Strypey

"[Aotearoa] continues to run current account deficits – importing more goods and services than it exports, often loosely described as 'living beyond our means'. The deficit will be a large 8.1% of GDP this year, falling to 4.3% in 2027."

#MaxRashbrooke

https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/13-09-2023/do-we-really-want-a-government-that-spends-only-enough-to-keep-the-lights-on

A result of successive govts doing anything they can to increase exports, while being effectively banned from reducing imports - even of designer landfill like the garbage sold in $2 stores - by "free trade agreements".

Do we really want a government that spends only enough to ‘keep the lights on’?

For whoever wins the election, protecting the most vulnerable through this economically sticky patch must be priority number one.

The Spinoff
Oct 15, 2023 at 2:41amWeb
Show threadStrypeyOct 15, 2023

Exporting high-volume physical goods, from a pair of islands, miles away from anywhere that people want to buy them in serious quantities, is not a viable long term economic strategy. Even if it's sustainable in a zero-carbon future (which I doubt), it's still not sensible.

We could, as a country, import way less useless garbage (eg most of what the Warehouse sells, BorgSoft Windows licenses), and export services, like remote IT work, and low-volume niche goods our neighbours want to buy.