Thanks for such a clearly expressed summary of the background to our current political and economic context. I despair that so many of our current great thinkers, with access to the amazing tools of communication that we have today, seem unable to convey aspects of what you have expressed so well other than in 1,000++ words of intricate jargon.
However, there are some of the new Māori political generation, who communicate so eloquently in Māori and English (without reading from bits of paper!), that are leading the way.
A timely reminder that history repeats itself...but we don't seem ( or some of us ) to be able learn from it. We teach our children that sharing is caring...but as adults - bah humbug.
When I was born, Sidney Holland was Prime Minister. As I grew and started to become aware of Politics, SH had been replaced by Keith Holyoake, who by then was serving his 2nd term as PM. (Yes, I'm a Boomer and proud of it)
But I clearly remember back then a large amount of Politicians, if they weren't actually Farmers, then they had strong connections to Agriculture. Afterall, Agriculture was seen as being the backbone of NZ's Economic wealth.
Over time, the Farming fraternity has slowly been replaced by those more associated to the Business fraternity, and money has now become the prime focus, rather than People.
And now, even globally we have this shift to the overly-rich getting themselves into Parliaments and Politics where they can have more influence and control over protecting their own self-Interests, along with appeasing their Electoral donors who don't donate without expectations.
Those who worship the God of Mammon, ahead of serving the People they've been elected to represent. The ME, ME, ME, starting at and from the top.
How long it might take for the Pendulum to start swinging back towards "WE" is anybody's guess. That's if it even does.
Meanwhile, the gulf between the "Haves" and the "Have-nots" continues to grow at alarming speed.
A majority of People can only be pushed so far ... Push them to the point of desperation, then who knows?
History repeats. Thank you once again Bryan for your summary of how the money works. After visiting Versailles Palace many years ago and seeing the extreme opulence and thousands of acres of beautiful forest I could see how the French Revolution began.
Paraphrasing Ingrid Robeyns, in 2022 there were 2668 Billionaires on the Forbes list. Together they hold USD $12, 700, 000,000,000 trillion in assets. Their average holding would be $4.75 billion representing the equivalent of $40, 598 per hour for life. Now, that’s unbridled wealth. Even crazier, Elon Musk generates the equivalent of nearly $2,000,000 per hour, every hour.
My Grandfather lost his farm in Cambridge in the Great depression so they moved to Auckland & he retrained as a carpenter in those days a carpenter made everything the window frames door jambs etc they had way more skills than the builders these days.The depression taught them about being very frugal with their money I sometimes wonder if that wouldn't go astray in these times of consumerism gone mad.
We who are ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it. Thanks for putting all this in context. I did not know about the 1863 depression. We need what Gramsci spoke of: Pessimism of the mind, optimism of the will. Though as someone at the Beyond Poverty conference pointed out - hope is the better word then optimism because it is a verb.
I think it's true to say that most of us don't want immense wealth; having seen what it does to most people is enough to put us off it.
What most want is free healthcare, education, & a good quality social welfare system, paid for from our taxes.
Being wealthy to the point where you're well & truly out of touch with most people, & have no idea of what their day to day existence is like appears to be a huge problem for some of those who are wealthy, & especially for politicians.
Most of us simply want an income which would eventually enable us to buy our own home, (as used to be the case) & not mean that we have to go without in order to keep a roof over our heads,or go without so that our children can have enough to eat.
What it comes down to is fairness. We need a fairer system.
The obscenely rich are not only generating a financial crisis, they are also largely responsible for the impending climate crisis and ecosystem collapse. While a UBI and wealth tax are necessary, they are not sufficient for the predicament we are in. Greens and TPM are not the crazy ones.
