To: Sir John Key (former PM of NZ)
Address: Somewhere warm and comfortable
Date: August 6, 2026
From: New Zealanders born from 2002 to 2011, living in New Zealand, Australia, UK, US and Asia.
Subject: Happy 65th birthday
Dear Sir John
We congratulate you on your 65th birthday.
We hope you are enjoying your retirement after your 24 years of service as an MP and your 12 years as Prime Minister.
We understand you are due to receive the New Zealand Superannuation from the taxpayers, which when combined with your wife Bronagh's pension still works out at 66% of the average wage.
We also understand you will also be receiving a pension on top of that from the government from your years of service as an MP and Prime Minister. And we understand you have retained your wealth from your years as a successful foreign exchange trader and investment banker, including the tax free capital gains made on the various properties you owned.
We had thought of buying you a present to go with your pension, the NZ Super and your own private savings, but we're a bit short of cash at the moment.
In fact, we're not that thrilled with some of the decisions you made 15 years ago, which mean we're not feeling that flush right now.
We are the generation born between 2002, when you became an MP, and 2011, when you won your second of four terms as Prime Minister.
We wonder why you insisted on spending our inheritance to ensure you were voted back in.
We're now either about to graduate, are unemployed or have just started work. Our taxes are about to go up to pay the interest costs on the debt you incurred and to pay for the healthcare and pension costs of your generation.
We understand your government borrowed NZ$20 billion alone in the 2010/11 year. We remember the appalling earthquake, but most of this was to pay for middle class welfare measures that both Labour and National used during the 2000s to get themselves elected.
The tax cuts you delivered to your fellow wealthy New Zealanders had to be paid for with borrowings of NZ$2.8 billion in the 2010/11 year alone. What happened to that money?
What did the rich spend that money on? Imported cars? Houses?
All we see now are excruciatingly high house prices in Auckland in particular.
We can't afford to even think about buying a house here.
Those people of your generation that owned property when we started being born in 2002 became fabulously wealthy and paid no tax on those capital gains.
You and your generation then decided to keep the retirement age at 65 and the payment for a couple at 66% of the average wage, even though the Retirement Commission, Treasury and a host of other experts told you that you could not afford to keep doing it, particularly now.
We understand you even said you would resign if you ever increased the retirement age or changed the 66% payout.
We had a look through hansard and found a quote from October 4, 2011 where you were asked about extending the retirement age said you weren't concerned about the economic outlook beyond 2025.
Here's the article from Alex Tarrant at Interest.co.nz from that day.
The government was comforable that the costs imposed by the retirement age, which were modeled out to 2025, were affordable, Key said in parliament on October 4.
"That's about as far out as we need to go," he said.
Why don't you care about what happens to the economy and the generations working after your retirement?
We care.
Why didn't you?
Kind regards
The youth born from 2002 and 2011
67 Comments
They could still be down but obscenely high for the young.
;)
Remember, you have a two tier society now and it will be more entrenched by the then.
The only people able to afford the prices then will be other boomers.
Or the young will take on crushingly high debts and bet that interest rates stay amazingly low (ie 4-6%) for a decade or two.
Quite possible given the Japanese experience.
But I wouldn't be taking on that debt if I was them.
If the young have any sense and start organising themselves they'll force through a land tax before then.
But if Key stays in for another 9 years they are unlikely to have a chance
cheers
Bernard
Thats one way to interpret it....
My one is that we will see a Depression like no other, so house prices will collapse if you see houses prices 40% of what they are today in 2026 I think you will be lucky.....unfortunately so will wages collapse....the only Q is which will be worse....
But got for it....buy more houses, but pick yourself a nice bridge to live under....its where Im pretty sure many PIs will be inside 10 years....
regards
Wikipedia
The 6th of August 2026 the former PM of New Zealand for 6 years is celebrating his 65th birthday with his family in his ship- container home (Model 43.1) surrounded by a lovely garden in Auckland. Despite a massive financial and economic downturn worldwide his rather megalomaniac approach to economics in 2012 lead the country almost to bankruptcy in 2014. Only modesty, but visionary, dynamic ideas by the new government in 2015, based on a 100%NZpure – a world model – green and clean bought the small country of only 6 million people back to happiness and prosperity.
Add Mandarin to your list of languages to be fluent in , Walter . After they've bailed out Europe , most of Africa , and the USA ...... NZ may need to stand in queue for a little Chinese takeaway .
... stupid me , I used to add mandarin to the fruit salad ....
My , but times have changed , have they not !
