Such a truthful piece of writing on Stuff

[Oh_hunnihunni]

But no doubt it will still get the usual responses...

https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/13157143...hing-shame

Thank goodness I won't be reading them.

[Olive]

That's a very good piece of writing and brings back to me my days of being a university student on a tiny bursary, budgeting with the help of a row of jam jars labelled "electricity", "rent", "food" etc.

Stuff hasn't opened it for comments thankfully.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

It rang so true for me as a very careful budgetwise person, because since graduating to Super being able to save slowly but surely has been a huge blessing for me. Until the grocery spend started eating even those tiny nest eggs away, making the payrise (lol) and the Winter Energy payment something I along with many others am really looking forward to. I have a tiny debt to repay to a friend who subsidised me into my wonderful scooter and I'm hoping those few extra dollars will let me wipe that out - which will be such an ego boost for me!

It is interesting the way our personal economic status plays into our self esteem and indeed our self image. Being able to convince ourselves we are able to manage and maintain independence as adults is really important for most of us.

Just as it is for nation states. Wealth definitely is power.

[harm_less]

An excellently written piece which Stuff has shown the good judgement of not having comments on it.

In the same way that some of us have a weatherproof livable home following the weather events of the recent past it serves to promote thoughts of 'you don't know how fortunate you are'.

[Lilith7]

I seem to recall quite a few of old TM posters held dear some of those myths about the poor all being lazy druggies who don't want to work but who could - if they weren't so very bone idle - grow veges on their windowsills...

It isn't often such an honest piece is printed, good for them.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

Another good reason to teach children in schools how to garden alongside how to manage their pocket money.

Those kinds of skills come in very handy when the world collapses around us. Which it often does, despite the best planning in the world.

[Zurdo]

Yes, I get so annoyed at people judging others through their own eyes - ''they just need to get off their fat arse and get a job.'' ''I got where I am through hard work.'' Blah, blah, blah, etc, etc, etc. Everyone has a story, and it's right for them, it's their life, and they are living it. The rich judging the poor, the poor judging the rich...oh, how I wish the best parts of humanity was all we had.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

Well, I guess if one has limited life experience that is all one can draw on...

I am blessed to have lived a very interesting life, lol.

[Lilith7]

If only it was just the best of humanity, it would be a very different & far better world.
Really, I think we should be teaching every schoolkid not just basic parenting, budgeting, cooking & gardening but first & foremost, empathy.

In every western country which grabbed onto Neo Liberalism, the results of several decades that are being seen & it isn't good. On the coast in Westport, several greed crazed vulture bastards from up north descended & rapidly bought up properties there ( including ex state rentals as they were sold off) which they proceeded to let at exorbitant rents which they had no problem increasing at the drop of a hat. This was made far worse when they had bad flooding there a while ago with fewer rental properties available; one person I was told about had a rent increase of over $100 pw.
If that isn't greed then its an excellent imitation & imo should be illegal.

[SueDonim]

At first I skimmed it thinking that it was just another "woe is me" article where Stuff takes the word of someone without allowing the other side of the story a look in. I've seen a couple of those where I knew the background and the lack of balance to the point of dishonesty is the reason I rarely read Stuff.

Then, for this one, I did take a second look and read it thoroughly. If it is all from one person she is clearly so clinically depressed that her most important need is medical care. But I doubt that it is one person's perception. Yes, it does say "her and others’ experience of poverty" and it reads as a compilation of everything that can be negative for people who are hard up. If it stood up to critical analysis it would be a good "what can happen" but it doesn't even do that.

