This is very very well written and exposes the underbelly of what a well funded right wing social media projects as a smiling face and actions to give us power over our own money.... a con that couldn't be further from the truth if it tried. Thank you once again Bryan. If only Clint Eastwood were here to sort them out .... but it's up to us.
Sadly, I don't think we've even begun to see what this current Government is capable of, or will do next. What I do see though is a huge amount of Smoke-Screens going on that in turn will allow this Regulatory Standards Bill to fly in under the Radar and be passed before most folk realise it.
John Key was the Master of Smoke-Screens, i.e. deflecting the Publics attention and focus on any given situation, onto a more mundane yet popular topic.
Are Politicians in it for "The People" these days? I believe increasingly NOT. We, The People, are now just seen as numbers who contribute a multitude of Taxes; where we live, how well we are, how educated our Children are matters little to those who have plenty.
Rich people who keep on and on pushing the lesser-well-off's (the majority).
But History tells us, and History has this weird way of always repeating itself.... that People have limits, that People can only be pushed so far .... before there is resistance and uprising...
Day by day we draw nearer that repetition of History here in NZ, and overseas also. Governments (esp. Nationals) become complacent and arrogant increasingly towards "The People" and they all too often ignore the Lessons to be learnt from History, in their blind, steam-rolling ahead ambitions of History repeating.
Giving "lip-service" only to those they pretend to represent.
Thank you Bryan for yet another excellent article. Yes, useful links for our submissions. It's hard to get these finished with a house full of family over for the holidays. Of course aptly selected dates by the unlovely seymore. No capital letters here.
We're not a happy nation at the moment and it shows. I hope the submissions will make a difference, but in some way I doubt it keeping in mind the 27.000 submissions against the fast track bill, a hikoi of significance, protests (eg Dunedin hospital), more protests and we can go on. What to do next? A GIANT hikoi, getting NZ in overseas newspapers..... Again!!
Thank you Bryan for highlighting The Good, The Bad and The Ugly film characters to describe the extreme social,political and economic actions happening in our country currently.It is terrifying how quickly our ethics, values and aspirations as a progressive and fair country has been changed to favour the rich and few at the expense of the majority.
No disagreement from me. The key challenge is how to engage the 75% of New Zealanders that are not politically engaged. Unfortunately, actively engaged citizens (and their political parties, i.e. Labour) are often myopic to this phenomenon. That means they miss the lowest hanging fruit out there. When the poorest and the disengaged won’t or don’t vote their inaction facilitates an expanded Neo-liberalism agenda. Result, the coalition continues to careen - unrestrained - through a once egalitarian society. The secret sauce of defence is to engage the unengaged. That’s where the numbers to win government reside and in a democracy the majority rules. And Labour, get out of the Neo-liberalism business and remember the centre isn’t an alter to worship. 🤞🥹
For many years I have pondered on how this happened, a ‘fair go’ quickly turned into ‘what’s in it for me?’ Conclusion - we were seduced into being consumers (rather than taxpayers). This has not only spoiled our notion of community but has brought the planet to the brink… Reversing this requires a huge change to the way we live and as I watch shopping mall frenzy and cruise ship visits I fear it is too late - one good man versus two bad and ugly ones seems to be the current ratio.
These evil people - & I don't use that term lightly - must be removed as swiftly as possible before they can further damage our country. They must become a one term govt & any party wanting to be elected must pledge to remove the damaging,divisive Neo Liberal system from our country as fast as is practical - & pledge to step down if they renege on this. It will surely take decades to repair the damage.,
Brilliant post, Bryan! I possibly naively believe in what people do, not what they say. Reti & Seymour talk with snake-like forked tongues.
Both have an unspoken but clear agenda. Small government, low or no taxation and leave the majority to fend for themselves in times of hardship and stress.
We are currently trying to live on two super payments. It is impossible to maintain our current lifestyle, modest as it is. So, part time work is essential. We have almost no debt.
My heart goes out to those without even our modest situation because their lives must be verging on intolerable.
Yet Reti, Seymour, Willis & Luxon, all rich by most people’s standard, are hell bent on making it worse.
As I said at the beginning, believe in what people do, not what they say.
