Contradictions

David Farrar's article has also laid bare an interesting contradiction in right-wing thinking.

We are constantly told that the government should be "doing more" to produce higher economic growth, and that higher growth is good because it produces higher government revenue which therefore allows us to increase funding to government services - such as health, education, and welfare. Don Brash was at pains to point this out in early interviews - he wasn't advocating growth for its own sake, oh no, it was so we could better afford the things we wanted.

But when it comes round to the government actually collecting and using that increased revenue, all hell breaks lose. "They'll be collecting an extra $30 billion a year!"; "They should return this money as tax cuts!"

So, why should we pursue growth again...?

(This really pulls the rug out from under the right's tax-cut argument as well. So, we should cut taxes - and therefore spending on services - to produce higher growth, the eventual increase in government revenue being used... to support more tax cuts. And meanwhile the poor starve and the sick die. Fuck that for a joke).