Jeff Matthews ( Spicers Wealth Mgt. ) on 'ZB with Kerre Woodham this morning noted that Australians have accepted the need to push the retirement age out to 67 and to means test the pension .
..... and , he said that this is a 4 year turn around , insomuch that you work and pay taxes for 2 more years , adding to the government's pot ..... and you spend two years less drawing a pension from that pot .
Oh yeah , and even though Australians' have $A 1.4 trillion in their compulsory super funds , they still feel the need to push retirement out to 67 years ....... which suggests to the Gummster that Jolly Key thinks that the great Kiwi property bubble will be enough to see us through .
The nightmare part of that article is this bit,
>>>>>
As the ‘Arab Spring’ gets into fifth gear, The avowedly Islamist Ennahda party – which was banned for decades, and its leaders forced to flee abroad – won the first proper elections in Tunisia for 3,700 years. Good for them: I’m all for democracy, and we can see from this result just how democratic and wersternised the Arabs tend to be. Whether this sets a template for other Middle Eastern states emerging from the dictatorship of the bonkerstariat remains to be seen. You know my view: this was always going to happen, it is part of Islam’s increasingly central role in near and middle eastern politics, and it is bad both for Israel, and for Christian Europe.
It is a victory for bigotry, intolerance and anti-Western violence, and as such represents yet another example of how idiotic fluffiness always prefers to believe in the harmless, when all the cultural and historical evidence suggests harmful. Egypt is heading this way, and now the lynch mobs are in charge in Libya, we can expect more of an Islamist bite there too.
But it’s the weekend – hurrah!
Good article - so much is the same here you could simply restate it 'Clark’s legacy to the Labour Party ....' :
Blair’s legacy to the Labour Party was to make it unfit for the purpose of criticising a capitalist form gone mad….and leave it still crippled with the millstone of past and present madnesses. Forget the branding for a moment, and consider the baggage: were Labour today not saddled with the deranged policies of Big State pc/feminist dreamers and Trade Union wreckers, it would be a shoe-in at the next election. And had not New Labour’s grandees behaved like the worst kind of grubby, corrupt bottom-feeders after 2003, they could genuinely claim to be the Party against privilege and for a fairer society.
As I wrote late last year, I loathe the Labour Party as currently constituted, but we sure as hell need something to oppose the sort of blatantly cynical money-grabbing going on at the moment…..because the current Administration obviously isn’t going to. If all these self-styled big-bonus professionals think they and they alone make up this thing called society, I suggest we switch off the water and electricity from their offices, and see how they get on.
Chairman Moa I think the article isn’t politically motivated, but makes it clear how much economic reforms are needed in this country under the influence of the worldwide situation.
We need to worry about getting the NZ books back into the black.
After this we can relook at the superannuation requirements for 2050.
At lot of things can happen between now and 2050. Look at the 2008 global financial crisis, the Christchurch earthquake etc.
Labour is promising more tax on the salary and wage earner and an increase in the retirement age. This will just encourage more high salary earners, who pay most of the tax, to go to Australia.
You are correct. Trying to project what the world will be like in 40 years, well only a fool would do that for the very examples you cite. Yet there are plenty of clowns around here who cling to such predictions as it supports their prejudices. Forty years ago, (1971) I couldn’t do what I am doing now, typing on a computer to post a reply to something I read on a website via the internet. No one in 1971 predicted that. And yet we have all these Noddy’s predicting how many people will be alive in New Zealand in 2050 as though there is absolutely no margin for error and what that will mean for National Superannuation. And we need to be doing something about that NOW! What utter self-indulgent nonsense. It’s so stupid it’s almost embarrassing.
You know in 2050, about 90% of the baby boomers will be dead. The numbers collecting National Super then and who will be making it unaffordable (according to predictions) for the country (young New Zealanders) to pay in 2050 aren’t the baby boom. It’s generation X and Y.
In the 1950s M K Hubbard predicted apeak oil as 2000 or so......looks like it was 2006.....not bad for a mathematical estimate over 50 years.......
Insurance companies base cover on statistical probability.....so they look at say a severe event only being a 1 in 100 year event and charge based on that......AGW of course means these 1 in 100 year events are 1 in 20.......so ppl can deny it all they want but they will have to pay the increased premiums....if anyone offers them of course.
Govn's do plan every day and so does private enterprise....they know that the BBs for instance will take the OAPs from about 13% to 26%....so private enterprise is building retirement villages.
