Radio New Zealand’s article missed the point – surprise – but they probably all dropped out of Econ101 way before exams. And Econ textbooks are so big and heavy. Look – it’s this simple: New Zealanders can’t have it all.
When a Principal has to choose between flush toilets and fixing the roof, we’ve set up a lesson in simple Economics. New Zealanders can’t have it all. If we decide to allocate a few million of taxpayer’s funds to cultural celebrations, those same few million can’t be spent on flush toilets or leaky roofs in schools. That’s about as simple as Economics can get.
The government would argue that it’s juggling competing priorities — and yes, it is difficult to stretch a dollar when it’s being funnelled (every butter-consuming eN-Zedder knows this very well) into identity-affirming Happy Feet song and dance shows, endless working groups and huis, and whichever gang’s turn it is this week to be appeased. But when it comes to the basics — the literal foundations of education — Economics 101 applies. $30 per square metre (plus a charity-like $10 if your school is old and falling apart) might have been kapai in 2010 (no, it wasn’t enough then, let’s be fair), but not today, those dollars barely get you a builder’s quote and resource consent. Yes, inflation is real — just not, it seems, when budgeting for schools or roads or healthcare or pensions. Although cultural gig funding does seem to be adjusted upwards for inflation and political sweetening.
Surely every eN-Zedder wants a rippingly good healthcare system that provide hip replacements, chemotherapy and psychiatric care as and when it’s needed, free and first class. And surely every eN-Zedder wants roads as spectacularly good as the highways in Pakistan (I’m serious – dual acrriageway, median barrier for the whole length of the third world country!). Surely every eN-Zedder wants a justice system that works well, from crime to police to court to jail to rehabilitation. And surely every eN-Zedder wants an education system as good as anything else in the world (we used to have this but then Governments cut teachers’ salaries and it all went downhill from there). And if we had these things, no one would complain about eye-wateringly fat tax rates. It’s the paradox of eN-Zed: some of the highest tax rates in the OECD, yet the local school still has a 1973 carpet and a sewage system that belongs in a bach at Orepuki, not a state-funded educational institution.
In short: political appeasement and vanity spending of taxpayers’ funds, and more spending on what most normal, sensible, hardworking, taxpaying eN-Zedders want for their country and its citizens — like updated plumbing, safe buildings, and maybe, just maybe, some insulation in the classrooms.
eN-Zed 