Some of our politicians could use a similar lecture.
We have parties wanting new taxes to fund what is basically a Universal Basic Income, even though AI hasn't yet stolen the number of jobs they claimed it would.
A Wall Street Journal piece this morning talks about exactly this point – even big tech seems to be u-turning on the job doomsday scenario.
We had the Greens yesterday come out with a policy that was not serious, but potentially destructive to our standard of living.
You can read it on their website. It's four pages long. Two of the pages are pictures and photos.
Fewer cows. Synthetic nitrate fertiliser should be phased out.
But zero detail on when, how, and the economic impact of doing so.
Same goes for bottom trawling. 70% of our fishing industry by volume is caught by trawling within a metre of the sea floor.
The industry's worth $5 billion a year. 16,000+ jobs. Dairy's our biggest exporter. $16 billion a year.
To try and take them down is to launch an assault on our standard of living akin to the doomsday AI job wipe-out that was once predicted to happen, but hasn't yet eventuated.
On top of this, there's a plan for more taxes, which, remember, even Tony Blair admits is no plan for prosperity.
The thing about the Greens' rivers plan is that they're partly right. Agricultural run-off has made many rivers un-swimmable.
But simply banning and taxing things does not solve problems.
It creates new ones. Like how we're going to feed the kids, create jobs, and stay in the OECD.
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.
4 comments:
Ryan is right. But why are so many bonkers proposals being put up by NZ political parties? Because none of them are after a majority of the vote. None of them are targeting what politics is meant to be about = support of the median voter. Instead under MMP our parties have become like small to medium size businesses targeting a niche customer base.
They dont give a damn most people like Ryan correctly argue many of their proposals are insane. They only care that a minority of between about 5 and 35 percent don't believe they're mad since that will get them power. It has meant that political commentary in NZ is becoming a waste of time. We're being asked to debate extremist weirdo proposals solely designed to appeal to minority odd balls who bear no resemblance to the salt of the earth decent & hard working reasonable middle ground.
Good points there Robert. I think you may be saying that our Parliamentary political party system may be well and truly dead, but not many have yet smelled the disgusting odour?
Oh my lord can you imagine a move back to a fair and balance tax system? Won’t someone think of the poor landlords, without them we don’t even have an economy.
Actually at anon 6:40 without private landlords you’ve got a rental crisis- which translates into a housing crisis because no one can afford to rent the few places that are left….you see a massive spike in homelessness, especially of family groups as well as other massive social and economic problems
Heaven help this country’s leftists who are still blinded by the idea that socialist ideas might work and the rich shouldn’t exist and everyone should have equal outcomes- the last govt tried that and look at the disaster they created oversaw and left behind for cleanup….and they only got a little way through their socialist plan. If they’d gone all the way nz would now look worse than communist Russia in the 70s. As it is we’re just 20yrs behind the rest of the developed world
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