Mary it's not double dipping. Yes, I was paid to build a canal, a dam, roads and other stuff. But it's not double dipping to say that those who paid for them [being me and others in the community at that time] should own them and earn income from them if we choose to let others use them.
The newcomers have paid nothing.
<You are now suggesting these people are to get some kind of residual rights to their efforts even though it was not in the original contract. >
I didn't mean just those who actually did the building. I mean the people in the community which existed at the time own the property and should get the benefits.
<What you really want are hungry young people coming to your country with just the shirts on their backs and willing to do anything to have a chance at a new life. Chances are, they are likely to rejuvenate your society and create new opprtunities. They will most likely remake your society >
No I don't want that. Yes, they would remake our society. They would make it like where they have come from. When I look around the world, I don't like nearly everywhere where they've come from, which they don't either, which is why they come here.
Unfortunately, they bring with them the cultural norms which are what created the place they came from. Just as the British brought the cultural norms when they arrived and totally changed Maori ways of life. Maoris were attracted by the wealth and goodies of the Pakeha, so were seduced into letting them buy their way in in great numbers. We are doing exactly the same now! It's funny to watch. We have swarms of Chinese buying their way in and dumb Pakeha being as seduced by the money as the Maoris were. Pretty soon, we'll be just another branch of Hu Jintao's realm.
What's really dumb though is that we are doing the same as the Maoris and selling it too cheap. They wave a little bit of money at NZ and the gullible locals think it's a lot. A few beads, blankets and we're theirs!
We do try to limit the numbers so stupidly have quotas. The lucky quota who get to be citizens hit the jackpot and have instant ownership of all that has been built.
Canada has similar laws and our son was born there. Even then [1976] I thought that wouldn't be a bad thing in future, quite possibly. He is a Canadian and owns the place from British Columbia to Newfoundland. He owns the tar sands, the radio spectrum, the highways and power stations. All the riches of a couple of centuries of work are his for the taking! Canada is much more valuable per capita than New Zealand, so he got a good deal there.
If New Zealand turns to custard, he can go home to Canada.
The underlying problem is that citizens are treated as serfs rather than as landlords. Until people get it through their heads that they actually own their countries, they'll be treated like serfs and their property rights will be abused, including being given away to anyone their political masters choose.
Mqurice |