A fantastic potted history Bryan. I suspect that both our political views have been born from similar histories. It is a deep contradiction that the social justice systems in America at least were instigated by Republican Presidents. My observations of the NZ experience is that party politics often take second fiddle behind charismatic individuals. Muldoon for all his failings, especially the plundering of superannuation and the disasterous Springbok tour, was nonetheless a protectionist looking out for the best interests of business and ordinary workers in NZ. His personal demons and ultimate destruction ushered in a Labour administration that was nothing of the sort. Lange, a self indulgent 'intellectual' buffoon being manipulated,much like Luxon is today, by the smiling assassin's Douglas and Prebble. Seymour would have us all belive that he is the modern day architect of ACT when in truth ACT was born and thrived in those two Lange governments. It has taken me forty years to realise that the NZ Labour Party in NZ is every bit as captured by capital at the expense of the waged class as any government of the right. Our perverse, self inflicted narrative, widely accepted as the norm, is to believe that whilst the extremism of ACT and to a lesser degree NZF is an acceptable constraint on centrist politics anything the Green Party and TPM speak to or promote is extremism gone bonkers!!!!
Great summary of the last few centuries of (economic) history Bryan. It may well be a(nother) global financial crisis that precipitates change, but as I watched Zuckerberg wind back on the need for facts last night I thought we need revolution, not to wait for evolution. One economist has cited the parallels in current conditions to France in the 1780s! Bring it on!
Oh, how long will it take for more people to understand this?
And when will we see political party's present policies to address the inequalities and the mess caused by the greed and manipulation of the administration of the country.
When will political parties be able to articulate this to the voters, in a sound bite driven media, to enable them to be informed and vote for what is best for the many rather than the few?
No doubt it will take WW3 for many to come to their senses through the thick clouds of self-interest?
Such a clear summary of history. This is the story that I grew up without the benefit of an extended education. Although I vote Labour, it is their shame on them how far they have drifted to the right. At 79 I grew up in a working class home, where working families got State help into home ownership. Not a hand out, but a leg up.
Enjoyed that history. Found these words in a Subtrack by Mike Friend great explanation “The United States Senator, Elizabeth Warren is celebratory about business people who have done well, whilst instructing a caveat ‘You built a factory out there, good for you. But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads that the rest of us paid for. You hired workers that the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for.” Adore Elizabeth, just imagine if she or Bernie Sanders had won the presidency…
Thanks for such a clearly expressed summary of the background to our current political and economic context. I despair that so many of our current great thinkers, with access to the amazing tools of communication that we have today, seem unable to convey aspects of what you have expressed so well other than in 1,000++ words of intricate jargon.
However, there are some of the new Māori political generation, who communicate so eloquently in Māori and English (without reading from bits of paper!), that are leading the way.
Ka pū te ruha, ka hao te rangatahi!
What an excellent and clear record of our history of economic truths and disasters , succinctly exposed for all to see! Thank you Bryan!!
A timely reminder that history repeats itself...but we don't seem ( or some of us ) to be able learn from it. We teach our children that sharing is caring...but as adults - bah humbug.
When I was born, Sidney Holland was Prime Minister. As I grew and started to become aware of Politics, SH had been replaced by Keith Holyoake, who by then was serving his 2nd term as PM. (Yes, I'm a Boomer and proud of it)
But I clearly remember back then a large amount of Politicians, if they weren't actually Farmers, then they had strong connections to Agriculture. Afterall, Agriculture was seen as being the backbone of NZ's Economic wealth.
Over time, the Farming fraternity has slowly been replaced by those more associated to the Business fraternity, and money has now become the prime focus, rather than People.
And now, even globally we have this shift to the overly-rich getting themselves into Parliaments and Politics where they can have more influence and control over protecting their own self-Interests, along with appeasing their Electoral donors who don't donate without expectations.
Those who worship the God of Mammon, ahead of serving the People they've been elected to represent. The ME, ME, ME, starting at and from the top.
How long it might take for the Pendulum to start swinging back towards "WE" is anybody's guess. That's if it even does.
Meanwhile, the gulf between the "Haves" and the "Have-nots" continues to grow at alarming speed.
A majority of People can only be pushed so far ... Push them to the point of desperation, then who knows?
Thanks Bryan. I’ve been thinking for some time that the coalition government is deliberately practising social Darwinism.
History repeats. Thank you once again Bryan for your summary of how the money works. After visiting Versailles Palace many years ago and seeing the extreme opulence and thousands of acres of beautiful forest I could see how the French Revolution began.
