Wellbeing of NZ's children places us 34th out of 41
 

This is pretty disgusting :thumbdown:

Very shameful as NZ was once near the top.
It's not as though we can't afford it.

https://tinyurl.com/ycuwpnx5

Re: Wellbeing of NZ's children places us 34th out of 41
 

If I lived in NZ I would find this report disturbing.

Re: Wellbeing of NZ's children places us 34th out of 41
 

The child homicide rate is worse in Canada than NZ, I would find that deeply disturbing if I lived in Canada.

Re: Wellbeing of NZ's children places us 34th out of 41
 

That is the only thing you could come up with .78 vs .9 and ignore the
Teen suicide rate
Children in jobless households
Performance in reading, maths and science
No wonder the country is in the state its in, if you are a typical NZ.
No country is perfect but your response is just pathetic.

Re: Wellbeing of NZ's children places us 34th out of 41
 

It was the only stat I saw that compared NZ to Canada.

Re: Wellbeing of NZ's children places us 34th out of 41
 

God, that's depressing reading.

NZ is a fairly weird place: when I first moved here I tended to blank out the negatives but as I've settled into living here, I find i can be more honest about it's shortcomings. You'd be surprised how many people will still just blank those kind of statistics.
Same with what's known here as 'the Road Toll' - that's how many people are killed on the roads every year. Lots of people are in huge denial over just how massive the figure is.

Re: Wellbeing of NZ's children places us 34th out of 41
 

When were they near the top? Thinking back over my past 12 or so years, we've been seeing and hearing the same reports from UN, Unicef and others expressing deep concerns over the increasing numbers / lack of improvement with youth suicide and child poverty statistics. Every year it seems to cause the same shock and outpouring of consternation at this shameful 'secret' but it has been widely discussed, reviewed by various Government departments and experts but still no improvement.

The inequalities and linkage between people living in dire social conditions and deprivation has never been more obvious or apparent to me than it has in NZ and is undoubtedly a major factor in these statistics. In my view some really basic education and family parenting programmes are required to provide support for families and intervention; especially where behaviour of drinking, taking drugs, violence and abusive relationships are evident.

Re: Wellbeing of NZ's children places us 34th out of 41
 

Just another report and you'll find thousands of them. First of all, most of the data is old and comes from several sources and this point has nothing to do with wellbeing:


Another area where New Zealand performed poorly with a ranking of 34, owing to the 16 per cent of children living in jobless households, only Hungary and Ireland fare worse.


You could have a jobless household for many reasons and Ireland & New Zealand have a small population but high amount of family farms. Even during the boom that figure was high here in Ireland and what is so bad if parents have time for their kids? Some just don't have to work and live off the land (farming, rental income etc.). Some people just work during the season and register as unemployed during the winter, but are still finacially better off than others and have time for kids;).

Re: Wellbeing of NZ's children places us 34th out of 41
 

OK. Was a long time ago, late 1970's and earlier (pre neoliberal era) but shows what is possible with a government that cares about it's people.

This has a lot to do with unemployment too, example: 90 thousand under 25's unemployed is pretty sick IMO.

Most people don't know this, but the Government chooses the level of unemployment to control inflation.
It's called NAIRU (Non-Accelerating Inflation Rate of Unemployment) and is set at about 5% of the workforce.

So, one in 20 needs to be unemployed at any one time according to the theory & practice. So don't bash the unemployed. They are possibly doing the rest of us a favour :sneaky:

Re: Wellbeing of NZ's children places us 34th out of 41
 

Traditionally in New Zealand we tut a bit and then the government ignores international agency reports.

We've all done the tutting, now for the ignoring part. :hand:

Re: Wellbeing of NZ's children places us 34th out of 41
 

Yup.

Seems to have been doing that for many decades.

You are havin' a big larf & have no idea of how a 'season' works around here nor who does the work in that season. Mentals & given I live among this you have done my head in.

Re: Wellbeing of NZ's children places us 34th out of 41
 

Yes, thought comparing Irish farms with NZ farms was a bit daft.
Average dairy farm in Ireland is 60 cows.
Average dairy farm in NZ 400+ cows.

The days of the small family farm in NZ is long gone.

Re: Wellbeing of NZ's children places us 34th out of 41
 

Yep, New Zealanders are well known for being door-mats.

Re: Wellbeing of NZ's children places us 34th out of 41
 

This year is a General Election year so the tutting will last until the end of November.

Then everyone will go on holiday and by March it all will long be forgotten.

