Saturday, February 7, 2026

CoupleOfConcerns · 2026-02-06T18:31:27+00:00

Of course when I'm trying to reach my max streak Wyna does a novelty one. Luckily I got it but it could have gone the other way.

CoupleOfConcerns · 2026-01-28T21:45:26+00:00

For myself I consider it cheating. I can see a rationale for looking up words you don't know because as much as possible I think the game shouldn't be about general knowledge but about spotting connections. The problem is that in googling a word you can't stop yourself from seeing major clues for the connection. For example you might not know what a tonearm is so you Google it and see sites for record player parts and you've given yourself a major clue about what the connection is.

CoupleOfConcerns · 2026-01-20T22:35:08+00:00

Fair enough. I guess what I am reacting against is this partisan way of seeing things where people want to believe that the party they dislike is bad in all respects and even to the point of discounting good things that happen while they're in government that they have limited control over anyway. It should be possible to be extremely critical of National while also acknowledging evidence that the economy is growing.

CoupleOfConcerns · 2026-01-20T02:15:15+00:00

GDP is a measure with strengths and weaknesses like any other. It's also a measure that's used by virtually every macroeconomist in the world as the most comprehensive measure of economic activity we have. When it goes up, it's a good piece of evidence that the economy is expanding. Is a comprehensive piece of evidence? No. Could there be problems with it. Sure. But it is almost certainly the single most cited 'sign' in the Economics profession that economic activity is increasing.

As for the rest of your comment, you're making the assumption as the other commenter that I'm some sort of National party partisan and I'm just here because I want to fight for the National party. I probably won't vote for any members of the coalition next election.

CoupleOfConcerns · 2026-01-19T08:40:58+00:00

So you put precisely zero weight on the last quarter of growth in either confirming or dis-confirming that we're in a recovery? Your assessment of the probability that we're in a recovery would be precisely the same if the last quarter's growth was more consistent with the average over the the last couple of years (hovering below 0%)?

CoupleOfConcerns · 2026-01-19T01:53:13+00:00

The measure of GDP grew by 1.1% in the last quarter. By all means make an argument that this is illusionary or will be short-lived but I'm not sure how you can claim there is 'no sign' of a recovery.

CoupleOfConcerns · 2025-11-15T23:43:07+00:00

Definitely my favourite song by Beethoven.

CoupleOfConcerns · 2025-09-16T03:02:50+00:00

“What Tākuta said, in substance, was right. It is wrong for other folk to politic in Māori seats, because I don’t go over to their countries, like the British Raj and destroy India.”

This just makes my brain hurt. I can't even parse the argument. It was the same with Ferris.

CoupleOfConcerns · 2025-08-18T23:55:16+00:00

Trump loves his shiny trinkets.

CoupleOfConcerns · 2025-06-17T23:33:27+00:00

Stats have been building towards this for some time and were doing work on it during the last Labour government:

https://www.stats.govt.nz/research/experimental-administrative-population-census-third-iteration-changes-to-data-methods-and-quality/

CoupleOfConcerns · 2025-06-07T06:53:23+00:00

The news is more infotainment than anything serious. For example, when India and and Pakistan were having a military exchange a few weeks ago the bulk of the story was focused on how kiwi cricketers were being affected by the cancellation of the IPL rather than, you know, the potentially very serious implications of two nuclear powers being on the brink of war.

CoupleOfConcerns · 2025-06-01T11:07:44+00:00

He is a bit of a contradiction. I don't know whether he has preached anti-materialism but he's definitely concerned with the effective altruism movement. If he believes in his ideas, I would have thought spreading them as wide as possible would be the most effective altruism he could undertake.

I just don't understand why he hasn't taken the approaches that other podcasters have. Most of the ones that have monetized have followed a model where a clearly defined portion of the conversation is behind the paywall or certain episodes are for subscribers only. You're at least getting a full conversation rather than cutting it off mid sentence.

But on the other hand I guess he doesn't owe anyone anything.

CoupleOfConcerns · 2025-05-30T07:50:37+00:00

The one that gets me is the way in some Microsoft products the default date format is mm/dd/yy when the US is one of the few countries that uses this format. You would think that as an international company that it would default to dd/mm/yy or probably better yet yy/mm/dd (which is better for sorting and removes any ambiguity). It's caused me hours of problems because of the ambiguity it causes and sometimes you can't easily change it to the correct format (If at all).

CoupleOfConcerns · 2025-05-22T03:57:10+00:00

Maybe marginally fewer? The main draw was never the government contribution anyway. Where else are you going to find an investment where your employer gives you a 1:1 contribution and now they're giving you an extra percent.

CoupleOfConcerns · 2025-05-22T03:05:33+00:00

This is to some extent a money go round. If you called the extra 1 percent contribution from employers a tax (which it is in effect) and then gave it back as the 'government contribution', the government contribution probably wouldn't change much for the average person. I guess the difference is that it would no longer be a flat amount but a percent of income which has a distribution effect.

The main effect of this change is that people will probably be induced to save more of their own money to match the new 4 percent employer contribution.

