The End of European Corporate Welfare Provides a Once-In-A-Lifetime Opportunity
Warren Buffett once famously quipped that in business and investing when the tide goes out, you find who has been swimming naked. This is a derivative from a far older proverb to the effect that "a rising tide lifts all boats".
One of the impacts from Brexit will be that the (previously rising) tide of European subsidies will disappear from Britain. Lots of naked swimmers will be exposed. Doubtless, some British businesses will need to make some severe adjustments, but if they avoid the temptation of looking to have their European subsidies replaced with British ones, it will all be to the good longer term. British agriculture can be included in the list of industries which will have to adjust. New Zealand, of course, knows all about this, having gone through it in the seventies and eighties. Now, subsidy free, yet able to compete virtually anywhere in the world, NZ agriculture is a thing to behold, the whinging and moaning of the Greenists notwithstanding.
We smiled to read in the NZ Herald that the royal estates in the UK will be hit--and they will not be isolated.
Showing posts with label Corporate Welfare. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Corporate Welfare. Show all posts
Tuesday, 1 November 2016
Friday, 7 February 2014
End of an Age of Entitlement in Australia
Personal Responsibility Beckoning
We posted recently about wholesome progress being made in Australia under the Abbott government to end corporate welfare. The collusion of between business and government is never pretty and always represents a corrupt rort whereby the owners of favoured businesses get to be enriched at the expense of the taxpayer. (The same may be said of the collusion between unions and governments, but that's a matter for another day.)
Treasurer Joe Hockey is proving to be up to the challenge, according to a piece in the Sydney Morning Herald by Mark Kenny, entitled "Hockey Calls an End to 'Age of Entitlement'".
We posted recently about wholesome progress being made in Australia under the Abbott government to end corporate welfare. The collusion of between business and government is never pretty and always represents a corrupt rort whereby the owners of favoured businesses get to be enriched at the expense of the taxpayer. (The same may be said of the collusion between unions and governments, but that's a matter for another day.)
Treasurer Joe Hockey is proving to be up to the challenge, according to a piece in the Sydney Morning Herald by Mark Kenny, entitled "Hockey Calls an End to 'Age of Entitlement'".
Treasurer Joe Hockey has bluntly warned Australians that the days of governments saving businesses and jobs had passed, telling them, ''the age of entitlement is over, and the age of personal responsibility has begun''. The tough comments come as the government braces for further requests for public funds from big employers such as Toyota, and as some within the federal cabinet seek more help for farmers.
Monday, 3 February 2014
Corporate Welfare No Longer
No Taxpayers' Oil for Squeaky Wheels
There are few things more risible and contemptible than corporate welfare. The idea of the government using taxpayers to subsidise businesses is obnoxious on a number of counts, not the least of which is that the many are made to pay in order to make a few anointed ones wealthy. The bottom line always is that if a business cannot compete and win market favour by virtue of the quality and price of its goods and services, it deserves to go out of business. It is far better that it does. Subsidised businesses are always relatively inefficient businesses. To the extent they are subsidised, consumer/taxpayers are being overcharged in one form or another.
We in New Zealand are very familiar with corporate welfare. Older citizens here grew up with the nostrum that farmers were the backbone of the New Zealand economy. The taxpayer, we were told, had to help the farmer make a dollar (or pound, as it was in those days) otherwise all of us would be sold into penury. Before long taxpayers worked out that even if it were true that farmers were the backbone of the NZ economy, it was also true that taxpayers were the flesh and sinew of the farmer and that the whole sham was a massive, national Ponzi scheme.
There are few things more risible and contemptible than corporate welfare. The idea of the government using taxpayers to subsidise businesses is obnoxious on a number of counts, not the least of which is that the many are made to pay in order to make a few anointed ones wealthy. The bottom line always is that if a business cannot compete and win market favour by virtue of the quality and price of its goods and services, it deserves to go out of business. It is far better that it does. Subsidised businesses are always relatively inefficient businesses. To the extent they are subsidised, consumer/taxpayers are being overcharged in one form or another.
We in New Zealand are very familiar with corporate welfare. Older citizens here grew up with the nostrum that farmers were the backbone of the New Zealand economy. The taxpayer, we were told, had to help the farmer make a dollar (or pound, as it was in those days) otherwise all of us would be sold into penury. Before long taxpayers worked out that even if it were true that farmers were the backbone of the NZ economy, it was also true that taxpayers were the flesh and sinew of the farmer and that the whole sham was a massive, national Ponzi scheme.
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