Sad to see so few take responsibility

On Tuesday, October 15, (the day before my 55th birthday) at 3.40pm, I was driving along Port Rd towards town when a red car turning right into Kioreroa Rd did not give way, crashed into me and didn’t stop.

I pulled over and got out of my car assuming he would come back to provide his details. Sadly, he did not. Out of the half-dozen vehicles that witnessed the accident, not one of them stopped to see if I was okay or needed assistance.

The truck driver who was right behind the car that hit me, could perhaps have identified the type of car it was and possibly got a registration number, but he preferred to laugh and yell out “woo-hoo” rather than stop and assist.

A lady in a van did stop to see if I needed a lift, 10 minutes after the accident, but it is disheartening to realise in these modern times, there are people who don’t have the decency to accept responsibility for their own mistakes and a large majority of people who have no empathy for other’s misfortunes.

Thank you so much driver of that red car for the awesome birthday present that you gave me; a $400 insurance excess bill to repair the damage that you did. I’m thankful that I thought fast, braked hard and took evasive action. If not, I would have T-boned you, possibly injuring one or both of us badly. You wouldn’t have been able to run away then! Jayne Strickland

Onerahi

Interest rates rise

Tuesday’s editorial said we shouldn’t fear a rise in interest rates — bunkum!

We most certainly should, if only because of the dangerous misconceptions of most economists about the relationship between interest and inflation.

Inflation is measured as “rising costs”, so that’s what it is. No more, no less.

It can have two causes:

■ Too much money in circulation resulting in too much demand, which economists almost always accept as the sole cause

■ Increasing costs in the manufacturing to retail stream which must be charged into prices.

An additional dollar cost at the manufacturing level is compounded by successive steps on the way to shop shelves. At every stage, the effect on prices is greater than the increase in interest rates.

So we can get a spiral. Increase interest rates; prices rise.

Blame it on “too much money” and increase rates more; prices rise higher still. And so on.

Economists never appear to recognise this compounding effect, except when workers want better pay. Why can’t they see the obvious trend that putting up interest rates causes? Is it because they think business people are “exploiters” who should really absorb the extra charges?

And who benefits? Well, bank revenues increase for a start!

It might be instructive to guess where the funding for most schools of economics comes from.

Instructive, too, to know that the “Nobel” prize in economics is funded by a Swedish bank, not the organisation founded by Alfred Nobel. Chris Leitch Whanga¯rei

State’s role?

What is the role of parents or caregivers in today’s society? It was with horror and alarm when I heard on the news that there is a group advocating that the state provide a free midday lunch for all schoolchildren. Caregivers of children already receive free education, free GP visits, free healthcare, free 20 hours of daycare, unemployment benefits, rental subsidies, access to food banks, KidsCan provides raincoats and shoes, and possibly others that I do not know about. So what is the responsibility of caregivers regarding the care of their offspring?

I am dead against the state providing free lunches.

Even through the Great Depression, free food was not provided at lunch time for children. My mother and her five siblings existed on plain healthy food and never went hungry. They foraged, gathered, and produced the basic food required buying flour, baking powder, sugar, golden syrup, cereals, and dairy.

How much does a packet of Weetbix or porridge, bread, margarine, cheaper meat cuts, fruit and vegetable seconds, potatoes, pasta, homemade jams, preserves cost today? A little bit of work and

innovation! Everyone can grow food in pots even if they do not have a garden. There are many charity shops where clothing can be purchased cheaply.

There are also budgeting and cooking courses run by charities and food swap stalls are springing up. If people are going to produce children, then they have a responsibility to provide for them.

I say a definite “no” to schools and the state feeding children who are caregivers’ responsibility! Marie Kaire Ngararatunua