produce regulations that stuff things up, increase costs, and enslave.
But unlike those who function in a free market, they are not constrained in any way by customers who reward or punish on the basis of service.
New Zealand is being regulated to death, and buried beneath pointless paper work. If we got regulators off everyone’s backs there would be an explosion of productivity. We need less regulation, not more. RENTON MACLACHLAN,
Porirua unemployment faced by last year’s school leavers.
So it may not be easy to attract attention to another problem, that of the rapidly declining numbers of our eels. Three species live in our waterways: the long-finned, native, said to be protected; the short finned, an Aussie cousin, not protected; and the spotted.
It takes many years for eels to become sexually mature, 23 to 25 for males and more yet for females. On maturity they migrate to the sea over dangerous territory, facing pollution and irrigation machinery. Many fail to reach their spawning grounds far out in the oceans. After maturing and laying their eggs they die.
How can we help? We can invest on notices to be placed in our wetland reserves, advising the public that it is okay to feed them if they wish to observe them, but please leave them there to mature.
We can lobby councils and regional councils to ensure that energy companies provide areas where eels may climb over ropes, etc., to safely navigate the rivers.
It is not rocket science to realise that unless some positive steps are taken, we will quite soon lose them forever. Let’s get vocal, stir up the waters of apathy by demanding action, very noisily.
G M BROWN, Porirua
How sad to see my colleague and friend, Fa’afoi Seiuli, effectively shamed on the front page of your paper [KMN, May 22].
Fa’afoi is a wonderful community man, out there trying to do the best he can for Pacific people. He works in the schools and university, tirelessly supporting young people to understand the world and the opportunities available to them.
He is also the father of several young teenage children and a respected rugby coach. What a wealth of relevant experience he must bring to the council table.
As a younger Samoan man, he would not be pushing himself forward in his first term of office. He knows to listen and learn from the older, more experienced councillors. I bet it has been a huge learning curve for him. Palagi-style debate, Palagi meeting rules and standing orders as well as many thick reports to read before meetings.
Who is mentoring him? Who is championing him? Porirua cannot afford to take up and then spit out people of the calibre of Fa’afoi.
A first term, educated, community-minded Pacific father shamed on the front page of the local paper for perceived shortcomings in serving his community?
Shame on you Kapi-Mana News!
JEANNE LOMAX, Paremata