The obvious (but always unmentioned) solution to the slow-motion breakdown of a functional society

"Whatsoever shall we do about our crumbling public services?"

Children in Oranga Tamariki housed in motels. Workers living out of cars. Whole families housing themselves in rented garages. Frail elderly warehoused in ‘transitional’ hospital wards for weeks on end. We’ee seeing the stories of public service breakdown literally every week.

No solution in sight, just inevitable worsening.

But consider that our newspapers, TV, and even social media sites are almost all a for-profit game. They’re businesses. And the one or two that are publicly funded are threatened with defunding, meaning they also must toe the corporate line.

So why would you expect your new shows or newspapers to deliver unbiased news important to democracy and society, when they’re paid for by vast sums of corporate ad money?

You don’t pay for DuPlessis-Allan’s salary. Or Hoskings’s. Or the Platform’s. Or Brad Olsen’s. Rich people and big businesses pay them to talk on their behalf. So why would you expect anything other than the same mantras: Taxes are bad. Public services and infrastructre are too expensive. But maximising business’s quarterly profits are always and everywhere good.