KEY POINTS:
New Zealanders seem to be morphing into a nation of hand-wringers, running to the Gummint to have every little itch scratched. Politicians love it, falling over themselves to save us from biting dogs, gangs (but only if they're Maori - it's political suicide to take on Asian gangs), bad television, soaring house prices, leaky homes, rusty cars, cold houses, melting icebergs, the religious right. You name it, the Prime Minister will declare the country's "had a gutsful" of it.
And now that Michael Cullen has delivered his eighth budget, there's even more bellyaching on National Radio's Moaning Report. We saw glimmerings of it in the weeks leading up to Thursday's budget: manufacturers grizzled about the high Kiwi dollar, and how it was forcing them to close up shop, lay off staff and accept lower profits. The Gummint, claimed a leading Christchurch manufacturer, Robert Stewart, chairman of Skope Industries, should do something.
A high-value currency is a sign of a reasonably strong economy, which can enrich the lives of everyone (if they want it to). The ups and downs of a country's finances might adversely affect one sector of the economy at a particular time, but it's swings and roundabouts: tough it out, and rewards will follow. Many of the exporting manufacturers bleating about the high dollar conveniently forget the fact that that same high currency works in their favour when they import plant and machinery.
But we seem to have got back into the "pull up the ladder, Jack, I'm all right" mentality last seen in the dying days of the Muldoon Government. In those days, importers, manufacturers, farmers - everyone really - beat a path deep and wide to the scarlet lamps hanging above the doors of cabinet ministers' offices, lobbying for special treatment. The Dairy Board, one wit once remarked, was so close to Parliament that you could throw a cow cover over both of them.
It reminds me of the famous Petition of the Candlemakers, a lovely piece of satire written by French economic journalist Frederic Bastiat back in 1845. It's an oldie, but a goodie. In the scene he imagined, the manufacturers of candles, lanterns and everything connected with lighting were suffering "from the ruinous competition of a rival who apparently works under conditions so far superior to our own for the production of light that he is flooding the domestic market with it at an incredibly low price."
That rival "waging war on us so mercilessly" was none other than the sun and the petitioners asked politicians to "pass a law requiring the closing of all windows, dormers, skylights ... all openings through which the light of the sun is wont to enter houses".
Anticipating the objection that such a law would be detrimental to consumers, the petitioners had a ready reply: "You no longer have the right to invoke the interests of the consumer. You have sacrificed him whenever you have found his interests opposed to those of the producer. You have done so in order to encourage industry and to increase employment. For the same reason you ought to do so this time too."
Sector groups in New Zealand have forgotten that when governments start picking winners, there's no end in sight. Tax breaks for research and development? Goody - let's claim that family holiday in Tuscany as research for our future vineyard. Tax breaks for saving in KiwiSaver? Gosh, how are we now going to help the low-salaried with no spare cash to save in the first place? Business tax rates down to 30 per cent? Golly, why are so many sole traders suddenly registering as businesses? Meanwhile, the poor old consumer pays more and more with less and less.
And while the Labour-led Government rules out personal tax cuts as inflationary, it still hasn't answered this question: how is it that it is inflationary when people spend and save more of their own money, but not inflationary when the Government does the same with other people's money?
Nonetheless, we will see more simpletons calling for export incentives, import licensing (the logical conclusion of the "buy New Zealand made" campaign), tax credits for superannuation and health insurance. Why not have the Government control the exchange rate? Why not give farmers an incentive to run more sheep? Why stop there? We could raise the tax rate to 66 cents in the dollar.
At least we'd still have the sun coming in the window, luring Kiwis to the beach. And therein lies the problem - we just don't care.
