Stuff reports:

The Government are being blamed for plummeting home-ownership rates for Maori and Pacific Islanders.

But Housing Minister Nick Smith says the data just confirmed broader social statistics, including that these groups having lower incomes and lower education achievements.

Recently released figures from Statistics New Zealand show Maori and Pacific Island home ownership fell at a faster rate than for the total population over the past 25 years (ending at the latest census in 2013). …

The Labour party have added the latest statistics to their list of housing issues the Government was not adequately addressing.

“It clearly shows this Government doesn’t have a plan,” Labour MP Meka Whaitiri said. 

I’m always interested in breaking down long-term trends to smaller segments so we can see if the problem is in fact getting worse.

In the 2001 census the Maori home ownership rate was 47.0%. In 2006 it was 45.2% and in 2013 it was 43.1%.

The annual decline from 2001 to 2006 was 0.35% a year. From 2006 to 2013 it was 0.29% a year.

Stuff reports:

An accomplished fraudster has now pulled off the ultimate swindle: she’s escaped a jail term after the court failed to see through her fake identities.

Lisa Donnelly pleaded guilty to fleecing a 92-year-old woman of her life savings.

Judge Christopher Field sentenced her to home detention. He cut her some slack because, he said, she had led a relatively crime-free life.

But he was never told of previous convictions she’d racked up under multiple aliases, including a notorious $2 million fraud. 

He was unaware that Donnelly used several aliases, including the name Lisa Clement, when she famously defrauded the Ministry of Social Development of $1.9 million.

She had also racked up more than 40 other convictions between her three aliases. 

The story relates how the Police stuffed up and didn’t tell the Judge of her extensive criminal history.

The case should be appealed. There is nothing to suggest that Donnelly is is any way rehabilitated and won’t be out there defrauding people as soon as possible. If she is in jail, then the public are protected from her while she is inside.

The Telegraph reports:

Downing Street is “panicked” over the EU referendum amid growing internal signs that support for the Leave campaign is surging. 

Private data and internal polling which shows that after two weeks of building momentum there have been huge swings to the Brexit campaign has prompted growing alarm in the Remain camp, sources have said.

It has led to a marked change in strategy, with the campaign to keep Britain in the EU now orchestrating a series of highly personal attacks on Boris Johnson, one of the leaders of the Leave campaign.

If Brexit wins, Boris might be PM by the end of the year.

So what do the polls say? Here’s teh five polls so far in June:

• Brexit +4%
• Brexit -12%
• Brexit +5%
• Brexit -1%
• Brexit +10%

The average is Brexit +1%. But four of them were online and the phone poll is the one showing Brexit well behind.

Stuff reports:

There is Mike Williams too. The former Labour party president is now chief executive of the Howard League.

It is these two, together with an army of volunteers and the full­time services of a retired teacher, who have introduced the league’s literacy programme in prisons around the country. Its success has spawned another programme: one designed to turn potential inmates around before they reach the prison doors.

Williams may have long left his leading role in the Labour Party. But he still has the persuasive oratorial and fund­raising skills born of a life in politics.

Days before the Spring Hill ceremony, he seated himself in his favourite cafe to explain his current vocation. He starts by reciting author Neil Gaiman: “How do these people [private prison providers] plan how many cells they will need? Easy: you just find out how many 11 year­ olds can’t read or write.”

As it happens, the numbers don’t add up well for New Zealand’s prison population. Williams snaps out the stats. “At least 50 per cent of prisoners are functionally illiterate. What that effectively means is they can’t read the Road Code. And the Road Code is pitched at 10 years.”

Worse still, in New Zealand there is a formidably high incarceration rate and recidivism rate – 30 per cent higher incarceration than Australia; double that of Finland and Germany. When they get out, they often go back.

He gleaned that information after joining the Howard League at his old mate Gibbs’ invitation in 2011. Back then, the league had been seen as “a handful of elderly lawyers who met infrequently and abused Corrections,” says Williams.

That’s basically right.

He spent an Easter weekend Googling “penal reform”. And he did a few arithmetical calculations himself. “I thought ‘let’s say 50 per cent of prisoners are illiterate. At any given time there are between 12,000 and 20,000 retired school teachers’. So what I suggested to Tony was we put two and two together and make five.”

Gibbs deemed the idea great. They took it to the Department of Corrections, who also agreed. Corrections agreed to pay the salary of retired literacy professional Anne Brown, who custom­built the course.

