Posts by slarty
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Turning the question around, is there any other country or jurisdiction which imposes an almost universal sales tax akin to New Zealand's GST?
No. but we are the envy of the world in our simplicity and low compliance costs.
The evidence is that fiddling with VAT rates makes no difference to the actual price paid. If you zero rate GST on, say, Feminine Hygeine products (seriously - they do in Australia) then the company that sells them cannot claim the input credit. You're much better off just giving a rebate (a tax free allowance on the first $X of income is an easy way.
the main people who gain from such exemptions are the accountants who fiddle around with descriptors :)
What makes our sales tax "right" - while Canada's, Australia's, Britain's (and many US states), all of which have numerous exemptions built in - are "wrong"?
And there is no right or wrong for tax. Just the behaviours that we try to drive with them...
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Slarty: so you want NZers to be watching '80s tellys with a green tinge, and Chinese people to be impoverished rice farmers who can't afford cheese?
And that benefits who?
Struggling with the logic.. help... anyone?
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so many of our most educated disappear overseas for want of opportunity or adequate remuneration. If we invest heavily in education, won't we just be funding a brains trust for the taxpayers of other countries
Very fair point: have you noticed how many Oirish accents you hear in other countries? It's a chicken and egg thing...
FWIW my policy wish list would be:
- Education
- Tax credits for anything that increases productivity (i.e. not real estate!)
- Significant investment in moving away from our monolithic energy infrastructure
- After a huge amount of consideration, elimination of ACC (I've come to the conclusion that, on balance it tends to reward bad behaviour)
- Introduction of an additional power to the Reserve Bank: up to 3% of peoples income directed to compulsory saving (as an alternative to raising interest rates). Not taking it away, just saying you can't spend it at the moment.
- Do the Broadband thing. Now. Stop stuffing around
- Abolish the MED. Why do governments believe that they can pick winners? You'd have thought we'd have learnt by now.
- Decriminalise all drugs progressively. Hard drugs sold basically on prescription (along with counselling etc.), the softest using similar rules to alcohol. Dedicate the 50% sales tax on them to harm reduction programmes.
- Use the money saved by the above (1/3 prisons, 1/3 of police officers etc.) on safety education on the road and in industry
- With the change, get some more defence staff (especially in the procurement division - I hear they need some help)
- If a referendum supports it, move from MMP to STV. And get rid of the (sharp intake of breath) Maori seats
- Introduce a flat tax of 22.5%, with appropriate uplift for the population who would be worse offCan't say any of em are ahead on points at the moment :)
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We're at risk of confusing some stuff here I think.
None of which would have stopped the huge influx if cheap finance, essentially created by the US Federal reserve and Japan.
Spot on. Basically a load of criminals overseas invented a machine that printed money, bypassing international controls. We will have a few years of inflation now to mop up all that invented cash (to be fair, there were lots of calls by various bodies for restraint...)
We have a simpler decision to make. What is the right level of gearing for our economy? Debt-to-GDP ratio needs to take into account all debt (Public & Private).
It should be based on our growth aspirations, and expressed perhaps as a view of the Country Risk position we want to take.
NZ is in a great position due to a prolonged period of good fiscal management. A Keynesian approach would suggest we increase national debt levels at the moment to mitigate recession.
Sometime this makes sense. We reduce the tax burden, effectively borrowing to inject money for plasma TV's into peoples pockets. This runs off-shore to China, where they import oil to make the TV's and send them to us, thereby increasing the price of oil, petrol prices go up, food gets more expensive... oh, sorry, doesn't sound too hot does it?
Alternatively you can get people to pay down debt. this is sort of like saving, so maybe a subsidised / compulsory saving scheme? Oh, we've got that, Kiwisaver and NZSuper Fund. Which is another reason our overall debt is looking good.
Maybe we can force investment in productive assets (as opposed to real estate). Maybe tighten up regulation of the local financial sector so people feel confident in buying into the local share-market? Or pay of mortgages (people tend to do that when interest rates are up).
Build roads? I don't know, can you sell the output, preferably overseas?
Tell you what you can sell. People. How about doing what Ireland did - invest massively in education.
And the infrastructure we need to support that is... broadband...
So I'm still looking for differentiation...
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As for its shittiness, is it really that bad? Am I led to believe that SB's global dominance has been based on selling crud?
Nope; its coffee is apparently very good by American standards. But it just doesn't stack up in a country which knows how to make coffee properly.
(I wonder how it does in Europe...)
Oh yes. I just don't think people grasp quite how bad American food is once you get even a small distance from a major immigrant-based centre.
It's like dreadful British pub food gone wild. And American coffee really is dreadful. You know it's bad when you turn a corner, see a StarFucked and think "thank god, an oasis of flavour". Hits you when you've been away a while.
I found Italy pretty good, France very variable. Germany surpisingly good (I think because they have grasped the consistancy thing).
The British vaguely like StarFux I think, because the alternatives there are still like NZ was up until about 10 years ago.
[And I know there are isolated pockets of brilliance - just not many...]
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Underestimating human incompetence: the common trait of conspiracy theorists.
Yes. We seem to have this innate need to believe that "they" are smarter than we think. They're not - just a bunch of greedy, small minded selfish halfwits in my experience.
BTW, I think the rich list is hugely relevant. ;-)
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:o
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It's all yours, madam.
Sorry, I'm but a poor Public Servant, I was too frightened to risk "Madam" (which would be the appropriate C19th replacement).
But of course in those days wimmin wouldn't dare to speak thus, so it wouldn't have been an issue...
For the record, being married I have no problem with Missus or Madam. But I struggle with Miss. Makes me sound like a mistake...
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PS
Oh, that's the rope that pirates use to tie their ships to the docks, right?
Oh well done Sir. Mind if I use that?
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I walked away from Voda about 2 years ago on the basis they were, to use a technical term, bollocks. The only thing they have going for them is GSM - an average and dated technology (I had my first GSM phone in 1992 - can you remember what games console you were using '92?) but one with about 80% of global market share.
So you get cool handsets. Voice quality is shit, but the gadgets work well.
Voda is a business based on an effective monopoly, due to the godawful balls-up that was the spectrum auctions in NZ .
Sound familiar? Seems to me that Voda are taking the place of the arrogant gorilla nowadays.
Which means Paul Brislen = John Goulter <Chuckle>
When I was a CIO it used to baffle Voda - they'd say "we have virtual routing and the cool handsets" and I'd say "pardon, I can't quite make you out on this line..."
And yes, as I experienced at a site in Central Otago once, if you get your wires dug up you only want to be dealing with TNZ...