BalpeenHammer

I get that the company doesn't want to help their customers but the point is that the employee has no interest in actually doing the job of helping you which is supposedly their job.

The questions I have for the employee in the store are not calculus problems, they are simple things like "does this come in red" or "do you carry such and such" or whatever. Just basic knowledge about what's in the store.

Can we have an honest discussion about the kiwi work ethic. From what I can see it's horrible. Have you ever tried to contact customer support from any company? How long did it take you to talk to somebody? Were they really interested in helping you or solving your problem? Did they actually solve your problem? How long did it take.

I don't even bother to call anymore, I email and talk to live chat and the standard reply is that they will get back to me within four working days. Like WTF man, four working days to answer an email? I am reporting a problem do you you really think it's appropriate to make me live with that problem for four working days?

How about tradies? I call a tradie, he says he will call me the next day but doesn't. The next one does the same thing, five tradies later I get one that actually calls back and makes an appointment to show up. They don't. I call and they give me some lame excuse and make another appointment which they may or may not show up for.

Have you ever walked into a store and tried to find somebody to help you? Have you ever asked a question to a business employee and gotten a blank stare because they have no idea what they are doing and they get paid minimum wage and they just started last week because nobody wants to work for this shitty store for more than a month?

No wonder our economy is a mess and our productivity is so low.

I guess my concern with one tax that covers everything, is that weathly people will just change what they do.

I don't think they are going to stop moving money around. In any case I don't thing "they might do such and such" is a good excuse to not do something. If they do something we'll so something too.

My suspicion would be wealthy people pay accountants lots of money to work out how to collect wealth with fewer transactions, and continue paying minimal tax compared to their wealth.

tax evasion is technically a crime but the tax is based on a percentage so it doesn't matter if you do ten transactions or one, if it's the amount of money.

When we are talking about a change in value, I’m going to have to disagree with you. A house doesn’t have more value over time, unless you change the house.

Value has a different meaning economically and it's pretty vague. Economically the only way to measure value is via the price of things. If you value a thing more you will pay more for it.

I disagree. House values go up over time because we incentivise people to buy rentals but have a lack of supply, leading to people borrowing as much money as they can to be able to get a house at all. House prices are tied to how much people are able to borrow, more than they are tied to anything of value.

It's a complicated formula but in the end it's supply and demand curves. What is the supply of housing in a place you want to live in? What's the supply of money and credit available for you to buy it.

I’m curious about the details of this. Most importantly, is it regressive?

Theoretically yes but in practice no. The fact is most people don't conduct repeated transactions. They earn money and then spend almost all of it. They don't shuttle money back and forth, do high frequency trading or anything like that. The bulk of the taxes will be paid by sophisticated actors with excess money to move around.

People hoarding wealth probably don’t make a lot of transactions with that wealth, it’s just shares sitting there being worth a lot.

True but it's rare when that property is not leveraged. You buy some land and you pay a transaction tax. Then you borrow against that land and you pay a transaction tax, you spend that money and you pay a transaction tax etc.

Where as people without much wealth have to spend all their money so end up paying more tax as a proportion of their wealth.

Wealthy people are constantly moving money around. They are constantly buying and selling shares, businesses, assets etc. They are also constantly borrowing money and paying it back. Also high frequency traders may make thousands of transactions every second.

That seems like the dumbest decision ever. A perfect example of short term thinking. Go to any country in Europe and they will have a hundred different kinds of cheeses representing every nook and cranny of the country. Each cheese has a story about the climate or the cows or grass or the air or the aging or whatnot and as a result they cost a premium. We just sell the milk powder, they make artisan bespoke cheese and sell it back to us.

No because the shares (in theory) have value behind them.

So does property.

If they went up overnight, it was because the value of the company changed not because the purchasing power of money changed.

House prices go up because the value goes up too. The value is the neighbourhood, the schools in the area, proximity to public transport or shopping etc. Shops could be built someplace and the value might go up. A highway could be built nearby and the value would go down.

Here’s another question though. That old lady/man everyone knows of that owns dozens or hundreds of houses, do you think they ever sold any? They can still accumulate wealth without paying tax by simply hoarding it like a dragon.

That would be tackled with a wealth tax not a capital gains tax. I do think an argument could be made for a wealth tax for sure.

But if I had my way I would scrap all those taxes and replace with a financial transaction tax. This would be simply done by adopting a digital currency and taking a tiny cut on every transaction automatically. No muss, no fuss, no IRD, no nothing. Just a premined currency that the government controls the supply of.

Businesses do buy and sell property so they should if they don't. They also invest in shares so they should if they don't. I don't think an exemption should be made for any business. It's unconscionable to put the entire burden on the citizens.

Couldn't you say the same thing for shares? You bought some shares for 5K, you sold them for 10K and now if you want to buy them again you have to pay 10K. Does this mean you didn't realize any profit on your 5K investment?

There is no law that says you need to buy a house for the same price, most people will either downsize or upsize anyway.

But hey we can be generous and say you get to sell one house without paying CGT in your lifetime. Would that placate the masses?

Let them cry. There is no disputing that a farm is a business. They should be treated like any other business. If there is a house on a farm then the land the house sits on could be treated as a residence and given a different title. That's what should happen anyway. I am sick and tired of farmers getting everything they want at the expense of everybody else who has to pick up the tab and conserve water. BTW same goes for lifestyle blocks. They are not even farms and they get treated like farms.

Wealth tax would be on unrealized gains, this would only apply when you sell the property.

I don't know why farms should be exempt. It's a business like any other and should be treated as such.

Is there something specific the government can do to steer this ship?

Yes. They could simply start by not favoring the agricultural sector when it comes to all kinds of laws. Subject them to the same regulations every other business faces in regards to taxes, land use, pollution laws, labour laws etc.

R&D isn’t just a government thing, how do we encourage private companies to invest in research?

We don't have to. Presumably they will for profit motive. We can fund R&D at our universities and not give away the fruits of that labour to the private sector. The government can own all patents and copyrights generated by academic research and license them out to the private sector using market rates.

I honestly think a capital gains tax is absolutely crucial to this. Currently, the sharemarket is taxed, mainly in taxes on dividends and income taxes on overseas shares (FIF). You can buy a house, have it triple in value, and sell it without paying any tax.

That's one thing but we need to crack down on fraud in the private sector and not allow companies to simple declare bankruptcy and continue to trading under a different name. Also no bailouts when they fail.

How do we find the money to do all of these things, in a world where the established large players are going to fight tooth and nail to avoid change?

We can start by simply redistributing the money we get a better way. As I said stop favoring the ag sector and start favoring intellectual property. Stop giving away University generated innovation etc.

We also have a country of landlords, and even worse, a government who like to favour landlords by talking about the “mum and dad” landlords to pull heart strings, despite the majority of rentals being owned by people/companies that own many properties. As long as the media and government use the right words, it will be very difficult to get voters to support additional taxes even if only on rentals.

That problem may not be solvable. We are a nation of easily manipulated fools and it's getting worse as the brain drain accelarates.