Living on the Edge of Enough

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea - image T. Sharp

It's nearly Christmas and, as anybody working in the health or welfare sector could tell you, times are tough.

It's nearly Christmas but caught in a rising tide of inequality, it feels like Christmas isn't for everyone.

Too many people are just barely getting by.

Too many families are faced with exhausting choices between basic needs. Food or school uniform? Pay the rent or get the car fixed? 

Christmas presents? Turkey? Forget about it.

Systemic failures - inadequate welfare systems, insecure housing, precarious employment, a tax system that redistributes upwards, underfunded public services - exacerbate this precarious existence. 

Is this who we are?

Punishing the poor is a terrible response to systemic, unfair systems.

Tax cuts for landlords at the same time as our hospitals are bleeding out and food banks are closing due to lack of funding, in a time of growing unemployment and uncertainty, is a terrible response.

Austerity practices are crowding out responses to growing mental distress in our communities, to coherent climate change policies, to keeping our whānau safe at work - the list goes on - 

Austerity is likely to lock this country into a spiral that no amount of All Black successes could compensate for.

How are we, as a country, feeling about this?

Researching for this newsletter I came across this Reddit question (September 2024):

"Anyone else have a 'New Zealand is declining' feeling?"

It might seem unusual to use a Reddit quote in any context other than a terribly written undergrad paper, but as we get to the end of 2024 it seems like I am hearing, more and more, that the grass is looking more lush and more fertilised elsewhere (elsewhere being, you know, across the ditch). And the statistics - showing a net loss of 54,700 New Zealand citizens in the year, driven by 79,700 departures and 24,900 arrivals - tell me this is beyond anecdotal.

Perhaps you've seen the articles about the Tiktokker who moved to Australia and found himself in tears at the supermarket because he could afford what he needed for his family? If you haven't, you can read about it here. 

“Day one in Australia and I’ve been so overwhelmed. I cried after I did the food shopping ... I bawled my eyes out,”

Not having enough—for yourself, for your family—cuts deep. It’s more than empty stomachs; it’s the way it makes us see ourselves, the way it gnaws at our sense of worth.

“In New Zealand there were moments when we thought we weren’t going to eat. If I’m being honest, I remember when my son would go and look for snacks in the cupboard and he’d be like, ‘Daddy, there’s nothing to eat, there’s no snacks', and I would get angry,” ....Today I realised [I didn’t get angry] because he was hungry, or there [were] no snacks, it was because I felt that I wasn’t able to provide.”

Not having enough is complex and cumulative. When basics become luxuries, solutions to one problem create more problems. Saving on heating means more illness means less work means borrowing to pay the rent means getting in debt means threats of eviction means going without means juggling and juggling and juggling - means entrapment. 

"Poverty means the future is looming and unpredictable, and guilt seems ever present, arising from an inability to meet one’s children’s needs, one’s own expectations and society’s demands."

 Coping with Complexity: child and adult poverty, Tomlinson and Walker (2009, p16)

Back to our Reddit question.

As we look around our orange-coned infrastructure, muse on our under-resourced hospitals and the patients sleeping in their hallways, ponder the demise of nourishing school lunches, question the sanity of sanctions in a time of rising unemployment...I'd like us to consider that it isn't just that times are hard that are giving Kiwis this 'declining' feeling. Tough times happen everywhere and often they can pull people together. Look at the example of the Christchurch earthquakes of 2010-2011 that brought such utter devastation - but also, a sense of community, connection and, ultimately, resilience.

I think what we're feeling is the dysfunction of division; of feeling apart from one another, in competition, pulling in different directions. Like, each man for himself and if you're okay Jack, pull up the ladder.

And I'd like to think that on the whole most Kiwis don't like this. That fairness and compassion are built into our DNA and when push comes to shove we'll pull together, not punch down.Sor for 2025? Let's advocate for policies that support and nurture families and communities, from the top of the country to the bottom. The whole damn lot of us.

Together, we can build a fairer, more just society. A society where having ‘enough’ is not a distant dream but a basic reality.

Wishing you and yours, and everyone on your street and in your community, a safe and family-filled season. Whatever you do:

Kia hora te marino, kia whakapapa pounamu te moana, kia tere te kārohirohi mua i tō huarahi.

May peace be widespread, may the sea glisten like greenstone, and may the shimmer of light guide you on your way.

Tracey Sharp - December 2024