by Geoffrey Churchman

Kapiti Ratepayers are well used to increases in their Rates to pay for the ever growing KCDC empire well above general inflation; for other things depending on what is being measured, price increases over a period can also be a lot more, or even in some cases, a bit less than general inflation.

These are the officially reported index increases in NZ for the year ended 30 September:

General (CPI) : 4.9%

Food: 3.1%

Clothing : 4.1%

Housing : 22.5%

Wages : 2.4%

Transport : 13.2%

Not all of the increases can be blamed on the Jacinda government, but they must be held accountable for the massive increase in housing over the 4 years they have been in power. The usual Labour Party hubris that everything can be solved by creating a central government bureaucracy didn’t work and the skeptics were proved right. What we now have is a housing crisis.

The cost of materials has sharply increased because of supply issues from overseas. Many ships carrying them no longer call here, and, as we saw last year, those ships that do can be given the run around, literally. Even this article on the pro-Jacinda government Newsroom states: “Global supply chains issues, major demand for construction work and navigating NZ’s alert level boundaries are creating a ‘perfect storm’ for the construction sector, research shows.” The Dear Leader’s futile lockdowns/alert levels over the last two months have only made a bad situation worse.

The added problem for retirees is that the bank deposit interest rates are effectively negative and significantly so: that income source has gone. Buying shares is one good alternative, provided they are the right shares, of course.

Along with Clothing and Shelter, Food is one of the three fundamentals for everyone and we’re encouraging readers to grow their own vegetables. Having a backyard vege patch was a standard thing in the old days in NZ. Home grown vegetables will be cheaper than supermarket fare, and will be organic (no commercial pesticides) as well.

As living standards of the Middle Class in Jacindaland fall, previously unconsidered economical living measures are now very much to the fore.