Skip to main content

Just because you believe doesn't make it true

A relationship counsellor has an article published 12 July 2011 in one of our local Matamata newspapers. The article is great and is certainly worth a read, but his words apply to a wider sphere than just relationships. What he said was: • Just because you have been told something lots of times does not make it true. • Just because you believe something doesn’t necessarily make it true. • Just because you have believed something for a long time also does not make it true. • If you learn something based on information at the time you can unlearn it by getting more information and understanding. • Remember that whatever you believe, you will find evidence to support it, whether it is true or not. We should take heed of these words when we read and watch the media in the lead up to “Election 2011”. For instance: • Just because you hear New Zealand Superannuation is unsustainable and the age of eligibility must be raised to 67, doesn’t make it true. • Just because they say New Zealanders do not save enough so we have to borrow overseas, doesn’t make it true. • Just because they say “Banks don’t create money” doesn’t make it true. • Just because they say “The Reserve Bank can’t create money” doesn’t make it true. Look for the truth and vote for that this election.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Show Me the “Monetary Reform” David Cunliffe!

Show Me the “Monetary Reform” David Cunliffe! Following Phil Goff’s release of Labour’s Finance Manifesto today, David Cunliffe has said in a New Zealand Labour Party press release : “Labour is backing the drive for more high value exports with monetary reform ...” I challenge David Cunliffe, Labour’s Finance Spokesperson, to front up and explain what he means by the term ‘monetary reform’. If he means replacing toxic debt-based commercial bank credit with social credit, as the sole means of money coming into existence and continuing to exist – issued in the public interest, to serve the common good - then I would endorse his definition. And if he accepts that it’s crazy for our government to borrow from foreign lenders, with interest, when we could use the publicly-owned Reserve Bank of New Zealand as an independent statutory monetary authority with the sole power to create, issue, and cancel New Zealand’s money, then I applaud his endeavours. But if Mr. Cunliffe thinks ‘mo

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand

New Zealand's Central Reserve Bank is STATE owned. Despite that, instead of being used for the benefit of its owners, the people of New Zealand, successive Governments have: Allowed the foreign-owned trading banks to create and issue nearly all of the nation's money supply and claim it as their own. Notes and coins make up less than three percent of the money in circulation. Ninety seven percent of our money supply is on loan to us at interest from those banks. Actively encouraged banks to charge "rental" for this money at some of the highest interest rates in the developed world. Used high interest rates as a blunt lever to control inflation, while agreeing to exclude the resultant costs from the Price Index, so that their cost-inflationary effects do not allow pensions and awards to compensate for these. Deliberately used interest rate fluctuations to maintain an unemployed "pool" of about four percent of the workforce in order to hold down wage rates. Fa

Capital Gains Tax - So Last Century

The Labour Party’s desperate capital gains tax plan, so far from being bold, will do nothing for the economy or the country. The USA has had a capital gains tax for many decades, but it has not stopped housing bubbles or redistributed the tax burden more fairly. Taxing capital gains is a complicated and costly exercise in futility, a last century concept along with the National Party’s asset sales and other out-dated ideas. What New Zealand needs is a 21st Century tax system that is truly fair and takes advantage of modern technology. There is a growing call for a Financial Transactions Tax (FTT), around the world and here in New Zealand. FTT is a tax with no loopholes, so that those high income earners that currently avoid paying tax will at last contribute to Government revenue. FTT is entirely cost-effective. Banking software already exists to collect withholding tax, so there is no need to re-invent the wheel. An effective FTT rate, one that will both slow rampant speculation and