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SOLO-NZ Press Release: Cullen’s Kremlinomics Submitted by Lindsay Perigo on Tue, 2008-05-06 01:01.
SOLO-NZ Press Release: Cullen’s Kremlinomics May 6, 2008 The Labour-led Government’s buy-back of New Zealand’s rail and ferry operations is the latest evidence that Michael Cullen, who calls successful folk “rich pricks,” still gets his economic thinking from The Communist Manifesto, says SOLO Principal Lindsay Perigo. “160 years ago, in that document, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels proposed ‘centralisation of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the state,’ Perigo reminds us. “The Soviet Union and its satellites tried this and it worked spectacularly well—if maximum inefficiency and brutality were the goals. “Comrade Cullen’s enduring admiration for this model is notorious. Yesterday must have been like a wet dream for him. First, Air New Zealand—renationalised outright. Then, Telecom—renationalised de facto via regulation. Now, the railways—renationalised outright. “His fantasy is a popular one, too. NZ voters, stupefied by decades of socialist indoctrination, expect the government to own everything (including them) and do everything. “He also knows that National’s appeasel-weasel, Neville Key, won’t undo his latest act of Kremlinomics. “There’s just one snag. Comrade Cullen now has to emulate the network’s erstwhile private operators and make the thing profitable. Even Toll couldn’t do it without subsidies. It’ll take more than punitive petrol taxes and idiotic carbon regimes to drive enough people back onto trains—and Michael’s having to rethink those anyway in his and Helen’s desperate bid for a fourth term. “When he first took office, Cullen acknowledged the lesson of our times, that it was folly for governments to control the ‘commanding heights’ of an economy. It’s a shame his visceral hatred for freedom and capitalism has now reclaimed him. “Rail should have been left to rise or fall in what should have been an unmolested marketplace,” Perigo concludes. Lindsay Perigo 021 255 8715 SOLO SOLOPassion.com
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fabulous!
Great, so now we have Jim's Bank, Jim's Airline, Jim's Train's and Jim's Boats - doesn't that just give you the warm fuzzies. Politicians who couldn't make a buck anywhere else but in charge of multimillion dollar organisations?
Erm ...
“There’s just one snag. Comrade Cullen now has to emulate the network’s erstwhile private operators and make the thing profitable..."
Since when did socialism and profitability go together?
I didn't say they did. I referred to the inefficiency and brutality of Kremlinomics. But as it happens, "socialism" in NZ has made a profit since Rogernomics, when government departments were turned into 'SOEs' and told to get real, commercially (real enough for someone to want to buy them). And the punters who've involuntarily shelled out $650m for the railways are not going to be amused if they have to keep shelling out, notwithstanding their hypocrisy in always demanding that the gummint "do something" about everything. Hence my "snag" comment.
The issue is not whether an SOE can turn a profit. It's what is legitimate for the gummint to be involved in and what isn't. As a certain wise lady said: "Nothing that can be done voluntarily should be done by force." Gummint's job is to protect our rights, including the right to voluntary interaction. In this case, Gummint has turned us into involuntary shareholders in an enterprise that, like any other economic good, should be a matter between those who want to offer it and those who want to use it, an enterprise that should be allowed to rise or fall in an unmolested marketplace, as I said yesterday.
Cullen started out a Stalinist. By 2000, however, he was genuinely reluctant to bail out Air New Zealand. He derided Jim Anderton as "Jim Il-Sung" over his Kiwibank proposal. Come 2007, alas, and he's back to Kremlinomics. I wanted to rub his nose in that—I know how sensitive they are to terms like "Nanny State" and "Helengrad." We should add "Kremlinomics" to the arsenal (ooooo, Mr. Dinther will love it!
).
Well
The track access charges asked for were not unreasonable, just Toll said if it paid it would go out of business, which would mean someone else would buy it up.
Don't forget as bad as this is, the government also owns the state highway network. As much as this is an appalling action, the real answer is for the roads to operate on a business-like footing. That means selling the state highways.
Lindsay:
“There’s just one snag. Comrade Cullen now has to emulate the network’s erstwhile private operators and make the thing profitable..."
Since when did socialism and profitability go together?
NBR: "Prime Minister Helen Clark says the renationalised railway system will be run in a business-like manner, but the Government was not doing it for financial returns...
Miss Clark said the deal was good for New Zealand, but not because of its financial implications.
"We are not going into this to make money," Miss Clark said."
......................................................................................................................
But the thing that makes me want to explode is the way the evil twins forced Toll into coughing it up:
Guyon Espiner: "Toll says the final straw was the cost the Government was demanding to access the tracks...
But one thing’s clear - this was a political decision. The Government made sure that the cost of track access was high enough that Toll had little choice but to sell. Cullen wanted his train set, just as Helen Clark was determined to keep Auckland Airport."