While I'm no fan of the bloated and often less-than-useless, tax-gobbling public "service" sector (so inaptly named), one visit to Wellington's CBD in recent months would leave you in no uncertain frame of mind about the loss of vibe and vibrancy of our beloved (or formerly beloved) capital.
It would seem that while the previous government certainly set Wellington up for a Great. Big. Fall., the current government's axe-wielding has dealt the death blow.
But don't take MY opinion for it:
Notwithstanding that the host of this YouTube commentary on the world's supposedly "coolest little capital" is now a consultant to those wanting to explore opportunities in developing countries, the fact that he
(an American) lived here for three years
(obtaining his Resident's Visa, with a view to it being his "forever home")
and chats at length with a disenchanted mate he left behind
(a born-and-bred Wellingtonian Gen Y), makes this an insight-rich watch.
And I heartily encourage all current Parliamentarians to do so.
(Although if you're of the delicate-eared variety that, for example, dives for the remote when watching a show in which an actor drops the F-bomb a few times, maybe you'll find it a bit raw. But you'll sacrifice a serious street-level education, if you don't watch it until the end.)
Here are some of the "highlights" arising in discussion between the two Millennials:
- While Wellington makes it into numerous lists (e.g. "the best place in the world to live"), young renters
(and probably all renters!) are "sick and tired of living in cold, uninsulated places that we have to share and pay 'stupid amounts of money' for",
owned by landlords with equally stupid amounts of rights, who (I'm only very mildly paraphrasing here) can do invasive quarterly inspections, and
"you've still got to pay this fucking ding dong even if he never fucking fixes anything". ("There's a tribunal system that protects the tenant but that takes time, and you're paying this slumlord all the while you're going through all that.")
- "If you're just a regular person, you can JUST keep your head above water, but it's getting harder and harder."
The pair discuss the horrendous price of apartments and how it forces most Millennials to
"cram into big houses with lots of flatmates". So too bad for anyone who's a bit more of an introvert; the most they'd ever be able to afford is a small studio; a property apartment with its own facilities would be out of the question.
- The American struggles with the "logic" of why such a dramatic housing crisis exists in a country
"that hardly has any fucking people. There's no shortage of space! It's not like it's Manhattan Island . . . . you go a little bit north of Wellington and there's nothing but land, you know?"
- Neither the remaining local nor the abandoning American understand the justification for the current
"massive explosion of immigrants, mostly from India, Asia and Africa, in a country that already has a housing crisis. Unless you don't want the housing crisis to stop and you just want to lower the standard of living, as seems to be the intention in most Western countries . . . turning them all into the likes of Brazil. They don't respect the concept of the nation state; they seem to just want labour from all over the world competing and at the same low level. You can see it in these countries; regardless of who's in office, living standards just continue to decrease."
- The local:
"New Zealand, and especially Wellington, IS actually a place where you CAN make good money, but in amongst those in that 'gentrified' strata, you have the majority of the populace, who are working class and increasingly, struggling."
- The public services (e.g. health care) aren't reflective of the high taxes imposed upon the population. "They're not third-world, but regardless, the standard of public services has been declining steadily. All services are a lot less efficient. Every second bus won't show up. You'll be waiting longer and longer to see a doctor. On and on."
- The born-and-bred and still-here Wellingtonian says:
"Take the scene in Courtenay Place. It's BAD now. It used to have such a vibrant night life. Sure, there was chaos, but there was a carnival atmosphere, and businesses were pumping. Now the business is dead, man. People used to be spilling out all over the streets; now there's about a third as many people out and about. And it's all just little 18-year-olds. I don't know why you'd want to own a bar in Wellington now. It's like a ghost town."
- (Same commentator as above): "There's a lot of homelessness here now; 'anti-social areas' of the city. Lots of drugs. It's really declined. It's a fucking hole, Bro."
- The American in response: "So since I left, you're saying it's turned into, like a Seattle or a San Francisco? One of those really Liberal cities that have just turned into dumps and shit-holes?"
- (The Wellington local):
"It's exactly like that. We have these small minorities of people on six-figure salaries and doing really well, and then we've got all these homeless people that just can't keep up with the inflation and all the degeneracy that comes with that, so it really IS like the San Fran and Seattle of today."
- With regard to the Parliament protests over the COVID-19 mandates, says the Wellingtonian:
"People were just sick of having their freedoms stripped away and they weren't going to put up with it. I saw a poll that said one-third of New Zealanders supported the protests. I think that's pretty accurate. My parents are normies and so they didn't support them, but the protestors were being reported as "fringe" . . . but one-third of the population is a pretty sizeable 'minority'."
- Observes the formerly Wellington-based American now living in South East Asia:
"People in Western countries are more easily manipulated than in the likes of South East Asia. People here (in South East Asia) live in an objective reality, because there's not the sophisticated media propaganda and think tanks trying to manipulate their perceptions. I've found that in these Western countries now, like the United States and New Zealand, these governments have just become more and more involved in people's lives. To have the government dictating what kind of medicine you need to put in your body or put in your children's body? That's CRAZY."
