Socialism in the New Zealand DNA

The current neo-liberal National government just passed a Budget that socialist governments in other parts of the world would be proud of: free medical services for children, extended parental leave, tax cuts for the hard up. There is little for the Labour opposition to take exception to. What is lacking, as critics pointed out, is vision. This budget says that if we stick to the same path things will only get better, certainly not worse. This assumes that people are happy with their lot and don't want changes. Yet there are big problems that New Zealand faces that this budget does not address. Unequal income distribution is one of them, but at the root of it is that New Zealand has a low wage economy. economic survival depends on lots of cows giving lots of milk that lots of Chinese are prepared to buy. It does not address the question of how to diversify the economy, how to make the most of talent that is now wasted because there are no opportunities to make use of them. It does not address the imbalance of capital investment, whereby you can invest in property, not in productive enterprise, write off costs against tax, but enjoy the profits from capital gains tax free. The hard-working New Zealand Mum and Dad, who builds up a nest egg for retirement sits at home, gets student to put a coat of paint on some ramshackle property they bought to on-sell, make a handsome profit when they sell and gloat about how smart they are. You probably see them on the cruise ships sailing from one place you don't want to visit to another.