Nat/act/nzf 2023

[Bjauck]

For me you're ignoring the important part of the equation, as have multiple governments. Productivity. Grow the pie so the tax take grows and over time, tax rates cut. Very few governments spend my tax well. I certainly don't want to see government expenditure increasing as a proportion of GDP. I want it shrinking. That doesn't mean the $ spend needs to shrink. Grow the pie!

I agree. We do need more productive businesses paying more productive employees. NZ needs to be the country where productive and growth companies want to remain. However it will take a big (and uncomfortable for some) shift in policy and investment priorities

[Panda-NZ-]

Become part of Australia; businesses win, workers win... residential landlords not so much (stamp duty, cgt, land taxes).

[Aaron]

For me you're ignoring the important part of the equation, as have multiple governments. Productivity. Grow the pie so the tax take grows and over time, tax rates cut. Very few governments spend my tax well. I certainly don't want to see government expenditure increasing as a proportion of GDP. I want it shrinking. That doesn't mean the $ spend needs to shrink. Grow the pie!

If increased productivity and growth were that easy to achieve govt and more importantly private businesses and individuals would be doing it.

It sounds like a good idea but I think I read somewhere that productivity has decreased in the information age. Mine has today thanks to online communication, that’s for sure.

Growing the pie sounds better than sharing the pie. Although I think we have confused growth with inflation with our out of control immigration growing GDP and rents but reducing GDP per head and our monetary policies which grew/grow house prices and debt with not a lot of additional goods or services to show for it.

On another topic, Aussie is a popular destination for millionaries according to Barrons.

https://www.barrons.com/articles/mil...roves-65698dfb

Safety, a lower cost of living, favorable tax regimes and a high quality of life are top reasons for high-net-worth individuals to migrate.
“Australia consistently attracts sizable numbers of millionaires every year, mainly from Asia and Africa, but more recently also from high-income countries such as the U.K.,” according to Andrew Amoils, head of research at New World Wealth, which teamed up with Henley & Partners for the report.

I wonder if the millionaries from Asia and Africa and young NZers understand the world according to mistatea. Australia has a top tax rate of 45% as well as a capital gains tax and a GST. Surely people should be moving from Aussie to NZ or Asia or Africa instead.

Govt spending and govt debt to GDP seems similar in both NZ and Aussie but is that possible if NZs tax rates are lower? Maybe Aussie's tax free lower threshold and no GST on basic foodstuffs even things out overall. That would mean Australia is taxing its wealthiest a lot more than in NZ.

I guess taxation is passed onto the poorest Australians according to mistatea’s earlier example. The poor people in NZ should be thankful they are not in Australia with our tax system spreading the load more evenly so they are taxed directly rather than through mistatea’s indirect regressive transmission mechanisms.

Wouldn’t lower taxes and smaller govt make Australia even better? Apparently it is the solution to our problems here in NZ although we have no examples of this being true in the real world.

Taxes or penalising success as John Key calls it, are not the answer to everything I agree but to get back to the original argument as I am now just rambling on pointlessly, is it that bad asking the well off to chip in to feed some poor kids.