Today was pretty productive – I got up, had a coffee, had the back door open to let in a bit of fresh air while there was some mild rain outside. I upgraded my blog in the morning however at the moment I’m giving the simple text editor on WordPress a go. It is interesting that when you click on ‘post’ regarding the daily prompt on Safari that it goes to the simple text layout but if you create a new post without a daily prompt then it goes to ‘block editor’. I’ll keep experimenting and see how it all works out because I may end up preferring the mode minimalist approach given that when I’m writing my blog I really don’t do anything more complex than maybe upload a video or embed a YouTube video.
It is interesting to follow politics and how the discussion regarding the cost of living has become central to the election in New Zealand, the United States and many other countries. What I think is lost in the discussion is how there is a tendency for solutions that provide or appear to provide instant relief when in reality it is masking bigger problems. It reminds me of the pain relief ads that were on television many years ago and at the end of the ad there used to be a message of “if pain persists please see your doctor”. The whole point of the message at the end of the ad was to advise the viewer that the pain relief was for temporary relief and if you’re having persistent pain then it could be an indication of something more serious going on.
Regardless of who ends up winning the election in New Zealand I think there is a limited amount that the government can do. For many years we’ve put off repairing infrastructure and now the bill has come due – plenty of people in Wellington are now complaining about the bills being sent out by the new corporate body now taking care of water but it isn’t surprising that years of neglect has resulted in where we are today. We’ve allowed businesses to become too accustomed to limited competition, allowed NIMBYs to hold back development resulting in things taking longer to build which in turn cost either central government, local government or just regular home buyers more.
It reminds me very much of an operating system and performance regressions. There is a tendency by many to assume that when there is a problem it is caused by one big thing when in reality it is more likely the result of a whole lot of small things. As much as David Seymour gets given a hard time about his ‘Ministry of Regulation’ the reality is that what small to medium businesses face isn’t a single barrier but a whole lot of small regulations and the cumulative experience is a whole lot of time and money spent on complying with rules that had the best of intentions when first passed but in reality didn’t actually solve a real problem.
I think what will bring down the cost of living won’t be a massive big announcement but rather a whole lot of incremental but meaningful changes – Labour has talked about bringing greater competition to the banking and financial sector to get a better deal for consumers and small to medium businesses that rely on payment solutions. There have been talk about bringing not only more energy onboard but greater transparency and competition in the electricity sector. Many of the parties are talking about investment into rail and working to insulate the New Zealand transportation sector from the energy supply shocks which drive up the cost of transportation that is then passed along to the consumer with a higher retail price.
What’s one thing you know now that would have saved your younger self a lot of pain?
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Get yourself into a good set of habits because once you get into them young they are retained for life – you don’t have to think because they’re so deeply embedded into your mind that you don’t think twice. The two good habits that you should try to nail down when you’re young are – 1) being good with money in terms of putting off instant gratification for more of a long term view 2) getting in a good diet and exercise routine so that you can not only stay healthy but enjoy a long life where you’re able to live life to the fullest even as you get older.
