Mike's Minute: There's a lesson for us all in these job cuts

Has it been, and its only Thursday, a bit of a come to Jesus week for this country? 

Ola are leaving, they’ve been here five years, and they clearly can’t make it work, gone. 

Kate Sylvester, a doyenne of her industry, announced she is done. Done in an industry not so many years ago we sort of got fizzy about each year at fashion week, as no shortage or names like Trelise, and Karen, and Adrian, and Kate lined up their wares to the queue of overseas buyers who flocked to the country to wax lyrical about our creativity. 

Newshub finally confirmed they are closing, so we are down to one television version of a news bulletin. 

We could of course talk about all the downsizing, but at least with downsizing there is room to grow another day, as opposed to the lights getting turned out as the last one leaves. 

Which brings us to the question: is this the new us? 

We have had the debate in airlines. Essentially, we aren't big enough for two of them, so we have about one and a half, and moan a lot about them. 

We are clearly not big enough for two television news channels and is it important to have a local fashion industry, it is? Or does any old tat in from Vietnam suffice? Do we care? 

Spada, the people who make television shows, called yesterday after the Newshub news for the Government to save local production. 

Is a local tv show any more important than a local frock? 

How much of this is a nice to have versus something of cultural or patriotic significance? 

And how much of what we are seeing is economic? In other words, if we weren't in the mess we are, these places would be fine. 

The television side is simple: not enough people watched. So that’s on them and us, and Meta came along and nicked the money because we like short videos. 

We clearly like H&M more than Kate’s stuff, so that’s life, isn't it? Or is it? 

The French are very good at the patriotic equation, they protect a lot of their local production. But do we want to be like the French? 

Does every job have to be taxpayer supported? Is that what we are down to? 

How much weight do we place on the simple economic truth that if you make or produce something of value you will be fine. If you don’t? Well, that’s life. 

And for all those closing, what about those who aren't? How come they make it work while others don’t? 

Is there not a lesson in that for us all? 

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