Please Jacinda, put up my taxes

When Jacinda Ardern announced New Zealand would move to alert Level 4, she said, "We will get through this together, but only if we stick together. So please be strong and be kind." It’s a wonderful aspiration – tackling Covid-19 as a community and being kind to each other along the way. We’ve come to expect such inclusive rhetoric from Ardern, and it has earned her wide praise internationally.

But how far are we prepared to go?

Our real test as a community isn’t how well we play by the rules during the various alert levels we pass through. It isn’t even our willingness to shop for isolated neighbours, self-isolate if we feel unwell and accept emergency packages for those out of work. We’ve been hit by a novel situation, given clear rules by an empathic leader, and are in step with the rest of the world. So far, the national response has been sensible and humane, but it is not extraordinary.

The real test is whether, as we move from emergency to recovery, we are prepared to share instead of just help each other. Helping involves aiding someone else at minimal cost or risk to yourself. Research suggests chimpanzees and young children are willing to help. For example, a young agile chimpanzee might help an older less agile chimpanzee climb to a desired location. Similarly, a young child might pick up a pen dropped by an adult who can’t easily retrieve it.

Sharing on the other hand, involves loss. If I share some of my resources with others, I am not as well off as before. Chimpanzees and young children are not very good at sharing – when given palatable food they tend to keep it for themselves. However, by middle childhood, children become uncomfortable with inequitable allocations of resources, even those that favour them. Eight year-olds for example, frequently refuse lollies if their partner doesn’t get some too. Sharing becomes their default response.

If we, as a community, were as cooperative as primary school children, we wouldn’t stop with helping each other through the lockdown. We would insist that we share what we have managed to hang onto during this pandemic.

Those of us who have come out relatively unscathed by being able to work from home, being in a business that has survived or having rental income, would feel awkward about keeping all our earnings. We would want to say to those who’ve lost their jobs or businesses, here take some of mine, I insist. We would shudder at the idea of leaving an enormous debt for future citizens through pay-outs and stimulus packages funded by government borrowing.

There have been moves in this direction. Government ministers and some senior managers have taken pay-cuts and pay restraint is now required across the public sector. But we need a more systematic approach. We need to show that kindness and unity aren’t just about being nice – they are about genuinely supporting the long-term wellbeing of our fellow citizens. And this takes a stable pool of common resources. Right now that pool needs replenishing.

This must be done on a large scale and it must be enforced through rules – or our generous natures will be undercut by the sense that others aren’t doing their bit.

Please, Jacinda, take the next step – increase the taxes of those who can afford it. I’m in.