It should be obvious when most BBs alive today will get to 75 or so that there will be a bulge in costs and its fair that the BBs put money away now to meet thier needs....
Sure you cannot guarantee an outcome, if we had a flu outbreak and say maybe 20% of BBs are killed off....at that point if the fund has too much money its simply closed and the excess drawn out....
It would appear you are as per normal unable the think such thoughts.....fortunately others can...
regards
Boomers exchanging houses with other boomers ... in the North Shore it looks more like boomers selling their often decrepit huts to Koreans and Chinese at very dear prices. Probably because the place is already majority Asian, and also the school zones etc
Not sure for how much longer the Asians will think of "Western" countries as being desirable destinations for their kids to get an education before returning to Asia to work. Europe is currently making an idiot of itself, the US and UK are essentially broke. They still have a lead in education, engineering and science, but from all I can tell it is steadily being eroded, in part by the policies (if you want to call it that) BH is so irritated about: sinking money into govt handouts and property price inflation rather than investment in future industries.
On the other hand, yes, NZ has a chance to be the bread basket ... or rather milk jug and meat bowl of Asia and that might be just enough for a reasonably prosperous future. However, do see the context. NZ will decline to be the food servant of Asia. Its social model, way of life etc will soon be pushed aside.
But I guess it all does not matter, as long as some sections of NZ society can go on binging on their kids' way of life.
You know I don't like the tone of this unreasonable intergenerational resentment being drummed up by Hickey and his cohort. It smacks of the worst of the jealous, vindictive and spiteful nature that New Zealanders are all too well known for and that holds this country back. As a person who will be retiring in a decade or so, I am worried about how I will be treated in this country by those younger than myself if this attitude they have presists. Will they strip me of my assets because they feel they have the right to because I ‘owe them something’ but I am at an age where I can no longer make any money? Who knows, what I can say is that I am not sure that I can trust young New Zealanders anymore.
Because of my fears, I am setting long term gaols to leave New Zealand around retirement time. I'm not without means; those assets will go with me. But I am not going to stay around and be subjected to a pogrom against the elderly in this country. When you start blaming a sector of society for your country’s ills, then you have a sick society no different from Germany’s where the Nazis said it was all the Jews fault or the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia who said it was the educated people’s fault.
And we know what happened to the blamed there......
David – they will strip us of our assets, in case we carry on with the current unsustainable, megalomaniac economic path and it’s consequences - and they have a bloody right to do so. Why should they pay for damage - what our generation destroyed ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQqDS9wGsxQ we have one planet only, which requires ethic and moral principles, not greed and endless growth, but values we can pass on to the next generation. Without such implications, yes - we should be worried.
We cannot blame the baby boomers for the superannuation problems.
We have worked hard and paid our taxes. We are entitled to our superannuation.
Our superannuation system will be under pressure in 20 years because of the the unfair tax system in NZ.
A person earning over $100,000 pays $31,000 tax per year, while a dairy farmer earning $500,000 per year only pays $1500 tax. Or a self employed tradesman doing cash jobs pays nothing.
10 % of wage and salary earners pay 76 % of the income tax. Over half of NZers pay no tax.
Sore-loser, having just registered and purchased road mile for my diesel ute, Im thinking the government are getting 'grand theft auto' down to a fine art. My next trick is to buy an old ute, rip the speedo out and then drive around without bothering with the taxes like all the others do in this area.
'grand theft auto'??? Do you realise that Petrol taxes plus RUC's don't even come close to paying for road construction/maintenance? Road transport is heavily subsidised from rates and general taxes.
Best to avoid tax evasion and fraud. I hear the penalties can be really harsh.
you can be as pretty as you like, the rest of us get to fund that monster, with all that welfare and government spending, its us producers who fund you. I wish we could do a little experiment and stop for year to prove it. The road tax goes into a consoldated fund, a percentage goes back to roading but now Mr Joyce is going to blow 36 billion on roading it is probably all being spent on the roads,there are no shinny new tunnels around here just a lot of people who work hard and pay alot of tax to keep people in Auckland in their smart cars, where do you think the money went that the finance companies lost?
Down here we are reminded daily that elections today are won or lost in Auckland, it must be true the local Mp told me so.
You dont remove the speedo, just disconnect it....then its a case of oops sorry I noticed it no longer works....Yanks apparantly did this with the silly air pump that used to inject air into tthe exhausts to dilute it and pass the emmissions tests....huge fine if the pump was missing, wrist slap and told to get a new belt if that had "fallen off"..........
