He Waka Eke Noa –- We are all in this together, according to the Prime Minister.
Except that we’re not says Social Credit Party leader Chris Leitch.
“After pressure from employees, Fletcher Building executives have shown the way with their decision to take a 30 per cent pay cut and now other company boards, top executives and central and local body politicians need to follow their lead and take a cut too.
“The leaders of our country and industry are lagging way behind with leadership when it comes to their own remuneration.
“With thousands of workers now out of a job, and hundreds of thousands more on significantly reduced income, and likely to be for some time, it’s time for those on big incomes to show solidarity with the rest of the country and take a 30 percent cut too.
“The country’s legal and accounting firms, insurance companies and banks should not be excluded from the cuts either.
“With the money not paid out in salaries, companies could set up a fund to support employees struggling in the current circumstances or donate it to the Salvation Army, City Mission, or other organisations supporting people struggling in the current environment.
“We’ve started a web page that lists all the companies, boards, top executives and politicians who have taken a cut and registered. Those who take a cut will be able to post details of the cuts on-line.
“Employees will be able to check the page to see whether their company executives, company board or politicians have posted whether they’ve taken a cut and for how long.”
futuret said:
https://www.theburningplatform.com/2020/04/07/did-bill-gates-buy-the-cdc/
K R Bolton said:
Such a measure is only really a morale booster. If everyone did this – like the old panacea of ‘taxing the rich’ – the accumulated amount saved for investment would amount to damn-all.
Social Credit as both a policy and a philosophy has the premises for a cure not only of symptoms but of causes:credit issued without recourse to debt and usury, and a national dividend (of which the now popular idea of a Universal Basic Income approaches something vaguely similar). There is also the option of the ‘Tobin Tax’, a 1% tax on all bank transactions without recourse to other taxation; and voucher currencies for community purposes.
During the 1930s NZ had a burgeoning Social Credit movement, and its ideas heavily influenced the First Labour government, which used Reserve Bank credit to get NZ out of the Depression, through its funding of state housing. Subsequent governments don’t have the foggiest idea, and ridicule SC as ‘funny money’ which is a moronic way of deflecting attention from the ignorance and cowardice of those who nominally ‘govern’ at the behest of those who rule.
Yet the premise is straight-forward: if private banks can create credit as a profit -making commodity (via interest) then the state (or a public credit authority) can create credit as a public service reflecting the needs of production and consumption. Many figures in banking, including Don Brash when Reserve Bank governor, have conceded that governments can create their own credit without inflationary consequences.
WW is to be congratulated for even publishing Mr Leitch’s press release. The media has consistently given the silent treatment to SC for decades, while the policy remains the only one that is actually relevant. It seems that the party has declined proportionate to the extent that SC policies are needed: A reflection on the mass ignorance of the times, premised on the uselessness of the mass media and the gutless stupidity of politicians.