Paraphrasing Ingrid Robeyns, in 2022 there were 2668 Billionaires on the Forbes list. Together they hold USD $12, 700, 000,000,000 trillion in assets. Their average holding would be $4.75 billion representing the equivalent of $40, 598 per hour for life. Now, that’s unbridled wealth. Even crazier, Elon Musk generates the equivalent of nearly $2,000,000 per hour, every hour.
My Grandfather lost his farm in Cambridge in the Great depression so they moved to Auckland & he retrained as a carpenter in those days a carpenter made everything the window frames door jambs etc they had way more skills than the builders these days.The depression taught them about being very frugal with their money I sometimes wonder if that wouldn't go astray in these times of consumerism gone mad.
We who are ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it. Thanks for putting all this in context. I did not know about the 1863 depression. We need what Gramsci spoke of: Pessimism of the mind, optimism of the will. Though as someone at the Beyond Poverty conference pointed out - hope is the better word then optimism because it is a verb.
I think it's true to say that most of us don't want immense wealth; having seen what it does to most people is enough to put us off it.
What most want is free healthcare, education, & a good quality social welfare system, paid for from our taxes.
Being wealthy to the point where you're well & truly out of touch with most people, & have no idea of what their day to day existence is like appears to be a huge problem for some of those who are wealthy, & especially for politicians.
Most of us simply want an income which would eventually enable us to buy our own home, (as used to be the case) & not mean that we have to go without in order to keep a roof over our heads,or go without so that our children can have enough to eat.
What it comes down to is fairness. We need a fairer system.
The obscenely rich are not only generating a financial crisis, they are also largely responsible for the impending climate crisis and ecosystem collapse. While a UBI and wealth tax are necessary, they are not sufficient for the predicament we are in. Greens and TPM are not the crazy ones.
A fantastic potted history Bryan. I suspect that both our political views have been born from similar histories. It is a deep contradiction that the social justice systems in America at least were instigated by Republican Presidents. My observations of the NZ experience is that party politics often take second fiddle behind charismatic individuals. Muldoon for all his failings, especially the plundering of superannuation and the disasterous Springbok tour, was nonetheless a protectionist looking out for the best interests of business and ordinary workers in NZ. His personal demons and ultimate destruction ushered in a Labour administration that was nothing of the sort. Lange, a self indulgent 'intellectual' buffoon being manipulated,much like Luxon is today, by the smiling assassin's Douglas and Prebble. Seymour would have us all belive that he is the modern day architect of ACT when in truth ACT was born and thrived in those two Lange governments. It has taken me forty years to realise that the NZ Labour Party in NZ is every bit as captured by capital at the expense of the waged class as any government of the right. Our perverse, self inflicted narrative, widely accepted as the norm, is to believe that whilst the extremism of ACT and to a lesser degree NZF is an acceptable constraint on centrist politics anything the Green Party and TPM speak to or promote is extremism gone bonkers!!!!
Great summary of the last few centuries of (economic) history Bryan. It may well be a(nother) global financial crisis that precipitates change, but as I watched Zuckerberg wind back on the need for facts last night I thought we need revolution, not to wait for evolution. One economist has cited the parallels in current conditions to France in the 1780s! Bring it on!
Oh, how long will it take for more people to understand this?
And when will we see political party's present policies to address the inequalities and the mess caused by the greed and manipulation of the administration of the country.
When will political parties be able to articulate this to the voters, in a sound bite driven media, to enable them to be informed and vote for what is best for the many rather than the few?
No doubt it will take WW3 for many to come to their senses through the thick clouds of self-interest?
Such a clear summary of history. This is the story that I grew up without the benefit of an extended education. Although I vote Labour, it is their shame on them how far they have drifted to the right. At 79 I grew up in a working class home, where working families got State help into home ownership. Not a hand out, but a leg up.
Enjoyed that history. Found these words in a Subtrack by Mike Friend great explanation “The United States Senator, Elizabeth Warren is celebratory about business people who have done well, whilst instructing a caveat ‘You built a factory out there, good for you. But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads that the rest of us paid for. You hired workers that the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for.” Adore Elizabeth, just imagine if she or Bernie Sanders had won the presidency…
Yes indeed!!
Ooops sorry:1893