Buy New Zealand Made

The virus epidemic has brought in its wake an even bigger epidemic of stupidity, epitomised by an outbreak of “Buy New Zealand Made” pleas.

This advocacy is world-class stupidity. What if every nation adopted that line? The effect here would be poverty of starvation proportions in our cities as we shrink back to a late Victorian style economy.

The only growth activities in such a scenario would be breeding horses and making carts and coaches for them to pull, plus promoting socialist ideology, the standard cop-out by the desperate for someone else to ease their plight.

On that note, the incoming World Bank chief economist Professor Carmen Reinhart has issued a warning against the current Covid epidemic causing an ill-considered call by nations to be economically self-reliant.

The Professor’s credentials include expertise on historic government financial follies in times of crisis and she warns we’re on the cusp of a second great depression if this self-reliance anti-globalisation plea is not quickly nipped in the bud.

As an export-reliant nation we must scorn these ignorant Buy New Zealand cries. As I’ve written before, the greatest service ever done for our poor, outside of the first Labour government’s establishment of a European style, civilised welfare system, has been Sir Stephen Tindall’s creation of the Warehouse chain. It provides quality incredibly cheap necessities, all imported. I wish it had existed when I was a child.

If you enjoyed this BFD article please consider sharing it with your friends.