Value in life not measured in dollars

To the Govt, preserving our aqua vitae is more about cash flow than water flow. Photo / NZME.

The acute shortage of accounting professionals nationwide is being reported as though it is a bad thing. Unfortunately for its practitioners, accountancy is a no-win profession. There are good and bad points about needing an accountant.

On one hand, you must be doing reasonably well if you need an accountant. On the other hand - you need an accountant.

No accountant has ever satisfied a client. They're too slow or they rush you. They cost too much. They make you pay too much tax because no one ever feels they should pay more tax.

From the accountant's point of view, there's little joy to be had doing work that no one likes. So the fewer accountants there are, the less unhappiness there is in the world, for those practising the art and those on the receiving end.

Having a full quota of accountants would encourage the mindset that makes dollars and cents the sole measure of something's value.

And this ethos is stronger than ever, visible in everything that has been getting us excited in recent weeks: from the addle-headed jubilation about Auckland housing prices to the corporate ram-raiding greed of Ports of Auckland, to the economic necessity of ending Campbell Live, to wriggling with delight at the prospect of parity between the Australian and New Zealand dollar.

Everywhere we miscalculate our happiness in dollars and cents.

And it comes from the top. We "want to make sure water is available and used across the economy", said Prime Minister John Key regarding iwi claims over water rights.

By describing it in those terms he makes clear that he sees water primarily as an economic, not a human, resource. It is something used to make money, not sustain people, especially if, like One Pure International, you're bottling it in Hawkes Bay and selling it to China.

As Eleanor Catton once said: "New Zealand, like Australia and Canada, [is dominated by] these neo-liberal, profit-obsessed, very shallow, very money-hungry politicians who do not care about culture."

In fact, they don't care about culture to the point that this week Te Papa indicated it is about to walk away from one of its most important functions - a book-publishing programme that is second to none, producing great books that no one else could or would.

The institution's inauguration in 1998 was accompanied by doomy predictions from the culturati about the trivialisation of our heritage in its approach. It has given the lie to such claims until now when, it would appear, the accountants have gained the upper hand.

Requiring parents to have their children vaccinated or have their benefits docked is a heavy-handed stratagem. But better a heavy-handed stratagem than dead or sick children.

The growth of anti-vaccination sentiment is a symptom of widespread flat-Earthification, epidemic in the United States and growing here. It's the sort of thinking practised by climate-change deniers and cellphone tower opponents.

They like to talk about good science and bad science but this is a false distinction. There is only science on one hand and error on the other. The study used to justify not vaccinating has been proved to be in error.

Vaccination is science, and one of humanity's greatest achievements.

That said, it would be more effective and humane to offer reluctant parents bonuses, for example in the form of healthcare credits, if they do vaccinate than to make their already difficult financial situation worse if they don't.

This week's news magazine Time has the cover line "Black Lives Matter". How extraordinary that in the United States, this is news.