Well... Has there been an earth tremor in the ideological universe. Are some capitalists wavering and beginning to argue for a pause to tax cuts and even a capital gains tax?  

One of my favourite reads is the business section of the Weekend Herald on a Saturday. It has the best articles and opinion pieces - but this week was especially interesting.  

On page six was Steven Joyce with a piece called ‘The Case for Tax Cuts’.  

He toed the centre-right political line that tax cuts are affordable and a good thing because they give hard working Kiwis a reward for their hard work which will keep them working hard and hopefully harder.  

He pointed out that the tax cuts are tax bracket adjustments for brackets that haven't changed for 14 years. Which means higher tax rates now kick in for people who are not any richer than 14 years ago, in fact they're poorer.  

He says to achieve economic growth we need to increase the rewards for working an hour, and it's only by growing fast that we can afford the infrastructure, the public services and the lifestyle we aspire to.  

So far so ideologically sound.  

But then on page 2 is Fran O'Sullivan, former NBR editor and now the Herald's Head of Business and friend to the capitalist world.  

And she says bugger politics and let's get rational.  

She says it's unfathomable that taking steps to address the Government's structural deficit is regarded as politically toxic. She's talking about selling state assets, and restraining spending but also taxing capital gains.  

It's that last bit that's fascinating.  

The point being that we're losing our teachers, cops and health staff because we can't afford to pay them.   

Meanwhile, our hospitals, roads and schools are falling apart because we can't afford to fix them.    

But all that pay and development is funded by taxes.    

But the tax take is dropping because of a self-inflicted recession by the Reserve Bank and tax cuts.  

Fran is repeating the lines that economists and the OECD and the iIMF have all said in recent months.   

The country has to pay for stuff and yet we're hell bent on making the country poorer in the hope that one day we will be richer.  

I'd argue that neither side is looking at the full picture. 

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