Phil Goff on Alt TV

Phil Goff discusses the Labour leadership on Alt TV.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• phil goff
• labour
• alt tv

[daggyz1959]

I don't like Labour, so for me Phil Goff has been the best thing that has happened in my opinion. Long may Labour keep him as leader....

[socialismispoison]

No, I personally cannot can my own food nor can I make medicine, machines, or clothing. However Watties are able to can, freeze and dehydrate food, Douglas Pharmaceuticals can manufacture drugs, Scott Techology can manufacture production lines, and there are many clothing manufacturers. I'm not sure what you are driving at but NZs vulnerability seems pretty low to me.

[socialismispoison]

Oh but you do listen and respond because it enables you to take the holier than thou position that you love so much.

[linuxluver]

While National in particular has been strong on defense, both major parties policies have placed NZ in a strategic position where would would struggle to serve even our basic daily needs if we were ever isolated by war or catastrophe. What good is a frigate if you can't even can your own food for storage? You can't make medicines, machines or clothing? We are terribly vulnerable at a time when competition for resources will be heating up as populations continue to grow.

[linuxluver]

I don't listen to emotive rhetoric about what's hateful. I look at the policies. For 25 years National has tended to favour the well off by undermining wages and labour laws. Multinationals are catered for by degrading services (health, education, etc) and making people buy expensive insurance for "maybe" services that aren't better than simply providing real services. Stripping NZ of industrial capacity over a generation will be seen as a stealth disaster and both are guilty of it.

[socialismispoison]

66 cents was the top rate under Muldoon but it affected much less than those who pay the current top rate.

Roger Douglas drove the tax changes you refer to. Clark fought it.

Clark & Cullen, benefited from Rogernomics yet deny it worked by continued references to failed policies of the past.

Yes Labour have done many good things.

So I'll confess - the reason I won't vote for them is that they've made it clear that people who don't vote Labour are hateful & I'm sick of being viewed that way.

[linuxluver]

You may be too young. I paid 66 cents / 1$ for half my income under a National Government. Labour changed that by simplifying income tax and introducing GST. The last National government vastly increased student fees, forcing young Kiwis overseas. Lockwood Smith wiped apprenticeships and left us without skilled builders, plumbers, etc. Max Bradford confiscated half of my power trusts profits and sent them to the US. They ran down schools and hospitals. Labour still looks good by comparison.

[socialismispoison]

No linuxluver, monetary policy settings and exchange rate fluctuations are the red herring in the discussion on tax.

While I accept that tax is the entry price for living in a complex civilised society - Labour has put the price up to the point that those of us who are paying are starting to resent the lazy and feckless who run the Labour Party, lead it in Parliament, and are its primary constituency.

[linuxluver]

So "socialism" hasn't hurt you any. You're just grumpy. :-)

[linuxluver]

How then do you see interest rate increases? Nominally intended to control inflation, they effectively "tax" money from debtors and redistribute it to someone else who didn't earn it. Similarly exchange rate fluctuations. Your buying power shrinks or grows every hour of every day, no matter how hard you work. Compared to taxes, the impact of these other redistributions of income is much greater. Tax is almost a red herring. If the NZ$ falls 20%, as forecast, that's a powerful redistribution.