KEY POINTS:
Heavy-handed wartime car pooling poster.
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This week in Sideswipe Mel Forsyth told a yarn about losing his bag on Rangitoto and said thanks to "some lads" who picked it up, writing their cellphone number in the sand. "Well I am one of those lads," says Jonathan Killick, who went to the island with his father. But it didn't quite happen as Mel tells it. "We walk along the beach near the lighthouse and felt our feet sink in the sand. I thought it'd be good sand to write something on. So, I wrote my cell number. Then on the beach we see a bag below the shoreline - we figured it had fallen off a boat and drifted in. So we take it with us so that we could hand it in to the St Heliers police when we got back to Auckland. We were in the bush and I get a call but I miss it. I check my voicemail (luckily I had a bit of credit) and the message said, 'Hi this is Mel Forsyth I think you have my bag' ... So we give him a call and meet him at the ferry terminal. He thought we were such clever guys for putting our number in the sand for him."
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Raeanne Smith is getting just a little tired of the digs about baby-boomers and housing. She writes: "Does no one of that generation remember interest rates on first mortgages of up to 18 per cent and second mortgages of around 22 per cent? Does no one remember banks holding ballots for housing loans because of a lack of funds? We were the generation that experienced the sharemarket crash ... a simple towelling stretch-and-grow for a newborn cost in the vicinity of $30, so we sewed, we knitted for our children, we ate sausages and mince most nights - simply because we couldn't afford anything else. Things may be better for baby-boomers now, but we struggled as young newlyweds too."
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Libby May writes: "When we bought our first home 23 years ago it was a bloody hard slog. We paid extortionate interest rates, the rise of which was only halted by Muldoon's wage and price freeze. I quit smoking'cause it was the only way we could afford to eat (mince and sausages most nights) with both of us working fulltime and earning good money. We're now mortgage free because we've continued to live a mince and sausages life."
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Sideswipe replies: Mince and sausages the key to home ownership? I doubt it. The point is, even with 22 per cent interest rates, income and house prices were proportionally more in sync 25 years ago. Now there are student loans where there used to be on-the-job training. Half the battle seems to be to convince the "haves" that there is a problem. It's the same easy argument used with the unemployed ("they're just lazy") except wannabe first home buyers "spend too much". I admit I don't know anyone who sews, knits or has a mince and sausage diet (mainly because they're seven Weight Watchers points each) but these days both parents have to work for their chicken breast dinners, their rented digs and the luxury of having one child.
