In a rather telling admission, Grant Robertson has conceded that socialism doesn’t work.
Of course, Robbo would never dare say such a thing openly – not with his Dear Leader being a former president of the International Union of Socialist Youth. In fact, it’s almost certain that he doesn’t even realise that he’s done so.
But that’s the tacit conclusion of his admission that the government can’t control prices.
The Government is accused of exacerbating soaring inflation with “wasteful” spending, as Finance Minister Grant Robertson blames global pressures – and stresses his administration doesn’t control the cost of food and fuel.
In fact, Robertson didn’t just say the government doesn’t control prices, he said it can’t.
Which undermines one of the two core premises of socialism: a planned economy. If the government can’t control the prices of commodities, as Robertson says, then it cannot run a planned economy. Robertson has conceded that the market, not the state, controls prices.
Robertson has pointed to global issues, such as the war in Ukraine and disrupted shipping and supply lines because of Covid-19 as the main factors in rising inflation […]
Asked if he thought building materials were too expensive in New Zealand, he said: “Yes, yes I do”.
“This is an area where a more competitive market would serve New Zealanders better.”
A more competitive market… a free market, in other words. Which is the very model that Jacinda Ardern witters “has failed us” – and the diametric opposite of her beloved socialism.
Robertson also threw a ball straight to the keeper, if Christopher Luxon is smart enough to catch it.
If people were criticising Government spending they needed to say what they thought money should not have been spent on.
NZ Herald
“There is no free lunch here, so if National is saying that what are they going to cut?”
Where would National start? How about every service that would be duplicated under co-governance. Kiwibuild – which hasn’t. Light rail… the list would go on. Luxon should take up Robertson’s challenge on massive billboards.
Whilst I leave readers to ponder just what they’d put on their Christmas wish-list of axed Ardern government spending, here’s a little snippet about yet another “progressive” idea that’s gone spectacularly tits-up.
Pay-as-you-feel restaurant group Lentil as Anything may have traded while insolvent for three years in the lead-up to the collapse of the social enterprise, which went into administration in February owing its employees at least $369,000 […]
Lentil as Anything operated in Melbourne and Sydney. “Our restaurants have no set prices. Everyone is welcome to come for a meal and pay-as-they-feel: through a financial contribution or volunteering. All leave with the feeling that they are part of an inclusive community,” was how it promoted its unconventional pricing model.
“Inclusive” meaning, apparently, indulging yet another lefty delusion at the cost of the entitlements of minimum-wage workers.
At its peak, Lentil as Anything provided more than 1 million meals a year, of which 30 per cent were paid for, Shanaka Fernando has said.
The Age
So, two-thirds of the clientele in the wealthy, Greens-voting inner-city suburbs where the restaurant was located skived off on paying for their meals and left minimum wage workers – some of them not even that, as they were classed as “volunteers” – to foot the bill.
Socialism in a nutshell, really.