Lew yes I think a case in point will be Sri Lanka with its war over will see a rapid economic turnaround.

Bullshit. Bullshit Bullshit Bullshit.

Goff said the exact opposite of ’secret agenda’:

“The taskforce has been a waste of time. National will never accept the proposals in this report, and taxpayers need to know why it is persisting with the farce,” Phil Goff said.
http://www.labour.org.nz/news/brash-report-sham-and-waste-time

He says the taskforce is “a sham designed to cover up the fact that National has done nothing to help hard-working Kiwi families struggling to make ends meet now”

I think you get the ’secret agenda’ line from the comment that “the government was simply using Dr Brash as a stalking horse for other ideas that would look less extreme by comparison.”

But does anyone seriously doubt he’s right about that? Why else set the Brash committee up?

This is the second time in a row you have made up what Labour is saying, and ignored the facts. You did it last week on Goff’s speech too.

I am interested in this Madagascar deal, but as far as I know that all got canned in March this year. Do you have info on more recent developments?

‘Madagascar’s new leader has cancelled a controversial deal for a South Korean firm to lease a vast tract of land to grow food crops.

Correspondents say Malagasy people have deep ties to their land and some had condemned the deal as “neo-colonialism”.’

L

“And that nonsense that Singapore happens to have a big port/shipping lane, whatever: that port just grew there?”

Shit, you’re right! We don’t have a big enough port! If we can just build one of those and get the entire goddamned country towed to the centre of South Asia’s age-old maritime trading network we’ll be set.

Where do you come up with this stuff?

The Korean war ended 1953 the turnaround didn’t start until 1960 and when “government started to increase”. In fact the country went backwards from 1953 to 1960 despite massive US “government” aid.

The key driver of the massive Madagascar farming lease is not about the human / Korean consumption of plant corps but the high price that plant corps will reach in 10 20 40 years time.

As world living standards rise (China India) populations will switch from a diet mainly made up plants to meat. To farm animals to supply the increasing demand for meat will require a massive increase of plant production to fed farm animals. The price of all agricultural goods will increase substantially. Good idea to own many farms.

Korea is ahead of where China is today by 25 30 years. 30 years ago the average Korean didn’t eat meat. As living standards rose the average Korean switched to meat. The South Korean government can see if coming.

The AVClub has voted ‘The Room’ as the best worst film of the decade. I’ve been a fan for some time, I’m going to try and get it into next years film festival.

http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-best-bad-movies-of-the-00s,35881/

“But no we HAVE to kill all those people before we see any benefit?”

I’m guessing that you mean “DO we have to kill…” And no of course not. I was being a bit of a smartarse, which may have escaped your notice.

But the point is, while the Chinese government are a bunch of murdering scumbags, they’ve dragged their country’s economy forward considerably while growing their government. The Singaporean’s, Berend’s favourite example, did the same thing, without the bloodshed. These were examples to disprove Berend’s point about government growth impeding economic performance.

Growth in government and in economic performance are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they seem to go hand-in-hand if history is any guide. Consider the growth in the first world economies and their respective governments from the late 19th century till now. I guess it’s because it takes more than 4 clerks and a tea lady to oversee a modern society and economy, contrary to ACT philosophy.