How To Destroy An Economy: A Leftist's Guide To Achieving Communism

Jesse Anderson
Opinion

What truly socialist government would be complete without utterly destroying the ability for young, fiscally-minded families to achieve financial security?

How could a left-wing party properly operate without punishing people for their success, or the success of their parents, and rewarding those who contribute nothing but complaints to society?

How can equality be achieved without educating the youth en-mass using funding extracted from profits gained by inequality?

And why, when we had ample warning months prior to its announcement, is everyone surprised that Labour plans to bring in a capital gains tax?

October 2018, I sat in Labour MP Deborah Russel's meeting called "Let's talk tax". I recognised none of the attendees and most seemed like Labour voters. This was similar to the meeting held by the same MP about immigration. Aside from three right-wing allies including Paul Davie, I was the only right wing representative. We sat right in the middle of what appeared to be a very Labour heavy crowd, complete with Jeremy Corbyn shirts and "migrant lives matter" protesters.

It would appear that amid all the gender-pay-gap debunking and multiple-genders hysteria, the right/conservatives/libertarians have opted to keep triggering the "libtards", and neglected their duty of being a thorn in the side of the communists, and to be actually talk about things that matter, until they're on our doorstep.

Yes, it is far easier to remain motivated politically when you're being funded by left-wing organisations. Yes, it is far easier to remain politically motivated when the media fawns over you and your ilk while continually and unashamedly bashing and smearing your opponents. Yes, political activism and upholding conservative values is a lot harder than merely cleaning your room.

But right now, the only activism taking place is in the shadows, by groups such as Dominion Movement, who are actively recruiting and building what appears to be a white nationalist militia. They're authoritarian and go against nearly every libertarian and conservative value except for perhaps upholding the family unit.

Groups like this continue to grow because the people who want to be politically active and feel like they're achieving something are being forced into their hands, not by left-wing activism, but by right-wing inactivism.

All the time, Labour and the Greens hold public meetings that right-wingers should be flooding. These echo chambers grown all the more dangerous because we allow them to. Echo chambers like this brought us the government we see before us.

Winston Peter's announcement of the new government saw the NZD drop 3 cents to the USD immediately. While this was affected only by speculators, it showed exactly which way investors were betting.

While financially illiterate lefties jump for joy at the idea of investors having low confidence in a nation's government, the reality is that when investors aren't confident, they don't invest in small or medium businesses, so those businesses don't expand, they don't create jobs, and wages stagnate.

Couple that original low confidence with ridiculous taxes such as the regional fuel tax—along with banning oil exploration, artificially restricting supply and thereby increasing demand—and you've created a recipe for bringing any economy to its knees.

"Oh, but we have a SURPLUS," we hear Labour and its voters screech.

That's a bad thing; you should not be celebrating. A nation is not made rich by collecting surplus tax revenue. A nation is made rich by allowing investors to freely invest their money where they choose.

Recently, more and more investors have chosen to put their money into housing. That is the fault of National, many argue, who's relaxed approach to Chinese investment for 9 years led to large amounts of New Zealand's land falling into the hands of Chinese buyers.

While it is true that many houses and businesses are now owned by Chinese buyers, and by proxy the Chinese government, rising house prices is mirrored worldwide. The blame cannot be put entirely on National.

Another factor in the house price inflation is poor investor confidence. When a nation's only investment opportunity lies in its housing market, that's a seriously bad sign that its economy is not the shining rock-star that it was once made out to be.

With high levels of unemployment (although not according to official statistics) and welfare consumption, alongside a government that seems intent on worsening this situation, the attractiveness of NZ's economy has vanished.

But Labour, not one to copulate with arachnids, has cottoned on to this little mechanic of economics, and plans to scare the investors out of the houses and into the businesses with a capital gains tax. The CGT will make housing less profitable and business investment more attractive, or so the theory goes.

The reality is, in the same way that banning letting fees will see landlords raise rents to cover the cost that the letting fee once did, a CGT will only serve to raise the cost of buying an asset.

Of course, short term, we may see a decrease in property investment (along with portfolio investment and economic growth), but investors aren't stupid. They're not going to simply absorb the cost of the tax. They'll tack it onto the end of the price of the property. Going to lose 30% of your $100,000 profit? No matter, up the price by $30,000.

The only people being effected are people who can't afford to wait for a higher bidder, e.g. everyone who is not a professional investor.

The greedy billionaire capitalists can sit on a property until the cows come home, but when a local business needs to liquidate an asset within a time-frame, they'll have no choice but to suck it up and pay the tax out of their own pocket.

In a nutshell, the people Labour intends to penalise for malinvestment get out without a scratch, house prices are still out of reach for young families, and small businesses get hit with a tax which affects their ability to employ.

Yet again, the principles of socialism hurt those they purport to help, and those that were supposed to feel the righteous wrath of the "people" are left unscathed.

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