Sshhh! You’ll make the economy cry
John Key
says we shouldn’t be talking about the number of people going on to the dole. He reckons that mentioning the fact that thousands of people are losing there jobs will cause people to lose confidence and hurt the economy.
- Isn’t the real problem for the economy that thousands of people are losing their jobs, not that people are talking about it?
- Since when did comments by the opposition affect the economy?
- How can more facts on the table be a bad thing? Efficient market hypothesis, which underpins National’s economic ideology relies on markets having perfect information. However knowledge of unemployment causes people to change their behaviour (or not) that’s surely better than them acting without knowledge
- This is reminiscent of the Bush era when any questioning of the Government’s approach was labelled anti-patriotic and aiding the enemy. It’s simply a ham-fisted way to try to shut down dissent and stop the Government looking stupid/ineffectual.
- Can you imagine the reaction if Clark had said ‘the best thing you can do about unemployment is shut the hell up about it?’
- What does Key propose we do if not discuss rising unemployment and ways to combat it? Does he think if we all close our eyes and stick our fingers in our ears everything will be OK?
If Key wants us to stop talking about spiralling unemployment he should do something about the reality, rather than calling for self-censorship.