Now committed leftist Brian Easton has appeared in the DomPost saying the same stuff. He has summarised Bryan Perry's extensive work, Household Incomes in NZ. He's also heavily criticised Max Rashbrooke's work which is apparently like a NZ version of the Spirit Level. With similarly dubious findings it would seem.
When asking the reader to accept the facts about inequality Patrick Smellie writes:
Don't even take the word of the team of researchers put together by journalist Max Rashbrooke for his book Inequality: A New Zealand Crisis, which has been extensively toured since publication last year to raise awareness of the issue.
Instead, take the word of Brian Easton, one of neo-liberal economics' most long-standing critics, who has penned a handy compendium of the available data, titled: Inequality in New Zealand - A User's Guide.
Easton appears to have been miffed that, after a lifetime's work in this area, he was not approached to contribute to the Rashbrooke tome. He sniffily dismisses its analysis as being reminiscent of "the drunk who uses a lamp-post for support rather than illumination", unlike the "marvellously detailed" work by Perry.
The user's guide effectively reduces Perry's 242-page work to digestible size, while stopping short of "tediously correcting or elaborating a plethora of statements" in the Rashbrooke book.
....Clearly, New Zealand has income inequality that has got worse and then stabilised. Political parties of all stripes know that and are responding in various ways, to varying extents.
National's social housing foray and its retention of benefits and family assistance through the post-GFC recession are proof that Tories worry about inequality, albeit with less hand-wringing than the Left and with greater willingness to reward wealth creators disproportionately. How we respond as a nation is one of the most important things our politics can do.
But let's start with the facts about inequality, which are not as clear-cut as many have thought.
8 comments:
New Zealand has income inequality that has got worse and then stabilised.
Nope. New Zealand has income inequality that has got better and than stagnated.
"worse" is a biased value judgment. That inequality has increased is a fact. That increasing inequality leads to a more better society is also a fact - because those who deserve more are rewarded with more. That's why the truth is:
New Zealand has income inequality that has got better and than stagnated.
Hi Lindsay
I'm glad you are engaged on this subject as the media and the left appear determined to make it an election issue.
But does anyone stop to imagine what kind of economic and political environment we would have to establish in order to eliminate income inequality?
Do we want to live in a country where the indolent and the industrious are rewareded alike? Where the innovator the entrepreneur and the investor can expect the same rewards as the unskilled and the unemployed?
We can have liberty or income equality, but not both. The more we seek to create equality of outcomes through political and legislative means, the more our liberty evaporates.
That a free people would vote for this outcome is almost unimaginable.
Brendan - precisely.
that's why NZ needs more inequality not less.
Inequality is good.
But does anyone stop to imagine what kind of economic and political environment we would have to establish in order to eliminate income inequality?
Well, if there were people out there demanding that we eliminate income inequality, they'd be very foolish people indeed, yes. Thing is, no-one's demanding that.
a the? interesting question is what level of inequality will maximize economic growth? or wider well being?
I'd like to see greater equality but through voluntary wealth redistribution - what's that called? Capitalism?
I'd like to see greater equality but through voluntary wealth redistribution - what's that called? Capitalism?
Eurocommunism. Aka Socialism aka "social democracy".
sorry Lindsay.
agree. re-phrase "what level of inequality will maximize economic growth and higher well being via voluntary transactions?"
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