And they began an experiment at Hawke’s Bay Regional Corrections Facility.

“We were worried that [signing up to the programme] might be seen as an admission that you could not read. Or that you were a cissy. But just about everywhere we do it, there’s a queue,” says Williams.

The key characteristic is it’s one-­on­-one training. But for Brown, the programme is staffed entirely by volunteers. There’s also a peer­-to­-peer programme where inmates teach each other.

There’s no set time to complete the programme; inmates qualify when they can fluently read a children’s book onto a CD. Since its introduction in 2012, about 100 men have graduated from the Hawke’s Bay facility. The programme now runs in 15 prisons around the country. (At one of them, former Auckland Heart of the City head Alex Swney -­ jailed in 2015 for a $4 million fraud -­ is reaching out to help others on the inside.) Graduation ceremonies such as the one witnessed at Spring Hill are regular events.

They’re doing great work. Literacy doesn’t mean the prisoners won’t reoffend, but it means they now have better options ahead of them.

Now the league wants to keep men and women them out of prison in the first place. So let’s hear some more stats first. Williams gleaned these from former Labour MP, now Waipareira Trust head, John Tamihere. “I banged into him in Hammer Hardware in Te Atatu. He told me about 65 per cent of Maori who are in prison start their penal career with a driving offence.

“It’s not just literacy,” continues Williams, “they don’t have a legal car, they don’t know how to get a birth certificate, they don’t have a bank account. And if they go to jail they’ll get recruited into a gang and learn how to cook P.”

So another programme began, again under the jurisdiction of the Howard League. This one identifies second-­time offenders who have clocked up two offences related to not having a drivers licence and are on probation. Next step, prison beckons ­- unless they mend their ways.

The programme teaches probationees the rudiments of reading, together with the intricacies of obtaining a licence.

Even better if you keep them out of prison in the first place.

Stuff reported:

The grieving family of a man shot dead by police in the Karangahake Gorge near Paeroa want an independent inquiry into what they describe as a “cold-blooded execution”.

Mike Taylor was shot on Friday morning by police who were responding to a call from his long-time partner, Natalie Avery.

Avery and her children, Carlin, 21, and Amy, 14, say there was no need for police to shoot Taylor, as he had thrown his weapons and was walking away.

They claim he put his hands in the air as he’d been instructed to do and was kneeling down when he was shot.. …

“He threw the slasher – it had no handle – over the top of the police car and he smashed the passenger window with the machete and then he walked away.

“He would have been at least 20 metres from the police car, hands up, bowed his knees and from there they shot him … through the heart from behind. It was cold blooded.”

All Police shootings are fully investigating by the IPCA. But this seems a pretty simple case, as the forensic evidence will be very clear as to whether or not he was shot from behind.

The Herald reports:

Police say a man shot dead in Paeroa yesterday was shot in the torso, not in the back as his partner claims. …

Acting Assistant Commissioner Bruce Bird said as Mr Taylor approached police armed with a machete, a number of shots were fired from the front seat of the patrol car at short range.

If you approach armed police with a machete and refuse to put it down, then you will get tasered or shot.

Avery said she and Taylor had been having an ongoing dispute with Hauraki District Council and police over access to the roadway. 

“I knew it [the shooting] was going to happen some day,” Avery said.   

Residents said Taylor had terrorised his small community, threatening and intimidating people who crossed near the property on their walks.

They said he claimed the land, which overlooks the Karangahake River, was his land, even though it was a public road.

He ended up in court on numerous occasions for threatening behaviour and offensive language.

On one occasion he was charged with trying to run down an elderly man and his daughter, who were on a walk.

“He’s threatened everybody in the neighbourhood,” a local woman said. “It’s a wonder somebody else hasn’t been shot.”

Taylor was engaged in a long-running battle over the erection of some gates across the public road, which he would put back up every time the Hauraki District Council took them down. 

“The gates were taken down in the presence of police because the council workers were so scared to go up there on their own because of the history of this bloke,” a second man said. “He was arrogant and brutal, with the foulest mouth.

“People would take their dog for a walk and he would say, I’ll kill your dog.”

It sounds like the way this ended was somewhat inevitable, based on his past behaviour.  He’d been terrorising people for years, but made the mistake of trying the same with armed Police.

