Posts by WH
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That wasn’t really my point though. It was more that the West should also look to itself.
In fairness, Apple' practices in China are American practices, and a legitimate subject of US journalism. Outsourcing, and the concomitant demise of US manufacturing, is an American problem. The country is trying to find a solution to the fact that its best non-menial jobs are being shipped overseas.
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Turning back briefly now to my summer series of intriguing if not entirely unwelcome policy proposals: it's actually winter time where I am at the moment.
Part one took a hard look at my suggestion for a estate tax funded sovereign wealth fund and concluded it was a brilliant idea that suffered only from being ahead of its time.
Part two interrogates my quixotic campaign to have Robert Fisher QC appointed to the New Zealand Supreme Court. I'm not sure how old he is now or whether he would even care for the role, but in his prime he was one of New Zealand's finest legal minds. He wrote with a purpose and clarity that outshone many of his contemporaries. He would make a fine Supreme Court justice.
Now hear this people. We either take a more realistic approach to human frailty or we end with with rictus grin barbies such as John Key and Mitt Romney running the big show. Perfection is an empty illusion conjured by professional bullshitters and people who know how to use the airbrushing functions on photoshop.
Winston Churchill had his black dog, Bill Clinton had Monica Lewinsky and Lord only knows what Martin Luther King and Mahatma Ghandi really got up to. Self righteousness is a tedious quality that we should shoo from public life with an angry broom.
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Merry Christmas. You've made something quite special at Public Address. I like the idea of making the world a better place one person at a time.
I've got tickets for the upcoming Above and Beyond's event at the Brixton Academy - lucky because they are all sold out now. It's going to be great.
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There were only 29,710 deaths registered in New Zealand for the year ending 30 September 2011, so maybe we need to link this up with a CGT. I think the major problem with my proposal is going to be family farms. I propose that instead of selling land to realise estate tax upon transmission, the Fund should, on the making of an appopriate application, instead place a charge on then land so that the estate contribution can be paid when the land is next sold, or after 10 years. I don't want to blow my own horn or anything, but this could be the best policy idea I've ever posted. I tell you the truth, a prophet is never accepted in his hometown.
Not to interrupt other conversations to which I am not a party, but whenever this site gets meta I'm reminded that some of us started calling Michael Laws a c*nt. Now this is just one man's opinion, but I never looked at rule one quite the same after that. There are lots of techniques one can use to diminish others that fall short of explicit rudeness, but at least the obvious ones have the virtue of being straightforward.
I've been given access to a coffee machine that used to belong to Lehman Brothers. It makes a cappacino that's as amazing as it sounds: I've spent most of the last two weeks feeling overcaffeinated and derivative. (I'm here all week.)
Okay: that is my burst of creativity for the next twelve months. I am changing my password back to something I can't remember.
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Okay - this is my last post - I have work in the morning - but if I had Max and Maurice alone in a room I'd do something unspeakable involving scatological references and freezing pensioners from Invercargill. Haps Craig!
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I stand to be corrected by someone who knows what they're talking about, but I'm a uneasy fan of Muldoon's hydroelectric dams. I saw this big red crane here in London recently and it was awesome - it made me think about building stuff. It's like I'm always telling complete strangers at the pub, you've got to Think Big. I'm not a big fan of coal though. F*ck that shit.
I met someone on the Electricorp board once. They told the Government not to sell. But no - there'll be cheaper power this way, Max Bradford said. What a dick he was.
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This is an improved version of the impeccably conservative Legacy10, but for some reason New Zealand abolished its estate tax and won't have a capital gains tax for the foreseeable future.
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Hey Keith: long time no see.
I've been thinking that New Zealand should create a sovereign wealth fund. It would be managed along the same lines of the Cullen Fund, but it would be called something institutionally reassuring like the NZ Trust Fund, or the Department of Winning.
The funding would come from the re-introduction of a 10% estate tax of all estates over $100,000, increasing to 20% on all estates over $1,000,000, and 30% on all estates over $10,000,000, indexed to inflation. (Owner occupied residences with a value of under £500,000 might be exempt. The Fund would also encourage private inter vivos charitable contributions. (Boom: I said inter vivos. Death tax this, haters).
It would be a long term project, but the Fund would have three major aims:
- the permanent domestic ownership of New Zealand infrastructural and financial assets, including banks, power generation companies, and strategic landholdings;
- a permanent reduction in income tax rates for salary and wage earners;
- the provision of an independent income stream for use in the elimination of poverty and the creation of a totally free, cradle to grave education and scientific research system.I don't really care whether Labour chooses Barack or Hillary. Just find a way to improve the lives of its supporters, nay, all New Zealanders.
(We might also have to have another look at New Zealand's trust law, and reverse National's decision on gift duty. Where exactly was the Legal Beagle when this happened? Aye? Nek minute.)
Good talking as always - you never write anymore.
Kind regards,
WH -
I guess this sums me up too... What a great comment.
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We need to give people something to believe in while reinforcing that there are going to be failures along the way. People want to have faith, but it has to be compatible with the world they know. Government can do a lot of good, but it can also be corrupt and incompetent. Public money will sometimes be wasted, and people often won't deserve the help they get. I think some people prefer the right's wary cynicism to the disappointment that comes with the left's hopeful and in many ways ambitious vision of what a well run state can achieve. People don't like false hope, and they don't want to be asked to believe in a project that's basically broken.
I don't buy into the Chris Trotters patronising analysis of `Waitakere Man' - and, as an aside, I would note that Trotter's comments about Carmel Sepuloni has been shown to have been misjudged
I haven't read a lot about Waitakere Man, but I suspect Chris Trotter is just trying to make Labour more attractive to a certain sort of person. I think that's less threatening than the sense that he wants to make Labour a fundamentally different sort of party. People with an interest in politics look at government from a perspective that most people don't share. I'm not sure that Trotter is saying Waitakere Man is right, he's just saying he exists. I like Chris and I don't want a fight. I read his columns growing up and I admire his passion for helping people. In some ways it's easier being out of New Zealand, these sorts of differences don't seem to matter so much. I don't know anything at all about Carmel Sepuloni and wish her all the best.
Generally agree with this, except it is not so much ceding it's "left" flank as ceding a particular part of the spectrum of progressive policy to emphasise
I agree, I suppose I was thinking in terms of how the two parties might seek and compete for electorate support. I was pretty sceptical about the Greens at first (I was young) and I don't agree with everything they've done (one bill in particular) but generally they've impressed me.