How New Zealand Used Free Market Policies To Improve Their Economy

See How Economies Can Rise from the Ashes: The Kiwi Plan: Yes, You Can Save Democracy from Itself by Bill Frezza of FEE. Excerpt:

"Their accomplishments are too many to list in depth, but here is a brief rundown. While it took years of hard work, at the end of the day, they

• privatized most state-owned enterprises, allowing competition to both stop the fiscal bleeding and raise the level of service
• ended phony accounting practices designed to hide the truth from voters by shifting reporting of government finances to GAAP standards used in private industry
• opened the government’s books, publishing monthly departmental income statements and balance sheets for all to see
• repealed protective tariffs and eliminated farm subsidies, ushering in an era of free trade and a boom in agricultural productivity and export prowess
• put the civil service bureaucracy on pay-for-performance contracts, while giving career administrators a free hand in hiring, firing, compensation, and outsourcing
• halved top marginal income tax rates from 66 percent to 33 percent, while eliminating capital gains and estate taxes and shifting to a growth-friendly consumption tax regime
• eliminated foreign exchange controls, allowing the New Zealand dollar — popularly known as the “kiwi” — to float
• put the central bank under contract with the finance minister to deliver a published, targeted level of inflation
• gave every employer and employee the right of free contract by eliminating forced-unionization labor laws and industry-wide multiemployer contracts
• broke the public-education monopoly by shifting to an all-charter school system that allows any child to attend any school, determined only by parental choice

These changes took a decade to enact across the 1980s and early ’90s, a decade of political upheaval that nonetheless delivered results that have stood the test of time.

Most remarkably, predictions that voters would rebel when special privileges, subsidies, and entitlements were taken away were all proven wrong when New Zealanders were presented with a coherent plan boldly executed by competent leaders. The study reveals the precise political tactics used to overcome the fierce opposition from entrenched special interests.

The results remain clear for all to see. GDP increased fourfold, while the government debt-to-GDP ratio dropped to 30 percent (despite a short-term debt spike in the aftermath of the 2007–08 global recession)."