Archive for November, 2011
Nek Minnit
Posted by: | CommentsThis came out a week before the election but proved to be rather “prophetic” 
Get Going and Stay Safe ~ Dean Letfus
Simplicity
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I realised yesterday just how complex our lives have become in modern society. I was sitting in a church in mid service when the towns power went out.
Now if this had been in a typical NZ church basically everything would have ground to a halt. You couldn’t hear the speaker without a PA system as our venues are both large and poorly designed acoustically. You couldn’t sing because the band are all electrified and enhanced and nobody would be able to see the words without powerpoint and screens.
And then when the power did come back on it would be anything from 3 to 10 minutes checking that all the expensive equipment and computers had reset properly and everything could be “restored”.
But what happened yesterday was………….
We carried on regardless. Everybody knew the songs and just sung “a cappella”. The speaker spoke a bit louder to be heard and everybody could engage him no problem. When the power came back on the fans started again, which was nice in 32 degree heat with 99% humidity, but other than that nothing changed.
It is hard to convey how powerful a lesson this was without you being there but I suddenly saw all the things we clamour for; all the toys, all the gadgets, all the latest things, as distractions that often keep us from what is really important.
Something to think about on a Monday!
Get Going and Stay Safe ~ Dean Letfus
The Ant and the Grasshopper
Posted by: | Comments(Thanks to Paul H)
Original VERSION:
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.
The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.
MORAL OF THE OLD STORY:
Be responsible for yourself!
MODERN VERSION:
The ant works hard in the withering heat and the rain all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while he is cold and starving.
TV1,2 & 3 News, and Campbell Live show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.
The country is stunned by the sharp contrast.
How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Sue B appears on Campbell Live with the grasshopper and everybody cries .
The Green Party stages a demonstration in front of the ant’s house where the news stations film the group singing, We shall overcome.
Green Party Leader Metiriea T condemns the ant and blames John Key , Rob Muldoon , Roger Douglas , Capitalism and Global warming for the grasshopper’s plight.
John M exclaims in an interview with TV News that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.
Finally to gain votes to win an election , the Government drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer.
The ant is fined for failing to consider how his hard work and preparation has affected the Grasshoppers Mana and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated under the Government Land Repo Act and given to the grasshopper.
The story ends as we see the grasshopper and his free-loading friends finishing up the last bits of the ant’s food while the government confiscated house he is in, which, as you recall, just happens to be the ant’s old house, crumbles around them because the grasshopper doesn’t maintain it.
The ant has disappeared to Australia, never to be seen again.
The grasshopper is found dead in a drugs related incident, and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of Homeboy spiders who terrorize the once prosperous and peaceful, neighborhood.
MORAL OF THE STORY:
Be careful how you vote in 2011!!
Get going and Stay Safe ~ Dean Letfus
What’s it all about and who is Alfie??
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If that line means nothing to you then you are simply too young. It is a Burt Bacharach song effectively asking what life is all abotu and what is important.
I was thinking about it as I look out the window at so many people working/walking and living here. The average wage is around $15 a day and 90% of the town in unemployed so their idea of what “it” is all about revolves around anything from food to grog to sex or somewhere to sleep. They are certainly not worried about their investments, politics or a new television.
Yet you can’t sit here for more than 30 seconds without noticing the laughter, the smiles, the warm greetings in the street. These people are a lot more happier than anybody I know in New Zealand or Asia. They have found their “it”. And it is to enjoy today, because there may be no tomorrow and tomorrow will have enough problems.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying we should all adopt this, far from it. Cultures come with their own blessings and curses. But what we can, should, MUST do is find OUR “IT”.
What will make you smile today, what will make you feel fulfilled about your life right now, today.
Sometimes you have to look at those least able to offer us anything to see what we most need!
And to hear one of the worlds finest voices singing Alfie……..
Get Going and Stay Safe ~ Dean Letfus
It’s all relative, relatively speaking.
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I was sitting in a tiny town in Fiji yesterday talking ot a local food shop owner. Surprisingly the conversation turned to business and my friend bewailed the unfair tax treatment of the current government and the fact that his feasability studies showed it was almost impossible to remain profitable.
This would be normal in New Zealand but if you could see where I was it was most unusual. My friend has probably never been to school and this “business” is just above a subsistence income.
Yet this man was smart enough to learn what he needed to to try and make his business successsful in his terms. I was incredibly impressed that in such a hard place, uneducated, corrupt and crippled by class issues he was running a professional sophisticated business. Just goes to show you can’t judge any book by it’s cover or classification.
BTW I had a cup of tea, 2 amazing samosa and 2 bhajia at his shop for the exorbitant cost of $1:40 NZD. Would have paid twelve bucks in NZ without thinking about it .
So if an uneducated, disadvantaged, poor yet intelligent person can start and run a business in Fiji against all odds, what stops you from achieving your dreams??
Get Going and Stay safe ~ Dean
Election Looming
Posted by: | CommentsI guess we are all biased about many things depending on our environment, what our parents did and our own conclusions. I must admit I lean towards the right politically based on all three of the above, however when it comes to investment you would be mad to look anywhere else wouldn’t you?
Property and housing policies
National
* Sell shares in state-owned assets to give an alternative to housing investment.
* Streamline the Resource Management Act.
* Has increased the Welcome Home Loan cap, giving more first-home buyers access to affordable finance. Removed depreciation tax allowances from all properties.
Labour
* Introduce capital gains tax on investment property -already in force in nearly all developed countries, including Australia, Britain and United States.
* The capital gains tax will not apply to the family home.
* Real estate in the Canterbury earthquake zone will be exempt for at least five years.
Greens
* Introduce a comprehensive capital gains tax on inflation-adjusted capital gains at the time the gains are realised. (Like Labour, family home is exempt.)
* Over time, tighten the rules covering loss attributing qualifying companies and equivalent tax deductions.
* On monetary policy, introduce measures to limit future asset – especially house – price inflation.
Act
* Supports National’s sale of non-controlling stakes in state assets such as power generation companies.
* Reform the Resource Management Act to reduce constraints on how property owners can use and develop their land, and to protect private property rights.
* Push the next government to lock in lower taxes by passing Act’s Spending Cap Bill.
So as an investor only National and Act have any interest in making this country wealthy and helping investors provide needed housing to other kiwis. We need to keep fixing what was broken through a decade of socialsim as I commented yesterday.
Get Going and Stay Safe ~ Dean Letfus
Why the left is doomed to fail.
Posted by: | CommentsAn economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Obama’s socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.
The professor then said, “OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama’s plan”. All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A…. (substituting grades for dollars – something closer to home and more readily understood by all).
After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.
The second test average was a D! No one was happy.
When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.
As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.
To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that SOCIALISMwould also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.
It could not be any simpler than that.
These are possibly the 5 best sentences you’ll ever read and all applicable to this experiment:
1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.
2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.
3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.
4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!
5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.
Get going and Stay Safe ~ Dean Letfus