• 1756 – Lydia Taft is first woman allowed to vote in America – in a Massachusetts town meeting
• 1869 – women get the vote in Wyoming
• 1870 – Lousia Swain 1st woman to vote in a general election
• 1872 – Victoria Woodhull runs for US President
• 1887 – 1st female Mayor – Susanna Salter elected Mayor of Argonia
• 1917 – 1st female in Congress – Jeanette Rankin elected Rep for Montana
• 1920 – 19th Amendment gives women the right to vote
• 1925 – 1st female Governor – Nellie Ross elected Governor of Wyoming
• 1931 – 1st female elected Senator – Hattie Caraway elected Senator from Arkansas
• 1933 – 1st female Cabinet member – Frances Perkin appointed Secretary of Labor
• 1981 – 1st female Supreme Court Justice – Sandra Day O’Connor appointed to Supreme Court
• 2007 – 1st female Speaker – Nancy Pelosi elected Speaker
• 2016 – 1st female major party nominee for President – Hillary Clinton

Meanwhile in some countries, women are not allowed to drive!

Stuff reports:

Diabetes New Zealand chief executive Steve Crew said one in four New Zealanders were pre-diabetic and an estimated 40 people a day were diagnosed with diabetes.

The problem was a huge one for the health system, he said.

The study’s results were not surprising, as Asian, Maori and Pacific people all had higher rates of diabetes.

But there were several factors at play, such as being able to afford health care.

Diabetes was often picked up earlier in patients who were able to afford to visit the doctor for a check-up.

A tax on sugary drinks and processed sugar would help, while the placement of fast food outlets should also be more regulated, Crew said.

“In Auckland there are certain parts [where fast food outlets] seem to be congregated more than others.

“It’s a fine line between having a nanny state, if you want to go out and have a burger you can, but it’s about having these processes in place so officials can work together about where to put these stores.”

No officials shouldn’t decide where stores can go. They should be able to go wherever a location is zoned for business activity.

The proposal to ban dairies within 800 metres of schools, for example, would see almost no dairies in Auckland.

Say you think no McDonalds within 500 metres of a school or ECE centre. Well there was an ECE centre in the Reserve Bank, so that means McDonalds on Lamption Quay would be banned.

This table from the Telegraph shows France even more anti EU than the UK, and Spain and Germany finely balanced also.

The above shows a big reason why the EU is falling out of favour. People want control of their own borders.

The Herald reports:

More than 1200 state homes are currently vacant.

About 486 empty because of methamphetamine contamination. Another 1 per cent of state housing — around 730 properties — are empty in the short-term, because of maintenance or turn-over of tenants.

So 486 families are missing out on a state house because of the previous tenants. And when you deny them a state house because they keep contaminating them with P, they cry to the media that the cost of the motel they are staying in is too high.

There comes a point where there should be consequences for the lack of responsibility.

Stuff reports:

National MP Maureen Pugh says she’s not an anti-vaxxer and she supports the use of pharmaceuticals, such as Panadol and anaesthetic.

The former Westland Mayor spoke out on Facebook on Friday to make clear her views on healthcare.

“In the past I have spoken about funding programmes for health professionals other than doctors but I believe this should be done alongside mainstream general practice. It should also involve degree-qualified health practitioners,” she wrote.

“I do support the use of pharmaceuticals, such as Panadol and anaesthetic, when they are needed and all of my children are fully vaccinated,” she wrote.

This is reassuring. As I said there is nothing wrong with saying you shouldn’t over-use drugs. But the original comments implied an opposition to drugs full-stop.

Karl du Fresne writes:

I’ve always thought democracy is a pretty good sort of system. Not perfect, of course, but as Winston Churchill said: “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”

In other words, it’s the best we’ve got until somebody comes up with something better.

Well, it seems someone has. In Masterton, of all places.

You probably thought, like me, that democracy works because it gives us the right to choose our representatives and to get rid of them if we don’t like them.

But Masterton District Council has decided that’s flawed, or at least not appropriate for Masterton. The council wants to improve democracy by appointing iwi representatives with voting rights to two of its standing committees.

Yes, you read that correctly. They would be appointed, not elected. But like elected councillors they would have the right to vote on matters affecting the rest of us.

Whatever this is, it is not democracy. It’s something else for which we don’t yet have a term.

Perhaps we could call it part-democracy or near-democracy or almost-democracy until someone comes up with something better.

Non-democracy?

