GUEST BLOG: Bryan Bruce – There is a better way
Today’s generation of young adults are the first generation in recent history who will be substantially worse off than their parents .
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Today’s generation of young adults are the first generation in recent history who will be substantially worse off than their parents .
On the panel on a sustainable world at the hui in October 2018 on What an Alternative and Progressive Trade Strategy for New Zealand, Aroha Mead, from Ngāti Awa and Ngāti Porou, reminded us what it means to live in Aotearoa.
If we care about poverty, the best a Capital Gains Tax does is raise a bit of revenue for the government to spend. We have to hope like hell that money gets spent on the real problems facing the country like child poverty, rather than middle class welfare like free tertiary education.
Baby Boomers were lucky enough to live under Governments who rebuilt their societies post World War Two with the lesson of what happened if citizens weren’t protected from the sharp boom and busts of capitalism foremost in their minds. Those Governments inoculated their citizens from Fascism and Communism with a Democratic Welfare State and investment into their hopes and aspirations.
Labelling people socialists and communists is rife while the government starts to make the big changes that selfish, privileged nation wreckers are damned they will see happen, as long as they can enjoy the inequity of their ill gotten gains at the expense of all our great grandchildren and a more egalitarian future.
In February 2018 I was elected to the executive of Judith Collin’s electorate.
In February 2019 I did not seek re-selection.
It was interesting to watch Judith Collins commenting on the Cullen tax review on TV3 yesterday morning. It revealed a lot about how her mind works.
“It’s not fair , it’s too hard”, said Fred, owner of a 105 Hectare Beef farm.
“Why should farmers have to pay tax on income when workers have had to for years? This lot will be voted out if they do that fair tax thing”
He had a point, Farmers were fucked off that they would also have to pay tax just like workers and they stood around today throwing shade at the fenceposts, muttering and sighing heavily.
The panel on a sustainable world at the hui in October 2018 on What an Alternative and Progressive Trade Strategy for New Zealand argued for major changes to address pressing environmental issues. Economist Geoff Bertram explained how a trade strategy could help to address climate change.
Sometime in the 1980’s a television ad appeared on our screens for a non-alcoholic drink called Claytons which had the catch line “The drink your having when you’re not having a drink”.
It wasn’t long before Kiws began referring to a decision that didn’t change anything as a “Clayton’s decision”
I think the MIchael Cullen Tax Review is one of those. The Tax Review you’re having when you’re not having a Tax Review.
Here’s why.