Come and exploit our Morlock labour

A certain J. Key of Helensville once rather placed his foot within his mouth by opining that he'd love to see wages fall. At the time, I gave him the benefit of the doubt, but now Bill English has boldly inserted both of his mud encrusted farmer's feet into his maw by loudly hailing low wages as a crucial part of New Zealand's competitive 'advantage' (1).

Of course, he wasn't talking to the punters out in punterland when he said this. We get a different message.

Still, it's good that he's revealed his arrogant image of us as worthless Morlocks to be exploited by international capital, or as stunted lackeys who should fawn gratefully on the bronzed beautiful bodies of those rare creatures from overseas who deign to honour us with their presence and some. But not very many of those dollars, because we're cheap.

1 - "Low wages 'advantage' for NZ - English ," unattributed NZPA story. Published by stuff.co.nz, 10th of April, 2011. (http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/4869938/Low-wages-advantage-for-NZ-English)