I don’t want to sound alarmist. The appointment of iwi representatives to two council committees isn’t likely to be the end of the world.

The genuine councillors – the ones actually elected by the people of Masterton – would still be in the majority. And it’s possible that iwi representatives would make a sincere attempt to make decisions in the best interests of the entire community. But that’s hardly the point. 

Democracy is a package deal. It doesn’t come with optional extras that you discard if they don’t happen to suit you. And the danger is that once you start subverting democratic principles, even with the best of intentions, anything becomes possible.

So very well said.

If there’s no longer a rigid rule that the people who make decisions on our behalf must be elected by us and accountable to us, reformers will soon find other ways to “improve” the system – all in the interests of fairness, of course.

This is how democracy gets undermined – by inches and by degrees. Ultimately someone might decide that voting is a clumsy and inconvenient process and that democracy would be much more efficient if we got rid of it altogether. It’s happened in plenty of other places.

Sadly it has.

Is it possible that 100 years hence, queues of international visitors will line up outside Masterton Town Hall to gaze admiringly at a plaque that says: “Masterton – the Place Where They Fixed Democracy”? Somehow I doubt it.

I understand the worthy intent behind what the Masterton council is doing. In an ideal world there would be more Maori in local government. But it’s fanciful to interpret the Treaty of Waitangi as imposing an obligation on councils to provide seats for unelected iwi representatives.

You can be fully supportive of having more Maori involved in local government, but also think this is a terrible idea.

News.com.au reports:

For several hours a week, the Metropolitan Pool on Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn bars men from entering, allowing local Orthodox Jewish women and girls to swim while maintaining their modesty.

The popular recreational centre in New York City’s thriving neighbourhood, just a few blocks from a predominantly Orthodox Jewish community, has kept women-only pool hours since the 1990s. But the practice only came to the attention of the wider public recently after complaints to the city’s Commission on Human Rights.

Commission spokesman Seth Hoy said they received an anonymous complaint “a few months back” that the indoor pool — one of NYC’s oldest — might be violating the city’s human rights law, which bans gender discrimination in public accommodations.

Jewish law forbids women to bathe in front of men and, according to New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind, a politician who represents the Orthodox Jewish district in Brooklyn, many Hasidic women were “very distraught” after learning the female-only pool hours might be discontinued.

If it is a public pool, it must not discriminate.  Religious beliefs should not get preference under the law.

If members of a religion want a pool that is female only at times, then they can establish their own private pool.

A reader writes:

The latest one news poll came out tonight and projects a 122 seat parliament.

My understanding is that this is based on the act party, United future and Maori all getting more seats than their party vote says they should get.

Would you be able to do some commentary on your blog about what affect it would have on the make up of seats of nats won Epsom and ohairu, and labour won all the Maori seats.

I would have thought it would mean a Nat majority government?

Would be interested to see if by having those three minor parties out if it would make all the difference.

Would national consider knocking them out for ts own benefit?

Generally speaking if a party wins an electorate seat and gets under 0.4% party vote then it is an over-hang seat and helps their side of politics. If they get over 0.4% then it depends on the actual result as to whom they take the seat “off”.

Here’s what the Colmar Brunton result would be like with no seats won by ACT, UFNZ or Maori Party.

• National 58 to 59
• Labour 35 to 35
• Green 15 to 15
• NZF 11 to 11
• Maori 1 to 0
• ACT 1 to 0
• UF 1 to 0

On the original result Nat/ACT/UF/Maori had 61 seats out of 122 – one short of a majority. If National and Labour won seats off the small parties then National would have 59 seats out of 120 – two short of a majority.

The Herald reports:

Up to $20 billion will be spent on New Zealand’s Defence Force over the next 15 years, the Government revealed today, including a scaling-up of operations in the Southern Ocean and Antarctica and a greater focus on defending against cyber attacks.

The long-awaited Defence White Paper, released at Parliament this morning, earmarked funding equivalent to 1 per cent of New Zealand’s GDP for defence – around half the amount spent by Australia and the United Kingdom.

1% of GDP on defence is around half the world average. Here’s what some other countries spend:

• US 3.5%
• Singapore 3.1%
• Greece 2.3%
• France 2.2%
• UK 2.0%
• Estonia 1.9%
• Australia 1.8%
• Italy 1.5%
• Norway 1.5%
• Finland 1.3%
• Spain 1.2%
• Germany 1.2%
• Denmark 1.2%
• Sweden 1.1%

NZ First is saying maintaining at 1% is not enough, that it should be 2%. That would mean an additional $2 billion a year in defence spending.

