Seymour is saying the government is useless at owning things.

I’m saying the government owning state owned enterprises provides an additional revenue stream for the government coffers that doesn’t rely on taxes.

The fact that SOEs are run like any other corporation, just with the government as the shareholder, means they’re just as effective as any other corporate entity.

So Seymour is wrong.

???

State owned enterprises are run like corporations but pay dividends to the government as shareholder. Eg, Kiwibank, NZ Post, Kiwirail, what’s left of the power companies etc.

It’s no worse than anywhere else to be honest and mostly limited to older people.

Counterpoint: The more revenue the government earns from state owned enterprises, the less of a burden there will be on taxpayers.