About a year ago I started inquiring about a top up on our mortgage to invest in a new workshop. The first question was how far away I lived from a city. I told the lady and it was apparently within the allowed radius as we got our top up and are now the proud owners of a new workshop.
The question at the time struck me as odd. What is where you live to the bank after all? If your income and the value of the property justifies an extension on your loan that should be enough I would have thought.
Yesterday John Key once again stuck his foot in it when he announced that Wellington was a dying city. Last time I was there it struck me as pretty alive but I’m sure that the ongoing decimation of small businesses and Corporations acting in favor of outsourcing to third world countries leaving only a fragile consumer cum service economy will have it’s detrimental effect on any city in New Zealand and not just Wellington.
In Hamilton the turn around for business premises and businesses coming and going is terrifying and there to people have less and less to spend and it will only be a matter of time for the hideous debt run up in “better”times will catch up with the city but apparently the only city to come out of this with a booming economy is Auckland.
According to John Key Auckland will grow with a MILLION new residents over the next 20-30 years!
It seems that big Corporate offices have moved to Auckland from Wellington already and Auckland is planning for the expansion already.
Which begs a few questions:
- Where are these million people coming from?
- Are they coming from abroad?
- Are they coming from New Zealand?
- How does this expansion fit in the global predictions of peak oil, recession and the breakdown of the unsustainable current system which can only continue to exist as long as it grows?
- With a thousand New Zealanders leaving the country every week due to a collapsing economy how does he expect the city to grow?
With an economy based on cheap fossil fuel enabling people to survive happily within fairly long distances from cities which provide the necessities on farms etc. collapsing under the stress of rising fuel prices sooner or later people will either go back to fairly subsistence existences eking out a living locally but a lot of them will move to cities when they can’t service their mortgages anymore in the hopes of finding jobs and as the economy will keep on collapsing those people will become more and more forced into small apartments based on low income wages in marginal jobs.
I put it to you that John Key is planning for exactly that and that is why they want to build higher not wider in Auckland and that is why our bank asked how far we lived from the nearest city. If you want to learn more about the agenda behind this here is
- a link to an agenda 21 video
- a link to the Agenda 21 Wikipedia page
- a link more information on the club of Rome who came up with the Agenda 21 paper and here is the website to Hamilton city announcing with pride that it actually is implementing the Agenda 21 (except that due to the constant pressure of people worried about Agenda 21 the page has been disappeared it seems)
However here is a link to a PDF explaining how Hamilton is going to implement all these sustainable targets.
Aotearoa: A Wider Perspective 
Where are these million people coming from?
From natural population growth and migration.
Are they coming from abroad?
Yes.
Are they coming from New Zealand?
Yes.
How does this expansion fit in the global predictions of peak oil, recession and the breakdown of the unsustainable current system which can only continue to exist as long as it grows?
Sounds like a sensible approach. Something has to be done, after all. Unless you favour a depopulation programme?
With a thousand New Zealanders leaving the country every week due to a collapsing economy how does he expect the city to grow?
NZ still has net migration growth, and a positive birth rate.