Author Archives: Deirdre

Social bonds an experiment that can’t work because…

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This morning during a Q and A current affairs programme I tweeted the following tweet. “#nzqanda Social bonds experiment risky. Can’t solve social problems separate from wages, jobs, tax, governance issues @NZQandA” Six people retweeted it and many marked it as favourite, showing it resonated with others watching the programme.

Quite frankly the Minister of Social Development, Anne Tolley, is bound to fail with this experiment. And it is not just that you can’t privatise social welfare and expect good results. It is because the whole political system is one system so you can’t put welfare in a silo, treat it separately and expect good outcomes.

Yesterday I heard Kim Hill in a Radio NZ interview with UK Renegade Economist Ross Ashcroft utter this telling remark: “It seems nothing you can do in an economy isn’t going to cause some bad effects somewhere else.” Well Kim you hit the nail on the head there! Everything is connected. And it is not just within the economic system. It is the tax system, the welfare system, jobs, governance, the credit system and wages structures that are all tied up together. Change the paradigms of a few of these and the whole system gets tweaked for the better.

So how do we get a healthy economic system that results in good social outcomes? Looking at the range of social problems from truancy, mental health problems, crime, family dysfunction, stress, educational issues, loneliness, health where does it all stop and where is the best place to intervene? Try education of young mothers? Oh no, they are victims of domestic violence and poverty. Try wages alone? Oh dear the businesses shed jobs. Try crime alone? Nothing changes. Poverty persists, the wealth gap keeps widening. Try housing without changing the tax and rating systems? Oh dear, you get urban sprawl and an inability of councils to build essential infrastructure so you get more social problems. Fix the money system by itself with zero interest rates but fail to address the tax system? You just exaceberate the housing bubble and widen the wealth gap further.

Whanau Ora , a cross-government system, an approach that places families/whānau at the centre of service delivery, requiring the integration of health, education and social services, gets it right as far as it goes. This system treats the family as a whole system and refuses to accept that ten state agencies must enter the home that has a social problem. Everything affects everything else. The presenting problem of the misbehaving adolescent may reveal a range of other issues – domestic violence, poverty, educational failure and health problems, housing problems, job insecurity and so on.

But even the integrated Whanau Ora programme can’t solve the fundamental issues of a structurally faulty currency system, tax system, welfare system and governance system. A currency must circulate at an optimal pace, businesses must create well paid and satisfying jobs and be constrained by a tax system that protects exploitation of the habitat.

One of the more interesting admissions from the Minister of Social Welfare was that a lot of problems can be solved locally rather than centrally. Panel member Josie Pagani agreed. Yet devolving functions in the way we have previously understood it isn’t going to work either. Why not? Because the state can still intervene, give councils less money, legislate to put further financial burden on councils and so on.

The only way to restructure an economy is to change four major paradigms. Instead of central devolving functions and finance try the other way round. Instead of banks creating the country’s credit as interest bearing debt, let the people create their means of exchange interest free. Instead of taxing work and spending and enterprise, let’s put a rental on the exclusive use of the commons like land, minerals and so on. Instead of a welfare system that is asset and income tested, let’s give a basic income derived from the land rents that were previously privately captured.

There is a great deal of thinking to do. When the global financial system’s huge credit bubble finally bursts let’s make sure we start again, but start properly. The New Economics movement is a vehicle for this new thinking. We can and we must develop a new economic system that works for nearly all life. Otherwise we are going to repeat the same failed experiment. And it is not just the social bonds experiment.

Productivity Commission recommends change to land value rating system

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You won’t find this headline in the NZ Herald or the Dominion Post because it is all but ignored in their reports. Admittedly the Dominion Post gives the rating system a mention in paragraphs 16 and 17 of its report, but its headline was “User pays seem as vital for housing”.

If we look at the actual report, Using Land for Housing, it argues logically that a return to land value rating system is going to incentivise building. After several pages of evidence it concludes very moderately that “A good case appears to exist for setting general rates on the basis of land value rather than capital value, to encourage the development and efficient use of land. Arguments used to prefer capital value rating are not strong.”

It says:
“A number of policy settings would influence a landowner’s incentive to develop land, at the margin. This
section considers four:
 the valuation basis of councils’ general rates;
 land taxes;
 tax breaks for development; and
 charging rates on Crown-owned land.”

