Blame Social Justice Warriors for Donald Trump
04 Mar 2016 Leave a comment
in economics, liberalism, politics - USA Tags: 2016 presidential election, political correctness
Income tax and social security contributions as a percentage of gross wage earnings in the USA, Britain, Canada, Germany, Denmark, Italy, France, Sweden, Australia and New Zealand
04 Mar 2016 Leave a comment
in fiscal policy, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, public economics Tags: Australia, British economy, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Italy, social insurance, Social Security, Sweden, taxation and labour supply
Source: Taxing Wages 2015 – OECD 2015.
Donald Trump is uniquely unsuited to be president – @latimesopinion
03 Mar 2016 Leave a comment
in politics - USA, Public Choice
Best single defence of charter schools ever
03 Mar 2016 Leave a comment
in economics of education, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA
Appeared before the Parliamentary committee on the #TPPA today
03 Mar 2016 1 Comment
in international economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: conspiracy theories, ISDS, New Zealand Greens, TPPA
One of the cathartic things about leaving the public service is I do not have to be deferential to politicians anymore. I can treat them like ordinary people and tell them where to go when they annoy me. In consequence, I am not in any way nervous about appearing before a parliamentary committee.
This Parliamentary committee was very unlike the last. Staying on after giving my submission was a pain rather than a learning experience.
A parade of conspiracy theories about the investor state dispute settlement process followed my testimony, which was first of the day. I left after about 45 minutes.
In my testimony, I got a standard question from David Clark, a Labour MP, about whether more time should be that given to make submissions because the complexities of the intellectual property chapter.
Kennedy Graham, the Green MP, then asked a bizarre question about how could New Zealand sign a trade agreement that would compromise environmental standards. His example was a trade agreement where it is agreed to start using coal as a power source again in New Zealand.
So weird with this question that I did not give the obvious answer which was this parade of horribles is so unlikely that it is not a serious question. What I did say was it is very unlikely New Zealand would ever sign such an agreement.
If a parade of horribles and weird hypotheticals is the best you can do, you do not have much of an argument against the TPPA.
The World according to @BernieSanders
02 Mar 2016 Leave a comment
The price of @RealDonaldTrump burning his bridges with anyone who disagrees with him
01 Mar 2016 Leave a comment
in politics - USA, Public Choice
General government expenditure as % of US, British and Canadian GDP since 1960
28 Feb 2016 Leave a comment
in economic history, fiscal policy, macroeconomics, politics - USA, public economics Tags: British economy, Canada, growth of government, Margaret Thatcher, size of government, Thatchernomics, Tony Blair
Both the British and Canadian economies experienced major winding backs in the size of government. Only the UK, under neoliberal pawn and closet Thatcherite Tony Blair, was that undone. He is now despised by many Labour Party members including its current leader for this record.
Data extracted on 23 Feb 2016 07:45 UTC (GMT) from OECD.Stat.
@BernieSanders no living wage for interns @HillaryClinton hires interns illegally
28 Feb 2016 Leave a comment
in minimum wage, politics - USA Tags: 2016 presidential election, interns, left-wing democracy, living wage
Bernie Sanders pays well below the $15 living wage he expects all other employers to be by law required to pay out of their equally limited budgets. His revolution will be built on near starvation wages for the work of the worker bees.
Bring back @RusselNorman to save the planet from @NZGreens MPs carbon footprint @DBSeymour
28 Feb 2016 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, environmental economics, global warming, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice, transport economics Tags: carbon footprint, carbon offsets, Left-wing hypocrisy, New Zealand Greens, rational irrationality
Living the clean, green lifestyle means more than just buying carbon-offs in the same way that indulgences for sins were sold by the mediaeval Catholic Church. Russell Norman was an MP for 9 of the 12 months covered by this chart. He consistently had one of the smallest carbon footprints of a Green MP even when he was still co-leader of the Greens and not just a backbench MP.
Source: New Zealand Parliament – Members’ expense disclosure from 1 October to 31 December 2015.
New Zealand MP travel expenses 1 October – 31 December 2015 @DBSeymour
28 Feb 2016 1 Comment
in economics of bureaucracy, environmental economics, global warming, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice, rentseeking, transport economics Tags: carbon footprint, New Zealand Greens, rational irrationality
10 of the 14 green MPs have above-average air travel expenses – have an above average carbon footprint for a member of the New Zealand Parliament. It is not easy to be Green.
Source: New Zealand Parliament – Members’ expense disclosure from 1 October to 31 December 2015.
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