The Role of Government
A post by Lindsay Mitchell led me to this survey by Massey University of 2,250 people on what they think the role of Government should be.
Key results are:
* Provide health care for the sick 98%
* Provide decent standard of living for the old 96%
* Protect the Environment with laws 92%
* Provide industry with help it needs to grow 87%
* Give financial support to low income university students 79%
* Keep prices under control 78%
* Provide housing for those who need it 72%
* Reduce income inequality 50%
* Provide decent standard of living for the unemployed 49%
* Provide a job for everyone who needs one 38%
The top three are the only ones which had over 50% say the Government should definitely fo this. The next one down, relating to industry support has only 28% say definitely and 59% say probably.
And in terms of how successful the Government has been on key issues:
* Protect Environment 50%
* Fight Unemployment 50%
* Deal with security threats 50%
* Provide decent standard of living for elderly 40%
* Provide health care for the sick 37%
* Controlling crime 26%
The low scores on the last two should be of concern. On crime 42% say they have been unsucessful.
In terms of spending on areas, we have
* Health 84% want more vs 1% less
* Education 70% vs 1%
* Police 64% vs 2%
* Superannuation 51% vs 2%
* Environment 39% vs 10%
* Defence 24% vs 22%
* Arts 11% vs 41%
* Dole 6% vs 59%
Overall though they found “In general, most New Zealanders (60%) are in favour of cuts in government spending, but in specific areas there are marked differences in support for more
or less government spending.”
On tax they found that tax rates for different levels of income are:
Low income earners – 65% too high v 35% about right
Middle income earners – 70% too high, 30% about right
High income earners – 50% too high, 35% about right, 15% too low
Some nice food for thought.
April 16th, 2007 at 10:19 pm
Key results are:
* Provide health care for the sick 98%
* Provide decent standard of living for the old 96%
* Protect the Environment with laws 92%
* Provide industry with help it needs to grow 87%
* Give financial support to low income university students 79%
* Keep prices under control 78%
* Provide housing for those who need it 72%
* Reduce income inequality 50%
* Provide decent standard of living for the unemployed 49%
* Provide a job for everyone who needs one 38%”
Most Kiwis it seems are really really dumb…..sigh.”
April 16th, 2007 at 11:40 pm
Nice to see the “Middle Incomers” are greedy enough to want everything and still expect tax cuts
April 16th, 2007 at 11:41 pm
Nice to see the “Middle Incomers” are greedy enough to want everything and still expect tax cuts
April 17th, 2007 at 7:07 am
Probably because middle income earners pay for just about everything John and this includes the thousands that are lucky enough to now be consider rich and get to pay just a bit extra. But hey why not just give it all to the theiving socialists after all they know how spend it don’t they John, tosser!
April 17th, 2007 at 7:08 am
So nothing about locking up criminals then? – the one thing the government should actually be doing.
April 17th, 2007 at 7:36 am
So nothing about locking up criminals then? – the one thing the government should actually be doing.
April 17th, 2007 at 7:38 am
Locking up criminals , yeah right – where ? as all prisons and police cells are overflowing with delinquents and the criminal legal status is set to drop to 12 years old – go pizza kid !!
April 17th, 2007 at 8:18 am
There is only one survey that counts: The next General Election.
The parties decide the questions of the survey and you tick two boxes in reply.
April 17th, 2007 at 12:32 pm
Mmm. I’d have thought that the only certain roles of Government should be:
* Maintain national registers of citizens (births, deaths, marriages + the passport system)
* Maintain the justice system (legislation, courts, police, prisons)
* Protect the nation from external threats (defence, customs)
* Raise taxes & duties to fund those activities
Those are things that only the Government should be responsible for (okay, maybe with privately-operated prisons).
Everything else should be something we weigh up in terms of who is the best and most appropriate provider. Are they all really the Government’s job?
But I guess what this survey shows is that the vast majority of voters who respond to Massey University surveys think the Government should provide a very comprehensive security blanket.
The pity to me is that those voters then think that taxes are too high (oh, apart from on “the rich”). Am I the only one who wishes we could have a bit more critical thinking and debate on this rather than just slogans and vilification?
April 17th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
IMHO The only role for gumint is to defend the shores deliver the mail and get the hell out of my life.
April 17th, 2007 at 6:25 pm
This is a better indicator of public sentiment than a general election where people are forced to choose between several poor package deals.
I agree with Bernard – the Massey wets were to PC to include maintaining law and order – but its a good indication all the same that the public is sick of unrestrained government spening so hat tip to them.
April 17th, 2007 at 7:01 pm
What a deeply grey drone socialist state is NZ.
Enjoy.
April 17th, 2007 at 8:03 pm
“Providing housing for those that need it”…
Surprise, you have to work for it.
My spare cash is for me going fishing in Alaska……not to buy you a house.
So go and fuck your Rottweiler.
Dumbarse free associating socialists.
April 19th, 2007 at 11:05 am
No it just shows that the survey was stupid. It was a wish list not grounded much in reality.
“The Gummint should do everything, and only the rich ought to pay for it in taxes. Oh and if I have to pay some tax, its not going to those damn dole bludgers.”
-yeah right.
If the questions were phrased as a balance between paying more taxes and having the government spend those taxes on more social services, then I suspect those answers would be completely different.