Stuff reported:

Prominent Maori leader and former National vice president Sir Graham Latimer has died, aged 90, after suffering from Parkinson’s disease.

Sir Graham Stanley Latimer’s leadership was key in progressing Maori rights and addressing historic grievances.

He was involved with the New Zealand Maori Council for nearly 40 years, much of his tenure was as president, and he was one of the first three members of the Waitangi Tribunal. …

Shane Jones, now Ambassador for Pacific Economic Development, described Latimer as a “mentor for our generation”.

“He was steadfast to a global Maori view about the trajectory that we should follow, but more importantly he was extremely patriotic to his country that he served in the second world war.

“He was a pragmatist, very few people would know that. He agreed to help push for the decriminalisation of marijuana.”

Latimer’s litigation and broadcasting leadership helped Maori to flourish, said Jones: “His efforts changed the face of New Zealand.”

Jones would remember Latimer’s restlessness to achieve, and his words: “Don’t stand around son, holding the shovel at the hangi pit. Get out and find fresh prey.”

I met Sir Graham when I was around 18, in 1986. He was the Maori Vice-President of the National Party but was very happy to spend time chatting to a Young National on Maori and Treaty issues.

There are arguably few in Maoridom who worked as hard as he did to try and achieve better outcomes for his people.

The Herald reports:

A protest organiser in Masterton has welcomed uniformed members of a right wing group wanting to march against child abuse in the town.

Mother-of-five Liz Rikiti and Amanda Dette have arranged a Justice for Moko march in Masterton on Monday June 27, the same day as the Rotorua High Court sentencing of Tania Shailer and David William Haerewa, a couple who pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Moko Rangitoheriri, a 3-year-old in their care tortured to death over a two-month period.

Masterton scrap worker Vaughan Tocker, who heads the Right Wing Resistance in Australia and New Zealand and claims to hold the rank of lieutenant-general, said his group planned to stand shoulder to shoulder with child abuse protestors later this month and march against child abuse ” – as well as “Islamisation”.

Why only lieutenant-general? He should self appoint himself to be Field Marshall!

Mr Tocker and his group dresses in black military outfits and has called for bans on state asset sales, the Trans Pacific Partnership, Muslim immigrants and Chinese investment in New Zealand.

Which political parties in New Zealand are against asset sales, the TPP, immigration and Chinese foreign investment? Not National or ACT. One can work out pretty easily which ones have similiar policies!

The Herald reports:

New Zealand needs to get rid of 80 per cent of its dairy cows because dairying is dirtying our water.

That was the message delivered to the annual meeting of Wanganui Federated Farmers by its former president.

Rachel Stewart, president of the group for four years in the early 2000s and guest speaker at Friday’s annual meeting, is an “ardent critic” of farming.

Dairy off memory is around 7% of GDP. So an 80% reduction is likely to reduce GDP by around $11 billion or $2,500 per capita.

Ms Stewart predicted there would be synthetic milk in five years, and people wouldn’t be eating meat in 10 years.

Her predictions seem as robust as her policies. I’m very very confident people will be eating meat in 100 years time, let alone 10.

Stuff reports:

National’s newest MP Maureen Pugh has a secret she hasn’t even told her colleagues – the former Westland Mayor doesn’t believe in pharmaceutical drugs.

Pharmaceutical drugs are like physics – they’re not something you believe in or don’t believe in. Religion is something you can or can not believe in. But pharmaceutical drugs have been shown to be effective through thousands and thousands of trials, and have saved millions of lives.

The wife, mother of three adult children and grandmother to six, says she avoids using terminology such as “alternative medicine” because it “conjures up an image of crystal-waving, unshaven women”.

But one issue she has a particular interest in is health that falls outside “mainstream health” and doesn’t involve pharmaceuticals.

There are many good health measures that do not involve pharmaceuticals. But they are complementary not substitutes.

Up until now she’s kept her family’s health choices to herself, which includes only ever giving her children chiropractic care.

And what if one of them broke their leg? Or got cancer?

“They’ve never been on antibiotics. They have a really healthy immune system – there’s nothing wrong with getting a cold or getting a flu – if you have a healthy immune system you can deal with it.”

