It’s time the rich of NZ paid a wealth tax to rebuild and adapt from climate change
The extraordinary rebuilding and adaptation costs NZ has to undertake must not be borne by the poor, it must be borne by this who have profited most from the pollution that has caused this dystopia.
Two of the largest global warming emitters in NZ are Z Energy and Fonterra. Last year Z Energy made a $269million profit and Fonterra made $583million in profit – shouldn’t they get a special tax to help rebuild from the climate change damage these companies produce?
What about Forestry and the slash they produce?
ASB made $822 million in profit alongside other Australian Banks making Billions. Shouldn’t those who have speculated pay for the poverty and inequality their profit margins generate?
Shouldn’t people earning over $250 000 per year pay a new top tax rate?
Shouldn’t we look at a financial transaction tax, sugar tax and wealth tax while reducing GST and taking not off food?
The 30 year neoliberal experiment cut the NZ State to the bone and the political project for each National and ACT Government is to strangle off revenue to the State so the State can’t redistribute it. That way citizens don’t become ‘reliant’ on providing subsidy to every day living, because once people get used to having services that work, they demand it politically.
This story about Hospital capacity spells out we don’t just need more drs and more nurses, we need more hospitals!
We need more Nurses, more Drs, more hospitals, more police, more Army, more Teachers, more schools, more corrections officers, better public transport, better prisons, our own pharmaceutical industry, and we can only fund that by taxing the fucking rich!
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A common problem with the Left is their unstated assumption that economies are closed systems when it’s not the case.
Any attempt to add to the tax burden of the wealthy (who already pay the lion’s share of taxes) will encourage them to move elsewhere. It may be the case that tax revenue actually falls in this scenario.
Even without additional taxation, if Labour are re-elected this year there will probably be a stampede of talent over the Tasman to get away from what is rapidly becoming a 3rd world state. Fiji without the nice weather.
Talk talk talk, there is this other thing about living in the land of milk and honey a privilege and one they won’t get anywhere else and if money is their measure then we are better off without them.
Andrew, you keep claiming the wealthy already pay the “lions share” of the tax; can you (or anyone else) provide facts to support this claim?
“Taxes has never scared true entrepeneurs..”
WARREN BUFFET
Whilst those of us that provide donations to the cyclone cause stand back in awe as those wealthy you glowingly promote give nothing. If there’s a reason to leave and cross the Tasman it’s because of the assumption by the right that they carry the heaviest burden. That is utter bullshit.
Meanwhile those of us that aren’t delusional know your hard right wing gobshite is a result of a common belief amongst the right is that they know best.
Why do we have stampedes of immigrants if what you say has any ounce of credibility? That’s because it doesn’t.
Adopting President Eisenhower’s corporate tax rates would send the top bracket to 52%.
Abolishing all local tax cuts would send the top income tax bracket (on very high income earners) back to 76.5%, where it was at the end of the Nash Administration.
Adopting F.D.R’s income tax brackets would result in a 90% tax on incomes over $180m.
You won’t ever hear any of that mentioned on television or in the newspapers. The public isn’t allowed to know such things.
I’ve known that for sometime..but only came across it by accident…and thought exactly the same thing as you have
A windfall tax on business that made significant profit during Covid should be created.
Yep best idea here, savenz
Any profit needs to be looked at in relation to the amount of capital tied up and the return on that investment .Companies may be making big profits but if the return is not there in this country they could move of shore and take their money with them .This would lead to job loses and less tax income . NZ is not a country full of wealth what we need is a government that does not waste the money coming in plus making sure taxes are paid in full .
That old chestnut of, ‘Taxes? aww we’re not going to pway with you meany guys anymore’ ay..Well good fuck-off, there’s plenty who will step into your place, I say. Thats the nature of capitalism…
And which government would be the one that doesn’t waste taxpayer’s money Trevor?
Our current one would certainly meet the criteria but I know National were just as bad this is where a truly independent press comes into play to expose wastfull spending
Good for you Kristoff!
According to the defenders of the wealthy these high tax rate should have destroyed economic growth and send business people fleeing to other countries.
BULLSHIT!
Ancient things like myself recall those business leaders who actually stated they were happy to pay taxes that helped develop the nation as a whole. Those taxes were used to provide for the well being of the nation as a whole – like John Key’s refugee mother, widowed, getting a state house in which her children were healthy and could get a decent education.
During this high tax regime there was high economic growth, both here and in other developed countries. High tax rates for the wealthy did not hold it back as it does not prevent the continued economic success of Scandinavian countries.
I agree stevie. To me the important thing is what you and the country get for your taxes, not how much you are paying.
Now that the minnows have forked out over 1million in donations for the cyclone relief, let’s see the wealthy reach for their pockets. Actually I thought they’d be the first to reach, but then I knew that was fantasy.
Hear, here I’m sick of the self-absorption of the comfortably off (ie they soak up all the money available to them either personally or to a selected few around them). This while they can see society deteriorating and the poor hit by all sorts of swingeing wrecking balls from different directions evading their attempts to find a safe spot.)