Bill Shorten on why the Greens do not win working class votes
25 May 2015 Leave a comment
in politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice Tags: Australian Greens, Australian Labor Party, expressive voting, Inner-city Left, New Zealand Greens, voter demographics
The Labor Party on why the Greens do not win working class votes
24 May 2015 Leave a comment
in politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: animal rights, Australian Greens, do gooders, expressive voting, New South Wales election, New Zealand Greens, voter demographics, workers rights
Voters think raising the minimum wage is more pro-growth than business tax cuts
24 May 2015 Leave a comment
The rise and rise of working billionaires
23 May 2015 Leave a comment
Peter Mandelson on why Labour lost
21 May 2015 Leave a comment
Peter Mandelson in the New York Times on why Labour lost: nytimes.com/2015/05/20/opi… http://t.co/pzbIXOmwpX—
Alex Wickham (@WikiGuido) May 19, 2015
Housing affordability breakthrough! The capital gains tax has been given its chance to fail
20 May 2015 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice Tags: capital gains tax, evidence-based policy, land supply, RMA, zoning
This week, the New Zealand government announced a special capital gains tax for investments in housing. Specifically, if a buyer sells the house within two years of buying it, and this house is not their home, the investor will be liable to income tax on any profit.
This solution also has been put forward by the left-wing political parties in New Zealand as their solution to the problem of restricted land supply in Auckland and other cities in New Zealand.
The introduction of a capital gains tax is a breakthrough for housing affordability. This solution of using a capital gains tax to dampen demand has been given its chance and it will fail.
Once a capital gains tax fails to make housing more affordable, political parties on the left and on the right can no longer put off confronting real solutions such as major reforms to the Resource Management Act (RMA) to loosen restrictions on the supply of land in the big cities in New Zealand and in particular in Auckland.
There are no Liberal Republicans and Conservative Democrats any more
19 May 2015 2 Comments
in income redistribution, politics - USA, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: political polarisation
British Labour’s defeat was actually worse than initially reported
16 May 2015 Leave a comment
Brilliant piece by @PCollinsTimes: "denial already has its two candidates in the field." thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/co… http://t.co/PLs36JBk3i—
Harry Cole (@MrHarryCole) May 15, 2015
A good example of expressive voting
15 May 2015 Leave a comment
in Public Choice Tags: British general election, expressive voting, rational irrationality
A lovely defence of London and champagne socialism, by @hugorifkind spectator.co.uk/columnists/hug… via @HKesvani http://t.co/GonSadNFva—
Tom Chivers (@TomChivers) May 14, 2015
Working-class Tories are not just turkeys voting for Christmas
14 May 2015 Leave a comment
in liberalism, Public Choice Tags: British general election, Leftover Left, working-class Tories
Suzanne Moore has written the best essay yet on the British general election. A die hard Lefty from her youth raised in a working class Tory household who argued politics with her mum to the day she died. They both gave as good as they got:
We always thought each other wrong and moved on to more pressing subjects. Years of screaming at her over the turkey that she herself was a turkey voting for Christmas did not change her voting habits. She just went out for a fag and moaned to the neighbours that I was “still against everything”.
She did herself proud by being aware of her own arrogance in retrospect:
Of course, I had diagnosed her with that everyday ailment “false consciousness”. This is still how most of the left operates. We have the truth, we know what is best and we will enlighten you, awaken you from your slumbers and you will be grateful.
Suzanne Moore is also very insightful about how shy Tories think:
If anyone wants to listen to the so-called “shy Tories”, what you will often hear is not talk of aspiration but a desire to be left alone by the state – even a deep suspicion of it.
Moore also couldn’t summarise better why her mother, who was part of a mixed-race couple, and so many others in the working-class voted for the Tory party
She believed that the Tories would enable her to do things and that Labour would stop her doing them.
Further evidence that street politics is counter-productive
14 May 2015 Leave a comment
in constitutional political economy, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, Public Choice Tags: activists, civil disobedience, Leftover Left, protesters, street politics
Public disorder and rioting by a large leads to a law and order response among the public and a hardening of social attitudes against whatever the desired social reform might be when it is tainted by civil disorder.
The Left, the Green Left and the watermelons in particular want to believe that street protests change things. They have to validate their youthful offences against public order.
Sadly, no; sadly for them but not for the law-abiding rest of us who resolve our differences by trying to persuade each other and elections.
The law-abiding rest of us believe in democratic equality. Your vote counts as much as mine in a democracy with free speech. The only way you can change my vote is by free speech, not by public disorder, threats and intimidation and taking the law into your own hands.
Public confidence in the police in America
14 May 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, economics of crime, politics - USA Tags: crime and punishment, law and order, police, voter demographics
Housing affordability trends in New Zealand and the case for a capital gains tax
14 May 2015 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of regulation, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking, urban economics Tags: Auckland, capital gains tax, housing affordability, RMA
If the affordability crisis in New Zealand is demand side driven requiring capital gains tax to temper that demand, why is the affordability crisis so marked in one city? Does that make a case for a capital gains tax only on Auckland or suggest the capital gains tax is trying to solve the wrong problem.
via demographia.com
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