Back in 1960, New Zealand - 28.7 times smaller than Australia - had a population of 2.4 million. That was an excellent population - not looking overgrown, no billionaires and few millionaires. Australia, back then, had 10.39 million population and had more cities than NZ - capital cities of each state or territory. In 1960 New Zealand could just about fit into Victoria - almost the same size - and have the same population as Victoria had! In fact, Michael Robert Hamilton Holmes à Court, the media mogul and Australia's feared corporate raider, was Aussie's first billionaire before the stock market crashed in 1987. By 2018 Australia had 480 billionaires. And poverty has grown.In New Zealand, John D. Todd, the CEO of Todd Corporation in Wellington was their first billionaire, reaching that in the 1990s. Now, 2018, there are 10 billionaires in NZ and the most rich person is Graeme Hart, who, since 1985, became an investor. And poverty has grown.
How do Kiwi and Aus billionaires live like that? How do Australian billionaires compare to NZ billionaires, and how do they - or can they - keep their home country out of poverty? This is, since the first billionaires in Aus or in NZ, only 30 or 40 years. How much has it changed before and after the 1987 sharemarket crash?
The first stock market crashes in the 1900s were in USA: 1901 - 3 years; 1907 - 1 year; 1929, the Great Depression on Wall Street - 4 years, affecting the globe. The Recession in 1938-39 was also in USA and lasted a year, but much of the world moved into a good financial situation after WWII. The first country other than USA, Brazil, crashed in 1971, leading to an energy crisis and the Latin American debt crisis in the early 1980s. In 1972 oil prices went skyward, causing UK and many other countries crashing. NZ fell too. The world recovered in the next decade, but Kuwait hit their worst crash in 1982. By 1987, Black Monday in October, the stock market crashed around the world, beginning in Hong Kong. Rio de Janeiro's Stock Exchange collapsed in 1989 and never recovered.
At the beginning of the 1990s oil prices increased again after Iraq invaded Kuwait, causing an 8-month long recession. Japan hit the lowest of their financial situation from 1991, and didn't recover for 20 years. In July 1997 Asian stock markets had a mini recession when their overseas investors backed out, and that hit the globe in October 1997. Russia had their own financial crisis in 1998, and terrorism at the USA World Trade buildings in September 2001 caused global reactions. By 2002 the world hit their lowest since 1997-98.
China's Shanghai Stock Exchange fell, triggering large drops throughout the world stocks. For 2 years from 2007-2009, the USA Dow Jones, Nasdaq and S&P500 all fell, and in 2008 many USA financial institutions and many Europe banks fell over. In 2009 Dubai hit their own standstill, causing global stock markets to drop, and the same year S&P downgraded some countries in Europe, causing the European sovereign debt crisis. By 2015 the USA's Dow Jones fell substantially, rebounding back in the global market. It was estimated that 10 trillion dollars were lost from the global stocks.
And poverty has still grown.
In New Zealand a report from the parliament in 2011 listed 15% of the NZ residents living in poverty since 2009. Australia's ACOSS provided a report in 2010 which listed 11.1% up to 2006. In their update in 2011 they said that "[u]sing the
measure of poverty that is currently used by the European Union and the UK (less
than 60% of median income), the number of Australians living in poverty would nearly
double to 3.8 million, or 19% of the 2006 population." (My italics.) The Anglicare Australia graph shows the government benefits exist at around 25% under 'normal' income. Poverty has grown worse.
Do any millionaires or billionaires help the other population of their own country? Do they donate any of their income to homeless people, or do they have units built which people can afford? Do they support paying taxes before they make profits? Do they rally the government to increase the benefits so it's not 25% less than 'normal' income? Why is poverty still growing? When will
Australia, New Zealand, or any country in this world which has millionaires and
billionaires and poverty, resolve that situation? No one has ever asked for
poverty. No one has ever asked to be homeless.
Have you asked yourself if you can help? Do you care?
