As we've been reminded this week, times are tough for ordinary New Zealanders. No growth, 155,000 unemployed, record high inflation. Ordinary families are squeezed. Kids are going to school hungry. Foodbank use is at an all-time high.
And meanwhile, National's mates the ultra-rich are making out like fucking bandits:
The fortunes of the country's 150 richest people have grown by almost 20 per cent in one year but they are still calling for the easing of constrictions around wealth creation.(Emphasis added)The National Business Review yesterday published its annual Rich List, showing that the combined wealth of New Zealand's richest has ballooned from $38.2 billion to $45.2 billion - the highest total ever.
When National talked about "taking the hard edges off the recession", I don't think they were talking about us. Tax cuts for the rich, the removal of gift duty, employment relations "reform", deregulation, privatisation, all help the ultra-rich, while screwing the rest of us over, redistribute income upwards from us, to them. But then, that's the point. National works for these people, not for us - and their policies reflect that. Anyone voting for them is a turkey voting for christmas.
Meanwhile, its worth noting that that $7 billion increase in wealth - income by anyone's standards - was completely untaxed. Applying even Labour's piss-weak capital gains tax to it would have realised an extra $1 billion to help pay for Christchurch. Its time that wealth was taxed, and that these people paid their fair share.
