Home > Social Issues > Identifying a hypocrite in three easy steps.

Identifying a hypocrite in three easy steps.

30 July 2012 Leave a comment Go to comments

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Full story

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So poverty is a result of  “poor choices”?

I guess that justifies Dear Leader John Key turning his back on society’s most vulnerable. After all,  “poor choices” justifies blaming the poor for being poor, instead of having $50 million in their bank account.

So Mr Key, how did that free tertiary education and subsidised state house work out for you?

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  1. r0b
    30 July 2012 at 3:02 pm | #1
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    Great post. May I repost it at The Standard?

    • Craig Coffee
      30 July 2012 at 2:57 pm | #2
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      Nice one Frank,..especially JK’s free education and subsidised state house.

    • Frank Macskasy
      30 July 2012 at 3:53 pm | #3
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      It’d be my honour, rOb! Go for it! :-)

      • r0b
        30 July 2012 at 4:05 pm | #4
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        Thanks Frank – next day or two is should appear….

  2. EmptyJester
    30 July 2012 at 3:45 pm | #5
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    The ‘poverty is the result of poor choices’ line (which, let’s be honest, is not _exactly_ what he’s saying) is a common line of thinking among the affluent. this is because it implies the reverse is also true – that their affluence is the direct result of their own excellent choices, skills and talents, and not at all dependent on circumstances, parenting, luck, cultural advantages etc etc etc.

    Many would never be so ‘gauche’ as to state that outright about themselves, but making essentially the same argument about the poor allows them to think it – and vent a bit of hate at the same time, always fun.

    • Frank Macskasy
      30 July 2012 at 4:08 pm | #6
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      Indeed, Jester.

      It panders to that all-too-human urge to look down of someone else and, in passing judgement, feel better ourselves. Truth to tell, I occassionally have similar thoughts, before bringing myself up hard, and thinking matters through.

      It helps that we have a low-income, solo-mum family living adjacent to us, and the woman has put herself through a course for aged-care work, and started work-experience last week.

      Or that we have several friends who are solo-mothers – one of whom put herself through a Uni course to become a teacher – and is now a taxpaying worker. http://fmacskasy.wordpress.com/2012/03/06/once-upon-a-time-there-was-a-solo-mum/ She used the same TIA that Paula bennett benefitted from, and which she canned a couple of years ago.

      Despite living a very middle-class, bourgoise life, we still have an insight into how the “other half” lives.

      • EmptyJester
        30 July 2012 at 4:27 pm | #7
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        Aged care…*wince* that breaks my heart. Your neighbour is moving into one of the most underpaid occupations in the country.

        A relative of mine manages a dementia-centred rest home and works constantly to try and move the carers pay upwards, but the ownership resists because the industry standard rate is so low. Sadly you often get a burger made by someone who’s paid (valued?) more than the person showering your 92-year-old grandmother.

  3. Frank Macskasy
    30 July 2012 at 4:47 pm | #8
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    “Aged care…*wince* that breaks my heart. Your neighbour is moving into one of the most underpaid occupations in the country.”

    I know, Jester, but after raising five children single-handedly (one of whom is now managing a branch of a chain of retail outlets) she is incredibly proud of her achievements. She’s a lovely person and she’ll be an absolute treasure in her profession.

    It’s just a shame that all her hard work will earn her a paltry sum of $13.61 an hour.

    “Sadly you often get a burger made by someone who’s paid (valued?) more than the person showering your 92-year-old grandmother.”

    Indeed. One of the saddest aspects of our user-pays, free market society. A paper-shuffler like Key “earns” $50 million contributing nothing to our society or economy, whilst real workers are badly shafted.

    As one person commented here on my Blog a wee while ago, she hoped that Key would end up in her hands when he was placed into a retirement home. I won’t be giving much for his chances.

  4. Frank Macskasy
    30 July 2012 at 4:47 pm | #9
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    r0b :

    Thanks Frank – next day or two is should appear….

    Sweet! :-)

  5. Wazza
    30 July 2012 at 5:35 pm | #10
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    My poverty (58 years and about $5000 in total assets) is because of the excellent choices I have made. At several points I have had opportunities to earn more but have turned them down because I could see it was going to take me away from the company of earthy, working-class people, and into a competitive environment populated largely by the selfish. And my life has been so much richer for having made these deliberate choices. Yes, I have at times (about 8 months total) had help from the state to ensure food was on the table, but I have given so much more back by being able to help those close to me. Because I am intelligent and informed, I know where I can be most effective in society. And it’s not at the ‘top’ or even in the ‘middle’.

  6. Laura Moncrieff
    31 July 2012 at 4:12 pm | #11
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    very succinct!

  7. Trish
    31 July 2012 at 8:56 pm | #12
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    My poverty has nothing to do with any choices I made… I have multiple sclerosis, progressive… I had to move from a salary of $32,000 pa to an income (invalid benefit) of around $11,000. I am forced to survive at a level below the “poverty line”. I have once in in past 7 years asked for a food parcel… Key’s is a sycophantic hypocrite… of course my own personal opinion…

    • Frank Macskasy
      1 August 2012 at 12:53 am | #13
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      I suspect your story is shared by many, many others around the country, Trish. It’s obscene that a man who gained a free education at our expense; made millions out of speculation; and has obvious talent, uses those abilities to denigrate others less fortunate than him.

      All I can say is that more and more people are waking up to Key’s unpleasant persona…

  8. Trish Seaton
    1 August 2012 at 10:40 am | #14
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    I just find it incredibly sad that so many people can’t see that the money key’s made has been at others expense… You can’t easily rise from the offspring of a beneficiary to one of the top 50 richest in this country… Mum must have sacrificed a great deal.

    • Theodore
      6 August 2012 at 12:09 am | #15
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      It’s a shame that Key has forgotten what the state did for him. A free University education to boot! No student debt!

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