New Zealanders expect certain things from our government and our society. A fair go. A clean environment. That our kids will be better off than we were. But according to John Key, that last bit is no longer true - instead of being able to own a home as their parents did, he thinks they should be content living in a high-rise shoebox:
Young Aucklanders need to look to apartments as a first home option as they do in big Australian cities, Prime Minister John Key says.
[...]
Key said if the same couples in their late 20s were living in Sydney or Melbourne their expectations could well be different.
"I tell you where their first house is - it's an apartment... that is the reality of a first home for a young couple in Australia and many other parts of the world.
"We are going through quite a big change as a society, I think in these fast growing areas where it is quite likely that people will start in apartments, it's more than likely they will move out to a house with a little bit of land as they have children, and they will very likely move into an apartment as they retire.
This is National's ultimate strategy for dealing with its mismanagement of the housing crisis: not to try and solve it, but to lower expectations. Kiwis just can't expect to live in a house anymore like their parents did! The market (meaning the greedy landed Boomers who are hoarding all the houses) won't support that. Instead, they'll just have to accept lower living standards, despite multiple generations working their butts off.
And that's what National's lowered expectations are actually for: lower living standards. You can't expect a home anymore. Nor can you expect a decent job or clean water. National's mates have stolen those things from us, and we should just accept it.
Yeah, fuck that. Rather than accepting National's future of lowered expectations (while its friends roll in the money they stole), we have another option: get angry about it. Vote those pricks out of office and get a government which promises something better.
