“NZ up until the 1980s, was a fairly egalitarian country, apart from Maori and women”
18 Jan 2015 1 Comment
in applied welfare economics, economic history, gender, labour economics, Marxist economics
Max Rashbrooke is at it again in today’s Sunday Star Times – Wellington’s Sunday paper. He was painting pre-economic reform, pre-1984 New Zealand is a golden era of egalitarianism.
To do this, to paint pre-1984 New Zealand, pre-neoliberal New Zealand as a fairly egalitarian paradise, he only had to ignore up to two thirds of the population and the inequalities they suffered.
“New Zealand up until the 1980s was fairly egalitarian, apart from Maori and women, our increasing income gap started in the late 1980s and early 1990s,” says Rashbrooke. “These young club members are the first generation to grow up in a New Zealand really starkly divided by income.”
Racism and patriarchy can sit comfortably with a fairly egalitarian society if you are to believe the Left over Left.
As he implies in the paper today, captioned and quoted above, New Zealand in the 1980s was not fairly egalitarian for women, the majority of the population, and Māori, another 10% or so of the population.
This ignoring of racial and gender equality is very much in keeping with Max Rashbrooke’s boy’s own view of egalitarianism: women and ethnic minorities such as Māori and Pasifika don’t count in the greater scheme of the Left over Left when they whine and bitch about the Great Enrichment.
The mission in life of the Left over Left is desperately seeking poverty even if they drop out of the statistics most of the people who are no longer in poverty because of the Great Enrichment and the latest blessings of capitalism and freedom.
As shown in figure 1 below, between 1994 and 2010, real equivalised median New Zealand household income rose by 47%; for Māori, this rise was 68%; for Pasifika, the rise in real equivalised median household income was 77%.
Figure 1: Real equivalised median household income (before housing costs) by ethnicity, 1988 to 2013 ($2013)
Source: Bryan Perry, Household incomes in New Zealand: Trends in indicators of inequality and hardship 1982 to 2013. Ministry of Social Development (July 2014).
Median household income increases of nearly 50% in 16 years, and larger increases for ethnic minorities such as Māori and Pasifika should be celebrated rather than simply ignored because they are inconvenient to Left over Left sniping.
As is common with every member of the Left over Left that I run into these days, such as Max Rashbrooke,, their analysis has no gender analysis.
The Left over Left invariably fail to mention that New Zealand has the smallest gender wage gap of all the industrialised countries.
Sources: Ministry of Women’s Affairs and Statistics New Zealand: New Zealand Income Survey
Over the last more than two decades in New Zealand, there has been sustained income growth spread across all of New Zealand society contrary to hopes and dreams of the Left over Left.
Perry (2014) reviews the poverty and inequality data in New Zealand every year for the Ministry of Social Development. He concluded that:
Overall, there is no evidence of any sustained rise or fall in inequality in the last two decades. The level of household disposable income inequality in New Zealand is a little above the OECD median. The share of total income received by the top 1% of individuals is at the low end of the OECD rankings
The political bias of selected professions
16 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of media and culture, Marxist economics, occupational choice, politics - USA Tags: media bias
These graphs show the contributions by individual donors in each industry to political candidates
via http://blog.crowdpac.com/post/101785128940/the-political-bias-of-each-profession
Great satellite photo of the Korean peninsula by night
14 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in Marxist economics, war and peace Tags: North Korea, South Korea, workers paradise
Korean Peninsula from the International Space Station http://t.co/wMP6xT3yan—
Max Roser (@MaxCRoser) January 06, 2015
Central planning versus spontaneous order: bicycle version
07 Jan 2015 1 Comment
in comparative institutional analysis, economics, economics of regulation, liberalism, Marxist economics
via Neil Wilson and https://twitter.com/juliawolfe/status/551580469910073345?s=09
Socialism and the intellectuals – Thomas Sowell
06 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, Marxist economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, Rawls and Nozick Tags: cowardice of intellectuals, Leftover Left, Thomas Sowell
How was the immiseration of the proletariat going?
