I saw nothing great at all about last night's Great Tax Debate on TVNZ. A lot of people bickering about how they would spend someone else's money, and demands from some morons that their money be taken from them by someone else because they themselves don't have the brains they were born with.
The only one who made any sense was the young chap subtitled bizarrely as 'Wrote a Letter to the Editor' who made a similar point to mine above, though much more politely and with a quote from Alan Greenspan*, only to see his well-made point totally ignored by the studio bickerers more interested in picking over the bones of other people's money.
And I noticed Roger Kerr might have 'gone Austrian,' saying inflation is a monetary phenomenon caused by the reserve bank. Quite right too.
[UPDATE 1: If you want to see the bickering again, or you missed it the first time around and want to look into the eyes of those who think your money is their's to dispose of, TVNZ has the whole sad, sorry show on their site, here.]
*[UPDATE 2: The young chap's name is Fraser Hungerford -- a 'christian surfer' apparently! -- and Greenspan's quote is this: "Stripped of its academic jargon, the welfare state is nothing more than a mechanism by which governments confiscate the wealth of the productive members of a society to support a wide variety of welfare schemes." It comes from his essay 'Gold and Economic Freedom.'
7 comments:
The whole event showed a bunch of bickering schoolboys.
The only non-politician who said anything of use was the "Aircraft Engineer" who accused the Pollys of "buying votes with money they'd stolen from him".
It didn't take more than a few milliseconds for him to be shouted down, did it?
Obviously the truth hurts.
"Ooohh bugger! Someone's realised! Quick, Quick - change the topic, or drown him out! We can't have people realising the Truth!!!"
Eliott -
Yes, what a shame 'Aircraft Engineer' - said he wanted a "responsible Government" (!) to spend his earings in a "responsible manner". Methinks he has no problem with the right (or should that be left) kind of Nanny Statists "buying votes with money they'd stolen from him".
But, PC, I'd go further than you. It was a complete waste of time - sorry, if if I want to be assailed with a wall of white noise I either hang out with small children or slap on 'Metal Machine Music'.
Craig, Have you ever managed to listen to 'Metal Machine Music' all the way through though?
Anyone remember the name of that intelligent young letter writer? I wrote it down and then left it behind.
Twice, and I think I was drunk and clinically depressed on both occasions. Otherwise, anything more than three minutes is aural S&M.
A good little story about wealth distribution through tax: http://across.co.nz/WealthRedistribution.html
What inflation? Inflation is dead. Don't know how many times I have to tell you that. Look at the base it is coming from. And what has killed it, I ask you? SNORT
Cocaine has killed inflation? :-)
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