Michael Joseph Savage carries a dining table into the Labour Government's first state house in Wellington, in 1937.

Opinion: Michael Joseph Savage, the man who helped create cradle to grave social welfare would be dismayed by Godzone now.

Remember David Lange? Big man, quick wit, Prime Minister for a while. Where is he now? At a quiz night in Auckland this week the quizmaster pronounced the name David LANJ. "You pronounce it Long-ee," people told him. "Funny name", the quizmaster said.

If we forget our Prime Ministers, are we bound to repeat them? We should be so lucky. Facebook has been full this week of photos of Michael Joseph Savage, reminding us of a different time, different priorities. My favourite is the one of him carrying a table into the first state house. Here to help, here to serve.

CHRIS SKELTON/STUFF Satirist David Slack wonders what the architects of the welfare state would think of New Zealand now.

If the anecdote is true, he put the table down as soon as he was through the front door. Public service has its limits, all photos are opportunities. Michael Joseph Savage never got into a cage with a cake of soap, though.

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Morning Report began the week by asking the current PM what advice he could offer to someone living in a car.

They really did, because that's what we've come to: people living in cars because they earn $600 a week working fulltime and they can't rent a place for less than $500.

They should go see Work and Income, the PM said. It really didn't sound like an answer. And then he was gone.

As the week went on, it became more and more apparent that going to see Work and Income really wasn't an answer at all, unless you think that being loaned $1200 to spend a week in a motel is an answer.

Then we got the exciting news! All we had to do was get the useless Auckland Council to remove its ridiculous city limits! Could it be true? Could it be that this complex problem - the immigration, the vast bank lending, the infrastructure backlog, the absence of a capital gains tax, the fear, the greed, the mania - could it have been finally solved? Gee, what do I think?

I rely on Morning Report for my serious news but this week for some reason they interviewed someone who doesn't believe in vaccination and I thought: if they're up for that, maybe they might be up for a seance.

"Joining us is former Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage," Guyon might say, "a very good morning to you, Prime Minister."

And you might hear a squeaky voice say: "and to you too, young man." I'd turn up the volume.

"Prime Minister, we have families today who are sleeping in cars. What would you suggest we do about it?"

"Well, it sounds to me as though you need to build some more houses."

"But we don't really do that any more."

"Why ever not?"

"We thought instead of building houses for them, we could just give a supplement to everyone who needed one, and they would use it to pay their rent."

"I see, and who would get the supplement?"

"Well, private landlords mostly."

"That sounds like a speculator's dream. What happened?"

"It was a speculator's dream."

"Dear oh dear. And how much are you paying to private landlords now?"

"$1.2 billion this year."

"Good lord. How many houses could you built for that?"

"Well, houses in Auckland cost somewhere from 500k up, so let's say 2000 houses?

"Well, I think you see the solution, young man."

"But it's not as simple as that."

"Why not?"

"Well, if we took away the supplements we'd need to build tens of thousands of houses."

"Why is that?"

"It's all completely unaffordable. People who earn the minimum wage don't earn enough to pay the rent you pay in Auckland now. Even the cheapest houses in Auckland cost more than ten times the average income."

"Well, you see, that's why my government built all those homes. We built thousands of them - at a very good price, I might add. You really do save when you buy in bulk. People could rent from us at affordable rates, so they weren't at the mercy of the market. The market runs on fear and greed and quite often makes no sense at all. You do know that, don't you? Good heavens, did you people all stop voting Labour?"

"Actually, there's quite an interesting story about that, Prime Minister. What have you heard about neoliberalism?"

"In heaven? Nothing."

"I see. Prime Minister, before I go on, can I just ask: are you sitting down?"