I have to wonder in this month and get 6 months tax and probably some mileage.....not looking forward to that bill.....
regards
Sore-loser, having just registered and purchased road mile for my diesel ute, Im thinking the government are getting 'grand theft auto' down to a fine art. My next trick is to buy an old ute, rip the speedo out and then drive around without bothering with the taxes like all the others do in this area.
Easily done : Bring in a CGT , a Tobin tax , increase GST to 17.5 % , re-introduce the Cullen envy tax rate of 39 % , institute a " fat " tax on certain sugary & fatty foods , and increase the fuel excise once again , ... and raise the duties on cigarettes & alcohol , of course !
...... Vote NZ Labour : you'd be Goofy not to !
We have worked hard and paid our taxes. We are entitled to our superannuation.
I hate with when people break out this line. Yes many of the boomers did work hard to pay for the superannuation of a small number of retirees at the time. Unfortunately all this tax revenue has already been spent (apart from the Cullen fund).
From what I can see the current tax/superannuation policy looks like a giant pyramid scheme reliant on rapid population growth to ensuring an appropriate ratio of taxpayers to retirees.
When the boomers retire the ratio of tax payers will dramatically change, leaving less taxpayers per retiree, dramatically increasing the load on each taxpayer. If we get too top heavy the system will become un-sustainable.
Nobody has earned the right to demand future tax payers pay for their retirement, they have merely been generous enough to pay for the retirement of the generations older than themselves.
As a 22 year old I am really scared that governments will bow to the boomers demands (they are a lot of voters after all) and run huge deficits and really high taxes to pay for their retirement.
You do understand, Scott, that the baby boomers are currently employed and paying tax? Furthermore a significant chunk of the taxation required to pay National Superannuation for the baby boom will in actual fact be paid by the baby boomers themselves. At the time the end of the baby boom retires (~2028) the beginning part of it which started to collect national super in 2011, will be dying off in droves. And the baby boomer death rate will dramatically increase from that moment on. Increasing the age of eligibility of National Super to 68 by 2030 has very little to do with trying to limit the superannuation cost of baby boomers, as Hickey incorrectly implies, but everything to do with limiting the superannuation cost of generation X and Y.
new zealand will never progress politically,financially or socially because of three issues.
our obsession with australia
waitangi treaty
our obsession with rugby
you cannot go forward when you are constantly looking back.
the last world cup
the 1840 treaty
and look what australia did ten years ago
Bernard. Your piece was good.
The format of a letter was interesting as it enabled you make an appeal in a way, to some remnant of humanity that you hoped might still linger in the forex traders soul.
Let me give you a small piece of advice.
When someone who has been 'done over" or conned by someone else...this appeal is a natural response . To seek for the humanity within the sociopath We project our own conscience, our knowledge of what the decent thing to do is, and expect a modicum of decency in return,
Unfortunately there are some human beings who either don't have this human conscience
or are able to suppress it.
The thing is, Key doesn't care what you or anyone thinks. He has his own agenda.
When early on his Govt. made cruel and pointless cuts to adult education and teachers for the deaf, I saw his true colours. He simply doesn't care.
Wakeup call. At hospital Friday with hubby. Surprised at all the super's there. Spoke to a few. Many would like to be enjoying some retirement but due to family/neighbours etc trying to keep food on table, they were "picking up the tag". Wonder what it will be like in 2026? Will all the super's be around to help out? By the time I'd finished my Friday, began to wonder how NZ operated without the super's. It gave me a wake-up call as never realised how dependent our society had become on them. Mr Key appears to be "walking on water". About time somebody took a good look at NZ Society. No wonder the younger generation leave our shores, many never to return which is sad for the older generation. Oh well, now watch the "bagger's" attack my ramblings!
There is a way out of this mess and it is not envy bashing.
We have to grow our way out of the problem. Bring the deficit down by changes to the GDP by
INCREASING PRODUCTIVITY.
Government spending and its draconian rules and regulations are a horrendous drag on businesses, especially small businesses.
Private investment must go into new businesses, not to buy bonds that fund government spending.
Anyway in a couple of years the bond market is going to get spooked because Europe and Japan will implode and this will force the cuts that Key should be making now.
The fun will start then.
FYI from a reader via email:
Hi Bernard
I dont think you can blame the baby boomers for the NZ Economy and Superannuation problems.
Firstly we are not responsible for the 2008 world wide financial crash, the 2009 collapse of NZ financial companies which cost NZers approx $5 billion,
the South Canterbury Finance collapse and the Christchurch earthquake.
