The Jackal: Socialism

Showing posts with label Socialism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Socialism. Show all posts

11 Nov 2021

Government funds vanity projects instead of the disabled

If there’s one thing that can damage Labour's brand, it’s misspending public money on vanity projects and unnecessary PR campaigns instead of funding things that really matter to everyday Kiwis. The opposition knows this, and often attempts to exploit a perception that Labour isn’t able to properly allocate taxpayer dollars in a way that truly benefits the entire country.

However, unlike the opposition, the vast majority of voters are thankfully a lot more reasonable, particularly in terms of the Government’s funding allocations. This is especially the case when you consider the considerable amounts of money being generated for the Government through our hard work and an export sector that is incredibly profitable.

Obviously we should all share in our mutually generated wealth, and one of the best ways to do that is by ensuring our infrastructure is functioning properly and everyone’s basic needs are being adequately met. However, the current Government unfortunately appears to have lost the high ground and has already become arrogant about where they allocate vast sums of public money. Not yet into their third-termitis, the Labour led Government's disconnect between what should and what is being funded appears to be getting worse, and therefore needs to be highlighted.

While MBIE is busy spending hundreds of thousands of taxpayers dollars on flashy new PR videos about climate change, that try to place responsibility for man-kinds biggest existential threat onto us mere individuals, inflation has all but wiped out any wage increases for low to middle income earners, ensuring that most will be without the financial means necessary to adapt to the serious consequences of climate change.

While the Minister of Energy and Resources, Megan Woods, is busy making excuses for another badly produced video that cost taxpayers $600,000, students are having to take the Government to court to try and halt new oil and gas exploration…polluting enterprises that will ensure New Zealand has already failed to meet our COP26 obligations before the ink has even dried.

While Minister Carmel Sepuloni is busy promoting a new so-called Ministry for the Disabled, which will be run by the same old dysfunctional Ministry of Social Development, she's also splashing $500,000 worth of public money on a badly designed book website, which has little to no value for most hard working Kiwis. Meanwhile, the re-allocated support for people who’re struggling to survive is almost non-existent.

Obviously the Government’s current incrementalist approach to beneficial social change isn’t going to fix the entrenched inequality that creates adverse effects throughout Aotearoa, whereby one in five Kiwi kids continues to go without adequate food or proper housing.

In fact the Labour led Government has decided, somewhat under the cover of Covid-19, to even start hassling disabled WINZ clients again, in order to make cuts to their welfare payments. Surely not I hear you say? But here’s a small sample of tweets from a recent online discussion by and for the New Zealand disability community, which clearly shows the Government isn’t being very kind at all, not even to our most isolated and vulnerable citizens:



Of course it would be a lot worse for impoverished Kiwis, particularly those living with disability, under a National and ACT Government, especially one where Judith Collins was calling the shots. But that doesn’t excuse the Labour led Government or let them off the hook for continuing to persecute the disabled while wasting taxpayers money on PR vanity projects that have no cultural or societal worth whatsoever.

Published by the Jackal



29 Jun 2020

Goldsmith loves poverty

Paul Goldsmith
You can often tell just how effective a progressive policy proposal will be by how much the right wing criticise it. The more socially beneficial, the more vitriolic and unhinged they seem to become.

That was the case when the Green Party announced their Poverty Action Plan yesterday. The response on Twitter was quite astounding; with many right-wingers claiming it would be the end of the world. The actual policy itself (PDF) is well worth a read, even if it’s just to get some perspective on how unhinged the right wing have become.

Unable to find any real fault with the Green Party’s economic policy initiative, the right wing has resorted to a desperate kind of disinformation, the type of propaganda that only their deluded core supporters could believe.


Yesterday, Newshub reported:

David Seymour, Paul Goldsmith condemn Green Party's wealth tax plans 

Released on Sunday in the lead-up to the election, its Poverty Action Plan would introduce wealth taxes and new high-income tax brackets to pay for a guaranteed minimum income of at least $325 a week. 
… 
But ACT Party leader Seymour warns this will send New Zealand in the wrong direction.
"At a time when we need to get New Zealanders back to work, the Greens want to suck the life out of the economy by taxing successful people harder and creating even more welfare dependency," Seymour told Newshub. 
"This kind of European socialism will only prolong the economic pain."

Actually, people on low-incomes having more money to spend is a great way to invigorate the economy. It's also a good way to ensure that they get the basic necessities their families require to survive with some dignity.

And National's Finance spokesperson Goldsmith says we need our small businesses to invest and create more jobs - not tax them more. 
"Rather than celebrating Kiwis doing well, the Greens seem to want to punish them," he says in a statement.

Paul Goldsmith then hastily wrote an ill-advised press release.

Higher Taxes Inevitable If Labour-Greens Win 

The Greens have proposed higher income tax rates, up to 42 cents in the dollar, and a wealth tax on people with more than $1 million in assets. 
The wealth tax would be particularly severe. A successful small business person, owning a $1 million house and a business worth $1 million would have to pay $40,000 a year for the 2 per cent wealth tax. 
… 
The very real fear many New Zealanders have is that this current government, which has $20 billion available for election spending, will spend whatever it takes to try to keep its poll numbers up until the 19 September election. 
Then on the 20th, if they win, the smiles will drop and New Zealanders will be presented with the bill – higher taxes.

