Sam F. said:

".....New Zealand is running a massive budget surplus right now (around 5% of GDP, similar to the US having a US$550b surplus), and a left-wing "people's government" of high-taxing, big-spending chardonnay socialists are running the show. (The highest income tax is 39% on incomes over US$44,000, with a national 12.5% good and sales tax on virtually everything, including all food and medicines.)"

---end quote---

Over ten years ago I was an ex-pat American living in Australia. At the time, New Zealand's economy was in the toilet and it seemed half of New Zealand was living in Australia. There were some tired/bad New Zealand jokes going around, e.g. How do you make a New Zealander into a successful small business man? Answer: Give him a large business.

Just before I left Australia, the Australian economy was going into recession and there was another joke going around: "Things must be crook in Oz because all the Kiwis are going home!"

In all seriousness, I just visited my brother-in-law in New Zealand (he lives in Masterton) and was very favorably impressed. Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch are beautiful modern cities. I saw no indications of any serious urban blight or poverty. Wool and lamb are major export products for New Zealand. My conversations with some local farmers indicated that the price of lamb and wool was so low that it was barely economical to run a farm there. There was also a fair amount of pessimistic talk about energy costs and the availablity of petroleum. I found gasoline to be unbelievably expensive. If petroleum gets too expensive then that could hammer New Zealand's economy.

Anyway, I'm a big fan of New Zealand and strongly recommend visiting the place. When the American dollar regains its value, I'll go back for another long visit.

Gary