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Contact:
Foundation for Economic Growth,
P.O. Box 10-282,
Wellington, N.Z.
Email
The Foundation for Economic Growth is a group of like-minded individuals who have decided to act rather than accept New Zealand's continuing poor economic performance. The Foundation is not affiliated with any political party.

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Most recent update: Aug 15th, 2008 - 11:26:43

Newsletters : 2005 Newsletters : 16 February 2005
Thought for the Day
We are now approaching a point of crisis which is not facism but a particularly British form of authoritarianism. For two decades the state has been taking liberties, and these liberties were once ours.

E. P. Thompson; British historian 1981.
Dec 10, 2004, 09:52

Newsletters : 2005 Newsletters : 16 February 2005
The Failure of the British Welfare State
James Bartholomew writes here about the British Welfare State. It sounds very much like New Zealand. The harm that the socialists have done to ordinary people is beyond belief.

With this latest debacle in our education system I think we can safely say that Government is not to be trusted with educating our children. After 5 years of labour rule in our Health system more people than ever are dying on ever increasing waiting lists. Our "Welfare for Business" system provides $26,000 for a "Hip hop" tour. CYFS is not sure how many children are under its "care".

Can we trust Governments to run anything?

If we didn't tax ourselves so much to get Nanny State to "solve" our problems we would be very much better off. Reducing tax to 15% for the first $38,000 and 25% thereafter would increase our growth rate by 1% - according to Treasury. If we had done that 30 years ago we would now be slightly ahead of Australia in wealth per person instead of 33% behind.

Far from helping us, the Welfare State concept has made us all poorer than we should be.

James' story makes very depressing reading so pop a happy pill and dive in.
Dec 10, 2004, 09:34

Welcome to our site

Thank you for taking the time to visit us. New Zealand has had a very chequered economic history. Sometimes growing at 4% but usually much less and in 11 out of the 48 years to 2003 we have had negative growth (shrinkage) of our Real GDP per Capita. However it is not all bad news and according to a recent Treasury report the efforts of the Lange Government with Sir Roger Douglas and the Bolger Government with Ruth Richardson have paid off with good growth in the 1990s which has followed through to around 2003. In fact, the Nationmaster.com site showed that New Zealand rose from number 37 to number 35 by the early 2000s. Unfortunately due to the policies of the Clark government we have dropped to number 38 by the end of 2006.

The question is: What policies do we need, to get back up into the top half of the OECD as Helen Clark aimed to do after being elected in 1999? The current ones are proving to be disastrous.

Our Philosophy

There is a time in the affairs of man which, taken at the flood, lead on . . . But the New Zealand tide has been ebbing for 50 years. It is time to grasp the nettle, require that our leaders arrest this trend and develop a plan to grow at 5% every year instead of our average 1% pa.

It is necessary to grow at a greater rate than other developed countries or risk a continuing drain of our best citizens, lured away by better standards of living. New Zealand has slipped down the OECD wealth list from number three to number twenty-one in 2000. If we continue sliding down this slippery slope the problems of providing our citizens with Health Care and Education to First World standards will not just be difficult, they will be impossible.

It is becoming obvious these days what conditions are needed to generate growth of 5%. We have numerous examples of countries which have flourished in the 20th century and many who have not. We can see what economic environment encourages growth and what stifles it. We also have many well researched proposals from a number of highly respected groups and individuals which should be seriously considered for our planning.

We contend that it is a matter of urgency that NZ address this need for growth of at least 5% and that it is the job of our politicians to provide the proper economic climate for this to happen.

We ask that all political parties produce a sound and believable economic plan for the next 5 to 10 years. Our aim and objective is to help educate the populace at large in the benefit to be gained from such a move and to help our political parties develop their plans.