Bonkers come what may
Martin Doyle
THERE’S trouble at mill.
In the last few years the government’s annual expenditure on “policy advice” has grown by $400 million, so they’re planning to cut back.
By my calculations, if you truly wanted to chop out all that new expenditure, it means shedding about 5,000 advisers. I can’t see that happening. My pick is they’ll only strip one or two thousand. About time, some will say.
However, before celebrations take off in corporate boardrooms round the capital, we should remember that most of the lost jobs will be right here in Wellington, the Home of bureaucrats and parking wardens. So local shops, restaurants and bars can wave goodbye to another $100 million per year.
But what becomes of 1,000 unemployed policy advisers? In a market economy, they will sell themselves to the highest bidder. And, as always in tough times, some women will turn to prostitution. And now we live in really tough times, plus non-sexist times, plus the most liberal nation in the world for paid sex, think about this: we may even see an explosion of male prostitution in Wellington.
Pam Corkery’s announcement she’s going to open a brothel servicing the needs of female clients is just the tit of the iceberg. I think a lot of guys will jump at the chance to be paid for what they love doing, and no doubt it’d be a lot of fun for a few days. But unless you’ve got the hunger of a horny bull on Viagra, or the self-belief of a Hugh Hefner or a Warren Beatty, I don’t think you’ll be able to keep it up for very long. High-paying female clients will come down hard on non-performers. This isn’t a job for enthusiastic amateurs.
I have no criticism at all of people in the sex industry, but I personally don’t think prostitution itself is good for society. Although New Zealand is a sexually and emotionally-repressed society, we for some reason have made prostitution a very easy and available option for workers and clients (and lots of them).
We’re now like a giant red-light district doubling as a country. And the fact that the government is able to rake off a filthy hunk of tax from the proceeds means only one thing: nothing’s going to change.
All our organs of culture and communication seem to view women (and their bodies) as either evil or fascinating or secondary to males. In this, and each in their own way, I would cite all religions, mainstream sport, business, and most of our media. Despite Kim Hill (as if endowed with a hundred tongues) doing the job of 20 women on radio, there is currently no woman of any intellectual grunt on TV; and Shagland Street is just soapy lust in a surgical gown.
Corkery’s male whores will provide some welcome balance, admittedly, but, in a new twist on an old theme, females will increasingly view chaste males as just plain bonkers.
In the last few years the government’s annual expenditure on “policy advice” has grown by $400 million, so they’re planning to cut back.
By my calculations, if you truly wanted to chop out all that new expenditure, it means shedding about 5,000 advisers. I can’t see that happening. My pick is they’ll only strip one or two thousand. About time, some will say.
However, before celebrations take off in corporate boardrooms round the capital, we should remember that most of the lost jobs will be right here in Wellington, the Home of bureaucrats and parking wardens. So local shops, restaurants and bars can wave goodbye to another $100 million per year.
But what becomes of 1,000 unemployed policy advisers? In a market economy, they will sell themselves to the highest bidder. And, as always in tough times, some women will turn to prostitution. And now we live in really tough times, plus non-sexist times, plus the most liberal nation in the world for paid sex, think about this: we may even see an explosion of male prostitution in Wellington.
Pam Corkery’s announcement she’s going to open a brothel servicing the needs of female clients is just the tit of the iceberg. I think a lot of guys will jump at the chance to be paid for what they love doing, and no doubt it’d be a lot of fun for a few days. But unless you’ve got the hunger of a horny bull on Viagra, or the self-belief of a Hugh Hefner or a Warren Beatty, I don’t think you’ll be able to keep it up for very long. High-paying female clients will come down hard on non-performers. This isn’t a job for enthusiastic amateurs.
I have no criticism at all of people in the sex industry, but I personally don’t think prostitution itself is good for society. Although New Zealand is a sexually and emotionally-repressed society, we for some reason have made prostitution a very easy and available option for workers and clients (and lots of them).
We’re now like a giant red-light district doubling as a country. And the fact that the government is able to rake off a filthy hunk of tax from the proceeds means only one thing: nothing’s going to change.
All our organs of culture and communication seem to view women (and their bodies) as either evil or fascinating or secondary to males. In this, and each in their own way, I would cite all religions, mainstream sport, business, and most of our media. Despite Kim Hill (as if endowed with a hundred tongues) doing the job of 20 women on radio, there is currently no woman of any intellectual grunt on TV; and Shagland Street is just soapy lust in a surgical gown.
Corkery’s male whores will provide some welcome balance, admittedly, but, in a new twist on an old theme, females will increasingly view chaste males as just plain bonkers.
Have Your Say
0 Comments
No comments.