I’ll be the first to admit that one of my weaknesses is that on the odd occasion, I have been known to jump to the wrong conclusion about someone and misjudged them unfairly.
My wife thinks this and is always reminding me that it’s an ‘area I can improve on’ which is a polite way of saying it’s high on the list of ‘things I hate about you’. She might have a point, but I doubt it. There have only been two recorded instances of me misjudging someone and with a margin of error of plus or minus two even that number is in question.
Like the couple I watched lay it on nice and thick on the news the other night. They were talking about how the cost of living and shit has made it hard for them to raise their young family. Man it was emotional TV I can tell you. At least it would have been had I not spent the entire two minutes staring at the big fuck off shiny wide screen TV they had behind them in their lounge. I was prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt at this stage until I noticed the mega stereo draped alongside it, the Sky decoder and both the Xbox and PS consoles they had strewn across the lounge floor. You know – the necessities of life.
Both smoked, another accidental caught-on-camera revelation that they obviously neglected to think would reflect badly on them prior to letting the news crew inside and yet here they were, lips quivering over the price of a block of cheese! Now I’m not an unsympathetic man but this is the classic example of a couple having absolutely no idea of how to prioritise 'need' over 'want' and then trying to blame their shortcomings on someone else. Who knows, maybe they won the lot in a meat raffle some where but I’m guessing the prize that day was a tray of meat, not some $7000 home entertainment system. I’ve run a few dodgy raffles in my time but I’m pretty sure that’s how it works.
I’m all for helping out people who actually struggle to make ends meet because their needs exceed the income they have. If they’re making every possible sacrifice and still struggling to make ends meet than society should help them out, that’s what our taxes are for, but when you struggle to make the connection that the difference between having two litres of milk, a loaf of bread and a block of cheese each week lies in you giving up your Sky subscription, or not, then alarm bells are ringing I reckon. When you can’t pay the power bill that shot up the very day after you bought that LCD flat screen on lay-by, then I’m willing to bet that the advice you need is more than financial.
And who’s going to top up Mr & Mrs Fiscal Responsibility so that they can have cheese and Sky? That’s right, you and I. Mr & Mrs Taxpayer.
I’ve also got no time for first time home buyers who are now crying that they now can’t pay their mortgage because the big bad bank put its interest rates up. These are the noddy’s who got caught up in the whole Mitre 10 Dream Home type wave of bullshit that had people buying the worst house in the best street that they couldn’t really afford to impress folk who didn’t really care.
They followed the advice of the highly paid property guru on the show who’s been in the ‘biz’ for 30 years and has allegedly made shitloads as a result, when he told them to buy high and sell higher. The show didn’t actually mention that he’s probably been bankrupt twice in that time but who needs details at a time when ridiculously easy money is just gagging to be made huh? Mitre 10 sure weren’t going to tell them, they wanted the suckers to buy all the DIY crap from them that they were going to need after buying the worst house in the worst street. Funny that.
Trade Me, the housing market is not. There’s no buying it at the Warehouse for a fiver and flogging it off for $50 in housing, contrary to what you might see on TV. You would think that the small matter of there being 6 figures in the price tag would make people a bit wary, but apparently here in NZ there’s a sucker born every minute. Buying a house means entering into a world where market forces can shaft you quicker than a sneaky one with the missus while the kids are playing next door and it’s not like hard times in housing is new phenomenon either, infact it’s frighteningly frequent in its regularity. Something Mum and Dad probably could have attested to if Mr & Mrs SuckedInBigTime had taken the time to ask them.
But they didn’t and they too are looking for someone else to blame and anyone will do really; The Government, Graham Henry for not winning the World Cup, Al-Qaeda, perhaps even the 47 Asians living in the one house next door. Whatever. We all know there's only one group controlling the worlds finances anyway; Ninjas. Blaming someone else isn’t going to change the fact that you’re in up to your balls in mortgage nor is it going to make it go away, so get over it. As Tana Umaga once said “we’re not playing tiddlywinks here’.
Looks like the worst house in the best street just got a whole lot cheaper.
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