Rustie
@rustie.bsky.social
Sewer socialist technocrat.
Infrastructure. Psephology. Shitposting.
Long-suffering Blues fan. 🏳️🌈 but bad at it. He/him. Not a pigeon.
Pōneke/Wellington, Ao/NZ
Infrastructure. Psephology. Shitposting.
Long-suffering Blues fan. 🏳️🌈 but bad at it. He/him. Not a pigeon.
Pōneke/Wellington, Ao/NZ
That's why we invented the GPA. Am I still mad that mine was only 312/320? Maybe.
August 5, 2025 at 8:20 PM
That's why we invented the GPA. Am I still mad that mine was only 312/320? Maybe.
What's great about this is I thought I was paraphrasing Marx but it turns out I was paraphrasing a Twitter shitpost paraphrasing Marx in GWB voice.
August 5, 2025 at 9:40 AM
What's great about this is I thought I was paraphrasing Marx but it turns out I was paraphrasing a Twitter shitpost paraphrasing Marx in GWB voice.
There's a point in Bourdieu - maybe it's in Piketty but it's definitely in Bourdieu - that class resentments are most intense between the class immediately above you and immediately below you.
Take a wild swing what class was immediately above me.
Take a wild swing what class was immediately above me.
August 5, 2025 at 9:30 AM
There's a point in Bourdieu - maybe it's in Piketty but it's definitely in Bourdieu - that class resentments are most intense between the class immediately above you and immediately below you.
Take a wild swing what class was immediately above me.
Take a wild swing what class was immediately above me.
The anti-NCEA neurosis is almost entirely a phenomenon of umc Auckland parents worried that their kids won't get into Monash and will have to settle for *retches* Otago, not families who have to forego four years of potential labour market income to put a kid through UoA.
August 5, 2025 at 9:30 AM
The anti-NCEA neurosis is almost entirely a phenomenon of umc Auckland parents worried that their kids won't get into Monash and will have to settle for *retches* Otago, not families who have to forego four years of potential labour market income to put a kid through UoA.
This was also the sales pitch for the alternative qualifications (IB, Cambridge).
August 5, 2025 at 5:46 AM
This was also the sales pitch for the alternative qualifications (IB, Cambridge).
With Treasury as the only real referee.
Not that internal structural change makes it all go away. We still don't tax enough for our expectations. But the structures are an accountability sink where cost control goes to die.
Oh also man throw NZTA onto this pile.
Not that internal structural change makes it all go away. We still don't tax enough for our expectations. But the structures are an accountability sink where cost control goes to die.
Oh also man throw NZTA onto this pile.
August 5, 2025 at 5:34 AM
With Treasury as the only real referee.
Not that internal structural change makes it all go away. We still don't tax enough for our expectations. But the structures are an accountability sink where cost control goes to die.
Oh also man throw NZTA onto this pile.
Not that internal structural change makes it all go away. We still don't tax enough for our expectations. But the structures are an accountability sink where cost control goes to die.
Oh also man throw NZTA onto this pile.
The 6NG is stuck because it knows jabbing an adrenaline needle into the corpse of Ruthanasia would be electoral suicide, but lacks any better ideas for reconciling consumer ends with public means.
August 5, 2025 at 4:55 AM
The 6NG is stuck because it knows jabbing an adrenaline needle into the corpse of Ruthanasia would be electoral suicide, but lacks any better ideas for reconciling consumer ends with public means.
The 6LG tried a kind of reform at a structural level (all the amalgamations) but a) they're all in the process of being unwound or replaced and b) didn't deal with the underlying problems, just tried to mask them with economies of scale.
August 5, 2025 at 4:55 AM
The 6LG tried a kind of reform at a structural level (all the amalgamations) but a) they're all in the process of being unwound or replaced and b) didn't deal with the underlying problems, just tried to mask them with economies of scale.
The Clark government arrested that process but never did anything significant to wind it back or build an alternative.
August 5, 2025 at 4:55 AM
The Clark government arrested that process but never did anything significant to wind it back or build an alternative.
They were all the groundwork for a model of public service provision built on ability to pay, consumer choice, and eventual privatisation.
Vestigial procurement entities for things too hard to immediately marketise.
Vestigial procurement entities for things too hard to immediately marketise.
August 5, 2025 at 4:55 AM
They were all the groundwork for a model of public service provision built on ability to pay, consumer choice, and eventual privatisation.
Vestigial procurement entities for things too hard to immediately marketise.
Vestigial procurement entities for things too hard to immediately marketise.
Ha. This one is better I think.
August 1, 2025 at 4:02 AM
Ha. This one is better I think.
Yeah unfortunately councils run their own elections, so there's no centralised data (even for results).
Slightly ridiculous and ECom should do them.
Wikipedia is your best bet.
Slightly ridiculous and ECom should do them.
Wikipedia is your best bet.
June 9, 2025 at 12:25 AM
Yeah unfortunately councils run their own elections, so there's no centralised data (even for results).
Slightly ridiculous and ECom should do them.
Wikipedia is your best bet.
Slightly ridiculous and ECom should do them.
Wikipedia is your best bet.
I was about to say "do we have evidence whether he's literate" but then I remembered his book and we do and he isn't.
May 15, 2025 at 8:10 AM
I was about to say "do we have evidence whether he's literate" but then I remembered his book and we do and he isn't.