The first step in analysing something is to compare it with what you already know about. So, as a landlord with a partner who has worked widely within the rental industry, I can criticise the parts that relate to my experience. Eg:
- she complains about the fridge, but it's not normal to be supplied a fridge in a rental. So instead of complaining about it she could be grateful that the landlord gave her something to use until she can get to WINZ and organise purchase of a new one. That's what tenants do.
- she wants sugar soap to fix the mould. Good on the landlord if he is giving her some. It's a bit dearer than the cheap dishwash I buy at the supermarket and the detergent factor is stronger, but it's only good for cleaning the stain. The mould needs to be treated with vinegar and the house kept dry. Unless the house is damp because of leaks or being built on a swamp, mould comes from the spores in the air growing because of excess people moisture.
- she "knows the laws of tenancy rights" but is "resigned to the knowledge they are rarely observed or enforced". Rubbish. The tenancy tribunal errs greatly on the side of tenants so if there is something wrong that is the tenant's right she has only to go through the process.
- I have never heard of a tenancy agreement forbidding indoor plants, and after the last round of law changes if she wanted to put up shelves to grow vegetables in window boxes, the landlord must be consulted but is not allowed to refuse without good reason.

And so on.

The article also states at the top that this person owned a business for 22 years. Yet the author then bemoans that minimum wage is too low. When she was in business she would have known that forcing higher wages just forces business owners out of their businesses.

I'm sure that people who know about other aspects of the article would also find holes to pick. Stuff does itself no favours when it prints inconsistent and inaccurate articles, even if they are headed "opinion".

Yes, there are poor people who really are struggling. Yes, there are poor landlords, but most are good. Just as most tenants are good. The article is unbalanced, inaccurate and misleading.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

I think the piece is anecdotal, and doesn't pretend to be anything else. It rang true for me because I have experienced very similar things - not the shame angle, because I am far too strong a personality to bother with letting that into my life.

Since being forced by circumstances to give up home ownership I have had eight landlords. Three of them were wonderful, supportive, honest and professional property owners. Two were real estate agency property managers and fairly good to deal with. One of the remainder was an utter scoundrel who never lodged the bond, never repaired leaky roofing, and tried desperately to do me out of bond repayment, in fact did short change me by $15 in the end, four months after I moved out... $15? Summed him up really. The other two were just rubbish, not really bad, just not the kind of people most people would let in their door.

Yes there are remedies for poor landlord issues, but the process is neither easy nor is it readily accessible.

The biggest takeaway I got from the piece was the reminder of how we link wealth to respect. And it is so wrong. We have this idea that renting is bad, but a quarter of the population are renters. Social changes mean many more of us end up as singles, and being a single property owner comes with its own challenges, particularly as we age, or have limited support of all kinds. A divorce or two can devastate lives. A sudden accident, an illness, family catastrophes, environmental disasters, all can transform a perfectly well planned and managed life into something very different.

One of the biggest lessons for me coming into this little flat in a pensioner village was getting to know the stories of the people around me. The lady who never married, who looked after aged family members all her life till the last one died and she was left with nothing. The battered woman. The two men with two families, double divorced. The man who put all his savings into a scheme that hit the headlines as it crashed, leaving his wife with a stroke whose care leached his remaining security. And a couple of dodgies, but less said about them the better, lol. Very few of them openly talk about being social housing tenants, despite being well aware how privileged we are compared to many. The social shaming does happen, honestly though? More from ignorance than any real understanding. Apart from those folk who just want to think they will never have to walk in a poor person's shoes, which is completely understandable. No one likes to think of the tough stuff of 'what if...'

After all, pretty much from birth here in the western world we are conditioned into being 'aspirational'. To measure success in terms of fame and fortune, and to judge our positions by those of the people around us. To raise up and celebrate the 'high achievers' among us, while ignoring those who fall by the wayside.

Sadly, that does not contribute to a healthy society. And until it does, we will have to deal with and pay for the symptoms of our community unwellness. Pity, seeing we have so many more desperate challenges ahead...

[Olive]

"The biggest takeaway I got from the piece was the reminder of how we link wealth to respect."

Absolutely. I remarked on my memory of being an impoverished student, but there was no shame in poverty in those circumstances, it was regarded as a rite of passage. Our ill-paid part time jobs (I was a factory tea lady, most of my male friends worked at the freezing works on the gut board) were respected because we were working towards "bettering" ourselves. It was bearable because we all knew it wasn't permanent and we weren't derided.

