Posts by Craig Ranapia
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• It probably won’t bring in as much revenue as Labour says it will, but it will make Labour’s other tax policy – the tax-free threshold – much more credible.
It also risks opening up a self-inflicted credibility gap if a CGT (of as yet unknown scope and reach) doesn’t cover their promises. Please rubbish away, but I don’t think I’m the only person who’s feeling more than usually ill-disposed towards politicians letting their mouths write campaign cheques their arses can’t cover. Perhaps my expectations of the media are unrealistically high, but it would be nice to see one or two economically literate hacks spending the next four months saying "and this will be paid for how?" a LOT.
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Hard News: A Capital Idea?, in reply to Matthew Poole,
Everyone has to live somewhere.
M’kay. I need to phrase my response to this very carefully because any suggestion that residential property is an emotionally-weighty but rationally flimsy (IMO and YMMV, of course) fetish object tends to get, well, not exactly troll-ish but definitely troll-adjacent (“panoramic views of bridge from generously proportioned balcony”). I think I’m just from a background and generation where home ownership isn’t really the be all and end all of my life. And I certainly don't see why the taxpayer should choke the cost of protecting the value of my inheritance from the better half if I happen to be living in the property I decide to liquidate.
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Hard News: A Capital Idea?, in reply to BlairMacca,
If you sit on an asset for long enough and it goes up in value, you pay no tax on that unearned income when you cash it up.
That’s not fair.
Sorry for sounding like a broken record, but would someone come up with a simple answer for this bear of little brain why it is "fair" when that asset is the "family home"? Come on, a haiku would do.
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Hard News: A Capital Idea?, in reply to recordari,
Can I be confused by this, and thus ask for an explanation. Isn’t that the standard around the world?
Can I put this is class conscious demographic wedge terms, Lew might approve of? :) Boo-fucking-hoo if Messers Key and Goff get taxed on the capital gain from their Parnell McMansions and lifestyle blocks if (as is not entirely implausible) they choose to “downsize” in their dotage to something a wee bit easier to manage..I am highly sceptical that would reduce John and Bronagh and Phil and Mary to a miserable old age of eating cat food while hunched over a one-bar heater.
And honestly I could have lived with taking one for Team New Zealand if my cut of my Nana’s estate had been reduced by it paying CGT on the sale of her unit.
I’m sincerely hopeful that the policy won’t be riddled with populist loopholes and wonky numbers that even that well known Rogernome Brian Easton calls bullshit on. The politics may be smart (so far), but this is one time Labour really needs to break the cycle of foot-in-mouth disease. (Though that's probably no more complex than making sure Goff sticks religiously to a single double-spaced page of talking points, while Cunliffe does the heavy lifting.)
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Hard News: A Capital Idea?, in reply to Paul Campbell,
And yes Deborah Coddington sounded a touch disconnected from reality this morning.
It was more like waking up in an "over there" episode of Fringe -- talkback is an oasis of calm, measured analysis of the issues of the day and National Radio has gone insane in the membrain. :)
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Hard News: A Capital Idea?, in reply to giovanni tiso,
o basically you’re taking issue with the fact that he was there, not with what he actuallty had to say. Gotcha. I suppose.
Yeah, I don’t have a lot of time for people who think criticising Winston Peters (or anyone in public life) is equivalent to gang rape or being murdered by racists being lynched. Any more than I find it tolerable to hear Coddington equating Labour’s capital gains tax (which doesn’t automatically send me to the ideological fainting couch, FWIW) to advocating child prostitution.
I actually turned the radio off when I heard the teaser because, frankly, neither Coddington nor Trotter have much of a track record of adding value or insight to my day. Only listened to it on-line because I couldn’t believe it was as awful as my Twitter feed was saying. Sorry to say, but Trotter not acting like a complete ass-troll (for once) didn’t make it less astoundingly unpleasant to hear.
On topic, I guess the devil is going to be in the details -- while I'd prefer the "family home" (however that gets defined) not be excluded from a CGT I get how that would be politically impossible, even if I don't understand the policy rationale. If Labour actually produced a well-designed policy that doesn't have loopholes a half-way competent tax advisor could drive the Death Star through - and the claimed benefits and costing are within coo-eee of reality -- I'll give credit where it's richly deserved. But we're going to have to wait until next week for that, aren't we?
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Hard News: A Capital Idea?, in reply to Toby,
WTF-a-palooza”? I thought Trotter was cogent.
By comparison with Coddington, a baboon with electrodes on its privates would have been cogent. But given Trotter's track record of ‘Waitakere Man’ twatcockery in recent years, putting him in the same studio with Coddington was a risky move. It could have been a lot worse, which is saying something.
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Hard News: A Capital Idea?, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
You know what would be truly radical?
Having the stones to tell the middle classes that they can swallow the dead rat, pay tax on the capital gains from their houses and take one for Team New Zealand? I know, #yeahright
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The demented arguments against a CGT raised by Deborah Coddington on Morning Report do not seem likely to convince anyone. WTF was that about anyway?
I guess since dog-fighting is illegal, grotesque and doesn't play on the wireless putting Coddington and Trotter in a studio is the next best thing. Really, that WTF-a-palooza was about as illuminating as being thrown down a longdrop with a sack over your head.
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Hard News: Radio NZ: Sailing on in…, in reply to Russell Brown,
He had some terrible mornings on Morning Report along with the very good ones. But what Plunket does do well – and it’s a key interviewing skill – is think past his next question.
Quite - and I still say the interview that ended David Benson-Pope's ministerial career should be used as a case study in journalism schools of doing the basics right. Plunket was paying attention to what DBP was saying, caught a flash of unintended candour in a load of waffle batter and had a perfectly lethal follow-up ready to go. (Which is harder to do than you might think on live radio.) YMMV, but that was 'Good Sean' at his best. I guess 'Bad Sean' was taking a toilet break. Or getting his caffeine drip changed. :)
To be fair, I think what I found so infuriating about Plunket was that he could (and can) be so good, his lapses into barking moon-battery are that much less forgiveable. I don't know if either man would welcome the comparison, but I feel much the same about John Campbell.
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