The media of course will focus on on the last of these.

Go to P258 of the report and read the subsequent pages. Submissions on the draft report are due on 4 August

Why you need to encrypt your email

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Andrew Casey of the Pirate Party attended the New Economics Party hui and explains why you need to encrypt your emails.https://vimeo.com/130394230?utm_source=email&utm_medium=clip-transcode_complete-finished-20120100&utm_campaign=7701&email_id=Y2xpcF90cmFuc2NvZGVkfGEzOWU3YjIyNGRjODAwMDY2NjM3NjUwNWRiMTFiOTA1NjE3fDE1MzU0Njg5fDE0MzQwMDIyOTJ8NzcwMQ%3D%3D

Why we need to solve wicked problems using systems thinking

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Do we solve the big political problems one by one or as a whole system? We say as a whole system.You can’t do it one by one.

In a system where everything affects everything else, if you change one element it has an effect on at least one other element and sets off a chain of responses.

We have assumed there is a need to change the tax system, the money system, the welfare system and the governance system. What happens if we don’t tackle it as a whole system?

Let’s just change the tax system. The result of taking off the deadweight taxes like income tax, GST and company tax and changing to charging a rent on the monopoly use of natural resources only, we still get an increased systemic pressure from the money system for growth. The result is continuing growth of private debt at interest. The banks become more powerful than ever.

If we change the money system but don’t tackle the tax and welfare system we get huge land and resource inflation resulting in inequality and booms and busts.

If we change two of them e.g. the tax and welfare system the result is more equality but still the growth of interest bearing debt.

Change all of these but not the governance system and the result is an equal but increasingly dissatisfied population. They are disenfranchised and don’t trust the government. Democracy deteriorates.

Everything in the political economic system affects everything else.

So we to change them all together by obeying Buckminster Fuller’s warning that “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”

The new model that makes the existing model obsolete is this: Money is created at the smallest possible level of government by spending it into existence, not lending it into existence with interest. The rules governing the trade in that currency are made locally to turn the tax system on its head. The rules of rent are decided at local level to share the values of location of land and of monopoly resource use. A small Citizens Dividend growing to a full Basic Income is distributed. Power, function and revenue flow from the periphery to other centres to create a new system – a complex, dynamic and self regulating political economy.DSCF0029

Why we do what we do and what we believe

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Why we do what we do in the New Economics Party

We believe that a political economy should be like a living organism and obey the laws of Nature. It should have both protection mechanisms to protect us from harm and growth opportunities to allow everyone to develop and specialise. In a healthy organism there are jobs for every cell and organ. It should have a thriving economy fuelled by the energy of money yet constrained by the limits of Nature. We believe the human species is part of Nature not there to dominate it. The riches of Nature and our heritage must be fairly shared and wisely managed.

Cooperation for common good
We believe in the collective power of good people to work for our common purpose and we refuse to say, “Change isn’t possible”. We know in our bones that the design of an economy is the critical factor needed to sustain and nourish life on this beautiful planet and that that like the 50 trillion cells in our bodies, seven billion people can actually work cooperatively without poverty, climate crises or war. We must do it or else perish as a species. Failure is not an option.

We are audacious enough to believe that people of every colour and creed can live together in peace with their basic needs met. With our collective refugee population now amounting to millions, it is time to address the causes of the injustices causing war, for without justice there will be no peace. We are adamant that every person has the right to the basics of life – a safe warm home, nourishing food, education health care and a sense of belonging.

We are one with our habitat
We believe that a political economy designed along the laws of Nature doesn’t result in the belching of greenhouse gases into a warming planet. We are impatient to protect our grandchildren from ever worsening storms, droughts and food shortages. After the wakeup calls of climate change and gross inequality, there is no time to waste trying to dominate and subdue Nature. Our country and indeed the world must be subservient to Nature and listen to her wisdom. Our laws and our human created currencies and structures must be in line with Nature’s laws. Only then can we live in harmony, solve climate change and live happily with our families free from war and Nature’s ravages. Nature bats first and last.

