David Cormack
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Opportunity beckons
🕑 Added 2020-04-25 01:59:39 +0000 UTCThere are not many governments that get the chance to redesign an economy from almost the ground up. While our entire system of wellbeing has not been burnt to the ground by the COVID-19 pandemic, it sure as hell taken a beating.
This presents Grant Robertson with a chance to make his mark on New Zealand's history by designing an economy that is values-based and for everyone, not just a few well-off people or big businesses.
One of the major criticisms of this Government was that they were not the transformative government we were promised on the tin. A lot of this can be put down to NZ First being an anachronistic ol' handbrake, but a lot of it is also due to Labour not having the courage or possibly the competence to pull off something truly transformative.
Now they may have no choice.
The tax system is going to have to be rejigged. There is no doubt about that. My generation and the ones that come after me will be footing the bill for the pandemic for years to come. At the moment our tax system is designed so that those who work pay the bulk of the tax, and while a higher top tax rate is a good idea, there is also the opportunity to tax the places that people hide their money from Inland Revenue. While the worker pays tax on every dollar they earn from working, the rich bury their cash in assets like stock and property and are not taxed at anywhere near the level they should be. The Prime Minister said there wouldn't be a Capital Gains Tax while she was PM but that's fine. Put a wealth tax in.
If we designed a truly fair tax system, then every dollar earned would be taxed. At the moment we punish people who do an honest day's work and reward those who sit on assets and accrue interest and profit from that.
There are wealth taxes that are being talked about all over the world. Let's go for it now while we're rebuilding.
And speaking of rebuilding, bring back the Ministry of Works. We have used private contractors for infrastructure and sometimes they go bust due to rising costs but fixed contracts, or the public gets screwed on the end result. Let's have the State rebuild our infrastructure. So get a Ministry that manages the process end to end. Socialise the losses AND the profits.
And by having a Ministry of Works let's have a job guarantee scheme. It's not a pie in the sky fantasy to develop a system that gives everyone who can work a job. Let's guarantee that everyone will be entitled to a decent amount of incoming money no matter their station in life. That will at least provide people with the dignity of living a life above the poverty line.
There will need to be substantial borrowing by the Government to fund the great New Zealand rebuild, but borrowing is no bad thing. Particularly now while bond and interest rates are so low.
What the pandemic has done is pricked an economy built on privilege and lies. All around the world private companies are being bailed out. These same private companies would engage in share buyback schemes when the going was good. These schemes benefit the rich owners of stock and nobody else.
We can't nationalise everything, but let's ensure that private enterprise is there for the workers as much as its there for the shareholders. Make it mandatory that a portion of any listed company's stock is owned by its workers so that the fruits of the workers' labour is returned fairly back to them. All of those who have been crying out for people to go back to work to "reopen" the economy have revealed something that deep down we knew but was never talked about. It is not the "job creators" or the wealthy or the entrepreneurs who keeps the economy going, it is the worker. So lets build an economy that rewards the people who keep it functioning. Not those who pillage it.
Everything done from now on when it comes to rebuilding the country can now be done with the knowledge of what harms and what helps. This means we can aim for a much more environmentally friendly economy. One that reflects who we are as Kiwis and what we value.
So Labour, this opportunity is there for your taking. Let's not fuck it up.
Comments
YahYahGAK
This left me with a better understanding. It's the language that needs to be different, for me. I'm not 'rich'. I don't have a holiday home. I have 2 houses in low income areas, the intention being for my retirement ie keep them for the income. I support a more fairer tax system. Using that example, I'm interested in your view on how it could work in that scenario?
David Cormack
Oh totally agree, but it's become such political poosion. Last year National convinced everyone that a CGT was going to ruin your holiday home, and everyone went yeah! That's right! Even though a) it wouldn't and b) fuck all of us have a family home.
Emma Preston
I can’t believe y’all don’t already have a CGT. The fact that NZ doesn’t tax capital gains and has such a high GST rate means that the tax system is really regressive. Even republicans tax capital gains!