Re: Wellbeing of NZ's children places us 34th out of 41
 

Well, how does a season work in Latvia for example? So it's better for the childs wellbeing that the parents are both working full time and still don't have enough money at the end of the month:unsure:.

Re: Wellbeing of NZ's children places us 34th out of 41
 

Last time I looked Latvia is not in New Zealand.

You clearly have no idea of how seasonal work or how it is for seasonal workers in New Zealand nor how it works.

I will repeat. I am actually on the ground here I know how it goes. Period.

Re: Wellbeing of NZ's children places us 34th out of 41
 

;)This whole discussion is based on a report that New Zealand doesn't do well for wellbeing of children. You have measuring points that compare to other countries, so based on the report, Latvia has fewer jobless households and the kids are better off there?




No offence but I could say the exact same to you:
You clearly have no idea of how seasonal work or how it is for seasonal workers in Latvia, Hungary, Slovenia, Israel, Bulgaria nor how it works.

Re: Wellbeing of NZ's children places us 34th out of 41
 

Richard Murphy wrote this overnight and it could apply equally as well to NZ's uncaring government:

"Thatcher put it in a nutshell, of course. She said there was no such thing as society. And she meant it. Neoliberalism says there are only markets. And contractual relationships. But no obligations. No duty. No care. Just mercenary relationships"

https://tinyurl.com/ybpnasm8

Re: Wellbeing of NZ's children places us 34th out of 41
 

Yes, agreed. NZ had a golden age when there was almost full employment and the disparity between wealthiest and poorest was one of the smallest in the world. Those facts are not unrelated, as LoCarb points out. To enable some people to get very rich we need unemployment to create job scarcity, drive down wages and make people accept poverty as individual failing rather than a deeply flawed system that is serving some at the expense of others.

Some would be very very few of the thousands of families in poverty. Having time for your kids is no gain at all if you're suffering the extreme stress of real poverty, which isn't just about getting by on a bit less for a few months.

This is faulty logic/ nonsense arguing. :blink: It's not EITHER parents work full time yet still don't have enough money OR families are in poverty but the parents have more time to spend with the children. It's better for the children (and the parents) if there is enough household income to ensure that the family is not in poverty. That's born out in an avalanche of research.

Re: Wellbeing of NZ's children places us 34th out of 41
 

True, NZ was once highly socially progressive, initiating programs that others copied, considered to be on a par with the Scandinavian countries in it's liberal social programs.

This of course made NZ very attractive to British migrants escaping post-war deprivation through the 40's to 70's.
NZ had a high standard of living, second only to the US in the 50's.

After Britain joined the Common Market, NZ lost access to a UK market that had existed for 100 years, and following the oil shocks things went down hill rapidly.

Because NZ was still on a fixed exchange rate (ended in 84) the government had to defend the NZ$ through it's foreign currency reserves obtained through trade.

Prime Minister Muldoon was borrowing from overseas to prop up the economy and put in place a wage & price freeze trying to control the inevitable inflation.

Understandably, Muldoon was defeated in the 84 election and the progressive Labour leader David Lange was elected.
But he was ambushed by the Monetarist in his cabinet, and neoliberalism became the new paradigm that is still with us today.

Re: Wellbeing of NZ's children places us 34th out of 41
 

Is this the same organisation that has NZ at 15th for education (Australia is a 39th, UK at 20th)?

Re: Wellbeing of NZ's children places us 34th out of 41
 

Is this the same organisation that has NZ at 15th for education (Australia is a 39th, UK at 20th)?

Re: Wellbeing of NZ's children places us 34th out of 41
 

geoff52 is a bitter and twisted troll that didn't have the points for NZ and had to go to Canada instead! Mods have asked him to stop trolling, but he hasn't stopped, I told him to p**s off back to the Canada page but got edited by Mods!!

Re: Wellbeing of NZ's children places us 34th out of 41
 

I know that but the whole point is that this report has several sources and people are comparing New Zealand to other countries. It's pointless and even poor families in New Zealand are still better off than in many other countries.


Many children in some of the mentioned countries can't afford to study and when they do, they actually have to move abroad to make a living with a minimum wage job. You rarely see a doctor or lawyer from New Zealand move abroad to work in a supermarket.

Re: Wellbeing of NZ's children places us 34th out of 41
 

Regardless of you being there, this person will argue to the end that his data is more accurate over your experience.......Hes an absolute expert on NS too :rofl:

Re: Wellbeing of NZ's children places us 34th out of 41
 

Thanks:thumbup: