Welcome to ZealandiaBlog.
15 years ago we wrote the following editorial for the
Economic Myth Busters website:
“This Web-site deals with economic reality. Theory be it from the “Old Left” or the “New Right” is not accepted in blind faith. It must be able to be tested in practice.
The New Zealand experiment over the last 15 years has proved that “neo liberal – free market” theory has failed the test.
The magic of the “invisible hand of the market” turning self-interest (greed) into common interest didn’t work. It just served as an excuse for the rich to get richer at the expense of the poor.
We hope to help foreign journalists attending the APEC conference to look beyond the government propaganda at the New Zealand reality.
The story will continue as more evidence comes in. Watch this space!
Dr. H. Grueber
Editor Auckland September 1999″
Now we are continuing. Thank you for watching this space for 15 years.
Our aim is to give all matters of public interest a wide platform.
Please link us on your site.
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Congratulations – may it be a busy site!
Hallo,
Congratulations to the person who designed the site. Brilliant job! Congratulations also to Hans for adding his blog to what is called the rather crowded blogosphere.
I looked at the Myth-Busters site and saw Finland, Taiwan and Ireland paraded as the paragons of economic prowess.
Helloho!
• I worked in Taiwan in the late seventies. It was a low-wage economy where workers were exploited beyond the limit, and a total disregard for the environment. By now, Taiwan’s growth rate has reverted to normal.
• Finland has a higher debt and higher unemployment than New Zealand (although I salute them for their success in education).
• Ireland attracted a host of companies because it had an extremely low corporate tax rate – not something Hans would approve of, I presume. In the end it all turned to custard because of a property bubble and loans given by the major bank turning bad. Then, the government assumed the bad loans to rescue the bank. In the end, Ireland had to be bailed out by the EU (read: Germany).
Although they may have looked successful at the time, neither of these examples lends itself as the example to emulate in New Zealand.
Let’s hope that the new blog will be used for genuine discussion and enlightenment, rather than simply to regurgitate the NZ Herald’s left-wing columnists, and to confirm the participant’s mostly similar opinions to each other.
Cheers,
K.-H. Peter Kammler