Why National have no solutions to the economic problems we face

The naked truth its that National have no actual economic plan other than to rip up everything Labour have passed.

Some of this is fair, some of it is not.

Some of what Labour have passed has been industry sourced solutions, that’s very true of the latest agricultural emissions scheme, other policy however is just bullshit that shouldn’t be supported in the first place.

The gold plated PSA Holiday scheme – AKA the Unemployment insurance. This shouldn’t have been mooted by Labour in the first place, and should be axed.

RNZ/TVNZ Merger – National want more programming like Fuck Boy Island where TVNZ can chase craven ratings for dollars.

The 39% top tax rate – National are the party of Farmers, bankers and property speculators, of course they want to remove the top tax rate! We are not an over taxed, over regulated economy! Our top tax rate is the 39th highest in the world behind all the Scandinavian countries plus Germany, the United Kingdom, Ireland, France and South Africa! Australia’s top tax rate is 47cents! Our GST rate doesn’t even get us into the top 50 and our corporate tax rate is 40th while Government spending against GDP ranks 56th! And we are voted easiest to do business by the World Bank! 

Fair Pay Agreements – We don’t have an over taxation problem, we have a low wage economy problem and we have that low wage economy because the Right passed the Employment Contracts Act in 1991 which created 30 years of de-unionised labour. THAT is why we have a low wage economy and the Fair Pay Agreements will finally challenge that by allowing 86% of workers to join a union. OF COURSE National, the Party of Farmers, Bankers and Property speculators hate this idea because it will force these rich pricks to pay more.

Three Waters – Started out as an elegant solution to the issues of water ownership that John Key kicked off when he sold 49% of our hydro assets, it has now deteriorated into a race baiting hate pus wound. The moment the National/ACT Government scrap 3 Waters, Māoridom will go straight back to the Waitangi Tribunal, win the Court Case and force Luxon into his own Helen Clark moment and be forced to pass law to simply confiscate the water. This will cause an enormous eruption of violent protest.

Property investor mortgage deductions – National are the political party for Farmers, Bankers and Property speculators, OF COURSE they will allow these rich landlord pricks to use tax loop holes to keep their wealth! Every renter will suffer while the Landlords laugh all the way back to the bank!

Farming Emissions – National is little more than a front for Chinese business interests and seeing as the corporate Framers have sold NZs economic and political sovereignty down a river of milk powder for China, they will remove any restrictions to allow as much cow shit to foul our rivers as possible.

That’s the list of things National will cut, here’s their actual solutions…

…ok.

‘Stop adding costs to business’ – You mean like the extended sick pay that we needed because of Covid? You mean like allowing workers who have been beaten during domestic violence time off work? You mean like Matariki? You mean like the minimum wage increases? If your business is on the verge of collapse because of sick days during a pandemic, allowing your workers to heal their domestic abuse bruises at home, basic pay rises and the only Māori public holiday, could I humbly suggest you shouldn’t be in fucking business! The low wage economy that National and ACT live for is the problem here, not extra days off that attempt to provide better work conditions.

‘Remove bottlenecks to the economy’ – Oh you mean mass immigration, the very mass immigration that crushed Auckland, sparked the housing crisis and forces domestic workers to compete against cheaper migrant labour? That’s not a solution, that’s the problem! It’s like National are the Dr and they’ve suggested amputating the body away from the Tumour so the Tumour can keep growing!

‘Disciplined Government Spending’ –National always tell us that will cut spending, but never actually explain where that spending cut will come from because you the voter will shit yourself when you see how much they want to slash and burn out of welfare, education and health.

‘Tax relief for hard working Kiwis’ – The average worker will get less than $1000 in National tax cuts, Luxon will take home $18 000 in tax cuts! Poor people aren’t stupid, they see through that!

‘Focus the Reserve Bank solely on inflation’ – So remove the welfare of the citizens and just focus on inflation? What a great step backwards!

NONE and I mean NONE of this is a solution! Cutting sick days, dumping public holidays, stopping minimum wage increases, mass immigration, tax cuts for the rich, vast slash and burn campaign on public services (but not telling you what those public services will be) and forcing the Gods of NZ Capitalism to focus solely on inflation are not solutions, they are a joke looking for a punchline.

Luxon wants to slash 14 000 jobs from the public sector, imagine the backlash that will generate.

On the social policy side, it’s far more grim.

National’s slogan ‘welfare that works’ is a throw back to Shipley’s punitive welfare programmes of the early 90s…

…Luxon was already singing Bill English’s Social Investment model which spawned Oranga Tamariki when he became leader, he then went to a UK Right Wing Think Tank who specialise in privatising social services to give a speech and now right when NZ has one of the lowest unemployment rates ever, Luxon targets the weakest group to bully and just puts the boot in.

He is selling the crack of the whip by constantly repeating the use of sanctions to cut welfare.

He’s threatening welfare sanctions on the disabled, the ill and the sick.

That’s the kind of needless spite masquerading as tough love that National Party supporters love.

They crave this mean spiritedness. The more punitive, the better.

It doesn’t matter if it’s counter productive, in fact the MORE counter productive, the more excited National Party voters get.

Remember the State House Meth scam?

National used false science to breach Housing NZs own regulations to throw State Tenants out on the street. In the middle of a housing crisis, National created a homelessness crisis by throwing hundreds of State Tenants onto the streets for false Meth harm contamination readings.

No one got sacked, no one was punished, fuck it, Paula Bennett who was the Minister responsible gets to play charades on fucking TVNZ now!

For National supporters, when it comes to social policy, all that matters is that someone they hate suffers, regardless of the cost and regardless of the counter productivity of it all.

We-make-people-we-hate-suffer-no-matter-the-cost is actually right wing dogma.

Here’s how the ‘Social Investment’ model works.

National will take $50million from MSD, give it to 3rd party contractors who will get a bonus by removing people off the list.

The 2 ways those young people get off the list is if they get a job OR they are sanctioned off the list.

You can all see the game being played here.

Taxpayer money to 3rd party contractors who get paid when they find them a job or they are cut off welfare.

National want to drive sick people back to work, that’s how this country will lead into the future???

This sort of bullshit shouldn’t be allowed to fly when there is so much academic research that this draconian welfare approach doesn’t work!

Pretending that bashing young people on welfare is the solution to rebuilding from covid or is a way to combat poverty or inequality or the housing crisis is just such inane bullshit!

Using the excitement of the crack of the whip to smuggle through a vast privatisation of welfare agenda is going to spook the centre all the way back to Jacinda.

National trying to out ACT ACT on welfare privatisation is just too extreme for the electorate.

 

CONCLUSION:

Look.

I appreciate that there is a lot of anger from many on the Left at the incremental ‘progress’ of Jacinda’s Labour Party.

I appreciate there is a deep resentment to the Covid response and an anger towards another round of being told what to do by people who have work from home privilege.

I get all that.

But not one of you can seriously believe that National’s economic and social ‘plans’ are anything other than total bullshit that won’t in any way shape or form solve the complex problems in front of us!

We’ve seen what happened in the UK with Liz Truss when she tried to implement free market nonsense and in the middle of the kind of steep economic rescission we will see next year, National’s policies are self interested to their rich mates and exclusionary to everyone else.

You can be shitty with Labour, but don’t dare pretend National has any actual answers!

National’s Economic & Social policy is rope looking for a noose!

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