The Politics of Envy

Egalitarian – Believing that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities. (I say Balderdash – we are not equal but equal rights and opportunity – no question. It is a socialist tendency to focus on inequality as elections loom. When polls display a distinct leaning to the continuation of centre – right governance the people on the centre left need to garner support. There is a problem with hanging your hat on the politics of envy when the productivity of the country is driven by nearly 500,000 self employed and business owners. The majority of whom recognised the need or desire for equal opportunity and either left the corporate world from choice , were unceremoniously dispatched or never joined it!. We know the stark reality of employee – employer positioning and accept the security or comfort of a salary or wages versus the risk of self employment or business. We know more envy Sam Morgan than Valarie Adams or Mark Zuckerburg than Ronaldo.

Labour and the Greens will not win this election focusing to taxation and envy. The majority of New Zealanders are fair minded and don’t envy the gifted, talented or well off. Whether musician, actor, sportsperson or business person. There are of course exceptions.

What Gen – Y might be considering via their social media and general net working is well constructed thought around social policy and environmental issues. They don’t expect cradle to grave welfarism but they are concerned about the planet.

What baby boomers might be considering – ‘will local authorities raise my cost of home ownership and residence and will banks remain viable and therefore paying reasonable cash rates’. Whether young or old, of course our interests are personal. It’s why we live in a democratic capitalistic state, we have choice and we know what we don’t want – a busy body central politician telling us – they know better. But this group of centre left politicians are steeped in egalitarianism and are heavily focused to the redistribution of wealth. They will eventually occupy the treasury bunches, (just not this term) not because the public believe the haves, should have less and the have not’s should have more, but because politicians on the centre right will eventually take too much license and we New Zealanders will do what we do best. Keep peoples feet on the ground – whether musician, actor, sportsperson, business person or politicians that assert megalomania.

Taxation is a realistic topic for debate especially if ones desire is for central government to control the governance of the country as well as the production and productivity of the country. (I do not) This will change. Not in my life time, but it is inevitable. Politics will dismantle, just as control has diminished over the centuries from various ruling structures. Specifically the great religions and the great tribes. Communication determines ‘control’ and we know how Gen – Y communicate – digitally, and the millenials are even more technology focused. Boundaries are disappearing as communication via the web enables people to by pass authority and to trade using international crypto currencies such as Bitcoin and Doge coin. Politicians will not stop this development – they cannot manage the world wide web – unless they govern by force. Block chain software is rewriting how we will trade.

Finance and technology are the drivers of change and the younger generations will use it to effectively transition from the old economy to the new. The old economy being big government, big corporate and expanding welfarism. The new economy being small central government, multiple local government, online trading, minimal taxation, minimal large government agencies (including health, welfare and education). We need to prepare our grandchildren for it now and stop debating who pays the most or least tax – as Richie McCaw would say (and none of us envy his success) – We are only the guardians of the jersey.