It feels as though we've earned our summer break this year. Photo / 123RF
It feels as though we've earned our summer break this year. Photo / 123RF
Opinion by Liam Dann
Liam Dann, Business Editor at Large for New Zealand’s Herald, works as a writer, columnist, radio commentator and as a presenter and producer of videos and podcasts.
I feel like we are heading into this summer break a happier nation than we were last year.
That's a bit nuts, but I guess it's just the way human brains are wired.
"The secret of happiness ... is a variation on the general principle of banging your headagainst a wall, and then stopping," wrote author Stef Penney in the novel The Tenderness of Wolves.
But we've handled it better. Our economy has been more resilient.
We've been quicker to adapt.
The last full working week of year delivered a flurry of upbeat economic news.
If you woke up from a year-long coma on Monday and only read the business pages (which seems reasonable to me) you'd be forgiven for thinking the economy was in great shape.
It started on Tuesday, with the Westpac McDermott Miller Consumer Confidence survey showing a strong upward surge.
We are feeling more optimistic about the state of the economy over the next few years, it found.
New Zealanders were also feeling more secure about their personal financial position.
Remarkably, business confidence is even stronger and is now at its highest level since 2017.
The country's current account - the net balance of trade and investment capital flows - is in it's best shape since 2001.
Later that day, the Half Year Economic Update from Treasury showed a positive revision to all the economic forecasts and news that we'll be borrowing $20 billion less than we planned over the next four years.
Of course, at that point, some of the numbers ought to be looking a bit odd to our post-comatose reader.
On Thursday we got the big one. Third-quarter GDP figures, record quarterly growth - a staggering 14 cent surge in economic activity.
In the style of an old Twilight Zone episode, that's where the penny would drop and the true horror of this year would be revealed to our protagonist.
The Twilight Zone TV show. Photo / Supplied
It would be shocking. And it still is if we take a minute consider it.
Our borders are closed, there are lockdowns across Europe, 3000 deaths every day in the US and a global death toll of nearly 1.7 million due to this cursed virus.
But that's not where Kiwi minds are focused right now.
They're focused on large family gatherings and beach holidays.
Not only are we Covid free as we head into the summer break but we have a strong sense of having fought something and won - so a sense of having earned the right to enjoy ourselves.
We had our biggest shock in March and, though we lived on edge through much of the year, almost everything has gone better than we expected since then.
It's a good feeling and a justifiable one - even if it does distort and hide a more serious economic reality.
The borders are still closed, unemployment is still rising, many businesses are still struggling and the country is headed much deeper in to debt than we've been for at least a generation.
In economic terms, this year has been the equivalent of taking your car in for a service and being told you need a new gear box and it's going to cost $3000.
Then, when you go to pick it up, they've fixed it without needing a replacement and you've never been happier to fork out $500 for the service.
Had Covid not hit we would undeniably be in a financially stronger position as a nation.
It was not a good a thing.
Had Covid not hit we would undeniably be in a financially stronger position as a nation. Photo / Alex Burton
But happiness at its very essence is tethered to a sense of gratitude.
If you can breathe deeply and maintain your sense of gratitude for simply being alive on this planet, then you'll generally feel happier.
That's not easy unless you practice Dalai Lama levels of mindfulness.
And it might not be advisable all the time.
Cynicism and critical thinking are crucial ingredients for improving things which are bad about our world.
So it's a balancing act.
I suspect we may feel less grateful next year as the drama and adrenaline rush of the pandemic abates.
I'm hopeful that we can tackle the more mundane problems of recovery and rebuilding with some of the same resolve we showed in 2020.
It strikes me that whether it is earthquakes or pandemics or (though I'm too young to remember) wars, New Zealanders rise heroically to the challenges of large external shocks.
What we don't seem to be able to grapple with is persistent internal problems.
There's a fine line between contentment and complacency.
This country has a list of long-running problems we just can't seem to get around to solving: housing costs, productivity, child poverty and racial inequality ...
This year wasn't without debate but, by and large and relative to other countries, we've worked together as that team the Prime Minister likes to talk about.
Let's enjoy our summer break. But let's see if we can't keep the momentum for collective problem-solving rolling in the new year.
