A point on consistency: Finland v NZ
After saying I thought the general goal of catching other countries was a bit silly I suddenly clicked onto another point – the implied inconsistency of the policies being suggested by Labour.
Look, I don’t want to beat up on Labour specifically – as I think all parties are guilty of this – they just did it right here right now. Labour is saying:
- We want more innovative capital investment, in capital intensive technology industries
- We want to introduce a capital gains tax
So they want to increase capital investment … when their main policy recommendation so far is reducing the rate of return on investment. They also suggest investing more in education – which is fascinating when we are a small open economy with an extremely mobile labour market, implying that it is very hard to keep hold of said highly trained labour.
Seriously, lets let the rest of the world bid down the price of manufactured goods and keep pushing forward technology, while we feed them and offer them awesome holiday’s – focus on what we are good at, and we will be better off than if we start trying to gamble on venture capital, or joining into the current highly competitive game of manufacturing/high tech.