Yesterday a friend of mine made the observation that people on welfare are not the only ones receiving a benefit in this country - though they are disproportionately vilified for it.
The top ten percent of New Zealanders in terms of wealth receive tax cuts costing around $1.1 billion to the taxpayer. They don't need their income to increase with this added boost - I've yet to find a starving millionaire - but they have it and they use it to increase their asset holdings, or invest it offshore. We don't even get to see it trickle down to the lower class, it somehow disappears in the gap between the rich and poor. The rich benefit from their tax cuts, and they say we're lazy moochers off the taxpayers dime. I will not be spoken to in this way.
Furthermore, the wealthy benefit from the peace and tranquillity of the country. Goods get from place to place without interruption most of the time, business can be conducted in public places without fear of harassment or interruption from the inconvenience of petty crime. In fact in stark contrast to many other nations we have conditions in New Zealand which really are peaceful and tranquil. Would these conditions be maintained with high unemployment? Desperate people will do unpleasant and incomprehensible things, and the order of a society decreases as desperation increases. But the wealthy don't even want to pay their fair share for the maintenance of social order, the government backs them to the hilt, and the quiet desperation throughout lower income New Zealand festers.
I do not seek the heads of the wealthy. I believe in a fair income for a fair days work and an equitable contribution to the conditions of society we all enjoy. I will not however, stomach hypocrisy. We are all beneficiaries of a kind and we all have to work together to build a truly prosperous and fair Aotearoa/New Zealand.
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