Simple Econ 101 really. All countries can increase their utility by free trade.
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Sure - lets wait ... seems more sensible than throwing mud at everything which moves ... as long as a "National led government" is involved.
However your comment above (Every country signing that agreement will increase their GDP - how can that be?) is telling. See daytr, while the Left is still stuck in the fight of the classes - with the idea that the people important to them (the Left) can only can survive by taking a bigger piece of the cake away from others (be that the "capitalists", the so called "well off" or just anybody stupid enough to pay taxes) and that way shrinking the cake, the rest of the world did learn that it is a better idea to first grow the cake before distributing it.
Never heard about win-win?
BP, I have certainly had exposure to win/wins as it is how I have always tried to deliver to my clients in the many large transactions I have delivered over the years. All I have heard is a figure saying we will be better off with nothing to back it up. However I do know that Pharmac will cost more & we have given up the right to veto foreign property purchases. Neither of these are wins for NZ. The extension of patents on drugs & IP is hardly extending free trade, in fact quite the opposite. The winners in all this I would suggest will be corporations at the expense of the average citizen.
Hi Sergeant, I note that you have meddled with the quoted text ... though it looks like that your main action was to screw up the content I put into brackets (including the statement you quoted) - Why?
If you look at the original statement in context (i.e. put the brackets back where they belong), than the whole thing might be clearer ... though admittedly - irony is a difficult thing to convey ... particularly in writing
What I tried to convey is that net tax payers (i.e. people paying more taxes than they receive benefits) must feel stupid if we see how they are treated by the Left ... not just milked by the system anyway, but consistently exposed to the marvellous and ingenious ideas of any budding Left-wing politician: "oh, just lets increase the taxes of the performers so that we can transfer still more money through an inefficient bureaucracy to the non performers".
BTW - I consider myself as one of these people (paying more taxes than receiving benefits) ... and so it was all my life. No intention to offend or harm honest tax payers ...
Does this help?
Wasn't it National that increased GST BP? I would prefer to see a government managing its finances responsibly and reducing debt rather than committing to election bribes in 2017 whilst continually increasing debt. No doubt it will be left to another government to yet again fix what mess National leave behind. In less than 10 years government debt has more than tripled. This will be John Key's legacy.
Wasn't it Labour that introduced GST daytr?
Not sure whether I get your point ... given that the state clearly has a role to play (even if we both might disagree on how big this role should be), there is obviously a need for (some) taxes to fund this role. Personally would I think that GST is a much fairer tax (i.e. everybody paying according to their consumption) than the envy taxes left governments love to introduce ... to redistribute wealth from performers to non performers ...
And talking about your story about our government debt looking bad - daytr, you sound like a broken record on this subject. Did you take over from EZ?
Which part of "New Zealand's government debt (as percentage of GDP) is quite low compared to other countries" do you not understand?
Here are some examples of public debt vs GDP (all 2012 data, the newest I could find):
Australia: 29.3%
New Zealand: 41.8%
US: 72.5% (would be still higher, if US would use the same measure to acknowledge public debt)
Canada: 84.1%
UK: 90%
NZ does not look too bad in this list - doesn't it? Just remind me - who is responsible for running it? :p
I'm not the one who's a broken record its National who keep playing the same tune. Do they really think its Money for nothing....
If they didn't keep on borrowing I wouldn't have to keep on about it.
What was that debt to GDP ratio under Labour ? Half what it is now?
What are you waiting for?
For us to be as bad as those other countries you mention before you wake up?
This debt increase is despite selling billions of dollars of assets, so in reality its net a lot higher without those proceeds.
So BP, are you an advocate of cutting taxes even if it means it will generate deficits and more government debt?
Yawn! One covers all this in Economics I, I recommend you do it.
Firstly, if you have a look at who owns all the Public Debt you'll find that most of it is owned by public agencies such as ACC and KiwiSaver, Superannuation Funds (both NZ and overseas), Insurance Companies, investors that want a good spread of investments including some in a vehicle that would not go bankrupt.
Secondly, public debt is an essential part of a modern well structured economy. The Reserve Bank and Government can operate in it to promote their monetary and economic policy - issue more debt to soak up excess liquidity, buy up debt to stimulate the economy.
If there was no public debt we would be a much smaller very old fashioned economy with a much lower standard od living. Update yourself DayTr.
I really do wonder where you got your economics degree MVT. Was it Kelloggs or Sanitarium university?
I am referring to Government debt, not liabilities such as ACCC. Do you really think Kiwi Saver has debt?
Or that Super Funds have debt? Were you sober when posting?
Core government debt has more than trebled through government spending whilst revenue has been in deficit.
Your economics 101 is certainly different to the rest of the world's.
I'm not sure how long you can keep up this act of claiming to be an economist, as for about the 10th time in a row you have displayed a complete lack of understanding.
Anyway MVT, I hope you enjoyed the rugby.
The French have obviously been learning from English (see what I did there. :cool:) on how to post a deficit. Sacre bleu !