Mythical times

Sad to see Tracy Watkins wheeling out the tired ‘‘alternative facts’’ beloved of apologists for Rogernomics (Broken dreams and broken promises, March 11). In the old days, Watkins claims, baby boomers ‘‘lived through times when the government of the day got to keep most of what its citizens earned’’.

Not so. Up to the late 1970s total government revenue was a quarter of GDP. It rose to 35 per cent in the early 1990s, and is now back under 30 per cent. I never lived in Watkins’ mythical times.

‘‘Debt as a percentage of GDP was over 50 per cent compared with 20 per cent today’’. Actually, no: New Zealand’s external debt was 25 per cent of GDP in 1966, 40 per cent in 1978, and 85 per cent by 1991, where it has remained ever since.

What happened in the last 30 years was that the government paid off its external debt (by selling public sector assets) while private households sank into perilously high levels of debt owed to Australian banks.

Government’s internal debt, which may be what Watkins meant, has little to do with the personal finances of millennials. GEOFF BERTRAM Karori [abridged]