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Poverty and Penthouses

Whenever Phil or I travel back to Taranaki to visit our parents we travel through Patea, a sad old town which is barely clinging to existence.

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They drove through small towns, through obscure side roads, through the kind of places they had not seen in years. She felt uneasiness at the sight of the towns. Days passed before she realised what it was that she missed most: a glimpse of fresh paint. The houses stood like men in unpressed suits, who had lost the desire to stand straight: the cornices were like sagging shoulders, the crooked porch steps like torn hem lines, the broken windows like patches, mended with clapboard.

- Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged.

I was struck by the amazing contrast between Patea and Wellington when my girlfriend and I worked for an afternoon cleaning walls ready for renovations in an apartment building in town. When we arrived, the apartment turned out to be a amazing penthouse suite at the heart of Wellington with sweeping views of the city and harbour from huge sunny balconies, fitted out with warm woods and tiles, tastefully decorated with designer fittings.

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I was inspired by the beauty of this dwelling, where even the double garage had a view over the city streets. My girlfriend and I decided to work hard and make money so that we can buy a penthouse of our own one day.

It saddens me to remember that some people, like those living in Patea, seem content to continue living in broken-down houses and fail to further their lot, even with a simple paint-job.

Gang warfare, youth crime, drug abuse and extremely high suicide rates are a logical outcome when people are paid systematically to do nothing; to aspire to nothing. Life is altered, often irreversibly, from a future of possibilities and aspirations to an easy option of subsidised nothingness. The life of nothingness that is fostered by welfarism could only ever serve to degrade one’s self value.

- Peter Osborne, The Great Con That Is Social Welfare.

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Posted by Luke H on Saturday, September 1st, 2007 at 11:48 am.

6 Responses to “Poverty and Penthouses”

That Osbourne bit was excellent and a most concise indictment of uncontrolled social welfare. If the guy hasn’t written a book, he should.

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Left by Jay on September 4th, 2007

I cannot respect a page that says we should boycott the Olympics!!!!
Though that piece on the housing was inciteful!!!

As someone who has lived in a state house before (Im assuming those Patea houses are State houses, if not this is just a ramble) I can say there is a major problem, You potentially could lose your bond etc and be penalised if you try to improve your lot. The we lived in was very crappy. The tiles were worn off and when the washing machine was going the back yard would flood everytime. Also the chimney was cracked worse than the one that caused our families previous Housefire. When mum got the opportunity through family friends to get a huge (legal) discount on goods and services that would have improved the house immensely and stopped it being a health hazard, Housing New Zealand forbade the work being done (even though it would have cost them nothing and when we shifted out the health dept declared it a health risk and they had to pay for the repairs themselves). Before anyone says “But private ownership would be better and this would not happen” Should talk to some of the people who have gone into private rentals. Once again this is personal experience. After the housefire the next house we rented (private rental) Mum almost fell through the walls, they were so badly rotten. Another house we stayed in the floor was starting to rot and if a fat person sat on the toilet they would have fallen through the floor (seriously). In the first case it was fixed after we left and in the second the landlady decided to sell it without warning form under us.

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Left by Jason on September 5th, 2007

Can I ask what you think of people who are reduced to poverty through no fault of their own?

You protest about welfare etc and yet you recieve student loans from the government. How about you be a Real libertarian and get a personal loan out instead?

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Left by William on September 6th, 2007

HEhe HehehHHeeEhHehHE

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Left by steven seagual on December 28th, 2007

[...] moved cabinets, cleaned fish ponds, assembled shelves, built retaining walls, weeded gardens, cleaned a penthouse, stripped paint, dug ditches, maintained coffee machines, shifted entire dumpster loads of wood, [...]

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Left by Pacific Empire » Blog Archive » Freelancing on February 14th, 2008

This post honestly pains me because I grew up 15 minutes from Newark. Where I live it’s relatively a higher-middle class suburban area. Driving into Newark and I see a lot there that you described in Patea. This includes homes that can be fixed up with a little paint and some siding, but because of the high unemployment rate of 11.7%, all you see is constant victimless crimes, gang activity, and a city that is slowly imploding on itself. It’s a shame too because when I was little we used to go to Newark for our Sunday meals after church and it was beautiful. Although they have tried to make some improvements with the new Prudential Center for Hockey Games and concerts, it’s still quite in shambles. Is there anything that the local government trying to do to reverse the collapse of that poor town?

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Left by Georgia Fly Fishing on October 24th, 2008

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