I Am Not a Number

Back in 1967, the lead character in the TV series The Prisoner resists government brainwashing, declaring “I am not a number, I am a free man”. Numbers can be dehumanising,

particularly large numbers, and therefore easy to dismiss.

As I wrote this, Hamilton City Councillors gave away a million dollars of your money to the private trust that is building the new regional theatre.

For those who voted to do so (Thomson, Cox, Hutt, Southgate, O’Leary, Huata, Tauriki, Van Oosten), it was very easy because a million dollars is just a number.

For those who opposed it (Bydder, Wilson, Taylor, Pike), it is a million dollars that can’t be spent on fixing pot holes, mowing weeds, libraires, community groups, or rates rebates for struggling families. The trust has already received from you, the public, a contentious $25 million gift, a guarantee of $1.5 million per year for operating costs, a $6.5 million dollar loan, a reduction in development contributions, and a $70,000 grant for an opening ceremony. Those are a lot of numbers, but what does it really mean?

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Let’s put it in perspective.

The average household rates are $3,200.

One million dollars is the annual rates collected from 312 average households.

Here is a picture of 312 houses in Hamilton East.

I hope this gives a good sense of what the dollars actually mean in a human scale.

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You and I are not numbers. We are real people trying to support our families and pay our way.

I hope the theatre is successful, and this article is not a criticism of it or the trust.

Some of us are doing it tough, and some of us have friends and relatives we would like to help with our hard-earned dollars.

We can’t do that when the council is giving our money away because they don’t understand what the numbers really mean.

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