> Yes, but if NZ government hadn't sold it off it wouldn't be making
> $800M from 3.4M people now would it?  If you still owned it, it
> would still be corporate sloth, and you would be complaining
> about how hopeless they are

All perfectly true. Telecom as an example is a very slick op these
days. I do not envy the people who had to make these decisions.
There was much public resentment at the time, especially with
regard to cutting staff, and even more so now when profitable
companies are still laying off staff, a global phenomenum. Yes,
they were thoroughly feather-bedded and over-staffed, that's
what govt departments are/were all about. What angered many
is that at the same time as these sell-offs to reduce national
debt (which they didn't), the govt also chopped venture capital
and start-up programs, which are surely the way to increase
the economic base. Sell-offs are a sticking plaster on a broken
leg. The reason given to me (I was so peed off I wrote in) by the
then Finance Minister David Caygill was that every business
should stand on its own two feet in the market and not receive
any assistance at all from central govt. Absolutely ludicrous. The
DFC (Development Finance Corp, sold off) made grants and loans
available to enable small and not-so-small ventures to get going
or investigate new products/procedures. Institutional venture
capital is virtually non-existent now, and R&D has never to my
knowledge been given any sort of tax break. No wonder large
and small businesses alike are struggling or moving off-shore.
I don't see how supporting employment growth is any different
to paying out those vast sums on Social Welfare benefits. There
are whispers of new development schemes but whether anything
will happen before the next election, who knows.

> This would have to be the worst possible time for a government
> to be running a telco.  Better to let the private sector do it.

That's the dilemma for policy-makers - can't afford to keep it, can't
afford to sell it. But they know the NZ voters are thick, half of the
same lot that started all this in '84 are back in office

> I can't comment on foreign ownership, no ideas there.  Print
> money ?

I've tried but they won't let me. Besides, I'm just too pretty to go inside.
No, really I am, ask my mum

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