Our gratitude to you for bringing all of this knowledge to us. So pleased that Trump will be sentenced shortly, and that the flag will be hanging at half mast when he ‘swears in’. The rogues in blue suits here need to be brought down asap. If only several could be encouraged to cross the floor.
Great article Bryan agree 💯 I think there was a movie Dirty Rotten Scoundrels thats what the moves by this govt remind me of. I think we've been slowly sucked into the American way of life with consumerism & the me society it's sad to see & terrifying.Biden was horrific what the heck is Trump going to bring but more misery.
Thanks again Bryan for wakening us from our summer slumbers. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. Lets hope this bill is treated with the disdain it deserves (But I thought awarding Bryce Wilkinson a Kings honour for services to economics (the first time ever to my knowledge) was a step to far that entrenches libertarian value judgments at the heart of policy). Economists should be alarmed at this political endorsement of this set of unprovable suppositions.
More broadly I have been alarmed at the low quality RIS issued if, at all, wrt the Coalitions social policy programmes. Family Boost is a case in point but only one of many;
Problem definition is a very important start, to get right which is not always easy. Hopefully there will be agreement on the problem and the desired outcomes, then there needs to be a careful analysis of options with respect to their costs, efficiency and distributional implications. It is clear that Family Boost RIS process was seriously deficient, and the programme, and has not achieved even the government's limited ambitions.
We can also see the flaws in the policy process with the last review of working for families. How does a scheme that the government says is about rewarding paid work create so many massive work disincentives over long income ranges? Proper RIS for each proposed policy and crucial-- do we no longer have the staff in house for this role?
All this tracks back to the 'legendary negotiation skill' of Mr Luxon and his desperation to get a deal. If not that, it is National's intent and not what they campaigned on.
This is very very well written and exposes the underbelly of what a well funded right wing social media projects as a smiling face and actions to give us power over our own money.... a con that couldn't be further from the truth if it tried. Thank you once again Bryan. If only Clint Eastwood were here to sort them out .... but it's up to us.
Thanks Logan
Excellent comment Logan!!
Good interesting read Bryan, thank you.
Sadly, I don't think we've even begun to see what this current Government is capable of, or will do next. What I do see though is a huge amount of Smoke-Screens going on that in turn will allow this Regulatory Standards Bill to fly in under the Radar and be passed before most folk realise it.
John Key was the Master of Smoke-Screens, i.e. deflecting the Publics attention and focus on any given situation, onto a more mundane yet popular topic.
Are Politicians in it for "The People" these days? I believe increasingly NOT. We, The People, are now just seen as numbers who contribute a multitude of Taxes; where we live, how well we are, how educated our Children are matters little to those who have plenty.
Rich people who keep on and on pushing the lesser-well-off's (the majority).
But History tells us, and History has this weird way of always repeating itself.... that People have limits, that People can only be pushed so far .... before there is resistance and uprising...
Day by day we draw nearer that repetition of History here in NZ, and overseas also. Governments (esp. Nationals) become complacent and arrogant increasingly towards "The People" and they all too often ignore the Lessons to be learnt from History, in their blind, steam-rolling ahead ambitions of History repeating.
Giving "lip-service" only to those they pretend to represent.
Thanks Colin . I agree.
These days I often think about the French revolution – the end of this ugly era will come and it will be ugly too!
Thank you Bryan for yet another excellent article. Yes, useful links for our submissions. It's hard to get these finished with a house full of family over for the holidays. Of course aptly selected dates by the unlovely seymore. No capital letters here.
We're not a happy nation at the moment and it shows. I hope the submissions will make a difference, but in some way I doubt it keeping in mind the 27.000 submissions against the fast track bill, a hikoi of significance, protests (eg Dunedin hospital), more protests and we can go on. What to do next? A GIANT hikoi, getting NZ in overseas newspapers..... Again!!
Thanks Annette
Thank you Bryan for highlighting The Good, The Bad and The Ugly film characters to describe the extreme social,political and economic actions happening in our country currently.It is terrifying how quickly our ethics, values and aspirations as a progressive and fair country has been changed to favour the rich and few at the expense of the majority.
