Lasts
night blog reminded me about a couple of other occasions that fall into the
‘rip off’ category.
Years
ago when we lived in PNG the prime minister, a very corrupt individual had a
cunning plan. He exported all the money in the treasury to Australia and then
devalued the kina, which was the monetary unit. That done he imported exactly
the same amount of kina he had sent out and then pocketed the difference.
It was common
knowledge country wide.
The word that spring so mind is corruption.
Another
decision he made was that it was a much better and cheaper idea if the country
grew all its own beef.
So he ruled that no more beef would be imported into the
country. Now the local population were large consumers of tinned beef. Unfortunately the PM didn’t do his homework
because the amount of beef the country produced was only enough for a couple of
days production at the canneries. He pretty soon reversed his ruling
Then
after we went back to NZ, we lived in the Bay of Plenty where the council installed
water meters at each residence. Having to pay for water consumed the economy
mined public reduced the amount of the precious liquid wasted. That’s a good
thing isn’t it?
Well
the council didn’t think so because it was suddenly faced with a reduction in
its expected income from the water usage and promptly put up the rate of it.
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