Ryan Bridge: Our country deserves more than an economic recovery

The RBNZ update this week again made the point that yes, the economy's in bounce back mode.

We'll grow 2.5% next year, they reckon.

But this country needs more than that. It deserves more than that.

The problem for us is, and has been for about the past 30 years, productivity. How much we get out for what we put in. We went sideways and it's now falling.

As you know, this is a bad thing. It's taking us more people and resources to make less stuff.

It puts a ceiling on success. It's a wealth killer. Some reckon it's the canary in the coalmine - the thing we should care about most because we're basically sleepwalking into third world status.

Like falling asleep on a plane and waking up in a different country, we'll one day wake up outside the OECD.

The solution, in part, is AI.

The World Economic Forum had some numbers showing it can boost labour productivity in developed countries by up to 40% over the next 15 years. The richer your country, the more you gain, which stands to reason because higher labour costs incentivise switching to AI to save on wage bills.

The economic upswing we're seeing right now is a business cycle uplift: they go up and down.

But if you're talking about making this country a serious economic contender on the world stage, as we once were, you need a plan. You need a strategy. You need electricity. You need to get rid of a bunch of regulations.

Do we have those things? No.

But we need to. I'm hoping next year at the election, more than a tax cut here or a medi-card there, somebody, from some party, I don't care which, paints us a credible path towards prosperity and wealth again. Lord knows we need it.

Ryan Bridge is a New Zealand broadcaster who has worked on many current affairs television and radio shows. He currently hosts Newstalk ZB's Early Edition - where this article was sourced.