Is New Zealand a C-list country? 

This is such a great political podcast - funny, informative, well-balanced, and really well-rounded and good-natured across diverse perspectives. And I am totally allergic to most podcasts, I find even Ira Glass to be like grater burn.

NZ always feels like the poorest 1st world country. Forever will always be lacking infrastructure unless some big time generous billionaires start making moves to save the day.

A C-list country, i.e 3rd world definitely. The neoliberal doctrine run in NZ since the 1980's has tried to run NZ on the smell of an oily rag, along with unsustainable immigration has run the country down into crisis. Many other OECD countries run higher tax revenue/GDP ratios than NZ, and also have comprehensive capital gains taxes (CGT would allow personal income tax rates to be lowered and the crises to be addressed) We simply cannot buildout the infrastructure deficit we have, with the unsustainable immigration rate, without imposing significant tax increases or regressive user pays. The net inbound immigration rate needs to be managed down to a sustainable level.