by Nathan Smith

This week, the party of Winston Peters (Boomer) announced the Kiwi Kids Grant. The policy would offer tax-free payments of $5000 a year for the first three years of a child’s life, for up to three children. Peters said the goal was to reverse what he called a “population precipice” of declining birth rates in New Zealand and argued $400 million a year would ultimately be much cheaper than relying on increased immigration.

If the strategy is to “grow our own” rather than replacing the population with different people, then at least Peters is on-brand. His Boomer supporters love that NZ First is strong on anti-immigration. But they should check the demography statistics before applauding too loudly.

According to the 2023 census data, of the 1,816,000 people who live in Auckland, the racial breakdown shows Europeans (49.8%) as barely stumbling over the finish line with a majority that wouldn’t even class as a controlling interest at a company. Asians now constitute 31.3% of Auckland residents (Chinese at 11.7%, Indian at 10.6% and Southeast Asian at 5.0%), Pacific Peoples make up 16.6%, Maori are at 12.3%, and those from the Middle East nudge over the line at 2.7%. About 42% of Auckland residents were born overseas.

These individuals are either already citizens or residents or can become citizens or residents if they choose that path. Some might spend their whole lives in this country, while some might go back and forth between their home country and New Zealand many times over their lifetime. But if these people are offered $45,000 over three years to raise their children in New Zealand, how many will take it up? 50%? 85%? 99%?

This is why it’s so important to answer the basic question correctly: what is a New Zealander? As a civic nationalist party, NZ First splits the world into two camps: legal New Zealanders and people who can become legal New Zealanders. Since NZ First believes that a piece of paper can create a New Zealander, the practical effect of Winston Peters’ policy will be offering to pay for foreigners to have more children in this country. Is that NZ “First”? I guess it depends on what you think a New Zealander is.

The party’s Boomer supporters probably have a mental image of who is a New Zealander. And while they’re extremely nervous about immigration, this anxiety clashes with their brainwashing telling them that everyone is equal, and anyone can become a New Zealander if they get the right piece of paper. This creates cognitive dissonance, which, coupled with cognitive decline, makes them clap like seals for policies that will only end up exacerbating the very problem they are trying to solve. Typical Boomers.

And it is Boomers. Go to any NZ First rally, and you will be swimming in a sea of grey hair. I do have some sympathy for them, though. Weapons-grade propaganda is nearly impossible to defend against, and that’s the only type of media that has existed since the end of WWII. The Boomers were hypnotised into accepting their own deracination and cultural subversion. When the future looks random, inexplicable and overwhelming, people enter survival mode, and the self becomes minimal to reduce its surface area to pain. When you are told you can’t live for your people and their larger story, all you have left is to live for yourself and your own story. Narcissism is the expected result of this sustained psychological torture, not some selfish choice.

But when you’re shown the problem, you have a choice to fix it. Those are the rules. So, let’s see if anyone spotted the biggest problem with NZ First’s policy proposal.

The premise behind the policy is that young people, both Millennials and Gen Z, are struggling to form families because they lack sufficient funds. Even double-income households can’t seem to get ahead of compounding daily costs. People tend to only start families when they feel financially stable. The data on this is clear. The exact measurement of “stability” is different for everyone, but it generally can be said to occur when they have predictable earnings, stable housing, manageable debt, some financial buffer and confidence they can withstand a temporary hardship.

NZ First has put a number on what it thinks “stability” looks like: $5000 a year for the first three years of a child’s life, for up to three children. The party’s plan is to take taxpayer money and redirect it to young people earlier in their lives, as a way to increase their overall health and wellbeing (people with families tend to be happier and more productive), rather than keeping that money aside until later in life for things like healthcare to make them feel good when it will also be too late to have a family.

Seems to be solid reasoning. But can you see the problem yet? No? We can reframe the premise a bit to shed some light.

Every Millennial alive today theoretically has two parents, one father and one mother (orphans and partial orphans are exceptions). If that Millennial gets into a relationship with another Millennial, then the combined total of parents connected to those two people will rise to four, along with eight grandparents (again, with some exceptions). The average age of a parent of a Millennial is about 65, while their grandparents would be roughly in their mid-to-late 80s. So, every Millennial can be expected to have access to six different sources of potential funds that could be helping them become financially stable enough to start a family.

Oh…

Did you think about this, Boomer?

It should be obvious to everyone that the entire point of working hard through your life to accumulate wealth is so your children can start their lives at a higher level than where you started. That I have to say this out loud is a black mark on our culture. Every minute your child spends at a job earning money to live is a minute your child can’t spend on more productive work. If you don’t know the difference between a job and work, that would explain why you thought NZ First’s policy proposal was a good idea. You don’t really understand the problem you’re so worried about.

I’m not saying the policy’s goal is wrong. Ensuring the future health of this country through decent birth rates of New Zealanders is a good thing, and the party should be commended for trying to fix it. But no one ever stops to ask how we got to the point where a political party felt it was necessary to step in to perform a responsibility usually expected of parents and grandparents.

Boomers are always saying they believe in the future. They care about the direction this country is moving. Some Boomers, like Paul Henry, will appear to be “doing something” by standing for parliament and trying to repair the country using a political strategy. But vanishingly few Boomers know that $700,000 given to your 25-year-old child is worth far more to them than forcing that child to wait until they are 50 to receive their millions in inheritance. Who cares about having a net worth of $50 million when I’m 50 years old? No amount of money will ever be able to buy back your child’s youth or fertile years.

Boomers have the ability and means to fix all the problems they see for the future, but they would much prefer if the government took the lead instead. You’re telling me that across six different sources of funds (four parents, eight grandparents) none of you thought to use a small portion of the family wealth to ensure your children were financially stable enough to start a family? Really? None of you? No wonder your kids rarely visit your retirement village.

Boomers love to rant and rave about the declining morality of the youth, or the “woke” subversion of culture, and the emaciated currency, all of which are genuine problems. But when it comes to doing something that will materially help their own children, they are clueless, like brainwashed automatons. An embarrassment to their ancestors. Worse, they will even applaud when a political party offers to use other people’s money to support their children instead.

That’s why Boomers love NZ First. The party promises to do all the things the Boomers should have done themselves. As I said, I have some sympathy for the Boomers. It’s not entirely their fault for being the Dumbest Generation of Narcissists in the History of the World. But that sympathy is quickly running out.

Originally published on The Good Oil.