New Heights of Virtue-Signalling

It's A Circus Merry-Go-Round

OK, it's true.  We can't help it.  Once again the office has been echoing with deep, rich belly laughter. 

We suspected that as a result of New Zealand's ban on civilian's possessing certain automatic and semi-automatic rifles some folk would engage in virtue signalling.  Within twenty-four hours up steps a prime candidate--in this case the managing director of a company offering Kiwi Saver schemes.  Here is the screed:

Sam Stubbs, managing director of Simplicity, urged other providers to get rid of all weapons investments quickly.  "The law now bans ownership of semi-automatic guns in NZ, but allows KiwiSaver managers to fund the companies that make them.

"KiwiSaver managers should get rid of their investments in weapons quickly. It's the right thing to do, and easily done."  [NZ Herald]

First up, there are a whole host of firearms which the NZ Government does not see fit to ban.  They remain firmly in the hands of many New Zealanders--and rightly so.  So, if Stubbs really wants to do the right thing--by which he means having an investment policy which is consistent with the government's new gun policy--he will ensure that Simplicity's investments include businesses which manufacture, distribute, and sell non-automatic and some semi-automatic guns.  It's a simple thing to do and easily done, non?

But Mr Stubbs has not thought too far on this issue it would seem.
  He has some exceptions to his ban: sellers of firearms are still OK.  Including his firm's investments in Wal-mart which is one of the biggest gun retailers in the United States.   What hypocrisy.  What inconsistency. 

Stubbs said Simplicity's ban excluded gun manufacturers but not retailers which sell guns. Its funds invest in Wal-mart which sells firearms.  He said he had to draw the line somewhere and decided it was the gun-makers that needed to be excluded.  

"It's not the people who sell them that are the problem but the people who make them," he said.

What!  Now fess up, Mr Stubbs.  The reason you wanted Wal-mart excluded from your ban is that Wal-mart is just too big a business.  Afer all, it is the largest company by revenue in the world.  Excluding it would have repercussions upon the credibility of your business model. 

But Stubbs's position is bizarre on another count.  In New Zealand the banned weapons will still be used by law enforcement agencies such as the NZ Police.  They will also continue to be used by the NZ Army.  So, it turns out that Mr Stubb's position is a nonsense.  It's just a piece of plastic virtue-signalling. 

When confronted with such fatuous nonsense one can either laugh or cry.  We choose to laugh--loudly.  But, it turns out that this idiocy is not limited to Mr Stubbs.  The government's investment arms are also reviewing how their investment policy should change as a result of the NZ Government's new ban.

The New Zealand Superannuation Fund and KiwiSaver providers are reviewing their exposure to gun-related investments following the Government's ban on semi-automatic weapons.  A spokeswoman for the $41.2 billion Super Fund said it was reviewing its exclusion policy to ensure it was consistent with the Government's gun control legislation.  "We are working as quickly as possible to make this happen and expect that our internal processes will be complete by the time the Government's legislation is in place."

The spokeswoman said the fund had some small passive shareholdings in three American companies - by virtue of their inclusion in global market indices - worth $1.3 million in total. 

By this chain of reasoning we expect that all automatic and semi-automatic weaponry should be removed from the NZ Police and the armed forces in due course--which would be the ultimate in virtue-signalling.  But if the Government does not want to go that far in its virtuousness, why are other government agencies rushing to join Mr Stubbs?   Or have certain narrow minded bureaucrats forgotten that the NZ Government is a substantial player in the (otherwise banned) arms industry in our country.  And so it should and must be.  Either that, or dismantle the Defence Department and the Police.

New Zealand is starting to look like a cabal of village idiots.