Robert MacCulloch
Robert MacCulloch is a native of New Zealand and worked at the Reserve Bank of NZ before he travelled to the UK to complete a PhD in Economics at Oxford University.
Its hard to think of anyone more out-of-touch with American values and beliefs than our former PM, Jacinda Ardern. How come?
An influential view in economics these days is that the US system of relatively ungenerous welfare and low taxation is supported by the beliefs of ordinary Americans. Most of them believe in ‘The American Dream’ – namely that effort is rewarded in the marketplace and that folks like Elon Musk deserve their wealth. Not just high income Americans, but low income ones as well, including Latin American immigrants.
The flip-side is that 60 per cent of Americans believe the poor are lazy and, as such, undeserving of high levels of welfare payments. These beliefs support the American equilibrium that many of us consider is behind that country's status as being the world’s largest economy, with high rates of innovation and entrepreneurship, together with high inequality.
How Many Votes did Harris Lose by Hanging out with her Un-American Mate, Jacinda?
Not so Ardern. She doesn’t share those beliefs, not in a million years. She believes the poor are totally deserving of more welfare – she can't stop talking about it. It’s part of her “empathy” and “kindness” branding. Good for her, but it puts her out-of-step with the typical American.
Earlier this year, Ardern burnt air miles flying to Chicago to attend the Democratic National Convention, dispensing advice. So much so that NZ political editor
Barry Soper headlined an article saying, “Kamala Harris’ campaign promises echoes Jacinda Ardern’s”. One News reported how Ardern was “backing” Harris for president. The two of them became mates, together addressing the European Union Parliament.
But for Americans, Ardern’s slogans and branding are nonsense. What does “kindness” mean in terms of their immigration and border policies? Does it mean there should be more border security and a wall, or not? What does “kindness” mean to Americans in terms of trade policy with China? Does it mean they should be kind to their own steel workers by tariffing Chinese steel, or kind to Chinese workers by allowing them to sell more of their steel to America?
At a recent conference on capital taxes, I listened to Ardern’s former colleague, David Parker, get stuck into Elon Musk – it seemed for being too rich. Now Musk stands alongside Trump as two of the people who the vast majority of Americans believe represent their values and who they aspire to be like. And what is wrong with that? Who are we to judge them?
Americans don’t want to hear the likes of Ardern lecture them about gun control, how she knows best how to stop terrorism, how she knows how to eliminate poverty, even though she never did, how she knows best what abortion policies countries should have, how she know best how to stop global emissions, how she knows best how to unite, not divide. What bunkum.
Ardern turned vaccinators against anti-vaxxers, fired nurses whose personal beliefs led them to not want to take ‘the jab’, ostracized from society those who didn’t want to be part of her “team of five million”, precipitated a violent occupation of parliament, turned farmers against environmentalists, poor against wealthy and Māori against non-Māori. She attacked the fundamentals of freedom and civil liberties with her lock-downs, qualities that define the US. Ardern ripped apart NZ’s hitherto socially cohesive society.
Hanging out with Ardern was one of the dumbest things Kamala Harris ever did. Ardern is un-American and Harris’ failure to recognize how her own fellow citizens bear virtually nothing in common with the likes of Ardern – and actively dislike her type – is proof that Harris was out-of-touch with her own fellow Americans.
This article was originally published by Down to Earth Kiwi.
