An email I sent, with my current thoughts on politics and living conditions in New Zealand:

(Note that we have elections very soon, not that it matters)

What can be done about the pathetic living conditions for workers? I’ve tried working many different forklift jobs over the years - it’s the only thing that companies will hire me for. Unfortunately it’s too stressful and everybody in these jobs seems to quit within 18 months. I’ve given up on working since it’ll never allow me to move ahead in life. I’m now banking on the possibility of a global shortage of diesel and fertiliser. Working doesn’t provide me with a means to live comfortably, so I’m looking to disruption as a means of bringing about change. No policy or political party is more important to me than strikes, riots and mass-protests. I laugh when people talk positively about Labour and the Greens. I remember well, how Jacinda Ardern betrayed renters and allowed landlords to stay in control. The politicians are insulated from the problems that I face. They are only interested in families with children or people who are already well-off. Poor people just aren’t dedicated to voting so nobody really cares about them. Voting hasn’t changed anything in the past 15 years, but I’m going to vote this year, just to protest.

Nurses and teachers go on strike, but those are female-majority professions which are very close to government. I want to see a male-majority profession go on strike in the private sector, and cause discomfort to business owners. I wish the truck drivers would stop driving and block the roads so that chilled freight (food) can’t get from the distribution centres here to other parts of the South Island. If stores don’t get deliveries for a few days, shelves would gradually become empty. Otherwise, without disruption, it’s business-as-usual and the people slave away and nothing changes. Staff could at least block the loading bays and physically stop anyone from unblocking the bays. Personally I’m tired of being under-paid and under-valued. I’m also tired of other staff who would rather brag or insult each other rather than organise a strike.

It’s pathetic that the jobs are so stressful and that managers are always demanding more work performance from staff. In my past jobs I was just a simple minimum wage worker with a forklift license, but the performance expected was like what they would expect from a corporate executive. It’s easier to be unemployed for the next 5 years, than deal with arrogant employers who expect the world from me. I live in a shared flat with paper-thin walls at ______________. There are 8 bedrooms here with ~10 tenants who share the same kitchen and laundry. It’s not worth $300 a week, but National/Labour/Greens/Act don’t seem to care about people like me. They only care about families with children or people who are well-off. Not only do I pay too much, I also have nowhere to reliably park a car or bicycle. Most work places aren’t on bus routes, and employers can’t be bothered picking up staff from a pickup point on the end of relevant bus routes, where the route falls 2-3 kilometres short.

Politicians talk about the rights of renters, but they never talk about bringing down prices or introducing competition in the rental property market. It’s all about supermarkets now. I spend under $200 a week on groceries but I spend $300 on rent. Politicians just don’t want to criticise landlords or hold landlords to account, so supermarkets became the scape-goat for the new “cost of living crisis”. Definitely not a cost of rent crisis or a greedy landlord crisis! Politicians never talk about fair conditions for workers, and to be fair, it’s up to the people to strike or riot to get what they want. Politicians live very comfortable lives compared to guys who work 12 hour shifts in distribution centres. The only time politicians stop and think, is when things start going badly and radical views become more important than polite conversations about government policy. That’s why I’m banking on Trump to be a good boy and bankrupt the global economy. Every man in his twenties who’s still living with his parents, going absolutely nowhere in life, is another future revolutionary. We need things to get a lot worse before things get better.

Are New Zealanders really going to spend another 10 years talking about boring government policy, as things deteriorate? I’d like to know why people aren’t going on strike and demanding better employment and living conditions. I spoke to ________ about this in 2018. He told me that the people at my job should’ve joined a union. I told him that the staff were idiots and that people would never organise. Too much ego. I’m just looking forward to $4 a litre petrol, or better yet, $5 a litre petrol. Earlier today I was on the _________ bus as it turned the corner onto ________, but it had to wait for a person on a scooter who had triggered the pedestrian light. Not to get stuck waiting, a Sante Fe SUV used the right-hand turn lane to overtake the bus and go straight ahead! I wonder how some of these people will cope if there are 1 kilometre queues at petrol stations.

Thanks for reading my rant.

- Christchurch Asshole

TL;DR,

I’d like life to become more uncomfortable and unpredictable, especially for politicians and well-off business owners/managers. I’m surprised that people don’t bother to demand better. There are guys working 12 hour shifts who don’t vote and who don’t protest or even get into conversations about the state of the country. I’m trying to find out what I can do in my country. Who can I work with, and so forth. My overall hope is that Americans figure it out first and lead by example. If you’re in America then I hope you’re thinking of the guy in his twenties who voted for Trump in 2016, but who is now working for the Amazon borg in a huge distribution centre with no chance of buying a house 😆 Can someone get these kids to read a book about Che Guevara and realise that the Cubans are actually the good guys? Call it RED pilling… ask them if they have taken the Che pill yet and awakened to the idea of a socialist revolution in America. Meme it into existence. Make a cartoon of Che as a doctor handing out red pills to young white men who’re moving away from Trump, and he’s meeting the soldiers, the factory workers etc 😆