In New Zealand and Australia the key leaders in both the 'conservative' and Labor parties (not necessarily the rank and file members) learnt from the economic devastation of the 1970s and 1980s that Keynes was dangerously wrong. Stimulation by government spending does not for long decrease unemployment (or increase employment) and it always bites you on the bum with a vicious cycle of ever-increasing debt and interest costs and rates, inflation, reduced investment, unemployment, increasing welfare costs and government deficits and increasing taxes, ad infinitum.
Australia and New Zealand had continued to wreck the economy throughout the 1980s while USA had prosperity. It was not until about 1990 or so that both neighbouring countries decided they had to bite-the-bullet (make the temporarily painful decision) and begin to pay off the national debt and to adopt *less* Keynesian policies. The first step in having a budget surplus is *deciding* to permanently have a budget surplus! That is, to have a continually reducing debt and at some point in the future to have no government debt whatsoever and never again to have a deficit. Also taxation reduction is a key element, that will come into play as the debt approaches zero. On the other hand, USA (Bush) seems to have abandoned all fiscal common sense (if he ever had any) and in his destruction-lead economy proceeded on a mad rush to phenomenal debt and future tax increases, with present insane spending, foreign war adventures and domestic totalitarianism. I must admit that Australia too has spent hundreds of millions on this war, but this is nothing to compare to the Bush trillions, and the budget surplus (and positive economic growth) remains - according to forcasts. Regards, Ian Green > From: FileMatrix > Sent: Tuesday, 14 October 2003 10:16 PM > To: e-gold Discussion > Subject: [e-gold-list] Re: Income tax > New Zealand has been running a > large surplus of > about 3-4% GDP for the last few years but the economy keeps > doing well. > So, how does New Zealand do it? --- You are currently subscribed to e-gold-list as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Use e-gold's Secure Randomized Keyboard (SRK) when accessing your e-gold account(s) via the web and shopping cart interfaces to help thwart keystroke loggers and common viruses.
