Decision 2020 – average or inspirational?

Ardern would have you believe this is the Covid election. Collins would agree and say it is the Covid mismanagement election. But like all elections, it’s about the future you want.

Here’s the rub… neither party is portraying any clear strategy for what future they want to deliver tangibly. Build more schools, roads, turn us into a silicone island, stop cows farting, stop using plastic, euthanise the old, further Covid lockdowns or not… the minutiae of crap. Populist pork barrelling, no vision. What’s new? And why am I still surprised and disappointed by this?

In essence this election, perhaps more than any other, is an election on philosophy.

1. Do you want an aspirational society? To have such a society you must acknowledge property rights and protect them, or,
2. Do you want a society that aims to have everyone do or receive average, achieving this through redistribution by means of taxes, printing money and shoving forward the consequences of this to our children and unborn children, who conveniently don’t get to vote on the debt we are pushing onto them?

A simple choice.

Judge your local candidates and the political parties on which fits your view of how a utopia looks and vote accordingly. We will then get what we collectively want, but please consider the consequences of each philosophical standpoint from the lens of the world your children will inherit as a consequence.

Of course, it is not easy, Labour is not red, it is sought of mauve, and National is not blue is it sort of purple, so judging which party to vote for is a trade-off of evils. Local candidates are like a beauty parade running up to Election Day, the shells you see will not give you much of a guide to the inner self, and politics is full of cosmetics sadly.

Assuming you land on aspiration, ignoring the let’s try and out Labour with stupid policies around giving children tooth paste and tooth brushes and then endless other one line promises of nonsense, National is a slightly darker shade of purple than Labour. Assuming you want average you vote for Labour, with higher taxes, printing more money handouts to zombie companies, and creating ever increasing subsidised jobs that will place those working in them in a nice comfortable employed but dissatisfied and insecure bucket.

Secure jobs come with a valued core purpose, doing something useful that you are proud of, led by competent management and funded by stable capital. Take the latter out and substitute it with printed money routed thought government, and all jobs become the whim of public policy, a fickle master.

So, go with what your gut tells you will give you the best chance for your children. An economy of state funded jobs that all pay average, with the risk of capital flight, or an aspirational society where jobs are created with purpose, funded by engaged and confident owners?

Short term have no doubt we (and for that matter most of the world) are in for a rough ride. The depression that is coming at us next year will be as bad as or worse than any before it, and what makes this more frustrating is it is self-induced.

I read recently, that last year the UK finally paid off its debt for World War One, and still is servicing its debts for World War Two. So perhaps it is right and proper that children must pay for the sins and stupidity of their fathers (and now in the politically correct world we live in their mothers) into perpetuity.

But if anyone thinks that crisis damages the rich and assists in redistribution, history and economics suggest that a good crisis, and a good dose of socialism, ultimately concentrates more wealth in the hands of the few.

The handling of Covid, just like world wars before it has done the same thing. The printing of money has not really helped the real economy, but it sure as hell has inflated assets prices everywhere rewarding those that hold assets and damaging the aspirations of those who wish to acquire them.

When that bubble bursts (and there a lot of them) the effects of that will lengthen this malaise and the causalities physiological and physical will outweigh any conceivable effect of Covid – just my humble opinion.

National is right, Covid has been mismanaged, but does anyone really think they would have done any better? So forget that which you can’t change and focus your choice on aspiration or average.

I have often said I am yet to meet anyone who wakes up one morning and smiles to themselves and says “Today’s a good day, I am going to aspire to do average”. I have met many who wake up each day and say, “Shyt this is horrid, but today I am going to do better”. That is called hope. Look at the political parties and ask yourself which one gives you hope for your children? If the answer is none, likely, then which is the least of the evils?