Leaving NZ

The media are going ape over the fact that people are leaving the nation in droves. 

In once sense we should welcome this. Less competition for jobs (higher pay rises), more space for us and improved buisness links with the rest of the world (Just ask any Chinese Immigrant - they still keep in touch with the home land).

But then there is the Human cost. The loss of all of significant investment in training and education. Furthermore we have to find immigrants to replace the lost skills.

Finally there is the social cost. My mother is quite happy having me back at home for Christmas from Ireland.

So what are we to do about this?

Firstly we must accept that we will never stop emigration. People always want to leave and see the world. 

Secondly we must grow the economy. 

This means cutting government spending, getting people back into work and balancing the books. We also need to create more opportunities for people in Kiwiland by encouraging buissness start ups. It is a nasty fact that many good buisness ideas are promptly snapped up by overseas investors because of a lack of local funding. This means introducing compulsory Kiwisaver and getting to grips with the poor savings in NZ. While Dairy/Sheep farming will always be the old reliable we need to expand our product offering and thus provide further opportunities for people to work here. 

Thirdly we must recoup the cost of the educational investment from those who do not return to NZ. We need to bond students to NZ, not by charging them interest when outside Kiwiland but recovering the full subsidy. Student fees only pay part of the cost of the education, we need to recover the whole cost for those who take advantage of the free education but then leave the country (like I have done).

Fourthly the productivity commission is currently undertaking a review of shipping into Kiwiland. If we cut the costs of getting out goods to market then we can sell at a cheaper price and/or get more profit. Along side this we need to deal with the empty container issue. NZ exporters require large numbers of containers thus empty containers must be shipped to NZ at a loss to somebody.

Number 5: Have more free trade deals. We all benefit from this. 

Sixthly we need to increase skilled and educated immigration. Smart people find ways of making money. Smart people have educated children and thus giving NZ an educated workforce. They come with links to their homelands which can be used to create new economic ventures. For example my old landlord in Ireland was looking at importing solar water heaters to Ireland which would have saved Ireland energy. In other countries it is hard to get your foot in the door with western sales methods (In Korea it is who you went to school with and who you personally know) this is one way of breaking down the barriers. 

In addition we are having a large number of baby boomers retiring we will need to replace this skill loss and we will need to pay for their pensions. Paying somebody $14000 or so a year is not cheap.