The 2008 NBR Rich List is out. I suspect most Leftists will be looking at the list with a large amount of jealousy and an unhealthy level of suspicion.
Your Eric Watsons and Michael Fays of the list do have a huge amount of tarnish to their wealth. Watson behind more losses for investors, including the recent Hanover Finance collapse, than the All Blacks at World Cups and Fay milking New Zealand Taxpayer assets for his own personal joy, but most on the list got there because of intelligence, a small quotient of luck and most of all a great deal of hard work and stubborn perseverance.
I myself look at such people with a positive curiosity. I don't think, who did you rip off to get where you are but how did you manage to get where you are?
We got alot of political capital made today from the left, about a possible future Prime Minister, in John Key, about being at number 167 on the list with a personal fortune of around NZ50 million, but being a success in life and coming from such humble beginnings, like the number one lister, Graeme Hart, will make Key excellent Priministerial material.
Key is aspirational as Helen Clark is institutional. People like Key should be held up as examples to others of how success can come from hard work and if even if your background is poor economically, as John's was, you can still get there without having to rely on the State for life, as Clark would have someone like Key and his mother, dependent rather than independent.
In these tough economic times, that Labour have made considerably worse by their high taxes and wasteful spending, we need a leader that understands economics, markets and how business works and functions, something that is a mystery to most in the Labour Party, and especially Michael Cullen and Helen Clark.
John Key's financial acumen will be a benefit to the country and his success in life is clear evidence that he is the right man for the number one job in New Zealand.
Related Political Animal reading
Pointing fingers in the playground
c Political Animal 2008
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