What Price Inequality?
It is surely no accident that both Garth George and Tim Hazledine have, in the last week or two, highlighted growing inequality as a prime cause for current concern. I find that many of those I talk to...
View ArticleOpening Our Minds
Over the past four years of recession, we have seen a re-run of the debate that surrounded the Great Depression. In the 1930s, there were those, like Herbert Hoover, who insisted that austerity – by...
View ArticleWhy Ignoring the Exchange Rate Widens Inequality
Last week’s report of an unexpected deterioration in our terms of trade adds a further and unwelcome twist to an already distressing story – the damage being done to our productive sector by an...
View ArticleThe Inequality Machine
The widening gap between rich and poor that has disfigured and weakened our society over recent decades is widely deplored, but there is surprisingly little understanding of how that growing inequality...
View ArticleWhy the Poor Can’t Put Food on the Table
The OECD revelation last week that 17.2% of New Zealanders found it difficult to afford food is a shocking and shameful statistic for any country that claims to be prosperous and developed. It shows...
View ArticleIf the Poor Are Worse Off, We’re All Worse Off
The Herald-DigiPoll last week cast an interesting light on the political debate as the election season approaches. The poll showed that no fewer than 74% of New Zealanders thought that inequality had...
View ArticleGrowing Inequality Can Be Seen As Clever Politics
Voter turnout has been falling steadily across the western world in recent decades, and not least in New Zealand. We have a proud record of high turnouts in general elections, but even here, we dipped...
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