Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Are they connected?

Things I've read this morning that made me think.

Colin James writes about the mood at the forthcoming National Conference. Excerpt:

Throw in Bill English’s diversification of how the state does its business, which gives National more of a look than Labour as the party generating modern policy in a changing world. Delegates can celebrate the smaller state they yearn for and moralise about and also feel the cabinet has innovative energy.
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Here's a picture of that "small state" by the way. You can probably chuck on another 4% of GDP for local government spending.



Brookings lists ten economic facts about Cuba such as

7. The average age of the Cuban population will increase from 54.7 today to 67.7 in 2025.

 Gulp. For context, NZ's median age is around 37.

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I wonder if the two things are connected?

Perhaps the percentage of GDP a govt commands predicts the average age of the population!


4 comments:

Peter Cresswell said...

Well spotted, Lindsay. Has James ever been right about anything?

PS: I suspect the reason for the ageing Cuban average is because most young Cubans with get up and go have got up and gone.

Anonymous said...

While off topic a bit I heard Little on the radio the other day talking about his desire for a significant change in tax around penalties and provisional tax - get rid of them. I was amazed that such an enlightened view would come from the mouth of a leftie while the supposed right (pfffft) are silent on what could be freedom enhancing reforms to reign in the tax monster.

3:16

JC said...

Something not right about No 7 for Cuba. The median age is 39.5 and their birthrate exceeds their death rate since 1950. You are quoting the dependency ratio which includes 1-15 year olds.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Cuba

JC

Lindsay Mitchell said...

Thanks JC,

I see Brookings has now now corrected it:

http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/brookings-now/posts/2015/07/ten-economic-facts-about-cuba

I cut and paste from the original.

But should have sniffed something funny about it.You obviously did.