She’s not that Kind (ODT)

Even Joe Biden — who sits on the conservative end of a Democratic Party more conservative than most of New Zealand’s political spectrum — has called for measures that go further than our government’s response. At various times, Biden has called for direct cash payments to families, freezing and forgiving rent payments, a moratorium on utility shutoffs, and forgiving at least $10,000 of student debt, a proposal that has been considered a laughable half-measure by American progressives, but has no comparable equivalent in New Zealand politics at the moment. That Joe Biden of all people has a more progressive vision than a New Zealand Labour-led government should prompt some serious soul-searching by our country’s liberals.

The worry is that even as the government has pumped more than $30 billion into financial markets, an inordinate number of New Zealanders now have less money to spend, and a bigger share of the meager income they do have has to be directed toward paying off debts, including any credit card and landlord debts they may have run up under lockdown. This is not only immoral, but as some economists have warned, could be economically disastrous, as less and less money goes toward buying the goods and services that drive the actual economy, and more and more goes into the world of finance.

via New Zealand’s Coronavirus Response Isn’t as Great as It Seems