Congratulations to Bernard Hickey for his excellent article on the small group of self-centred middle-class New Zealanders who maintain a stranglehold on Labour government policy.
I’ve previously referred to these people as Labour’s “middle-class focus groups” but Hickey has a much more evocative name – “Ford Ranger Man” which he uses to show the impact of the government announcement this week to continue the reduction in fuel taxes.
Rather than helping people struggling with the cost of living and “bread and butter” issues, this government policy provides the greatest benefit for those on the highest incomes.
Nothing surprising here – middle-class welfare has a far higher priority for the government than bolstering the life opportunities and choices of those struggling on low incomes.
Bernard Hickey also reports on GST rates in New Zealand and finds they are higher than anywhere else in the world. GST, as all readers of TDB should know, is a tax on the poor. It takes a much higher proportion of the incomes on those on the lowest incomes than it does for the rich and supper-rich.
New Zealand has a crueller GST than any other country. These two graphs the story:
Ford-ranger man is happy about GST as it is – and even more happy with the drop in fuel tax. New Zealanders on low incomes and the global environment are the losers.
Abolish the GST already, and reverse all the tax cuts! Lower fuel costs by withdrawing from the war, and supporting peaceful Eurasian development!
I think Hickey’s idea of the ‘Ranger Man’ says a lot about the disastrous state of the economy.
He seems to be speaking about the lowest levels of the businessmen: petty capitalists, self employed and middle-managers (‘petit-bourgeoisie’, as they’d say in France).
However, that would really be ‘Range Rover Man’, a step down from ‘Maserati Man’ and ‘Rolls Royce Gentleman’.
It’s interesting that he says that the ‘Battler’, ‘White Van Man’ and ‘Mondeo Man’ are distinct — these monikers are synonyms for working class voters, who take the opposite positions on most issues versus ‘Range Rover Man’.
Hickey seems to be suggesting that the country has become so poor that even ‘Range Rover Man’ has virtually disappeared, replaced by overworked people who can only afford to drive a (fairly low end) work vehicle to the club.
And what about the “Battler”? They’re certainly not driving new Falcons or Commodores any more, or even a Mondeo. Some of them are actually living in their White Van!
“However, that would really be ‘Range Rover Man’, a step down from ‘Maserati Man’ and ‘Rolls Royce Gentleman’.”
And a step up from Black BMW P Dealer Man
In my experience as a long term observer of the middle class, many like Ford Ranger man are often not paying GST anyway.
There is a special kind of cronyism involved – such people have wide alliances. Personal goods are routinely written up as business\professional expenses. There are a wide variety of such scams in which it seems to be a mark of ‘friendship’ to help each other out. It is a sort of ‘lifestyle’.
Years ago I intended to write a book. It sounds silly but I felt my own people needed to understand how those of what is now called the PMC operate. Not to emulate them but because we can so easily feel inferior and demoralised by parts of a bigger picture that are often invisible, yet which help create a public narrative of our innate inferiority.
There is no way this tax will go back on in June if the party is still low in the polls
We were told in December we could not afford to carry on with dropping the tax now we can .Next this government will be turning water into wine and bring a few people back from the dead.
However are we going to fix the potholes if there is no income from this tax
.Asimple change to the income tax levels could have given the poorer workers a boost which is needed but Labour know these people do not vote so they need to appeal to middle income workers.
In my experience as a long term observer of the middle class, those like Ford Ranger man are often not paying GST anyway.
There is a special kind of cronyism involved – such people have wide alliances. Personal goods are routinely written up as business\professional expenses. There are a wide variety of such scams in which it seems to be a mark of ‘friendship’ to help each other out. It is a sort of ‘lifestyle’.
Years ago I intended to write a book. It sounds silly but I felt my own people needed to understand how those of what is now called the PMC operate. Not to emulate them but because we can so easily feel inferior and demoralised by parts of a bigger picture that are often invisible, yet which help create a public narrative of our innate inferiority.
Excellent stuff, I had read Hickey’s great article.
Great, now I’ll have to google Ford Ranger is find out wtf it is.
It might even say a little about Hickey if he thinks that recognising one is common knowledge.
It’s a ute Richard, it’s a ute, one of those things that cuts in on you at the end of a passing lane or screams past at 130k spraying gravel at your windscreen and is 4 cars ahead 30klms later.
Or, ‘your research’ could simply be reading the article… ? Explained it pretty well at the start even.
‘In other countries, the target-rich cohorts of swinging voters are given labels such as ‘Mondeo Man’, ‘White Van Man,’ ‘Soccer Moms’ and ‘Little Aussie Battlers.’ Here, the easiest shorthand is ‘Ford Ranger Man’ – as seen here parked outside a Herne Bay restaurant, inbetween two SUVs.’
Minto should know better.
But as usual cherry picking stats and massaging the truth.
Bernard Hickey also reports on GST rates in New Zealand and finds they are higher than anywhere else in the world.
The rates are NOT higher than anywhere else in the world.
What the facts are is, that the NZ Gist provides a higher proportion of Government revenue than equivalent percentages in the rest of the world.
There could be a gazillion reasons for that in a country of 5 million people.
