GUEST BLOG: Gerard Otto – Hark hark the dogs do bark – Tax Speculation Fever

4
5

Speculation is rife about a CGT and downstream effects amongst the MSM because there is nothing else to talk about for keyboard warriors who never learned to investigate a damned thing.

Sure there is other news – like former National PM Jenny Shipley demonstrating that National are indeed economic wizards and better fiscal managers than anyone by ripping off subcontractors and earning herself a $6 MILLION fine from the courts.

But the facts about National is not the speculative sugar on the daily porridge that the MSM are obsessing over is it?

Two weeks ago it was the end of our relationship with China.

Oh the hand ringing during the polling period of the Colmar Brunton Poll was a united team effort amongst the MSM choir but it only resulted in Labour cruising into the lead while National spluttered in it’s fumes.

All the hype by the MSM was counterproductive for National.

Hooray!!!

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

Now the hype is all about the notion that enough angry old coots snarling and barking about a CGT might put an end to it in the minds of the coalition.

Chief among the frantic speculators with nothing but wishful thinking for the centre right to gnaw upon is Stacey Kirk who wrote that a CGT has always been a cup of cold sick so why would it change now?

Yes why?

Angry old men with a sky rocket up their bum won’t ever change their minds.

But not everyone is an angry old man jumping up and down like a blue hot sparkler about the evils of a CGT while the rest of the world already has one.

A fair percentage of kiwis are in favour of a CGT now.

The smarter ones.

Only a small percentage of the 130,000 landlords in this country have taken to the comments sections of newspapers to howl in full slathering madness about how unfair it is that all their hard work to accumulate a capital gain – by sleeping in every week day and collecting rent should ever be taxed like the labour of the workers who get up before 6am five days a week and slog away for fuck all.

Hamish Rutherford at Stuff has speculated about dish water going down a sink hole and whether more foreign investment will be stimulated if New Zealand shares are taxed for kiwis but not for foreigners.

I preferred the dishwater myself – it was at least going down the sinkhole and not just a recommendation among many in a report that has yet to be debated in cabinet.

Hamish likes pinning his speculations onto other ones about how Winston will deal with these matters – creating a daisy chain of speculations all in a row.

Kind of like a fictional series of fantasy short stories.

Yes these are the days of tax speculation fever as the shrinking herd of frightened house rustlers are caught in the canyon between a report and reality.

“Woaha boys, we could be trapped unless we put up some hollering and make a noise, fire your guns in the air” – shouted the greedy cowboys moving those houses along the old tax free profit trail.

I think the association with dumb cowboys is apt as the rest of the world watches the last of the pea brains try to resist a CGT and argue it’s devil’s work.

“String up them communists boys” – is the thinking amongst the tax free, bean farting Einsteins.

Happily no matter what PM Ardern and her cabinet decide – they have earned sufficient political capital to ride any small waves in a mid term ocean.

The ocean is wide, with many months till the next election.

Far too wide for a news cycle to span.

Any waves will ripple around and slowly fade out so far from an election as the MSM turns the page and focuses upon new topics over and over again.

Understandably a CGT has been National’s main hope for re-election ( they have no policies that have traction ).

But countering that hope is the new proposition that this CGT is hardly being sprung like a jack in the box so close to an election like last time.

The fact that this potential CGT is a long way from home is a fact Stacey Kirk scrubbed from her speculative desperation.

It’s just too upsetting for National fans to contemplate.

By the time a CGT ripple reaches the election shoreline it will be less than one centimetre tall.

Plus Simon Bridges is unelectable and acts like a dumb weight around National’s neck, as it sinks in the polls.

Does anyone else get that sinking feeling?

Mock moy words.

National are sinking.

The days of tax speculation fever are numbered.

Endless boring hype is expected to continue for another seven weeks before it suddenly turns into reality.

In the meantime we should all enjoy what is left of Summer and ignore the angry old coots making death rattle noises up on the old tax free trail.

Those skyrockets are going to burn for a while.

 

 

Gerard Otto is an activist and a writer.

4 COMMENTS

  1. The economy had a lot to do with the 2017 election. One problem this creates is that using government to push for full-employment like this, pushes up wages, which pushes up prices, which causes inflation, which is bad for investments. Progressive taxation with a higher investment in education and the idea behind the social “safety net” is the best hedge against income inequality and inflation.

    Well, maybe not the best, but it’s traditionally been a pretty good hedge against it.

    And we could also just do a debt jubilee, right?

  2. The MSM has lost any credability it may have had. It’s all opinion and not much intellectual weight . Do our academics not count as important any more?

Comments are closed.