Throughout the last thirty to forty years, there has been an implicit assumption that unions are best for the marketplace, and best for the people who work for the large corporations as a way of rebalancing their negotiating power against that of their parent company. However, this isn’t necessarily the case – in fact, in many jobs, unions wind up hurting the companies they are designed to negotiate with, and in some cases even causing...

I’m just going to come right out and say it, despite the fact that it’s likely to make me rather unpopular to do so: the NHS wastes a hell of a lot of its money on pointless things that don’t require a doctor’s intervention. While one of the great benefits of socialized medicine is the fact that people actually DO go to a doctor for regular checkups, one of the corollary downsides is that people often go TOO frequently, and waste...

Many people have been complaining lately about the lack of public post-secondary education in our great country. But what exactly do they think is going to happen if we suddenly put together publicly funded post-secondary education? The entire education system would collapse, of course! Anyone who suggests that we start running public LPN classes is clearly in denial about the way that our economy is structured, at least in regards to the...

The challenge of coming up with a healthcare system that is both appropriate and sustainable can be an impossible mission. Different countries have tried out varied models of healthcare system in the hope of finding one that will suit their populace. In New Zealand, what started out as a universal and full-public health system during the early 1900s has evolved into a combination of public and private system which made up of a wide network of...

Generally, I’m not in favor of selling off something that our taxes have helped to build – after all, I payed those taxes, same as you, even though I didn’t need the services. But in the case of New Zealand’s healthcare system, I have to come out and say it: privatization will save us. The government can’t really afford to maintain the current healthcare system, despite the fact that it offers an excellent quality of service...

They invaded your home. On 16 May 2007, Labour’s Anti-Smacking bill was passed into law. Sue Bradford (Green MP) had introduced the bill, but it was Labour who ensured that it was successful. National voted for the bill at its final reading upon an agreement that inconsequential cases would not be prosecuted. This made a terrible law slightly better. At the time that the law came into action, an average taken of 14 separate polls across...

The Electoral Finance Act does four major things: It expands the regulated speech period for an election from 90 days to all of election year. It dramatically expands the definition of what is an election advertisement so that it includes protest placards, e-mails, posts to Internet newsgroups and forums (only non-commercial blogs and news media sites are exempted). It places limits on public advocacy for or against parties, candidates or types...