So which risk taker was English referring to :-
Finance Minister Bill English yesterday expressed empathy with some of the ideals of the Occupy Wall Street movement, but says New Zealand has already moved to stop some of the financial excesses driving the protests.
Speaking at Otago University Vote Chat, hosted by Bryce Edwards, Mr English said the Occupy Movement, particularly in New Zealand had a wide range of objectives including the end of capitalism.
While he believed calling for the end of capitalism was wrong, he supported the ideal that financial risk-takers should be responsible for the consequences of bad investments.
The issues driving the Occupy Wall Street movement were well understood and there was discussion about what to do about them.
New Zealand was moving in the direction of making the banking system “more boring but safer”, he said.
So far, the financial system had allowed people to take risks which, if they worked, allowed those investors to pocket large profits. But if they failed, taxpayers were left picking up the loss.
“That is bad economics, bad politics and should change. You can’t take outlandish risks and expect the taxpayers to pick up millions of dollars of losses.”
The previous Labour administration had introduced a retail guarantee deposit scheme which had seen this Government cover about $2 billion of losses from financial companies.
By the end of this year, New Zealand would be one of the few countries in the world that would have no financial guarantee backed by the taxpayer, Mr English said.
“Let’s say a bank gets into trouble, the people who own the bank and the people who lent it money will take the hit, rather than the public.”
Asked by Dr Edwards whether he would be prepared to talk to the Occupy Movement in Dunedin’s Octagon, Mr English said he would, but the discussion would need to be around what would replace capitalism if it ended.
I’d like to see the end of this false belief that ‘Capitalism is a complete system of government’ which will take care of everyone if we just let it run free?
Capitalism IS an essential part of our civilization but it is NOT the most important part. The government has to set guidelines and boundaries for businesses to follow as they do battle with each other for profits.
If the Gov. lets every business owner do ‘whatever they want’ then business owners are forced to do ‘whatever they can’ in order to remain competitive and it becomes a (metaphorical) blood bath where everyone is killing each other for market share.
In a free market the employees become cannon fodder as big business smashes civilization into oblivion. Sure, after a period of tight regulations deregulation gives ten years or so of stunning growth, but this growth is very unstable (because the poor become too poor, duh) and a major economic depression follows.
The only reason we are not currently in a major depression, imho, is because China has maintained tight regulations on their economy and therefore their growth has remained stable right through the financial crisis in the U.S. and Europe. We are lucky, not smart right now.
Warning next attempt to beat moderation by abbreviation will result in all your comments being moderated. Trevor
Governments need to be socially responsible and look after the welfare of the country and all it’s citizens, it is not just a left and right issue.
The issuing of tax cuts to the wealthy funded by overseas borrowing was negligent by the National Government, a society should be measured by how the lower tiers of society are performing not measuring the top 100 wealthy individuals in New Zealand, most of these people have acquired their wealth by holding hands with the Government or being given a leg up by the Government ie being gifted State Assets at knock down prices or special access to State Resources.
There is alot of murky water gone under the bridge in this country and we hero worship the beneficaries.
We need Government who are going to be honest transparant and who want to help all New Zealanders.
We must give every person a purpose in life, getting young people working and trained is critical to a persons internal mana and wellbeing, there is an old saying “The Devil Makes Work for Idle Hands”.
Alot of the social ills in this country are caused by the helplessness of individuals to improve their social wellbeing they are living from hand to mouth.
It is similar to what happened to Maori in the 1860′s when the balance of power shifted from Maori to Pakeha and the Settlor Government wanted more land for settlement. Maori were alienated from their lands hence they lost their productive assets and sources of income, hence they lost their wairua (spirit) which led to a downward spiral for the Maori Race.
The same thing is happening in NZ we are selling our assets to foreign entities and wealthy NZers backed by overseas interests, to the detriment of average NZers whose ancestors built this country. NZ Asets have been stripped for the benfit of a wealthy few. Governments should be building new and improving assets rather than cashing them up to be spent of consumption.
Sorry Trevor, just getting fired up.
@ Jack Ramaka: Amen Brother
Why don’t we (the government) run all the mines in this country. They are our reasourses, coming from our land. Why should private companies be allowed to put our workers lives in mortal danger to cut costs and increase private sector profits when we (the government) could keep our people safe at work and keep the profits for all of us to enjoy. Win win.
Government represents the people and therefore represents the social aspect/responsibility of society. Those who depict social responsibility as separate from, say Government and Business, misunderstand that anything which involves people is “social”. Action and consequence, benefit/burden.
Couldn’t edit above, so here is my last sentence.
Just as every worker owes their wage to their employer, every employer owes their profit and high salaries (those that earn them) to their workers.
To hear Qantas complain about going down the gurgler while giving a 70% pay increase to it’s CEO was laughable, except it was true.