Thanks Patricia
No disagreement from me. The key challenge is how to engage the 75% of New Zealanders that are not politically engaged. Unfortunately, actively engaged citizens (and their political parties, i.e. Labour) are often myopic to this phenomenon. That means they miss the lowest hanging fruit out there. When the poorest and the disengaged won’t or don’t vote their inaction facilitates an expanded Neo-liberalism agenda. Result, the coalition continues to careen - unrestrained - through a once egalitarian society. The secret sauce of defence is to engage the unengaged. That’s where the numbers to win government reside and in a democracy the majority rules. And Labour, get out of the Neo-liberalism business and remember the centre isn’t an alter to worship. 🤞🥹
Exactly!
For many years I have pondered on how this happened, a ‘fair go’ quickly turned into ‘what’s in it for me?’ Conclusion - we were seduced into being consumers (rather than taxpayers). This has not only spoiled our notion of community but has brought the planet to the brink… Reversing this requires a huge change to the way we live and as I watch shopping mall frenzy and cruise ship visits I fear it is too late - one good man versus two bad and ugly ones seems to be the current ratio.
Agree Keith
Exactly Brian. This is a turning point for New Zealand and our media are eating the COC lunch instead of covering this developing disaster.
These evil people - & I don't use that term lightly - must be removed as swiftly as possible before they can further damage our country. They must become a one term govt & any party wanting to be elected must pledge to remove the damaging,divisive Neo Liberal system from our country as fast as is practical - & pledge to step down if they renege on this. It will surely take decades to repair the damage.,
Brilliant post, Bryan! I possibly naively believe in what people do, not what they say. Reti & Seymour talk with snake-like forked tongues.
Both have an unspoken but clear agenda. Small government, low or no taxation and leave the majority to fend for themselves in times of hardship and stress.
We are currently trying to live on two super payments. It is impossible to maintain our current lifestyle, modest as it is. So, part time work is essential. We have almost no debt.
My heart goes out to those without even our modest situation because their lives must be verging on intolerable.
Yet Reti, Seymour, Willis & Luxon, all rich by most people’s standard, are hell bent on making it worse.
As I said at the beginning, believe in what people do, not what they say.
Thank you for your thoughtful comment Tony.
Absolutely, I can't add another word
Our gratitude to you for bringing all of this knowledge to us. So pleased that Trump will be sentenced shortly, and that the flag will be hanging at half mast when he ‘swears in’. The rogues in blue suits here need to be brought down asap. If only several could be encouraged to cross the floor.
Great article Bryan agree 💯 I think there was a movie Dirty Rotten Scoundrels thats what the moves by this govt remind me of. I think we've been slowly sucked into the American way of life with consumerism & the me society it's sad to see & terrifying.Biden was horrific what the heck is Trump going to bring but more misery.
Terrifying 😢
So well put, Bryan. Thank you. I support the comments above. Ngā mihi nui.
Thanks Nicola
Thanks again Bryan for wakening us from our summer slumbers. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. Lets hope this bill is treated with the disdain it deserves (But I thought awarding Bryce Wilkinson a Kings honour for services to economics (the first time ever to my knowledge) was a step to far that entrenches libertarian value judgments at the heart of policy). Economists should be alarmed at this political endorsement of this set of unprovable suppositions.
More broadly I have been alarmed at the low quality RIS issued if, at all, wrt the Coalitions social policy programmes. Family Boost is a case in point but only one of many;
https://www.taxpolicy.ird.govt.nz/publications/2024/2024-ris-familyboost.
Problem definition is a very important start, to get right which is not always easy. Hopefully there will be agreement on the problem and the desired outcomes, then there needs to be a careful analysis of options with respect to their costs, efficiency and distributional implications. It is clear that Family Boost RIS process was seriously deficient, and the programme, and has not achieved even the government's limited ambitions.
We can also see the flaws in the policy process with the last review of working for families. How does a scheme that the government says is about rewarding paid work create so many massive work disincentives over long income ranges? Proper RIS for each proposed policy and crucial-- do we no longer have the staff in house for this role?
All this tracks back to the 'legendary negotiation skill' of Mr Luxon and his desperation to get a deal. If not that, it is National's intent and not what they campaigned on.
Thank you for the excellent post and all the useful links for the Regulations Bill submission.
Thank Liz