I decided to make a submission to the NZ government on the NZ Building Code. You can also make a submission at the following site.
The Building Code which curtails the capacity of people to perform handyman work on their homes and facilities, is the greatest obstacle to competition in the marketplace. Notwithstanding the very real safety concerns, anyone performing work is levied with 'punitive' fines and charges which relate to no objective value, or an inclination to adopt arbitrary, dogmatic rules (divorced from context). This is a form of extortion of fascism....but of course its well-meaning.
The implications
1. Community members are compelled to break laws which ought not exist...in the process inciting lawlessness
2. Hardwares offer 30-50% discount to builders and other tradespeople (at the expense of the homeowner who actually initiates the work performed), adds a huge mark-up, and then after having extorted this wealth from homeowners, uses the proceeds to subsidise an extravagant life of recreation, whilst just working 3 days a week.
3. Members of the community are inclined to avoid home improvements, which reduces justifiable spending
4. NZ home infrastructure goes underfunded in terms of improvement.
5. The govt, which reverses cause & effect, recognising the underspending on improvements, then in its infinite wisdom, then subsidises home improvement schemes like insulation and energy-rated wood burners, which again allow manufacturers and imstallers to extort money from buyers, who think they are getting a bargain (i.e. subsidy). e.g. A $3-5,000 heat pump is the same technology as a refrigerator (cost $800-1200), so that is the extent to which the govt is extorting taxpayers. Why? To placate a group of uncritical thinking scientists with no respect for objectivity who run a campaign of 'global warming' by humanity. These collectivists renounce the mind in favour of scare campaigns. Correlation is not causation....its all too easy to drop the context. A huge waste of money is occurring thanks to government, which is another false economy, whereby politicians extort wealth from taxpayers...some happily (repressors and parasites alike) under a collectivist creed of 'might makes right'. Ultimately the politicians are not accountable because they define the rules by which they will be judged. Under common law, extortion is illegal...under your arbitrary rule, anything becomes possible.
Yes, you preside over a complete shambles of a collectivist state. Democracy provides you with the "legitimacy" to launch your rationalised political spin....knowing all too well that the passive, powerless voter has no effective choice in a two-party electoral system. I do not even pretend that this submission will make a difference. Reason is not the standard of value...not in legislature...and most critically, not in the judiciary....though implicitly judges hear evidence...its a process of rationalisation when the extortionary opinions of parliamentary majorities moved by 'number blocs' rather than reasons and arguments, are the standard of value. There is no real or effective debate.
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Author
Andrew Sheldon