01 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in development economics, growth disasters, growth miracles, Marxist economics, technological progress Tags: immiseration of the proletariat, The Great Enrichment, The Great Fact
Richard Posner on the changing attitude of radical feminists to the commodification of labour
23 Dec 2014 Leave a comment
Brad de Long on the difference between the Left and Social Democrats
22 Dec 2014 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, economics of bureaucracy, Marxist economics, Public Choice Tags: Brad De Long, Leftover Left, Social Democrats
Havana before and after Socialism, same street 55 years apart
21 Dec 2014 Leave a comment
in development economics, growth disasters, growth miracles, Marxist economics Tags: Cuba, The Great Enrichment
Castro on the Cuban model of socialism
19 Dec 2014 Leave a comment
in liberalism, Marxist economics Tags: Cuba, Fidel Castro, Leftover Left, The Great Enrichment, The Great Fact
@bryce_edwards New Zealand’s war on the poor – a fact check
15 Dec 2014 Leave a comment
in economic history, income redistribution, labour economics, Marxist economics, politics - USA, technological progress Tags: Bryce Edwards, Leftover Left, poverty and inequality
Bryce Edwards has shown in today’s column that he knows nothing about inequality in New Zealand, despite the statistics being at his fingertips:
Under capitalism there’s always going to be a war against the poor.
The process by which we divide up the resources of any society normally involves exploiting the majority for the benefit of the minority.
It’s called inequality. And this is how it is in New Zealand: those who have the most power look for ways to extract that money for themselves, or at least retain the status quo.
Against this are those who want to have a more equal society. It’s an age-old political issue, and one that has traditionally been at the heart of the left-right political divide.
In 2014 this concern about inequality has been a key feature of politics, underpinning much of what has occur…
Although the rich appear to have been winning for three decades in their ‘war against the poor’, perhaps the tide is turning?
There’s still every indication of severe poverty and inequality in this country.
Firstly, inequality has not increased in New Zealand for at least 20 years when either measured in figure 1 by the Gini coefficient or in figure 2, the top 1% income shares. Both the Gini coefficient and the top 1% income shares have not risen for 20 years.
Figure 1: Gini coefficient New Zealand 1980-2015
Source: Bryan Perry, Household incomes in New Zealand: Trends in indicators of inequality and hardship 1982 to 2013. Ministry of Social Development (July 2014).
Figure 2: Top 1% income shares, USA, New Zealand and Australia, 1970-2012
Source: top incomes database
Secondly, the benefits of the economic boom that lasted 15 years from the early 1990s until the onset of the global financial crisis would spread broadly across all sections of the New Zealand community. As shown in figure 3, both before and after housing costs increased. As shown in figure 4, real household incomes increased pretty much evenly across all of the 10 income deciles between 1994 and 2013.
Figure 3: Real household income trends before housing costs (BHC) and after housing costs (AHC), 1982 to 2013 ($2013)
Source: Bryan Perry, Household incomes in New Zealand: Trends in indicators of inequality and hardship 1982 to 2013. Ministry of Social Development (July 2014).
Figure 4: Real household incomes (BHC), changes for top of income deciles, 1994 to 2013
Source: Bryan Perry, Household incomes in New Zealand: Trends in indicators of inequality and hardship 1982 to 2013. Ministry of Social Development (July 2014).
Thirdly, as shown in figure 5, between 1994 and 2010, real equivalised median household income rose 47% from 1994 to 2010; for Māori, this rise was 68%; for Pasifika, the rise was 77%. Median household income increases of nearly 50% in 16 years should be celebrated.
Figure 5: Real equivalised median household income (before housing costs) by ethnicity, 1988 to 2013 ($2013).
Source: Bryan Perry, Household incomes in New Zealand: Trends in indicators of inequality and hardship 1982 to 2013. Ministry of Social Development (July 2014).
The massive improvements in Māori incomes since 1992 were based on rising Māori employment rates, fewer Māori on benefits, more Māori moving into higher paying jobs, and greater Māori educational attainment. Māori unemployment reached a 20-year low of 8 per cent from 2005 to 2008.
Over the last more than two decades in New Zealand, there has been sustained income growth spread across all of New Zealand society contrary to the warmed over Marxism of Bryce Edwards. Perry (2014) reviews the data every year for the Ministry of Social Development. He concluded that:
Overall, there is no evidence of any sustained rise or fall in inequality in the last two decades.
The level of household disposable income inequality in New Zealand is a little above the OECD median.
The share of total income received by the top 1% of individuals is at the low end of the OECD rankings.
Bryce Edwards’ analysis was in the typical Marxist tradition – it had no gender analysis. He failed to mention that New Zealand has the smallest gender wage gap of all the industrialised countries.
As he did not notice these great successes in household incomes, incomes of every decile, Māori economic development and the empowerment of women, Bryce Edwards had nothing to add in terms of either consolidating or improving on them.
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