A Minto Moment

It's Dangerous When Veterans Start to Read

We imagine that there are a few uncomfortable bowel movements rumbling through the teachers unions right about now. They have just been afflicted with the syndrome of the embarrassing advocate.

John Minto, now described in the media as a "veteran activist" whatever that means, has vented his spleen over "obscene salaries"--in particular the salary being paid to the CEO of Telecom New Zealand. It's just not on, says Minto. To his credit, he is being publicly minded: financial and economic inequalities, particularly large ones, lead to all kinds of social problems. When you reduce inequalities, you reduce the attendant problems and you create a more harmonious society. So Minto has our best interests at heart, as well as those greedy CEO's.

He is calling for all CEO salaries to be capped. But the veteran activist went further. He argued that "research" has now shown (conclusively) that too much money actually leads to greater unhappiness. It turns out that an income of around $25,000 is the tipping point. It would seem that if everyone was earning $25,000 pa, the world would be a much happier place; social harmony would break out everywhere, and all the attendant problems of inequality would disappear.

We quote the veteran activist himself.

At the heart of this government policy is the false belief that economic growth is the path to prosperity and that if we let the likes of mining companies pillage and plunder the country (no apology for the words Mr Groser) we will all be better off.

For a country like New Zealand economic growth is no longer the path to prosperity. Compelling research from the book “The Spirit Level” shows that once a country’s average income rises to around $25,000 the benefits of growth level off such that there is no further improvement in indicators such as “happiness” or improving life expectancy. Underdeveloped countries have a way to go but for countries like New Zealand we can no longer expect improving income levels to improve our lives in any meaningful way.

The problem for countries such as ours is the gross inequality in incomes. Last week Telecom CEO Paul Reynolds made the headlines with his $5 million income from salary and bonuses while Rob Fyfe of Air New Zealand gets a similar multi-million dollar package. Meanwhile we have families whose income is based on 60 hours plus per week but who struggle to meet basic living expenses. (Italics, ours.)

The problem is that when you are a veteran activist you get to activate about a good deal--ecology, executive salaries, mining, racism, and, oh, education. Well, not education in general, but quality government education (an oxymoron if ever there was one). As we all know, Minto is chairman of the Quality Public Education Coalition.

For many years now, we have been subjected to periodic eructations by Minto on the subject of government education--defending and promoting his favourite oxymoron. In all these years he has never taken the time to define "quality" when it is applied to education. But although it would seem that "quality" is hard to define positively, Minto has been clear on what it is not. It turns out that anything which even remotely might curtail or threaten ever more taxpayers' money being poured into the gaping maw of the Ministry of Education is an assault upon "quality" public education. Threaten to reduce the spend on government schools and bureaucrats, and a public eructation will come forth from Minto like clockwork.

But Minto is progressing in his thinking. He has now read a book--a notable achievement for a veteran activist. This book compellingly convinced him that bad things happen to people in this country if they earn over $25,000 pa. Clearly, this must include teachers on the government payroll. There is no way that you can achieve a quality public education if you have a bunch of unhappy teachers out there. Furthermore, no government teacher is going to get much job satisfaction if they know that they are contributing to social inequality, unrest, disharmony, and widespread attendant social problems by virtue of them earning an inequitable salary.

Therefore, Mr Minto has decided that they must open up a new front in the "campaign" for a "quality public education". He has called an urgent meeting of the Quality Public Education Coalition in which he will present his compelling evidence. He is going to announce a new campaign calling for all teacher and educational bureaucrat salaries to be reduced to, and capped at, $25,000 pa.

It's a Minto moment.