capitalism

Pokies: the crack cocaine of gambling

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 10:09 am, April 21st, 2012 - 111 comments

A sad story in the Herald today of a man who got hooked on pokies. It has destroyed his family and relationships. He’s started ripping off clients at work. All to put money in the machines that SkyCity profits from. SkyCity has so many addicts customers it says it needs more machines. SkyCity is a cancer. We shouldn’t just stop its expansion. We should excise it.

Key ups the ante on an empty hand

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 8:25 am, April 19th, 2012 - 77 comments

Back before John Key’s political nous deserted him (circa mid-November 2011), he would have run a mile from the dirty pokies deal with SkyCity. Instead, he’s claiming the dirty deal as his own and SkyCity’s chairman bragging about his access to Nat ministers. All to build a useless convention centre that will demand ongoing subsidies. Not worth the political capital.

A(nother) bad day for the dynamic duo

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:05 am, April 13th, 2012 - 40 comments

It was a bad day yesterday for the ‘heavy hitters’ of the Collins faction, Slater and Lusk. First, Ports of Auckland admitted supplying them with a workers’ private details. Then, the smear on the Meatworkers that they had orchestrated with Talley’s was shot down by the SFO in record time. Finally, Michelle Boag gave them a public serve on RNZ, fueling civil war talk.

On incompetent management

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 9:03 am, April 1st, 2012 - 28 comments

Once upon a time, decades ago now, ports were run by a person called the Harbourmaster. He used to be a highly qualified and experienced Master Mariner, who had extensive knowledge of shipping and decades of experience, at sea and within the port. All this competence and experience came at a wage,  at most, five times the average wage.

Port developments

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 9:15 am, March 17th, 2012 - 97 comments

Ports of Auckland management may be starting to realise that they have bitten off more than they can chew.  Faced with international union action, they have called a halt to the redundancy process.

Port thuggery

Written By: IrishBill - Date published: 6:51 am, March 14th, 2012 - 168 comments

Looks like Ports of Auckland have been unlawfully passing workers’ private information to Cameron Slater.

It’s just another example of the intimidation and thuggery the port management is becoming well known for.

Women kept out of the boardroom

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 7:12 pm, March 8th, 2012 - 19 comments

Stuff has a report telling us what we already know: an old boys’ network keeps women out of the boardroom in Australia and New Zealand. This clubbiness is just one of the reasons we’re such an unequal country. A small network of white middle-class males appoint each other to the boards of their companies, then set each other’s pay

Save our port

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 6:14 am, March 6th, 2012 - 14 comments

Wanna stop problem gamblers? Close the casinos

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 7:00 am, March 1st, 2012 - 133 comments

SkyCity is shrugging its shoulders after 2 adults left 5 children in locked in a van while they gambled in its casino. This is the 25th such incident this year. Yes, these are bad parents. SkyCity profits by problem gamblers acting impulsively and irrationally chasing rewards ignoring the costs – that’s exactly what its customers do when they leave their kids in cars to go gamble.

Private sector can’t compete with ACC

Written By: James Henderson - Date published: 12:04 pm, February 27th, 2012 - 35 comments

Government documents from last year reveal a plan to make ACC boost its levies and pay the government a dividend so that private insurers can compete. But that wasn’t enough. Now, the plan seems to be to exclude ACC from workplace injury insurance altogether. Private insurers just can’t offer cover as cheap as ACC can. So that Nats’ solution is to deny us access to ACC workplace cover.

The real crims wear white collars

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 9:57 am, February 25th, 2012 - 74 comments

Directorships are the golden ticket in the world of the business elite. You attend maybe 10 meetings a year, sign whatever’s put in front of you, typically get paid $3-4K a pop, and do it over again half a dozen times or more for various companies. It’s a gravy train for managers past their use by date. But customers and shareholders have to trust what directors sign off on.

Behind the hockey stick

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 11:09 am, February 19th, 2012 - 137 comments

There have been several interesting pieces on the politics of climate change recently, including some reflections (and a new book) from Michael Mann (the scientist behind the “hockey stick”), and leaked documents from the denier industry.

Foreign banks bleeding us dry

Written By: James Henderson - Date published: 6:47 am, February 14th, 2012 - 340 comments

The Bankers’ Crisis is hurting people all over the world. From the deepest, darkest austerity in Greece, to the continuing foreclosure tsunami in the US, to cutbacks and job losses here, it’s the ordinary people suffering the hangover for the bankers’ wild decades of unbridled excess and profit. But at least the banks are suffering too, eh? Yeah, nah.

Wanted: more news like this

Written By: Jenny Michie - Date published: 9:44 am, February 2nd, 2012 - 16 comments

A remarkably nice worker/boss story from across the ditch: Australian Ken Grenda may have sold his bus company, but his staff of almost 2,000 are smiling. Mr Grenda gave cash bonuses totalling A$15m ($16m, £10m) from proceeds of the sale to employees of his 66-year-old Melbourne-based company. The bonuses, averaging A$8,500, were based on the length […]

What’s really going on at Ports of Auckland 2

Written By: James Henderson - Date published: 8:03 am, January 10th, 2012 - 256 comments

Since my post yesterday, Ports of Auckland has upped the ante  threatening to sack all its workers and contract out (to quick and loud cheers from the National-aligned blogs they are working with – Cameron Slater’s rate is $10,000 for an operation like this). What they’re proposing is a breach of the law and wouldn’t work, but its just setting the scene for the next stage.