I’m one of those who will try not to use drugs. Not through a belief they don’t work, but general male reluctance to accept help. So I often delay using drugs until I’m really really sick. And that’s fine. But I will use them when I need to, and they make a difference when I do use them.

There is a difference between not rushing to use drugs, and refusing to use.

Pugh, who doesn’t take any kind of medication, says nature delivers whatever people need and she’d like to see the Government take a more holistic approach to how it allocates health funding.

This sounds like something you expect from Green MP Steffan Browning, not a National MP. Nature does not deliver whatever people need. Nature delivers Ebola for example. Nature used to have most people live until around age 40 instead of 75.

“If I had a dream it would be to have a pilot programme run somewhere or to have a bigger look at some of the way the funding follows the patient.”

“I think there’s a real opportunity for us to save the country millions of dollars in pharmaceuticals by treating the whole person and the environment they live in, which is all about healthy eating and healthy living.” 

The two are not substitutes. Health living and eating are important. I’ve turned my health around by making better living and food choices over the last few years. But that doesn’t mean pharmaceuticals are not needed and I still get my flu vaccine.

The Herald reports:

Social housing tenant Wendy Ross feels “like a criminal”.

“I haven’t done anything wrong … I’ve worked, I’ve paid my taxes, I’ve raised my family, so why are they trying to make me leave my home?”

Last year we brought you the story of Ms Ross who, having lived in her three-bedroom Whanganui state house for more than 30 years and raised her family there, had been told she would have to move out.

She has now been given a date for her marching orders – July 18 – though that has only strengthened her resolve to remain in the house she considers her home. Ms Ross, who works for the minimum wage as a carer and lives alone, has been told by the Ministry of Social Development that she is no longer eligible for a state house.

The ministry told the Chronicle that social housing reforms introduced in 2014 were intended to ensure that “people living in social housing still need it”.

With respect it isn’t her house. It is a house owned by the Government which she got to use for 30 years at a greatly subsidised rental. Now her kids are grown up, there are other families who need a subsidised three bedroom house more than she does.

We’ve heard a lot about some families being homeless. Well the answer is to prioritise social housing to those most in need, which is not the same as those who have been in one the longest.

The WSJ:

Competition is at the heart of America’s economic success, but not every type of contest benefits society. Consider the growing trend of businesses cajoling states and politicians to compete for who can dole out the most corporate welfare. It’s especially frustrating because there are already plenty of ways to promote job growth without robbing taxpayers.

General Electric is one of the latest companies to shamelessly demand taxpayer-funded goodies from government. The company’s senior tax counsel Bobby Burgner spoke freely about the firm’s strategy earlier this month at a panel hosted by the National Bureau of Economic Research. Mr. Burgner declared that GE would generally avoid states with congressional delegations opposed to federal-subsidy programs like the Export-Import Bank, which hands out taxpayer-backed loans and guarantees to businesses like GE. This followed the company’s refusal last summer to relocate its headquarters to Dallas, because some prominent Texas lawmakers opposed reauthorizing the bank.

Increasingly, major companies determine where to maintain, expand or relocate facilities based on how much money they can take from taxpayers’ pockets in the process. They sometimes hold jobs and entire communities hostage until they get their way.

And taxpayers are the losers.

The most frequent tactic is to demand tax credits or direct subsidies from state governments. In 2010 John Deere secured $15 million from Iowa to maintain roughly 300 jobs at a Waterloo plant. A year later in neighboring Illinois, Sears and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group threatened to relocate their headquarters unless the state forked over about $100 million in tax breaks. General Electric was in on the game as early as 2010 when it sought $25 million in tax credits from Massachusetts to maintain 150 local jobs.

That’s around $150,000 per job subsidy!

And then there’s Boeing. In 2013, the company, which assembles jetliners in the world’s largest building in Everett, Wash., announced that it was looking for a location to build its new 777X. This spurred a furious scramble by multiple states to win the company’s favor. Although most kept their bids under wraps, Missouri tried to tip the scales by passing a bill containing $1.7 billion in tax incentives.

That still wasn’t enough, and Boeing decided to stay in Washington. The price? An $8.7 billion package, the largest such giveaway in American history, that included tax breaks on airplane production, a sales-and-use tax exemption for new buildings and taxpayer-funded training for employees.

Imagine if all the states refused to play the game, and the decision would then be based on location not welfare. And taxpayers would have saved $9 billion.