Kia-ora
A liveable income should be a human right.
We accept that someone can inherit unearned millions, but we do not
accept that someone else should inherit enough, from our society, to
live on, as of right.
Who actually has the culture of unearned entitlement?
The Koch’s, Romney’s, Bennets, Shipley and Keys getting thousands a day for contributing very little.
Not a teenager who has been struggling unsuccessfully to find work for two years and is expected to live on $130 a week.
The days of constant growth and full employment are gone.
We can produce enough for everyone to live in comfort in NZ with fraction of our present activity/employment.
I do not have the figures for New Zealand, but, rather than a more
equal distribution of income making everyone poorer, if the USA’s
current production was shared equally, every family in the States would have
an income of around 180k annually.
The right wing idea that a more equal distribution of income means equality in misery, is an obvious fallacy.
A surgeon, teacher or entrepreneur should earn more
than an unqualified cleaner, but by cutting extreme wealth there is plenty of room to
eradicate poverty in New Zealand. Or the US.
No one except for some rare exceptional entrepreneurs, “earns” millions.
Note that in both the USA and New Zealand when they were at their most prosperous the top progressive tax rate was much higher and inequalities in wealth much lower than they are now.
Trickle down does not work. http://kjt-kt.blogspot.co.nz/2012/08/blog-post.html
Unintentional irony from individuals who are sitting on 100 thousand dollar pay rises, while their company tanks in the recession, salt their income away offshore to avoid taxes, prefer to spend on bidding up prices with unproductive speculation, expect taxpayer bailouts when their gambling fails, and ask for tax cuts while the deficit increases.