The problem with Brash’s report is that it does not address in a sensible way increasing productivity.

To do that there needs to be a plan for increasing capital and technology inputs.

Instead the plan is to reduce them.

Stunning stuff for such a high powered group.

peace
W

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Clearly imperfect, but at least a better effort than that offered by the group Brash led.

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@samiam, surely:

- Introduce a land tax
- Introduce a capital gains tax
- Remove working for families and introduce in it’s place a tax free threshold
- Streamline all current tax rates at 10%, 20%, 30% at a higher level
- Introduce compulsary superannuation at 5% matched by employer
- Introduce a government system of health insurance funds at 12% of income and operate all hospitals as if they were privately run (a la Aussie, France)
- Introduce PIR tax rate of 20% for money invested in businesses exporting over 80% of it’s products or secondary production
- Tax rate of 15% for sustainable businesses that meet the “triple bottom line”
- Google Green New Deal for some more ideas

That’s a start and the kinds of things that are actually likely to close the gap with Aussie not use this as an excuse to re-introduce a failed strategy that sacrificed a large number of the last generation of NZers…

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In every economic cycle we live beyond our means at some point, but after earlier enjoying surpluses and paying off debt and investing in infrastructure out of savings … much of this is beat up panic, partly generated by the non achievable goal of wage parity with Oz.

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It’s fine to slag Don et al.
However he is totally correct in saying that we are living beyond our means and that is unsustainable.
Those are his ideas on how to address the issue. Discredit them as you may.
But what are your viable alternatives?
You state some aspirations, but how about some nut-and-bolts….

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Well that is based on conversations with my work colleagues, many of whom voted for National…

Actually now that i think (yes it hurt) swing/’centre right’ voters wouldn’t like it much either. So yeah maybe 3.8% of the population is probably about right.

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Well that is based on conversations with my work colleagues, many of whom voted for National…

Releasing shares in SOEs for sale to the public is what Aussie did in the 80s and 90s under Keating rather than flogging them off to Fay and Richwhite to be asset stripped, seemed to work well to me, I’d personally have no problem with it as long as the government still controlled 51% of strategic assets…

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One encouraging thing is that this has gone down like a cup of cold sick with the public

Well, with lefties who post on blogs anyway. Hard to tell what the ‘general public’ think without professional polling IMHO. What would you think of giving everyone shares in SOEs as opposed to selling them?

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One encouraging thing is that this has gone down like a cup of cold sick with the public, it will be causing a few policy dilemmas for the 2011 election for Joyce, English, Power, Ryall, Key and Brownlee, i.e. If we announce a privatisation agenda will we lose..?

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