New Zealand to arrest loan defaulters at the border.

Elton
From the article:

The Government said on Tuesday that overseas borrowers are responsible for 80% of overdue loan repayments which now total about $535 million.

Revenue Minister Todd McClay said people will be arrested only in the most serious cases.

Perhaps if you take out a student loan you should take steps to pay it back...

Shock horror - how dare you suggest such a sensible idea!!

New Zealanders residing overseas had 82% of the outstanding loan default in mid 2013.

Agit8dChop

Elton
From the article:

The Government said on Tuesday that overseas borrowers are responsible for 80% of overdue loan repayments which now total about $535 million.

Revenue Minister Todd McClay said people will be arrested only in the most serious cases.

Perhaps if you take out a student loan you should take steps to pay it back...

exactly..
this bill isn't locking up people who have debt, its locking up people who consistently refuse to pay it back.

Its callously assuming that that people have funds to pay it back, after they have paid exorbitant rents power bills and interest on existing debt. Good luck with that one, in a country who's wages have remained static, for decades whilst cost of necessities have risen exponentially.

anonentity
Its callously assuming that that people have funds to pay it back, after they have paid exorbitant rents power bills and interest on existing debt. Good luck with that one, in a country who's wages have remained static, for decades whilst cost of necessities have risen exponentially.

This is a strange thing this thread, I find myself agreeing and disagreeing with you at the same time.

You are 100% correct about the standard of living in NZ. I have seen my own family going from being comfortable, but not rich in the 1980's with a small dairy farm, a family with 5 kids with a mortgage on the farm transform to borderline poverty in 2014. Admittedly a divorce and the sale of the farm didn't help, but nevertheless the wages people earn vs what it costs to live has blown out big time. I ended up leaving the country because I couldn't make it work for me financially. I long to return but it's the lack of potential earning power back home that keeps me where I am.

However, saying that people shouldn't have to pay back what they borrowed is where I disagree. I don't see how it helps anyone get a grip on the situation by refusing to pay for their education. Yes, jobs are hard to come by and no they don't pay much. But it's the people overseas that are not paying their loans back. In places like here in Australia they are living far better than they would in NZ and they are shirking their responsibilities to the land that raised and educated them.

I had student loan once and it was about 10 grand, and I payed of off. Now days students average debt is 25000 grand. I think that's reasonable, but 100 grand is not. The people who end up with 100 grand debt I really don't know how they have done that.

markosity1973
I'm going to be the unpopular guy in this thread and say kudos to them for doing it.

Before you all set your flame throwers to incinerate, hear me out;

NZ has a major problem with 'brain drain' . It's a well known fact that people educate themselves and head off overseas never to be seen again. Basically these people are crapping in their own nest by burdening the country with yet more debt, then making it that little but harder for everyone else when they disappear into a new country laughing at the fact they cheated the system and scored a free uni degree.

As student loan repayments come out of your pay every week, it's very difficult for the honest person who stays in NZ until their debt is paid to fall behind and therefore they have nothing to fear.

These graduated "brains" can't even get jobs in NZ and the current govt is cutting jobs .
If there are no jobs do you want them to stay in NZ and go on unemployment benefit ?
Loan's worth $10.7 million were written off in the year 2009 to June because the borrowers had died. People without jobs or prisoners can't pay student debt any better than dead people can. This bill will ruin lives of kiwi's ,people who just wanted a home, family and job but now the govt doesn't support that " employment agenda " and would like to send them to prison after they told them to get a student loan.
Why not just write it off and stop being fascists.
The govt clearly knew the economic situation when they encouraged kiwi kids to get into debt to fund the universities.
This same NZ govt has plenty money to go to invade countries for other countries, help out in foreign wars, spy on its people
but not to invest in the happiness and wellbeing of its young citizens.
Highly specialized people leaving NZ in a "brain drain" is because the specialty jobs aren't created by the govt in NZ. AND hiring from the UK and america to fill positions instead of giving NZ's a job. Its no bloody wonder with these nutjobs in power that intelligent people who cannot get a job leave NZ.
You were once a well to do married dairy farmer that sold his farm and is not rich anymore due to your own choices /circumstances says "jail the youth of NZ" I'm not making lots of money and whatever my national political party says is true while they sell the bloody country. You really want the poor youth of NZ to go to jail would that make you feel good knowing you are paying $100,000 per year to be locked up in a private prison ).

reply to post by BDBinc


So, are you saying that everyone should abandon ship and just forget paying their loans back? You do realise that the govt is cutting cutting and more cutting because it has basically run out of money, don't you? Not paying the loans back only exacerbates this problem a tiny bit more.

You can thank that old horse Helen Clarke for most of the financial problems NZ has today. She borrowed like there was a never ending supply of money and it is her that caused land prices to skyrocket. I'm not saying John Keyes is a great Prime Minister, I'm just saying NZ was already broke when he came along.

