After decades of careful research, if economists had to rank what policies were good ones and which were bad ones, the good would include:
Unemployment Insurance of limited duration (no longer than around 6 months)
Charter Schools which are based on the idea of private provision with public funding
Extending the retirement age in the face of the ageing population
Bad ones would include:
Subsidies (like to NZ Steel) and Command & Control Regulations for dealing with pollution (instead of relying on pricing the cost of the carbon externality)
Industry-wide union bargaining
Centralization and lack of quality competition in the supply of health-care services
So what has PM Hipkins done since becoming a Minister and PM? Dump the good policies and keep the bad ones. Why? A thirst for power that has driven him to follow focus groups, his comms staff and daily polling which is telling him where short-term advantage may lie.
His first act as PM was visit Auckland to see the Chamber of Commerce - it told him to open the immigration floodgates. The effect on infrastructure & wages of local workers was ignored. The Chamber also told him it didn't want unemployment insurance since it meant contributions by firms. It won and ordinary Kiwi workers were sold out, as they would have benefited from this scheme. The PM just wanted to grab some of the business vote from National and ACT - workers who he pretends to stand for were shafted.
Hipkins is selling himself as a regular kid from The Hutt. He is not. He is a street fighter from the Hood who plays by no rules & fights dirty - not caring about who he hurts in the process since winning at any cost is the only goal.
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