lardyl

argumentum ad crumenam springs to mind whilst waiting for the pizza.......

martyc

sheene

It does make you creative living in NZ, financially that is. Went through a phase of buying Hi-Fi systems off Trade Me, splitting them up, then selling the Amp / CD player/ Turntable/ speakers separately. Made about 3k in 12 months. Hope IRD are not reading this.

Dad has been trading on Ebay for about 6 years in the UK, buying from local auctions and selling internationally. Tax people have just caught up - come on guys - he is 85!!!

ExKiwilass

hahahahahha.

ExKiwilass

This does not surprise me at all, sadly. But seriously, Close Up? Hardly renowned for it's fantastic journalism.

ExKiwilass

I'm an expat Kiwi who happens to agree with the struggling brits! The fact is S&P ( I think it was) just downgraded NZ's rating so clearly all is not well in the land of the long white cloud. I would love to know why...did the gov'ment borrow too much?

bourbon-biscuit

No, not really. Once a debate becomes polarized people feel they need to align with one extreme of the other and the debate loses the richness of all the perspectives and experiences in between. It happens a lot on here, partially because people view debate as something that needs to be 'won' and therefore clearly delineate the in and out groups in the debate and partially because it's easier to do that and get a grasp on the issues as a whole if you crudely split it into polar opposites. It is a shame because ultimately most people have opinions and experiences that lie somewhere between the two polarized positions.

Ahh, there's that need to group us all. What about those that generally enjoy living here, have some frustrations and tensions, think it's not all rosy but neither is it at all all bad? Where you going to pigeon hole us? I don't fit in any of the categories you've made- I've got no need to justify being here, I like it but if you get me started on the racism, lack of professionalism etc I'll soon sound like a NZ-hater, I struggle financially and don't intend to stay here forever. Oh dear, looks like I'm an individual.

It was government borrowing but it's more than that- also to do with things like how we rely on commodities and our aging population pressures, I think! It's a worry, but it's worrying times all over at the moment, no?

waikatoguy

Because of isolation, the population of NZ is highly mobile. But the country still has more people arriving every year than leaving. So NZ has a net migration gain every year, not a loss. As far as people moving to Australia is concerned, that has been happening for 40 years. Australia is the big brother. For a lot of people they can get a higher wage (eg in the mines or in some professional occupations). The Irish leave for England. The Canadians leave for the US. The Portugese leave for Spain ....

A lot of people move to Australia for a better lifestyle. No doubt that.

whitesand

You never get many French moving from France. Why do you think that is?

sheene

[QUOTE=bourbon-biscuit;9701661]No, not really. Once a debate becomes polarized people feel they need to align with one extreme of the other and the debate loses the richness of all the perspectives and experiences in between. It happens a lot on here, partially because people view debate as something that needs to be 'won' and therefore clearly delineate the in and out groups in the debate and partially because it's easier to do that and get a grasp on the issues as a whole if you crudely split it into polar opposites. It is a shame because ultimately most people have opinions and experiences that lie somewhere between the two polarized positions.

Do you understand the concept of a debate - as opposed to a discussion? In a debate, if you have never been to one, a motion is proposed then you have speakers 'for the motion' and speakers 'against the motion'. At the end of the debate, depending on the relative strengths of the arguments presented, a winner is declared. Debates, by definition, are polarised. What we have on this forum are discussions - it was you who erroneously referred to it as a debate.

"Ah, nothing like polarizing the debate to increase the interest"

Moreover, even within a discussion, polarised views are allowed, even if they do not concur with your liberal standpoint. Furthermore, if you have a look at the length of this thread, do you not think it simplistic to suggest that one comment, from one person, has the ability to polarise a discussion? Must have been a very powerful comment.

sheene

And remember- all the contributors to a mass debate are wankers.

waikatoguy

Good point. I don't know.

bourbon-biscuit

sheene, when you quote someone and then split the quote it makes it easier to understand if you leave the coding intact. So for every bit that someone else say that you want to reply to you leave the bit of coding that looks like this at the start:

[QUOTE=bourbon-biscuit;9701661]

and this at the end:

[/ QUOTE] (though I have put a space between the / and the word QUOTE so it doesn't code it.

If you want to split someone's quote use copy and paste to make sure those bits of code start and end each bit of quoted text. HTH

ExKiwilass

Actually that's not true. France is the 6th largest source country of immigrants to Canada. (Well, PRs anyway).

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resourc...rmanent/10.asp

Beaten only by the UK, the USA, India, Phillipines and China.

Speaking anecdotally, I know of quite a few French emigrants to Vancouver. I imagine the numbers are even bigger for Quebec/Montreal. So all is not lost waikatoguy

DC10

there are six times as many british immigrants in canada as those from france. the population of britain and france is identical.