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notices and features - Date published:
5:30 pm, September 18th, 2020 - 22 comments
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The current rise of populism challenges the way we think about people’s relationship to the economy.We seem to be entering an era of populism, in which leadership in a democracy is based on preferences of the population which do not seem entirely rational nor serving their longer interests. ...
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Same old, same old. Tax cuts for the greedy, fuck-all for the needy. Any tax cut benefit for the needy will be nullified by the cut in Gvt. Spending. Not often one would agree with Peters, but he called Nat tax cuts a bribe.
The needy keep getting what they're getting now and the greedy feel good that National and Act are on their side so will be more motivated to stay in NZ and produce the wealth needed to provide for the needy.
Not when the Nastis cut Gvt. spending.
Personally, I'd prefer it if the greedy just fucked off, handed in their NZ citizenship and that the government would have enough chutzpah to renationalise their NZ holdings.
The rest of NZ would be far better off without them.
Judith Collins is doing a Muldoon – promising a massive bribe that greedy people (the majority of voters) will fall for without giving a tinker’s cuss what the consequences will be further down the track. For Muldoon it was his so-called superannuation scheme promising 80% of the average wage for everyone over 60 years of age in 1975. It came within a whisker of bankrupting the country by 1984, and gave Roger Douglas the opening to introduce neoliberalism. [Interesting that when you consider which country started that particular ball rolling but I will say no more.]
Collins is trying the same tactic which would end up having the same consequences – bankrupting the nation.
Desperate situations spawn desperate measures but I don't think it will work this time.
Oops… that should be 60 years and over in 1975.
If only Muldoon had given Marilyn a bit of rope to advance her ideas. He could have said with a grimace something like 'The ladies think they are the backbone of the country so I'm giving them a chance to show how good they are'. It would have won him votes, and he could have manipulated his way through the next decade, but would have also enabled NZ to be on a better footing and encouraged people to support their democracy,
Instead smartie pants Roger and gang chose to virtually give it away for a bunch of beans. Jack in the story ran away with the giant's golden harp I think, we just got golden lyres.
It certainly gave Roger Douglass the opportunity needed to introduce neo-liberalism but, and you need to think about this next bit very carefully,
As long as the country still owns its own economy then it is impossible to bankrupt it.
Of course, since the neo-liberal reforms of the 1980s the NZ economy has had quite a lot of it sold off to foreign owners.
If Collins gets her way and pulls the same stunt as Muldoon then we can be assured that more of our economy will be sold off and we will become poorer and, perhaps, even made bankrupt.
Let them leave and take their chances, if New Zealand doesn't motivate them as it is.
Maybe Labour needs to announce a bribe for the needy.
I missed something. Did someone say a spending cut?
I dont think the tax cuts will be a game changer, except that the Chinese Act vote may go back to National and Act will be below the threshold.
spot on bydonz . expect to seemore of seymour . he still has to keep his seat( no sure thing) to keep act in the hunt. many act voters are flakey in more than one aspect.
Someone steal Seymour's pants, and he may lose his seat as well. Appearance is all to National, and they wouldn't like him if he rushed in, his breath coming in short pants. (Trying to bring unseemly levity to a serious matter, sorry.)
Well a rational take on National coming out with 'massive' tax cuts, after Judith saying that it wasn't on the agenda, is that ACT is dragging enough voter right to threaten Goldsmith's list seat.
Must be a sad place when the internal polling is that bad. Feel for some of the plonka candidates in 'safe' blue seats. Next move will be to throw some of these under the bus.
Judith Collins' electric car policy: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12364066&ref=recommendedv1
When it comes to bluegreen, what we always get from National is A Whiter Shade of Pale. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb3iPP-tHdA
Still, creating an incentive structure to make the transition to fossil-fuel-free cars easier is a significant step that will incentivise Labour to seek parity, I guess.
That uptake graph the Herald features looks good. “There are currently 22,000 EVs in New Zealand, which represents 0.6 per cent of the light passenger fleet.” Way to go yet!
“In 2018, a year-long trial by the New Zealand Transport Agency was dropped because it found EV owners cared more about environmental concerns, lower running costs and the perception of being an early adopter than driving in bus lanes.”
Bet that came as a huge surprise to the bureaucrats. Imagine people who are not petty & selfish. No, too hard…
The Tesla subsidy….
Now how many votes (net) are in that.
"it found EV owners cared more about environmental concerns, lower running costs and the perception of being an early adopter than driving in bus lanes.”
Very true.
Also, no bloody bus lanes within the range of a full charge and a half for my EV!
Removing FBT on EV's simply allows business owners I assume to charge all their private running to the business. Anybody else still has to pay for their private running.
But these cars don't need taxpayer subsidies. Financially it's a complete no brainer. Over a 100k of motoring the fuel saving for just a hybrid is about $6000. So buy the new Toyota corolla hybrid at $28k. Uses 3.9 litres not 7 litres and over 100k that s your $6000 dollars. So you just bought a car for the equivalent of $22k.
Have a decent advertising campaign pointing out how big a present you are giving yourself by buying a new hybrid or electric- they are just coming down into the lower priced models now.
Put in some sinking lid emission controls so that second hand imports lean towards Nissan leafs not gas guzzlers. Work on the battery recycling schemes- virtually none have yet been expended but it needs to be ready
Lastly for some of the lowest priced models now coming on stream ( Citron Ami !!) would it be possible to have a sort of de facto loan scheme – where the price of the car is down but the annual rego is higher? to put them within reach of the lower paid lower deposit people rather than a second hand 10 year old 60k on the clock gas guzzler. Best I can think of. High priced – leave alone – buyers can take their savings as they happen.
Now we're talking. Rent caps.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/122808007/election-2020-green-party-and-the-opportunities-party-support-introduction-of-rent-caps
maybe the government could extend the currenty 'covid rent caps aka the 'rent freeze' and thus prevent the wholesale increases due in the next few weeks?
Sounds good! And automatic wage increase across all wages of at least the same amount.