One of the cruellest policies of the Revolution was the government's abandonment of its responsibility to provide for the economically vulnerable by providing them with a roof over their heads. The introduction of market rents and the progressive selldown of the state housing stock led to an accomodation crisis among the poor, with overcrowding, homelessness, and whole families living in garages because they had nowhere else to go. The consequences were predictable: poor accomodation leads to poor health, and National's policy led to third-world diseases becoming endemic in parts of New Zealand. And now, they want to do it all over again.
New Zealand is supposed to be a better place than that. Since the late nineteenth century, we've aspired to be a place where no-one goes hungry and everyone has a roof over their heads. Despite its tenuous roots in the liberal party, National clearly no longer shares this dream. Instead, they are willing to deliberately create misery among one segment of the population so that others may profit. There's simply no other word for this than evil - but then, did we really expect any different from a party where Roger Douglas and Ruth Richardson are pulling the strings?
Great, the same failed, cruel policies.
ReplyDeleteAnd all this for tax cuts. At least Bill English had a bit of moral backbone, but it didn't get him very far did it.
Seeing as there is no natural rights justification for private land ownership, it is clearly just a useful social construction. However, when the social construction becomes harmful to large sections of society it becomes time to reconsider it. Why don't we introduce a decent land tax on landlords, and then use the proceeds as the basis for a universal income? Seems fair enough to me...
ReplyDeleteThy are called rates - and yup excellent taxation system because you cant run away from it. what ya going to do - export your land via a tax haven???
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