Mature voters’ failings

It seems the new reading glasses Mike Williams wears are rosetinted (letters, Nov 14). He states that, as a mature voter, he ‘‘can make a more measured choice . . . than the majority of the 16-year-old plus group’’.

Let’s examine the evidence. We have an older generation who believe the way to get rich is to sell houses to one another at ever more inflated prices, rather than investing in productive, wealthcreating businesses. As a result, many of our young people cannot afford to buy a house and move overseas to follow a career. Meanwhile, tangata whenua are on the wrong end of every statistic.

Our biggest city is choked in congestion, due to our failure to invest in the kind of high-capacity rapid transit network that people in similar cities elsewhere take for granted. We have a seemingly incurable case of ‘‘that won’t work here, we’re different’’ disease.

We face a catastrophic and apparently irreversible decline in our native species, brought about by habitat loss and introduced pests. Our greenhouse gas emissions, already among the highest per capita in the world, continue to increase, yet we act as if planting pine trees and buying offsets will let us carry on as we are.

It’s hard to see how a 16-year-old voter could possibly do a worse job of choosing whom to elect than Mike’s generation (of which I am one) has done.

John Rankin, Wellington