Biomimcry
We believe it is imperative to design a political economy that is both elegant and simple. Add-on policies like Working for Families or Accommodation Supplements are simply signs that the basic design is poor. We want a simple tax system, not one full of ways to avoid tax and only serving to employ bureaucrats and accountants. We won’t tolerate a benefit system that invites dishonesty and penalises thrift and cooperation.

Honouring the Treaty
We recognise that Te Tiriti o Waitangi is a living treaty that must constantly be honoured. We understand the pain of colonisation of the Maori people by the British and will work cooperatively with Maori at each hapu and iwi level to work out policies in line with our principles. We acknowledge the injustice of the forced change to privately owned land that was brought by colonisers. We acknowledge the pain of a new money system on Maori and the need to pay tax in that currency.

We acknowledge the catch 22 demands of collective land ownership and the demands of the banking system for collateral for loans that has locked Maori outside the mainstream economy, generating an inability to finance productive investment in Maori enterprise for the last 175 years and that still ongoing. We understand the ongoing dispute between local government and Maori about unpaid rates originates from this demand.

We acknowledge the contribution Maori culture has made to the wider New Zealand culture, and the contribution it may yet make as pakeha are ready to receive – in particular the understanding of reciprocity in economic relations (sometimes known as utu) that underpins sustainable economy and sustainability per se.

We acknowledge the destructiveness of forced aggregation of Maori interests to iwi level that has resulted in the corporatization of ownership of Maori resources and consequent alienation of the bulk of the Maori population from those resources.

Energy transfer
The lifeblood of an economy is its flow of money. We believe we must take full control of our money systems – that is the sovereign right of any country. No longer will we allow commercial banks to create and control our money supply and gamble with our deposits, while they are poised to leave the innocent depositors to pick up the mess if they fail. We reserve the right to design the currencies we need.

Diversity, recycling
Everything manufactured is sourced as close as possible to where it is needed, and recycled for a no-waste economy. In a natural economy nobody will go hungry or homeless. Every individual is of worth and has the right to meaningful work. Nobody will be neglected, living in cars or crowded homes while others amass wealth they do not need. That is not Nature’s way.

Redistribution
Without revenue neither central nor local government can build infrastructure, schools and hospitals. The revenue we aim should tax the exclusive use of the commons (in its wider sense). Everyone should have the inalienable right to a share of the common wealth so the rents from the commons are be shared by distributing Citizens Dividends. Nobody should own the earth, water or fisheries or anything left to us by our ancestors.

Governance
A living system is a self-organising organism with a multitude of feedback and feed-forward mechanisms in a state of tension and negotiation till equilibrium is established. So we believe that decisions must not all be made centrally but all over the country. Local and national government must constantly be negotiating. We want strong communities with the inalienable right to elect their own decision makers; the fundamental unit of government must be a powerful Community Board.

Cities
We won’t tolerate sprawling cities with an elite landed class occupying desirable land near good schools and regular transport while those on the outskirts must wake early, leave their children and catch two buses to unsatisfying low paid jobs. For parents of young children two hours commuting is not conducive to anyone’s wellbeing. We can do better. We want compact walkable cities with efficient rapid transit without the use of fossil fuels. We understand that economic signals like rating systems and tax systems are driving our irrational behaviour. That is no way to plan a city.

We want local and national governments to have sufficient reliable income to pay for rapid transit, education and healthcare – revenue derived from charging a full rent on the exclusive use of the commons in its wider sense. Taxing the good things is not an option – it’s illogical to tax work, sales or enterprise. We will not watch on while governments struggle for revenue, people work long hours while property owners grow rich on the rising price of land.

Managing borders
We believe firmly in our national sovereignty. Although we know how to control our borders when it comes to pests and threats to our agriculture we don’t yet know how to control our borders when it comes to money. While hot money sloshes round the globe in search of higher returns and international trade agreements are written largely by the corporations that rule the world, we will not rest. We demand our country’s freedom to make laws without fear of being sued by a foreign corporation in a secret offshore tribunal.

New Zealand’s opportunity
We believe New Zealand with its small educated population and rich resources has an obligation to be a model of how to run a vibrant and exciting post fossil fuel economy where entrepreneurs can truly thrive and nobody is left uneducated or in poverty.

https://neweconomics.net.nz