Some thing that has always stuck with me was a job I was involved with at Sanitarium years and years ago. It was building a machine to put cards into cereal boxes. The machine replaced a lady who used to sit on the line with a bunch of boxes holding different cards in front of her, and she would put one in each box of cereal as it went past.
She was a lovely person, but I very much doubt that she learned to write computer code when her job disappeared. We have lost thousands of those jobs. We used to build TV's here - now we buy them from China or Vietnam using money borrowed from overseas, and those jobs have gone also.
Anyone bought a NZ made or assembled car lately?
I know that there were inefficiencies in local protected manufacture - I was there. I also know that the thousands and thousands of people in those industries were getting more than a pay check out of them. Intangibles like pride, stability, self reliance, trade skills. Old fashioned stuff.
We didn't just throw the baby out with the bathwater, we hired a foreign contractor to do it and wondered where our middle class went afterwards.
On the other hand, Sir Steven and the Warehouse thank you for your contribution - maybe he could sponsor @mikee to take a day for Morris dancing.
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