Brian Anderson The Western Front www.sunlive.co.nz

A caller to a recent election talk back programme quoted that the fall of the Roman Empire occurred when it went from a democracy to a dictatorship and collapsed as a consequence of one simple mistake.

The dictator took over responsibility for feeding the people. The host agreed and offered another example of American Red Indians who were sent to the reservations and when the government delivered free cattle every Friday, it spelled the end of the Indian nations. The host then asked what that had to do with the election. The caller started to answer something about people wanting a free handout, but was immediately cut off. The host only wanted to compare political bribes without considering the cost or any consequences.

At a recent meeting a chap stood up and said he was sick of all the talk. All he wanted to know was what was in it for him. As far as he could see, the meeting was a waste of time and he walked out. His attitude has been shared during the week by a number of under 30s. A survey on Twitter found the Green Party was miles ahead of Labour and the National Party was a distant third. This must be a very large voting group, but they probably won't vote until voting is available by cell phone.

The papers went to great length to analyse the developmental problems of a naked rugby player and also demand that a conversation between two politicians over a cup of tea should be revealed for the national good. Some columnists did try to suggest the implications for New Zealand of the Global Financial Crisis to the public, but one prominent columnist declared the world's GFC problems were all over and New Zealand had already emerged unscathed. He believed obviously that New Zealand was the first country to see the light of a new day. He never considered the night comes before day.

With these and other similar comments in the media, I am not sure we are ready to make fully informed decisions on the direction we believe is necessary for New Zealand and are ready to choose the next government.

Apart from one seemingly unscripted outburst from John Key, no politicians have addressed the possibility that, sometime soon, New Zealand could be needing a unitary government run by a bunch of technocrats who will be trying to recover lost ground and be introducing extremely uncomfortable austerity measures. Emotional mantras and half baked promises borrowed from last election are still being repeated for catching votes, but are totally irrelevant in our current situation.

If you get a chance, ask your candidate about the implications of our export commodity prices dropping steadily for months, our $18 billion deficit, our drop in Standard and Poor's rating, the Reserve Bank's restriction on banks borrowing short term from overseas and any forecast for when home loan interest rates will go up. Ask why China has cut back on lending. Ask why small towns and small businesses around the world have been failing and if this is the sign of a basic structural problem in our global economy model. Most other countries have recognised this already.

You can judge their answers and future actions with the advice from Einstein who warned us that the significant problems of our time cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them. I hope our new representatives will be honest, do the necessary calculations, tell us the facts and show some genuine leadership. Both leaders optimistically suggest our economy will recover within three years, but the rest of the world is suggesting much longer than that. It could be a long night.