New Zealand's gross domestic product is about $200 billion, $73 billion of this is spent by the Government. This money is taken from people like me. My property, Turia, mine - taken from me, by force. Worse, when you reduce someone's income by taxing it they will work less, invest less in their education and are less likely to employ others because they will lose a third of any future income. This results in less economic activity. Economists have a term for this: deadweight loss. Treasury recommends using 20 per cent of all taxes collected to estimate this deadweight loss, which would be more than $13 billion annually. This is a huge burden on taxpayers and more than two-thirds of this money disappears into the welfare state.
Maori, let's be honest, are disproportionately heavy users of the welfare system. The most extreme example is that Housing New Zealand reports 75,000 Maori living in state houses, many paying little or no rent, compared with just 54,000 Pakeha. As tax is based on income, Maori contribute less per head than Pakeha towards its funding.
Of course, this system penalises productive Maori as well as productive non-Maori. The tax system has become an institutional redistribution from the productive to the unproductive; it rewards failure and penalises success.
The Treaty is a binding legal document. Wrongs have been committed, Maori property has been taken illegally and these issues should be addressed.
But the same rights you claim to your people, rights I support, should also apply to me. It is wrong to take other people's property by force, no matter who they are.
Debate on this article is now closed.