Here in Australia the Abbott govt has caused the loss of tens of thousands of maufacturing jobs too - It's not just NZ that is hurting at the moment.

markosity1973
reply to post by BDBinc

 

So, are you saying that everyone should abandon ship and just forget paying their loans back? You do realise that the govt is cutting cutting and more cutting because it has basically run out of money, don't you? Not paying the loans back only exacerbates this problem a tiny bit more.
You can thank that old horse Helen Clarke for most of the financial problems NZ has today. She borrowed like there was a never ending supply of money and it is her that caused land prices to skyrocket. I'm not saying John Keyes is a great Prime Minister, I'm just saying NZ was already broke when he came along.
Here in Australia the Abbott govt has caused the loss of tens of thousands of maufacturing jobs too - It's not just NZ that is hurting at the moment.

Why make people hurt more does that make sense to you?
You can't seriously blame only Helen Clark for the National party's repeat privatization and the banks action as well.
You do realize that this financial crisis was orchestrated from Wall st with the fed reserve .
All student loans could be written off.
They are not forgetting to pay them back they have no jobs and will not get one as the govt continues to rely on a dysfunctional financial system run by a banking cartel. You do know the USA has been bankrupt for a while and most big banks are really insolvent.That money really does "grow on trees" at the federal reserve . Its not just NZ its every country held hostage by the IMF and the central banking system.
Jailing youngsters for debt they cannot pay back but were told to get by the govt loan scheme following the cartels manufactured global financial crisis is really ignorant. No problem bailing out banks but don't write off student loans? send them to jail while you bail out big business ? and you wonder why the world is in the state it is.

If this was just a govt financial decision why would the govt propose the taxpayer pay an extra $100,000 per year per unemployed person to enrich private prisons?
Do you know how much more this insane bill will cost ? + Legal aid and say one thousands x 100,000 equals 100,000,000.
Pay even more money just to send a young woman or man to jail for nothing save being a victim & prisoner of the govt's previous stupid financial decisions.
I say "Write it off fools( end the student loan scheme if you don't want NZ to have specialized skilled workers and the bonus of taking all their interest write off money every year)"

reply to post by BDBinc

You're not looking at the big picture.

Helen Clarke did some seemingly great things like buy back Air New Zealand and the railway etc. But ask yourself how did she do it? Did the money magicly come out of thin air?

In a word, NO. Every single year she was in power, even the good ones the budget ran at a deficit. Yep, she kept on piling up the debt. Yes the moves she made would have been great ones had she paid back the debt.But she didn't

John Keyes is selling everything off again to try and re-pay some of that debt. I'm not saying it's a good thing, but you do realise that NZ was one of several countries that were identified of being at great risk of going the way of Iceland and now the Ukraine back in 2008, don't you.

Quite simply the situation is much worse that most people realise.

Look at this article to understand what I mean.

UK analysts say the dollar is overvalued and economy like Ireland pre-global crisis

Even in so called backward 3rd world country like Iran (by ridiculous western standards) the education even at university level is for free, you just have to sign up for couple of years for governmental services and that is all, loan free for the rest of the life time.

I don’t know how in hell people of the progressive countries going under this sort of slavery.

reply to post by markosity1973


I am looking at the big picture and you refuse to( like those paid to spin for John Key), the NZ govt is responsible for the decisions of the NZ govt. The national party sold prime public assets and now is doing that again.

Jailing young (debt slaves) citizens is wrong, doubly wrong as the legal aid, court costs and prison costs for this are in excess of $100 million for the taxpayers (money spent to jail 1,ooo poor citizens for just a year). More than their debt.

I don't buy the poor John Key investment bankster line, having the ability to change the system and create their own money(not pay the private banksters )the situation is just as bad as they make it out to be. They need shrills to continue their debt slavery. They need you to believe completely in an imaginary monitory system and its right to punish poor people for Wall street's continued actions.
Who is it that set the value of the dollar...(the fed reserve , the reserve bank of NZ and the treasury) not the poor students that are being threatened with jail.
You can't see the forrest for the trees.

amkia
Even in so called backward 3rd world country like Iran (by ridiculous western standards) the education even at university level is for free, you just have to sign up for couple of years for governmental services and that is all, loan free for the rest of the life time.

I don’t know how in hell people of the progressive countries going under this sort of slavery.

Yes even Cuba has good health and education, its not a hard thing to manage if you have the will. unfortunately the privatisation of health services is another "Blue chip" option that a savvy investor cannot ignore. Once you have actually privatised Education health and prisons,etc. its easy for a government, to govern as they have shed there basic reasons for being in government. The percentage of the population that have the funds to invest ,will do what they have to do and leave every one else screwed down to pay for an insulated lifestyle .The average citizen is paying off debt and stays well controlled. The fact that its causing the destruction of a once egalitarian society doesn't come into the greed equation. The problem is entrenched in the Western World, and is poisoning an otherwise productive system. This welfare for the rich is purely legislative.