Standard of living

Press, 8 September 1978, Page 12

Standard of living

Sir, — Mr Beetham’s elect tioneering statement that our standard of living is below Britain’s is false. In England this year my takehome pay was £25 for 35 hours, in a country where basic commodities are more expensive than here. Our standard of living is falling, primarily because we no longer have a guaranteed market for our produce, and because of the spirit of pessimism which arises, directly or indirectly, from that loss. Neither of these causes is one for which any government should be considered culpable. New Zealand is still affluent, and more egalitarian than any country I have visited. For the doubting socialists, that includes Rumania and Czechoslovakia. But, like other affluent communities, we desire the few things we do not have. I remember the grumbling Germans as vividly as I remember the smiling Spaniards. I agree with the pessimists that we are a nation in decline, but I disagree about what constitutes that decline. I intend to go overseas again to live among people who are not whining: “We want our toys back,” — Yours, etc.,

PETER JOYCE, September 7, 1978.