The sense of entitlement that permeates New Zealand is quite frankly, galling. Special car parks for parents with young children, exceptions to the vaccine criteria by people wishing to jump the queue and now a petition before the Finance & Expenditure Committee from healthcare worker Nicola Millar demanding “health professionals” have their outstanding student loans wiped.
The petition states, “they are saving lives and protecting our communities while risking their own lives and health. I believe wiping their student loan debt would not only relieve their financial burdens, it would show the country’s appreciation for the selfless work that they do.”
They’ve also made a conscious choice to pursue a career in the health sector, in the knowledge that they will need to make a significant personal financial investment in training to qualify for a position. What’s more, despite having to borrow tens of thousands of dollars to qualify, this amount is generally just one quarter of the total cost of tertiary education. Healthcare workers and anyone else purchasing tertiary education is already getting far more from this transaction than they are required to contribute.
Millar’s claim that healthcare workers are “selfless” is emotive crap. Unless you’re an unpaid volunteer, no matter how many wonderful qualities you may possess, selflessness is not one of them. You’re working in a job you made a deliberate decision to do and getting paid an income for it. This is a perfectly normal application of your rational self-interest. Good on you for doing so but don’t pretend your actions are altruistic in a transparent attempt to acquire further taxpayer-funded support.
During the first lockdown, in which New Zealand was at Alert Level 4, I considered myself very lucky to be working in the supermarket industry. Wage budgets had been disregarded so overtime pay was plentiful and unlike most New Zealanders I was able to continue doing my job without worrying about continuing to pay bills.
For the first time in my life people would walk up to me on the street, if I was wearing my uniform, to thank me for what I was doing for the community. Being on company time I thanked them but I can assure you the community was the last thing on my mind each day. I was motivated by greed, selfishness and cash. Most people are and there is nothing wrong with that if greed is harnessed in a moral manner: being satisfied via exchanges of value for value between consenting parties.
Nicola Millar is also motivated by greed and selfishness but her attempts to satiate this greed have strayed from a path of moral righteousness to that of a sponger or looter. She wishes to use the power of the state to transfer more money belonging to other people into her wallet.
Finance and Expenditure Committee Chair Duncan Webb of Labour is not an MP who would feature on my Christmas card list if I ever sent out Christmas cards. His support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel and frequent anti-Israel public comments are reprehensible. However, he applied a rare quantity of logic in pushing back on Nicola Millar’s assertion that all healthcare workers should have their student loans wiped.
Webb pointed out that many people working in managed isolation centres are non-medical personnel with student loans, and asked where the line should be drawn on wiping student loans. Millar said she envisaged the support being provided to “medical professionals, full stop.”
Webb asked if podiatrists should be included as well as surgeons who earn over $200,000 a year. Millar said, “Oh well yeah, no. And not the doctors that are on call for $200,000 a day on the weekend and are out paddle-boarding and enjoying life and not necessarily being called in. You know, within reason.”
‘Within reason’ evidently translates to Nicola Millar. In my mind, those who have not purchased a tertiary education paying taxes to fund someone else’s purchase is not reasonable at all.