The shame would have arrived if I had stayed being a tea lady, counting my pay into jam jars for rent and electricity. Yet I would have been the same person.

[Lilith7]

"So instead of complaining about it she could be grateful that the landlord gave her something to use until she can get to WINZ and organise purchase of a new one. That's what tenants do.
- she wants sugar soap to fix the mould. Good on the landlord if he is giving her some."

Poor people have every right to complain if they see fit.


"We obsessively budget and accept we often only have $40 for a week’s worth of groceries because food money is our only flexible expense."



It would be clearly be difficult or impossible to manage to pay off a fridge when there's a grand total of not a damn thing left from the budget.

As Hunni pointed out this is an anecdotal piece, & its interesting that respect is foolishly linked to wealth. Perhaps we might do better to turn that around & have some respect for those who are struggling every day while often being maligned as 'lazy' & perhaps disapproval should be meted out to those more deserving - the landlord constantly raising rents & delaying or refusing to supply basics or supplying old & near the end of their usefulness items for properties.

[SueDonim]

I think we do need to get past all the cliches and stop putting labels on people, whether they relate to income, ethnicity, sexuality or whatever. I think it's mainly the media driving that and we should fight back against it.

To say that the poor are disrespected is wrong. When you step out your door you don't know who is poor unless they tell you. How people actually live bears little resemblance to how much resource they have. As far as tenants go, we don't know their circumstances unless they choose to tell us. Some do tell us. Most don't. It's none of our business. For those that we have an idea about, over the years they have ranged from people who were hard up through to people who were well off. Making assumptions about anything about anyone is very wrong.

I do know that beneficiaries can go to WINZ and get a some sort of advance to buy essentials like fridges, etc. Presumably it's a loan that is paid of a few dollars a week. The person who did that didn't tell us the detail, just that she had done so. Any appliances that we supply with a house are new when we've done the reno. Putting in rubbish is poor management - old stuff dies and you then have to replace it so you provide new at the outset to avoid the hassle and maintain the property value as well as the service to the tenant.

Cliches about people being lazy, disrespectful, etc don't have any relationship to financial well-being except that there are some beneficiaries who should be working and won't. That is not a slight on beneficiaries per se, just a realistic comment about those people who actually are lazy and who do cheat. There are plenty of others who aren't beneficiaries and are lazy cheats too. The problem with generalisations is that people who are innocent can be overly sensitive and think "they mean "me"" when they don't, but those who are being poked at don't realise and continue the behaviour anyway. Or just don't care.

And tarring landlords with cliches and generalisations is as bad as tarring tenants. Most landlords take their responsibilities seriously and are in business to provide a necessary service, just like all the other essential parts of society. Pick on bad tenants and bad landlords, and understand that most are just a cross section of society like everyone else.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

I often whinge about my corporate LL... but reading the posts on a tenants forum makes me even more aware of just how lucky I am! It's like those ghastly reality tv things of the Tenants/Landlords from Hell. I made a post in response to someone with allergies complaining about a privet shrub and suggested they trim it to stop it flowering or seeding. A very simple job... I got shouted down with 'not my job' replies.

Some people need baby sitters it seems as well as landlords!

[Lilith7]

The point is that while beneficiaries can borrow from WINZ, they must first jump through the necessary hoops to be eligible; then from an income already insufficient to meet their needs they must repay that. This is well nigh impossible for those whose income is already stretched to breaking point.

What's needed is benefits which are able to cover at least basic needs - more fairness all round. There are always going to be some unscrupulous landlords just as there will always be some unscrupulous tenants.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

I got an advance on my Super (is it actually a loan?) to pay the nearly $1000 bill for replacement batteries on my scooter. My super drops by $9 a fortnight till we're even. It isn't waived if I die... My student loan though has repayments deducted through taxation, it would be waived if I die. One is interest free, the other is interest waived. Same same only different...