Making Money Real

It is my desire to congratulate the National Media on its success in shaping public opinion and selectively extinguishing public memory so that it would have a story about a change in government. They needed news, so they manufactured dissatisfaction. “A Change in Government” was the theme for the past 16 months; it was quite difficult to ignore.

It is, however, quite unfortunate that our media have collectively failed to consider the direction of the change they encouraged so bravely. We needed a change towards the Green Party and Te Pāti Māori, not towards National. But between Labour and National, there is less distance than between the Greens and Labour.

We will now have no reduction in the GST that we all have to pay, a massive tax subsidy for the wealthiest landlords (courtesy of Mr 7 Houses), and a deterioration of infrastructure related to health, public transportation, water, and education, as well as an imposition of wage slavery.

We narrowly avoided the sale of our houses to foreign buyers, largely because the re-emergence of Winston made the story more compelling. He plays Moe, while Curly pretends to be the PM and Larry hopes to have a turn.

Will we now hear what the leaders of Labour, the Greens, and Te Pāti Māori say every time some little problem turns up? That’s the way it works, right? Except it never seems to work that way when NACT is running the country (into the ground). Our media has given Seymour more air time than the entire Green caucus.

Have you ever considered what makes someone or something newsworthy? We are actually funding our news media incorrectly, as one of the other posts on this blog explains in detail.

Our effort to prevent people from smoking is gone, abandoned because we need the money from the cigarette taxes to fund the tax cuts for the owning class. People getting sick, and burdening the health system don’t count in NACT economics. We will also renege or fail on our climate commitments internationally, so we will find it more difficult to trade with more responsible governments – at least while there is still something to trade. The facts relating to climate change are questioned at the highest levels of government today.

Well done. You got your stories. You get the advertising revenue and a share of the blame.

Not all of it of course. You couldn’t have done it if Labour had not helped by having senior Ministers who screwed up by the numbers and by failing to apologize for some of its more egregious screw-ups in the aftermath of Covid. The failure to adjust the quarantine policy for Kiwis, and the failure of the second Auckland lockdown (which should have been more about masks and less about lockdown), are clear errors – in hindsight. We did not have that perspective when the decisions were made, but apologies WERE in order.

The refusal to consider taxes on the wealthy, whether through CGT or Wealth or Ownership Income was the icing on that cake. I would love to be introduced to the Labour staffer or Minister who managed to persuade two consecutive Labour PMs that there was no way to tax the wealthy of the owning class.

For those hoping to buy a first home?  Tough luck.

For those hoping to get out of poverty? Tough luck.

For those hoping to profit from privatized hospitals, schools, and jails, it is party time.

Welcome to the new National government, just like the old one, but more so.