Published: July 2008
Hopes and Dreams
Democrats for social credit is a political party with a radical plan: the rejection of New Zealand’s debt-based financial system in favour of a programme of contemporary social credit monetary reform. It’s a plan of new economics for a modern New Zealand society.
Under the present system, New Zealand is a small, open, mixed economy which is vulnerable to the ebbing and flowing of global fortunes. During times of benign economic conditions, few people consider the value, or otherwise, of such high-level exposure. Sadly, it takes tougher times for questions to be asked. The current combination of inflation with economic stagnation means considerable hardship for ordinary New Zealanders, their families and their businesses. Oil, electricity, transport and food prices continue to rise but incomes and profits are shrinking.
Under these circumstances, the folly of the Reserve Bank’s legislative target of price stability is all too obvious. The focus is too narrow to be effective in managing the difficult economic conditions New Zealand faces. It is too narrow to effectively control cost inflation which is the basic cause of modern inflation, but is symptomatic of the blind faith in the magic healing properties of neo-liberal globalisation which typifies successive governments’ monetary policies.
The reality is that neither National nor Labour are equipped to deliver the economic changes New Zealand needs right now. They never have been. Their economic and monetary policies are hopelessly out-dated, all just variations on the same tired theme, designed to function within the framework of a failing, antiquated financial system. Very few of their other policies can be sustainably delivered without first establishing a sound economic foundation. Issues relating to health, unemployment, education, law and order, taxation, energy, and the environment have been frontline concerns, in some shape or form, for New Zealand’s voters, election after election for decades. None of the political parties currently in parliament have made any lasting impact on these issues, and nor will they. They have neither the knowledge nor the understanding to address the underlying cause: the debt-based financial system. Without that, there can be no sound economic foundation. It’s like the proverbial difference between building a house on sand or on rock.
The present system works brilliantly for the world’s wealthy elite but reduces the mass of humanity to debt slavery. It’s a system which was introduced some 300 years ago with the formation of the Bank of England in 1694 to satisfy the demands for wealth by the landed aristocracy of industrialising Europe. Regardless of the degree to which it is tweaked, twisted, adjusted and tinkered with, the debt-based financial model of 1694 can not and does not meet the needs of contemporary society. Repayment of high interest bearing debt will always transfer wealth from the relatively poor to the already rich. That’s the way the system is supposed to work, and does. What we need is a new system: one which de-privatises the creation and retirement of money.
New Zealanders are not greedy people. In my experience, they are friendly, warm-hearted and generous. Their core aspirations and expectations are relatively modest. They want to own their family homes; they want a sound education for their children; they want high quality health care; they want their families to be warm and well-fed; they want to take the occasional holiday; have security in retirement; and they want to be safe in their communities. Yet government after government fails to meet those humble expectations, invariably citing costs or funding issues or economic climates as barriers. This is nonsense. New Zealand is weighed down by a financial system which generates government economic policies based on faulty doctrine. The result? Student loan debt is over $10 billion and climbing, households spend 20% more than they earn, total New Zealand debt is $419 billion, the March year current account deficit is $13.79 billion (7.8% of GDP), DHB debt is escalating and still the modest expectations of ordinary New Zealanders have not been realised.
The sound economic foundation of social credit monetary reform would allow all New Zealanders to realise their hopes and dreams.
Written By: Stephnie deRuyter
Party Leader
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