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.
A few days ago we ran a column headed, “(One of) Kamala Harris’ Big Mistakes: Taking Rubbish Advice from former NZ PM Jacinda Ardern”. Since writing that blog, Harris gave her concession speech at Howard University, telling Americans “kindness” was the answer to making the country a better place.
This blog observed that it is belief in the ‘American Dream’ which is behind taxes being set quite low in that country, and inequality being high, since Americans want to be well rewarded in the market place for their efforts. Harris herself hit that button in her speech, saying “Hard work is good work.”
Americans have what may considered rather unkind beliefs about the poor – 60 per cent believe the poor are lazy and don’t deserve higher welfare funded by taxation. It was that group who voted for Trump. As such, Americans tend to look up to the wealthy, to the extent they’re viewed as deserving of their wealth.
On that note, we also said, “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.” The Honourable David Parker disagrees. He says:
You are, with respect, a bit loose in your blog sometimes. You misrepresented me this week as follows:
1. I was not speaking about capital taxes. You said on the day that was what I meant, even if I didn’t say it, when I countered your incorrect statement to that effect.
2. I did not (and don’t) criticize him for being rich. I did criticize emissions from the super wealthy privatizing space and causing climate change emissions. It was one of a number of examples, including private jets and super yachts. You fairly rejoined that through Tesla he’s done more to reduce emissions than me.
3. I did criticize the fact that he and/or Bezos and Bloomberg paid no federal taxes some years.
David
I do admire how David Parker reads a lot, thinks about issues and debates them – I know of no other MP who’s willing to talk about economics for more than about a minute without getting bored. And he’s putting National under pressure. Since healthcare, education and infrastructure are in need of vast increases in funding, and so far Finance Minister Willis and PM Luxon’s only plan, as far as I can see is, ‘Let’s cross our fingers and hope that economic growth picks up next year.’
Higher long-term growth (and greater productivity) will only happen if incentive structures are changed in NZ and I struggle to see how the government has changed any of them so far. Parachuting in semi-retired Lester Levy to kick around some middle managers does not constitute a new design of the healthcare system.
This article was originally published by Down to Earth Kiwi.
