tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post7084246877093317741..comments2024-03-29T17:12:19.648+13:00Comments on Bowalley Road: Bored of the "Mood"Chris Trotterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09081613281183460899noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-70033646776689298412009-07-30T09:57:08.780+12:002009-07-30T09:57:08.780+12:00Chris,
As a denizen of management meetings and bo...Chris,<br /><br />As a denizen of management meetings and board meetings for the last two decades I can assure you that we really do focus on nothing more than opportunities to maximise profits and reduce costs. If there is a free lunch or the opportunity to bluebird at anothers expense we grab it with both hands and not so much as a thank you, quick smart. So yes, tax cuts, avoiding compliance, and any other way to plunder the public domain is on our radar.<br /><br />In summary you are on the money to use our terminology. To look to business for anything other than what we do, or for vision is a futile exercise. We have little to teach you but venality. Its a bit like asking the addict to run the rehab centre. Sad I know, back to the ledger book. So Dickensian.Nicknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-83535994248834252372009-07-26T19:53:36.435+12:002009-07-26T19:53:36.435+12:00The really startling thing about the 'Mood of ...The really startling thing about the 'Mood of the Boardroom' exercise is the total absence of imagination and innovation about solutions to our problems, other than resort to lowering taxes and cutting government expenditure. The same thing struck me about the Bill English's first budget; pedestrian, aimed at placating the same genius rating agencies that had a major hand in bringing us the global financial crisis - for which they have yet to fully atone - and above all lacking in ambition. And the trifecta of predictable ordinariness has been completed this week by the head of Treasury; reduce the size of the public service; cut, slash and burn. It is a pattern with which we are now only too familiar; traduce the reputation of the public service, stimulate the public's apetite for lower taxes, privilege the point of view of the business community, whom you rightly point out have a less than stellar record, and enfeeble state agencies that have the ability to help and enable those without capital resources to live fulfilled lives relieved of the misery of inequality. And, while you're at it, and entirely consistently, put an end to any pesky research that might find out why women aren't being paid the same as men for work of equal value because we can't really afford pay people equitably in our current economic situation. But, most importantly, re-introduce imperial titles so that those of us without capital resources can bend our knees and doff our caps at the great and the good bearing a title that is foreign and redolent of a discredited and ugly colonial system premised on ruthless exploitation. The absence of any innovative solutions from the 'Mood of the Boardroom' suggests one conclusion; the NZ business community is simply not capable of generating realistic and practical solutions other than the same single note of lower taxes and a smaller state. Haven't we heard this before? And more than once? Isn't it time we moved on from this particular bum-in-a-bag (ie cul-de-sac)?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-70095196460306935752009-07-26T10:47:54.655+12:002009-07-26T10:47:54.655+12:00All the "mood of the boardroom" does is ...All the "mood of the boardroom" does is show us that in the opinion of the true believers in the Vanguard Party, the revolution must be perpetual.Tom Semmensnoreply@blogger.com