Bad idea...

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.