Monday, January 12, 2004



What are they all complaining about?

From the way the BRT and their ideological allies talk, you'd think that this country was one where taxes were cripplingly high, private property was not respected, and industries were frequently expropriated and nationalised. But no - in fact, New Zealand has been ranked third in the world on the (notoriously right wing) Heritage Foundation's "Index of Economic Freedom", just below Hong Kong and Singapore. By way of comparison, the USA ranked 10th, and Australia 11th (though there doesn't seem to be very much in it).

So, what the hell are the BRT, ACT etc complaining about?

(Of course, I'm not sure that ranking high on an index where you lose points for having biosecurity and product safety standards, antimonopoly regulation and a minimum wage is a good thing, but the Right seem obsessed by our relative rankings in various lists, and should certainly be pleased with this one...)

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