The Tragedy of Privatisation by Brian Easton

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  I often find people characterising Rogernomics and the neoliberal economics of the late 1980s and early 1990s as ‘privatisation’; that is, the sale of state owned enterprises (SOEs) to the private sector.

 Yet, there may be better candidates to symbolise the policies of the time, including:  

• the opening up New Zealand to the world economy by the removal of border and related protections and subsidies;

• commercialisation; that is changing the way that the economy and the state sector were managed by giving priority to business principles;
• the light-handed regulation of business which has led to sizeable inefficiencies. The cost of ‘leaky buildings’ may be as high as $47b alone and people have died.
• the attempted ‘Americanization’ of the public health system driven by ideological stupidity and again resulting in deaths and unnecessary health discomfort;
• the tax and benefit cuts which sharply increased inequality.

So why does so much of the public concerns focus on privatisation?  Perhaps it was because of the lying.  Read more from Pundit.