Apparently NZ's current tax system is "broken", according to the Working Group called to consider it, and urgently needs revamping. One symptom of this breakage, it seems, is that the country's highest earners are already evading much of their nominal tax burden. Newspaper companies agree -- as do the corporate lobbyists whose opinions they invite -- that reducing company taxation will revive the entire economy; also that the tax system is in crisis, unapparent though this was prior to the report.
There is a pattern emerging here. A month or two back, another Commission determined that the Legal Aid system was also in crisis and rife with corruption (according to unsourced evidence-free rumours that became credible because they had been repeated by a highly-paid Commissioner). The Government was shocked, shocked! to hear this (though by fortunate coincidence they already had plans ready to replace Legal Aid with a cheaper system of lower-paid court-appointed attorneys).
The moral is, don't appoint Commissions, because anything they examine can safely be predicted to be dysfunctional.
In fairness I should point out that the current NZ government is formed of Conservative but Compassionate centre-rightists who deeply regret having to continually advance items from a hard-right agenda. They are forced into it every time -- either by unforeseeable crises like these, or to maintain the support of the Corporate Interests party (AKA Rodney Hide), who constitute 5 seats of a 63-seat coalition. Hide is a meanie and he steals the government's lunch money at playtime. See artist's impression to the right.A lot of the people currently promoting Taxation Reform as the panacea for all NZ's economic woes were also around in the 1980s, for an earlier round of reductions in progressive taxations and the introduction of the GST as a supplement. The same newspapers promised us back then that the combination of flatter taxes,** user-pays charges, privatisation and deregulation would usher in a new dawn of international competitiveness. As I recall the editorials, the only thing that would hold us back would be the moribund state of the economy in our trading partner Australia, which had turned its back on similar reforms and was retaining Keynsian / welfare-state policies that would destine it to the economic also-rans.
The median NZ household income at the time was roughly equal to that in Australia but has since fallen to about 75%.
* Median household income in 2007 = $62,556. The proposed reduction of the top tax bracket from 38% to %30 will benefit individuals over $70000.
** No, SMcG, a 'flatter tax' is NOT a sycophancy fee.
14 comments:
Sounds like a worldwide phenomenon.
The lackeys of the rich telling everyone else "Oh we're terribly sorry, but the people who bought us need to get even richer, and the rest of you can FOAD."
Of course, here in the states the Republicans drop the 'terribly sorry' part, because free market triumphalism, that's why.
~
In my experience people are just as happy with the regular sycos as the phancy ones anyway.
Over here we a very large budget deficit. Although congress is expressly charged with managing funding at the federal level, they are confronted by two intractable problems. First, non-military discretionary spending is a very small fraction of federal expenditures, and therefore in order to actually have an effect on the 'problem', somebody's sacred ox is going to have to be soundly and repeatedly kicked in the nuts.
Second, you use this word 'tax'. In America, despite our large and growing demands for every greater levels of services, military actions, corporate subsidies and entitlements, we think that word describes the work of satan himself, and are therefore both broadly and specifically opposed to any tax, at all, period. To whatever extent that taxation is to be tolerated, it is greatly preferred that it be in the form of payroll taxes and their ilk, which fall disproportionately on the working middle class, rather than income taxes, which are paid (when they can't be avoided) by the wealthy.
Indeed, by now, you won't find a politician willing to even USE the word 'tax', as if saying it three times aloud might bring it to some kind of horrific, shambling life, and THEN what would we do, hmmmm?
So anyway, congress likes to talk about reducing the deficit, but they lack the courage to describe any action that would actually do this, because it would either mean taking something away (even if it's just the waste in medicare) or raising taxes. So they have decided they will appoint a commission to reach all the unacceptable conclusions they can then vote against, thereby solving the problem (of having to do something about the deficit)...
America, Fuck Yeah! Bestest country in the universe EVER!!
...anyone know if Canada needs architects?
...or zombeez?
A lot of the people currently promoting Taxation Reform as the panacea for all NZ's economic woes were also around in the 1980s, for an earlier round of reductions in progressive taxations and the introduction of the GST as a supplement.
Every time my parents served lima beans I was required to eat one bite, because how could I know I didn't like them if I never tried them? Every. Damn. Time. Maybe I should have tried to convince them that my evading lima beans was proof that I was eating too many lima beans.
Newspaper companies agree -- as do the corporate lobbyists whose opinions they invite -- that reducing company taxation will revive the entire economy; also that the tax system is in crisis, unapparent though this was prior to the report.
This has worked so well for the U.S., as can plainly be seen.
A lot of the people currently promoting Taxation Reform as the panacea for all NZ's economic woes were also around in the 1980s, for an earlier round of reductions in progressive taxations and the introduction of the GST as a supplement.
Sounds familiar...
WV- conaned- it either involves getting brained by a mighty-thewed Cimmerian, or getting fired and collecting a cool $30 mil.
The tinkerers of tax reforms in the 00's have indeed forgotten the lessons of the 1980's. Come to think of it haven't we just come through a serious economic downturn caused by a bubble in the property market with far too much loaned money being over-leveraged to blue sky mining property developers? 1987 anyone? Australia has serious cache of mineral resources amongst other advantages. Unless of course NZ invents nuclear powered self milking cows. Apply for your research grant NOW c/- G. Brownlee, The Beehive, Wellington.
Well of course -- those who wish to repeat history HAVE to forget its lessons.
...anyone know if Canada needs architects?
...or zombeez?
1) Yes.
2) This has the same effect.
what the hell happened to my comment? Effing riddled.
I did not know Gehry was originally from Canadia. I always associated him with LA, where he first started making a mess.
His first house is a lovely bit of DIY anarchy though. It appealed to the punk in me.
I don't blame him though; I have always maintained that northern climes are unforgiving on architectural trickery, and any flaws will be exposed by the freeze-thaw cycle.
So, is Gehry a Neil Young kind of Canuckist export, or a Mark Steyn sort?
Also, he has a fish fetish, and I canNOT support that kind of sickness. Get me my club and my weezer tapes.
...yeah, nothing like an architectural diatribe to kill a conversation dead dead dead. Story of my life.
sigh.
Also, he has a fish fetish
I knew I liked that guy.
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