Dan Jackson: Profit over public interest

THEY say money isn't everything, but it's far nicer to cry yourself to sleep in your mansion than on the street.

I'd agree with that - if I had a mansion, that is.

We live in a strange time, one where the pursuit of material wealth and possessions seems to drive the people who seek to govern us more than any other factor. And somehow we all seem fine with it.

I cannot fathom how New Zealand went from a place where we, the people, seemed to own all the public works and infrastructure when I was a kid, to now, where we seem to be continuously paying for things we no longer own.

If I had to write a list, I'd start with Telecom (formerly the Post Office). Then I would add Powerco (formerly the Wanganui Rangitikei Electric Power Board) and I'd throw in all the seemingly nameless infrastructure companies whose services used to come in under the Wanganui District Council.

We used to own all these things - you and me, not a corporation; not some faceless investor.

I'm not going to get started on the health services or the public transport services or all those vital services that we need, as a people and community, because I'd wind myself up too much.

All I will do is ask those faceless executives and people seeking office to stop and think.

Think about the relentless drive to put profit before people. Think about what their actions are doing.

Selling water? Really? We all need water. Why should they - why should anyone, for that matter - profit from water?

Since an early age I have heard rhetoric from our Government and public officials about the inefficiencies of public ownership and the "better way" offered by privatisation.

Various old white men, and a few women, parade in front of our screens, telling us how much better off we'll be if we let them sell something.

Then, when we get the collywobbles and jitters, they sweeten the deal by offering "a public share float" or some such nonsense. We all jump at the chance but find our eyes are bigger than our stomachs and have to sell shortly after ... sell to corporations and to already wealthy people, that is.

Then we watch our public services slide away into foreign ownership.

You New Zealanders know I'm right. Deep in your soul you know what they are doing is wrong. You grumble about it at smoko break and some even write letters to the paper, but somehow this cycle continues.

I have a theory as to why. Throughout New Zealand's history, people - brown and white and any other colour you can think of - came to NZ for a better life.

In the first half of the last century, we took part in two horrific wars and we suffered. The people who returned from those overseas battles and the people who remained behind united in a common cause to build the great place New Zealand became in the last half of the century - clean water, no work on Sundays, plenty for all.

But that generation grew old and left us, leaving behind generations who never knew want or discomfort. People who weren't driven by the common good but by their own good.

And we've gone about dismantling the good their parents' and grandparents' generations had done. This has happened all around the world, but it's especially vicious in NZ because we went from something so good to something ... well, less than par. We've been sold economic theory that hasn't worked for anyone but those selling the theory.

Don't believe me? Watch the news and see how many of our former elected officials are now in cushy directorships for corporations who have an interest in selling our stuff.

Sorry to be so serious this week, but this stuff bugs me no end.

-Dan Jackson is a Whanganui journalist and part-time scrap metal dealer.