OPINION:​ Happy New Year, reader. I'm living 2020 like I live most days.

I start with huge expectations and then give in when things get hot, before eventually settling on doing very little.

As I'm writing this in the early morning and the temperature has not yet hit 30 degrees, I present to you my great expectations for the new year. Think of this as my wish list, but really this is just me writing five things I've started arguments about these holidays by asking "why not?"

1. More days off

We get today off simply because it is "the day after New Year's Day". At least they could make up a name for "the day after Christmas Day", aka Boxing Day. Don't stop there. Why not the day before, as well?

Of course, some businesses will complain because money. Cry me a river. Public holidays are universally loved and drive spending in hospitality, tourism and in the regions. More importantly, they're a day free (or well paid) of work. Only sycophantic corporate slaves would argue against days off.

New Zealand has a measly 11 public holidays a year. If we were to live in Colombia or Iran, we would have 27! Luxembourg has 11, but also paid special leave for anniversaries, weddings or moving house. Another few days won't sink the banks.

2. Dramatically lower the voting age

With the general election planned for this year, why not lower the voting age to 16, or 14? Actually, why can't it be 10 or lower? Last year, a 9-year-old boy in Amsterdam became the youngest person to graduate university. Surely, the arbitrary age limit of 18 should not prohibit smart kids from voting.

You may think that boy was a one-off, an unusual genius. Sure. Even then, the fact is many 16, 14 and 9-year-olds are more insightful and knowledgeable than many 30-year olds. I know a lot of smart kids and a lot of dumb adults.

You might say "you need some life experience". I say: Just because you're old doesn't mean you're necessarily more worldly than a 17-and-a-half-year-old. And regardless, the experiences of a 10-year-old are no less real or worthy. They may even be quite insightful.

3. Encourage people to work in professions that matter

There are a few deeply selfless professions renowned for very poor working conditions. These tend to be the positions which matter most.

Teaching, nursing, clinical psychology, social work and other careers are generally accepted as valiant but poorly paid and exhausting. We literally can't live without people taking jobs in these fields, and staffing shortages are common. The long wait times for counselling, up to or exceeding a year for some victims of sexual assault, suggest a shortage of life-saving health and counselling services is crippling already vulnerable Kiwis.

When it came into power, the Government made tertiary education cheaper – which is a good step towards utopia but a strange use of money. Before we promote study for the sake of it, we need to focus on attracting more skilled and compassionate workers to these fields. That will mean special subsidies for those university courses and higher wages for those workers. We'll need to pay for that, and we should. I suggest a special tax for all who call themselves "consultants", "executives" or "partners".

4. Give everyone a home

Sometimes I think landlords really consider themselves to be the Lord. About one in five renters spend 40 per cent of their incomes on housing. For sole parents, researchers have found about 60 per cent of their income goes on rent.

If you think that's okay, you are obviously a landlord or about to start your property portfolio thanks to hard work and (or, actually, just) a large inheritance. 

Instead of focusing on building thousands of homes to be sold to private owners – who will eventually reap profit from a government service – why not build thousands of state homes? State homes cost about 25 per cent of a tenant's income, up to the market rental of that house. You need to be in difficult circumstances to qualify for a state house. But we could decide that a house is a right, and everyone has access to a state house. 

We could cut the banks out of the family home, and rent to buy.

You'll still pay 25 per cent of your income, that's a lot of money. Anything is better than giving 40 or 60 per cent of your money to a guy who happens to own some land.

5. Stop sharing corporate memes

Air New Zealand is not your friend, it is an airline. You don't need to comment on and share every witty photo and caption it posts, those are ads. We used to hate ads, now we share them for free and consider them some sort of fine art. Wake up, sheeple!