Capital Gains Tax

[blackcap]

Helping the impoverished, still doesn't help them if asset prices are rising at 7% while wages are rising at 3%.

That is more a function of interest rates than anything else though. If interest rates rise you will find asset prices falling and wages still rising as per normal.

[Aaron]

That is more a function of interest rates than anything else though. If interest rates rise you will find asset prices falling and wages still rising as per normal.

Agreed when do you think we might see the next interest rate rise? We have had 20-30years of continually lower rates and easier money. Rates are now historically low but now they talk of negative rates which makes absolutely no sense to me.

[BlackPeter]

Inequality is not a problem. The problem in society, which is often blamed on inequality, is poverty at the lower end of the scale. Does anyone who has adequate housing, and all the material goods he wants or needs, plenty of food, clothing etc, really care that some people have a lot more?

It is if you have on one end of the spectrum people who make not 10, not hundred but often thousand times (or more) of the income of the average person. Nobody works that hard - i.e. this wealth is basically stolen from less lucky people.

These super rich people start to control society and are able to buy public opinion and political favours. They are in many countries able to buy justice - even in NZ it can make a huge difference for the outcome of a trial whether you are able to fork out a couple of 100k for a good lawyer - or not. Ask the people who still wait for a settlement of their EQC claim.

Look no further than the US, Russia or e.g. Brazil to see how these things effect societies. Inequality kills democracies and turns them into oligarchies controlled by strongmen.

It is inequality which makes the rich people richer and the poor people poorer - it is a vicious cycle. Just look at how the recent crisis effects the rich in the US. The rich people (the reserve bank cares about) got richer (many doubled their share portfolios) and the poor people without political power lost their jobs.

[blackcap]

Agreed when do you think we might see the next interest rate rise? We have had 20-30years of continually lower rates and easier money. Rates are now historically low but now they talk of negative rates which makes absolutely no sense to me.

I don't know. I do know that if you look at the yield curve there is an expectation that interest rates will be extremely low for the next 10 years. Not a good situation for anyone to be in.

[Panda-NZ-]

People should earn what they deserve (but as a minimum enough to allow them some acceptable life). Nobody can tell me that some people work hundred or thousand times harder than the average person - i.e. whatever they get is stolen from the less lucky people in society.

Some of the poor and middle class have sacraficed their incomes and livelihood for years mainly for the health benefits of some here who are probably older than the NZ median age but still have the attitude that they don't want to pay a cent more.

It's not a universal view though and good on the likes of Tindall, Buffet, Gates and others.

[Aaron]

I don't know. I do know that if you look at the yield curve there is an expectation that interest rates will be extremely low for the next 10 years. Not a good situation for anyone to be in.

And why are interest rates being kept low by the central banks?

[fungus pudding]

More the politics of make everyone pay tax which is often a right wing outlook.
When professionals pay 30% income and gst and real estate moguls etc pay 0% there are many and varied issues to consider.

Real businesses have to pay a flat 15% on their sales while others pay nothing.

Real estate moguls, whatever they are, pay exactly the same tax as everyone else on their income. Businesses pay 15% on their profit margin. Not their sales.

[Panda-NZ-]

Who pays the sales tax known as GST to the IRD.

Not the consumer. and not the person who flips properties to someone else tax free every couple of months or so.

[blackcap]

Who pays the sales tax known as GST to the IRD.

Not the consumer. and not the person who flips properties to someone else tax free every couple of months or so.

You really do not know what you are talking about do you. If you "flip properties" you pay tax on any gains made.

[Panda-NZ-]

If you do then you're doing it wrong.

If a CGT came in then presumably it would replace the tax (or be a lower rate) on those gains so why be against it.
..because they pay nothing now that's why.