Today, RNZ reported:

Paul Goldsmith admits to blunder in criticism of Green Party's pledge 

National Party finance spokesperson Paul Goldsmith has admitted to getting his facts wrong in a media release critical of the Green Party's pledge to transform the welfare system. 
… 
Goldsmith subsequently put out a release stating that a wealth tax would be "particularly severe". In it, he used the example of a business owner who had a house worth $1 million and a business worth $1m paying "$40,000 a year for the 2 percent wealth tax". 
However, the policy outlined that taxing would only occur on wealth that was over the $1m threshold, and would also take into consideration mortgages as well as shared ownership. 
Goldsmith defended himself on Morning Report, saying the policy was vague on the thresholds. 
"Right at the very bottom [of the documents], there was a table that made the point that what they're talking about is a tax of over $1 million. 
"I quite frankly admit I got it wrong ... but when you look at the details in the press statement and all the policy documents it's not clear as to where the threshold came through. 
"I was moving in a fast-paced environment, trying to respond." 

You’ve got to wonder if the National Party chose Goldsmith as their financial spokesperson solely because of his name? I mean honestly...what a complete goober!

After being caught out wrongly claiming that the Labour led Government was spending more than any other country on its COVID-19 response, you would think that Goldsmith would keep a pretty low profile about now. Instead he went out on another limb and again lied about what the Green Party's Poverty Action Plan truly represents. Not only has Goldsmith displayed a lack of understanding about how marginal tax rates actually work, he’s completely misread the room in terms of the publics reaction to what is a balanced and transformational policy.

There is no question that if we want to do something substantial about inequality in New Zealand, a way to redistribute more wealth to those who need it the most is required. It should also be mentioned that in comparison to other countries, we actually have reasonably low tax rates in New Zealand. The problem is the cost of living in comparison to our low-waged economy and unfair taxes like GST disproportionately impacting poorer families. Obviously the only way we’re going to fix our high rate of inequality is by a progressive tax system like the one proposed by the Greens.

In fact this is a well thought out policy initiative, both in a political sense and in terms of its benefit towards social progress. Not only does it mark a clear line in the sand between the Greens and other political factions, it also targets the upper class, many of whom have chosen to sit on their wealth with a wait and see what happens policy during COVID-19.

Clearly the policy won’t have any negative effects for the vast majority of voters or cause the wealthy to flee the safety of New Zealand, so National’s cries of economic doom and gloom not only confirm exactly whom they represent; they will also fail to gain much if any traction with the general voting public.

So provided the Greens can strong-arm the Labour Party into negotiating on this well thought out policy post election, we could finally see an end to the grinding poverty that causes untold economic and social harm in New Zealand. I'm sure people like Paul Goldsmith will be livid!
Published by the Jackal



25 Jun 2020

Jordan Williams shoots and misses

Jordan Williams
It’s pretty obvious to all and sundry that the Taxpayers Union, run by Jordan Williams, isn’t really a union at all. Instead it’s a small lobby group for privileged white folk, namely the old fools behind the scenes of the corrupt and largely defunct Act Party.

With an incorrectly attributed name, it should come as no surprise that the Taxpayers Union espouse the inconsistent neoliberal beliefs of a dwindling and very small minority. But every once in a while the Taxpayers Union comes up with a real doozy!

That was the case when Williams recently argued that the Government wasn’t legally allowed to request any payment from Kiwis who were returning home because of the COVID-19 pandemic currently raging overseas.


Last Monday, the Taxpayers Union reported:

Government cannot charge New Zealand citizens to return to New Zealand 

Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Jordan Williams said, “Inherited from British constitutional law is what is called the ‘right of return’. Governments can’t put barriers up preventing their own citizens from coming home. Putting a tax or ‘co-payment’ on citizens, even to cover the costs of quarantine, is almost certainly unlawful.”

Don’t give up your day job Jordan. The law referenced here is one of only a few that remains from a year 1217 charter of rights called Magna Carta. But unfortunately for the deluded Williams, the right of return law is superseded here by the the Health Act 1956, which states:

118 Regulations as to quarantine 

Regulations made under this Act may provide for all or any of the following matters: 
(cc) the payment by any person who has been isolated pursuant to regulations made under this section of the reasonable cost of his treatment and maintenance while in isolation.

Now I realise that Williams might not be able to understand this, so let me break it down for him. The Government can legally impose payments on Kiwis returning from overseas who are required, also under law, to go into isolation.

Clearly the Taxpayers Union isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, and as if to prove just how dull they are, Williams then starts incorrectly quoting from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

In addition, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), article 13:states that Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country. 

The problem with Jordan Williams' argument here is that we’re not talking about stopping Kiwis from returning home. Instead we’re talking about them making a contribution towards their costs incurred while in managed isolation.

Mr Williams says “The purpose of these rules are to prevent statelessness. While it’s painful for taxpayers, it’s a true public good, and the cost is right to be socialised.”

Get that! The Taxpayers Union, who has always argued that the welfare state should be gutted, is now saying that the cost for people’s food and lodgings should be socialised.

What Williams is essentially saying is that taxpayer money should only be spent on people who are wealthy enough to travel, while the poor still deserve an even smaller slice of the pie.


Maybe the Taxpayers Union should have spent some of that $60,000 on an actual lawyer.

But if this wasn’t enough to convince you that the ideology of the Taxpayers Union is terribly flawed, they followed up their previous examples of stupidity with a considerably dumber tweet the next day:


Obviously the issue here is that New Zealand doesn't even have a constitution. If we want an actual constitution, New Zealand would likely need to become a republic first, which is something I'm sure the Taxpayers Onion would argue against as well.

So that would be three strikes and you're out Jordan. Better luck next time.
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9 Apr 2013

Margaret Thatcher made me a Socialist

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8 Mar 2013

Hugo Chavez outs George Bush as the devil

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