The baby boomers have supported NZ for over the 40 years, working hard, and paying taxes, so we deserve our superannuation at 65 years.
When you work at high stress management jobs, working 60 hours plus per week, for a salary without bonuses, and paying 39 % tax plus GST, it is not good to hear the Labour Party saying that they want to increase tax and increase the retirement age.
This will just push more people over to Australia.
Also the wage and salary earners are paying their fair share of taxes, so we shouldn't place more tax burden on them. 10 % of wage and salary earners pay 76 % of the tax. Is this fair?
Also you say that it is the mums and dads who have high mortgaes that are causing the problems. This is not fair. We pay our mortgages and at the age of 65 we will be able to retire in some level of comfort after 40 years of working and paying tax.
The biggest problem with NZ's high level of debt is due to businesses who borrow and speculate and dont pay back. For example the finance companies and Crafar farms. This is why NZ had a downgrade in our credit rating.
Another problem with NZ is the uneven tax burden borne by the wage and tax payer.
We have self employed tradesman who work for cash jobs and pay no tax, or the local dairy who nevers buts the money through the till.
Then we have the farmers who buy more farms to increase their assets, and reduce their taxes.
How can a dairy farmer who earns $500,000 per year only pay $1500 in tax?
There are also those who use trusts to hide income and gain Govt rest home subsidies of $800 per week for their retired elderly parents who have left the family farm to their sons. And they get Govt funded student allowances of $220 per week for their children while the salary and wage earners, who pay the tax miss out.
The NZ Superannuation is affordable at 65 years, if everyone paid their fair share and we had a fairer tax system.
Thanks
Peter
Peter,
You say: "The baby boomers have supported NZ for over the 40 years, working hard, and paying taxes, so we deserve our superannuation at 65 years."
I say: "Babyboomers didn't pay capital gains tax, didn't pay enough taxes to pre-fund their superannuation costs and seem happy to lump the costs onto those still working when they retire."
cheers
Bernard
While I respect your opinion on the matter Bernard.....and your obvious resentment in the name of fairness...one brush does not tar all.
You use inflamatory language when this particular hobby horse of yours gets up from it's last whipping to death ( the Lazarian effect I suspect) such as deserve...seem happy... Blame......what do you want us to do ...out with it ..!
A lot of us that I know agree with you that the coming generations are paying for the shortsightedness of successive Aministrations failure to see a growing aging population.
That is not the fault (blame) of the Boomer pursee but the Administrations that got the numbers wrong on a projected basis.
So what do you want....Us to reject the pension when offered.....?
Push the retirement age out ...yes! good for me but I'm in good health...again one size does not fit all.
Forward your constructive ten point programme to redressing the shortcomings of previous superanuations or the lack thereof to National Party H.Q. and hope like hell they haven't run out of dunny paper.
Yours respectfully as always .
Christofff: Would you deny Hickey-grenade-launcher the pleasure of lobbing hiki-hand-grenades. Inflammatory=Yes, Provocative=YES, pandering to a particular segment or audience=YES, Blame laying=YES, all of those and more. In journalistic terms it is lazy. You will note in many articles produced by your favourite scribe the use of wide sweeping terminology such as "the banks" with regard to the eurocrisis. We know the names of all the players with one notable exception, the names of "those banks". It's the same with "the baby-boomers". Easy to use without any authentication to back it up. I have challenged BH once before to get David Whitburn back on and interview him, and quiz him on how at age 35, being a genX, he can acquire a net property wealth in excess of $1 million.
yes ...iconolast... I shouldn't bite I know , but this was a pubescent attack...a teenage rant.... a childish collective overview in order to stamp the feet at somebody.....and Bernard endorsed it....yes he did.
Bernard you want to do something meaningful about the right to vote ...? remove that right from the Stupid.....but be careful as judging by this you may lose your rights as a citizen .
Hullo Count : If you want a seriously investigated argument , buy a book !
... Bernard is pandering to the attention-deficit crowd .... all journos do , whipping up anger and resentment against their chosen target of the day ... bashing BB's goes along way around here .
If there is a failing , is seems to me to be our two-main-party political process ... .. there's not enough power in the hands of truely independent thinkers in our parliament . Which is why Gummy says " a pox upon both your houses " , to Labour and to National .
Yas. GBH I'm waiting on... Man in the Middle...Ken Morris...not Jacko's Menage Memoirs.
