Could somebody please nip outside and check and see if hell has frozen over? I ask because I’m trying to deal with the rather disturbing experience of finding myself in agreement with Garth George.
Well, mostly in agreement, George clearly doesn’t understand the American deficit. In fact his article (on debt) is a confused and rambling piece in general. But he makes up for it at the end:
The other astonishing thing about the US debacle is that the debt limit is to be raised but taxes are not. Surely the obvious way to cap or to reduce debt is to increase income, rather than take the axe to public services.
Why is it that the wealthy, some of whom have more money than they could possibly spend in several lifetimes, refuse to pay their fair share of taxes?
Giving tax breaks to the wealthy makes as much sense as doubling or tripling payments to social-welfare beneficiaries and pensioners.
That, of course, has an echo in New Zealand, where the latest tax cuts, introduced by the Key Government and which benefit mainly high income-earners, are ostensibly being paid for by deep cuts to public services.
Could that, perhaps, explain why New Zealand’s 10 richest Rich Listers managed a 20 per cent increase in their wealth in just 12 months? That this is somehow seen as praiseworthy in some quarters makes me want to puke.
And don’t talk to me about “investment” and “business growth” and the “trickle-down effect”.
If any of those things were anything but mirages, this country and others would not have hundreds of thousands, and in some places millions, of citizens unemployed, living in poverty, riddled with sickness and facing the daily fear, or reality, of hunger if not starvation.
Powerful writing, and as good a critique of right-wing greed as you will find anywhere. I don’t personally have a problem with a few rich folk getting richer, but I join George in puke land when they do so while fighting tooth and claw against paying reasonable taxes to help a country in hard times. It isn’t about envying those with wealth, it is about feeling compassion for those in need. Well done Garth George for speaking up.
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