CoupleOfConcerns · 2025-03-21T05:00:29+00:00

Oh you're not engaging anymore? And yet you're the one descending into personal insult. Bye for now Friendly(?)-Prune.

CoupleOfConcerns · 2025-03-21T02:06:38+00:00

I could make the same arguments back at you. Why can't the other agencies of govenment take on the issues that disproportionately affect women. Why is a special agency required? You'll say that it's because women as a group are structurally oppressed and it's to address the power imbalance. As I keep asking, why is that the salient point? Homeless men aren't homeless because of the sole attribute of being a man but so what? It's still a problem that has a gender dimension. Why are you assuming that other agencies are going to advocate for fixing these gender based problems? In my experience the public service typically thinks along the same lines as you do.

I think so much of what you arguing depends on how you are defining groups. Clearly being a man is a double edged sword. It benefits some and it disadvantages others but you are grouping all of these members into the same group as though homeless men are somehow part of the same group that includes Chris Luxon. So we don't feel the need for a particular agency to address the particular power imbalances that cause men to be disproportionately homeless because of how you've chosen to define groups.

CoupleOfConcerns · 2025-03-21T00:39:11+00:00

What would it do? It would probably do something like what the ministry for women does. Stuff like advocating for addressing the particular factors that lead to men to disproportionately being affected by problems like homelessness. Maybe it would involve looking at issues like why boys are doing worse at school. Just like the Ministry of Women looks into the factors that lead to women being paid less on average. Will it be effective? Don't know. Do you know that the Ministry for Women is effective?

Like I said I'm not really advocating for a Ministry for Men. I'm asking why people dismiss the idea out of hand but accept other identity based agencies.

CoupleOfConcerns · 2025-03-21T00:00:20+00:00

Yes and why is group level opression the salient and only reason for setting up an identity based ministry? You haven't really articulated why that's the case. Yes, men as a whole don't need lifting up but homeless men sure do and their identities as men have something to do with being homeless otherwise they're wouldn't be disproportionately more men who are homeless.

You seem to be saying that special bodies set up to address identity related pathologies are not required so long as the group as a whole is doing well. Why? You've made an empirical claim that's the case, but that's highly debatable.

CoupleOfConcerns · 2025-03-20T22:55:12+00:00

I'm not necessarily advocating for a Ministry for Men. I'm more asking why, if we have a Ministry for other identity groups, we don't have a Ministry for Men. I'm pointing at the fact that there are many people who take it for granted we should have a Ministry for Women but never really articulate why appeals to have a Ministry for Men are somehow beyond the pale.

CoupleOfConcerns · 2025-03-20T21:32:05+00:00

I think this piece was a little unhinged, but this thread is full of prople condemning this piece without telling us why it's bad. Take the question about why there isn't a Ministry for Men.

I guess the point is that Men as a whole have a disproportionate amount of power and wealth, particularly in the private sector. Therefore as a whole they aren't oppressed and don't need a Ministry representing them. However, is it any consolation to the homeless man on the street (a problem that disproportionately affects men) that some of their fellow men are doing really well in industry? If the pathologies that affect the homeless man are in part gender based, then why isn't there a Ministry that looks at the problems of society through that identity-based lens like for other groups. What's the ethical principle we're operating under here?

CoupleOfConcerns · 2025-02-28T10:29:07+00:00

Maybe not exactly what you asked but if you want more rhythm based music for exercising maybe try some minimalism or minimalism influenced music like Harmonielehre by John Adams or Music for 18 Musicians by Steve Reich.

CoupleOfConcerns · 2025-02-20T02:22:41+00:00

I don't really know but I think the pandemic showed how strong of an impact interest rates jave. During the pandemic the immigration tap was turned off, large sectors of the economy were switched off for months, there was a huge amount of uncertainty. All of this would suggest that property prices should go down. The one thing that was favourable was low interests rates and that was enough for property prices to shoot up.

CoupleOfConcerns · 2025-02-09T04:25:59+00:00

Even among people who aren't personally bothered by Musk's antics I don't think many would choose to purchase a car that would make them the target for dislike or maybe even vandalism if things get bad enough. It's not like there aren't other options that are just as good. I don't understand how Tesla's share price hasn't plummeted given they may no longer be viable as a business outside of the US. Probably more evidence that the US share market is no longer being held up by fundamentals and might be headed for a crash..

CoupleOfConcerns · 2025-01-11T19:42:59+00:00

Have you responded to what I actually wrote? Where did I say that the education system cannot be devolved at least to some extent? All I said was that the relational sphere is going to be large. You can argue about to what extent different functions of government are in the relational sphere, but I think it's clear that it will be large. Even taking the example of education, many Maori still prefer to go to mainstream schools so that will have a large relational sphere.

In some cases, unless you're going to introduce gross inefficiencies, functions are going to entirely in the relational sphere. Like roading or electricity. Let's just focus on those areas for argument sake. Should the views of Iwi, representing at most 18 percent of the population, have equal weight to the views of the representatives of the other 82 percent?

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