Removing NZ GST or buggering about with it, will not solve the problems of low income residents
Kia ora Ra
Okay Minto hasn’t said it quite correctly, but then neither have you, this is what Hickey said:
‘The IMF highlighted Aotearoa’s status as having the most punitive GST rate in the world, covering more products than any other and collecting a bigger share of GST than any other’
Remove GST a punitive tax on the poor introduce a financial transactions tax, a miniscule percentage and a wealth tax. The poor have always paid and paid and paid GST because of course they spend every cent they earn. GST introduced by Labour should never ever have happened.
Whatever happened to Hillman Imp man? He rocked in 1982
We are into the political cycle that sees huge easter eggs given out usually to those who dont need it, expect Chippie to do more of the same. It wont substantially improve underlying problems and will detract money away from those who need it. Not sure how many houses can be built for $700Mill 700? 1000? What a waste of time and money.
Shock, horror! People with more money spend more. Who knew.
Minto is missing the point. Just about every New Zealander is directly or indirectly impacted by higher fuel prices. Either directly at the pump, or indirectly at the supermarket.
Almost all families have vehicles and they use them. So higher fuel prices have a direct impact.
When I was young, I purchased fuel by a dollar amount, I could never afford to just fill the tank. Now I just fill the tank. I probably do more kilometres these days than I used to. I don’t have to carefully think whether I can afford a longer trip. This is the effect that Minto is describing.
However, if I think back to the time when I had to be really careful about how much fuel I used, a 25 cents per litre cost would really matter, much more so than it does today. I am sure that will currently be the case for many younger people and also for hard up families.
So if the government had reimposed the 25 cent charge, the people hardest hit would be poorer New Zealanders, not the Ford Ranger man who is probably deducting the cost as a business expense anyway.
Minto does not seem to understand the practicalities of political policy making. A government that deliberately increased fuel prices in the middle of a cost of living crisis would rightly be described as crazy. Hopkins does not strike me as someone who is crazy.
There is a flaw in your reasoning John Minto. The cost of fuel has a great effect on the price of food because of the distribution network. Therefore the fuel subsidy, which is effectively what it is, is not just benefiting Ford Ranger man. GST must be taken off fruit and vegetables though.
He didn’t say anywhere that the fuel subsidy didn’t help the poorest.
BUT
it benefits Ford Ranger man more – and sure as hell Food Ranger Man does not need it at all.
hey hey ford ranger
don’t be a stranger
make some potholes in the roads!
what diesel, mate?
some serious weight
over two blue tonnes – well thar she blows!
so over here https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/spy-where-to-catch-all-the-action-for-urban-polo-and-the-nz-polo-open/GZ4KT64IIJELHFJJ2VC2KZOHA4/
we’ve gotsa cheer
it’s A for asshole I been told
there’s a new A-list
you’ll be glad to have missed
with harts by the hundreds in the hold: https://www.ventureradar.com/keyword/Organ%20Transplantation
John,ask your sibling,where,the snark.
Of course Labour policies support the middle class!
That’s because their voter base is largely middle class and has been for a couple of decades. Its base consists of teachers, civil servants both local and central, student activists, and white women who live in smart restored villas and own an SUV. LOL The only exception is the brown vote/unemployed vote.
You really think Ford Ranger Man votes Labour? In my experience of the breed, they mostly own small contracting businesses or work for them. The modern-day ute is a consequence of fringe benefit tax rules: Change those and ute sales would plummet.
(According to the Treasury, the bottom 20% of income earners effectively pay zero tax because their welfare more than covers the welfare they get.)
The USA being the Center of Mammon, leads the way with other competition which are good at this land development for profit.
https://allpropertymy.com/developers-defaulting-on-maintenance-fee-of-unsold-strata-property-seen-to-rise/
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/property/131017798/williams-corporation-converts-unsold-townhouses-into-airbnbs (NZ Lower Hutt) Jan/23
https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3183849/hong-kong-developer-billion-fails-sell-single-flat-horizon-project-tai-po July/22
https://www.latimes.com/projects/la-me-mexico-housing/
26/11/2017 — Builders have all but abandoned hundreds of developments without completing infrastructure, resulting in a patchwork of public services.
The Wall Street-backed developer that reaped billions, …
https://www.latimes.com › world › la…
26/11/2017 — Today, with its broken-down, blighted and half-finished developments littering cities across Mexico, Homex is one of the country’s most despised …
2916 = https://www.kpbs.org/news/midday-edition/2016/07/14/investors-trumps-failed-mexico-resort-speak-out
On her 65th birthday last year, Sylvia Villavicencio — once a Donald Trump devotee — pummeled a Mexican piñata of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Her guests poked out the eyes and tore off the legs.
“We wanted to express our feelings and vent our anger,” said her husband, Mike Rodriguez, a retired real estate builder. They live in Madera, in California’s Central Valley.
The couple are unlike most buyers of Trump piñatas, which have found a market on both sides of the border since Trump’s political rise. They dislike him not because of his hard-line immigration policy proposals or his remarks about minorities, although those have added fuel. The root of their anger is a sense of profound, personal betrayal. They believe millions of Americans will soon experience it, too.
(Even the unethical avaricious rightard followers are unhappy. Some people are never pleased!!)
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/11/the-unfinished-suburbs-of-America/382707/
Interesting and insightful. I completely agree about GST. I’ve always thought that the sooner it goes back to 12.5 percent, the better. Moreover, calculations are easier to work out at that lower rate.
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