Sponsor's Message

NZ's export performance has fallen dramatically in recent times and if you compare us to the rest of the OECD nations, we're starting to look a bit like a banana republic in respect to the percentage of our GDP that results from export earnings.

Some will stand up and say "I told you so, it's all because we don't have affordable broadband" -- to which I say "phooee".

Yes, fast, cheap broadband is a great asset to a geographically remote country like NZ in this 21st century knowledge-based economy, but it's not the only factor.

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I'm thinking that, as a nation and an economy, we've just been drifting for the past ten years or so.

Could it be that now is the time for NZ to take some bold steps designed to turn this ship around and make some headway against the currents of global recession?

So what can we do to hike our performance?

Well how about we kick the lily-livered liberals out of our education system and get back to some key basics?

Forget all this namby-pamby, feel-good, can't fail (can only fail to achieve) NCEA rubbish and the strong focus on arts and culture. Let's get back to imparting good standards of literacy and numeracy to our kids.

And let's report results using metrics that we can all understand: pass/fail, a percentage or A-F. This isn't rocket science is it?

Let's teach them that it's important to take responsibility for yourself, your actions and your future -- rather than relying abdicating such things to the government in return for paying higher taxes to nanny state.

And let's encourage saving by totally nixing personal income tax and, instead of penalising people for earning more, focus instead on taxing consumption by hiking GST. This would certainly change the current "borrow and spend" Kiwi mindset in a very positive way. Those who spend the most will pay the most tax -- a very fair and equitable system that would also close a myriad of tax loopholes such as off-shore havens and shonky income-hiding schemes.

Finally, we ought to promote a culture of entrepreneurship and risk-taking.

We have at least two million work-capable people here in NZ and I would wager that less than 1% are working to their true potential.

If we could convince just 10% of that 2 million people to get involved in some form of productive part-time self-employment in addition to their regular day-job, and if just 10% of those were online or knowledge-based businesses that earned export dollars...

Well 20,000 folks who earned even $10,000 a year in export receipts through knowledge-based cottage industries would contribute a very significant $200 million towards closing our trade deficit. And $10K per year is not a lot to earn from such a venture -- just US$130 per week at today's rate of exchange.

But where would folks get the time for such ventures?

Well let's replace all that "reality TV" crap with programmes that educate and incentivise folks to get off their soft comfy sofas and take responsibility for themselves and their lives. Let's create a few good TV series that showcase the success stories of other folks who have done just that.

I swear that every time I walk past the TV set these days it's showing someone eating bugs, renovating a house, wife-swapping, job-swapping, living on an island with celebrities or ripping someone's garden out. Enough of this drivel, let's replace it with some *productive* programming.

But these are just my thoughts, what would *you* do to fix up our awful savings record, our ballooning trade deficit, our falling export performance and our other woes?

Tell us all and see what others have to say in The Aardvark Forums

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