TIM HAZLEDINE: Scraping Paint and the Meaning of Life

TIM HAZLEDINE: Scraping Paint and the Meaning of Life
Raise high the roof beams, carpenter! Ralph Lattimore and Tim Hazledine admire the view from the new barn, Wanaka, February 1995
Tim Hazledine
When I’m down in Wanaka, up on my nifty portable scaffold, scraping loose paint off the weatherboards of my barn, I feel sorry for rich folk who can’t afford to do this. Why can’t they? Because their time is too valuable. An hour on the scaffold is an hour not running your company or billing your law firm’s clients or doing dental implants, and if you are such a person this means your paint scraping is costing you hundreds of dollars an hour in lost income.The ‘opportunity cost’, as economists call it, i...

More Opinion

Let the people hold the paintbrush
Policy He Poneketanga

Deb Te Kawa: Let the people hold the paintbrush

Central government works best when communities get a real say.

Deb Te Kawa 13 Jan 2025
BlackRock gives foreign investment a bad name
Opinion

Pattrick Smellie: BlackRock gives foreign investment a bad name

If it had set out to be disliked in NZ, BlackRock would be succeeding handsomely.

Pattrick Smellie 13 Jan 2025
My top columns from 2024
Opinion

Dileepa Fonseka: My top columns from 2024

From Spark losing its literal Mojo to fleeing talent and overpriced houses. 

Dileepa Fonseka 11 Jan 2025