But in your absence he's been doing some strange things i think I even saw him at a pep rally diving into the cordial.....ya think it might be the mid life thingo....or getting a bit too fond of the students and their adulation
It's hard to keep up the Star image specially when the crust is starting to set.
Bernard - can you give us a breakdown, by INDUSTRIAL/ECONOMIC SECTOR, of "Babyboomers [who] didn't pay capital gains tax to pre-fund their superannuation costs and seem happy to lump the costs onto those still working when they retire ."
In other words, which sector/s have contributed least in this regard, because of the intent rule?
Who are the biggest culprits?
Cheers, Les.
FYI from a reader via email:
Bernard, as the top student in my school and very creative i have formed companies that work with international students, designed electric vehicals, export of manufactured rock crushing machines to africa, gold mines. I have seen New Zealand fail me. I am so frustrated after being a post graduate student president looking after masters and PhD students in 2005-7.
The country is broken by giving retired people the vote and paying retired people a pension while the first 18 years these young people do not get a vote. in some democracies only the soliders got to run for politics. my point is our most productive potential is forgotten and ignored at the expence of the persons in the last 18 month of life.
So a new national university is only half the problem. Politics is about rewarding unproductive activities. IE the R18 RSAs get our old people pissed and plunder their money on pokie machines while young people do not have access to their experience in meaningful ways like apprentiships. The nation is educationally bankrupt.
I want to scream at the top of my lungs and drag my finger nails down the black board to draw attention to the broken system but it is just ignored.
What a pointless, senseless email from somebody with a screwed up brain! More disappointingly, the intergenerational enmity is endorsed by publishing the email. Just shows how far away we are from a civilized society that respects and values the wisdom of its older members. Sad, senseless and unproductive (if not worse than that)...
PM look after the country – not after your buddies.
How can a banker in charge of this country with megalomaniac, stupid ideas to be the “Financial Hub of the South Pacific” etc. have a clue about production, social and economic structure of New Zealand.? One can only hope that the cracks within the National Party are unfolding and more members with NZtailor made ideas/ strategies achieve the upper hand.
Looking into current developments on many fronts – the world will never recover again, simply because among the powerful in societies ethic and moral requirements and standards don’t prevail
and how much energy does it take now?
I followed a case of a farmer who tried to reduce his energy use.....he managed a 25% reduction....
So I suspect we will be employing more un-skilled farm hands type jobs in the future....the un-skilled wont be happy with that.........
regards
steven how is employing more"unskilled" workers going to save energy?Do you expect them to plough paddocks with a shovel..walk instead of a quad bike..these inventions are why farms have become more efficient...farm labour is at an all time low(too low in many cases as essential maintainace is neglected) and some farms are sliding backwards.
also you show your ignorance /arrogance when you use the term " unskilled".many farm workers do have some level of skill..do you watch the young farmer contest on tv???
i,d love to see you have a go at that and then tell me how unskilled farming can be.
i,d love to see you come down a steep greasy steep farm track with a quad load of gear without an accident..
id love to see you muster a 200 ha hill paddock with a team of dogs and a whistle..
regards
You have the wrong end of the stick...
I think you need to sit back and look at the energy inputs to a modern farm, there is a huge fossil fuel input which is a problem. Then start to think about what happens to work and output when energy is very expensive and hard to get...what are your options then?
Human Labour is about the most energy efficient source there is....it will save fossil fuel energy....which we will be short of....other alternatives are horses etc......
Farms produced before quad bikes and fertilizer, by efficient all you mean is use fossil fuels to do more labour or grow more per hectare with less ppl.....which is fine when cheap fossil fuel is abundant....
"unskiiled" farm workers" I grew up from farming stock, my parents were children of the younger brothers of the previous generations....Ive worked in the fields of my uncles when I was a teenager...I grew up in the countryside....Ive rebuilt tractor engines and fixed farm kit.....etc....
Unskilled are not trully un-skilled, they lack mostly formal trade (or better) training and skills....
Quad bike down a hill, probaly could, 4wding is a hobby, just never ridden a quad/motor bike but that will probably change next year....but this isnt a proper skill....though you can sit a NCEA (or whatever it is) in it.
There is also a difference between farmers and labour.....farmers are effectively at least tradesmen....ie the same skill level of a plumber or electrician...their labour is semi-skilled if you prefer......its splitting hairs but if it keeps you happy.
Dogs and whistle.....very energy efficient......let the dogs run....the farmer can be on a hourse no fossil fuel use.....Ive seen that combo in NZ....and ive walked with my uncles doing it....(the farms were small).
regards
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