… this government launched into a set of policy choices without adequate fore-thought or consultation about the consequences. Now that those consequences are becoming clear, it is scrambling to find an appropriate response. After having staked its reputation on elimination, ego and hubris is making it difficult to change course.
But recovering from the coming recession requires that the government does some soul-searching and adapt its future approach by calling upon a wide range of experts and expertise.
Covid-19 would have been challenging enough but we made things more difficult for ourselves by not investing the time and effort to think through alternative scenarios.
Recently, an interlocutor asked me: Where would you rather be, if not in New Zealand? I find this to be a non sequitur.
For one thing, the outlook for a middle-aged tenured professor is vastly different from a that of a young family struggling with debt and mortgage payments while worrying about their jobs.
And secondly, just because many others around us are losing their minds does not make irrationality rational.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=12366928