Posts by Rich of Observationz
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I'd by right in thinking that this is ex-post-facto law and contrary to e.g. the ECHR? Or does the fact that it's an infringement rather than a crime put it outside this requirement?
(I believe that e.g. English law doesn't have infringements. Even the most minor motoring offences are criminal, but they're dealt with by an infringement procedure where paying the fine settles the case)
In somewhere like the US, or an EU country subject to the ECHR, they'd be unable to rectify an admin error like this, right and would just have to suck it up. (Or in the US case, send cops around the speeding motorists houses to shoot them in the head, as permitted (at least for non-white motorists) under the unwritten parts of the constitution).
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OnPoint: Don't put words in our mouths, Rob, in reply to Chris Waugh,
They don't have shouty mad people in China? Actually, I never saw any in Hong Kong.
I often wonder when I go to a country without street people (e.g. most of Northern Europe) whether they have an efficient and humane care system, or are quietly liquidating them in camps.
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anyone who is led to believe by signs that they can drive it at 100 km/h will probably run off the road pretty quickly
That's why all vehicles are equipped with a large glass thing in front of the driver, so one can see what the road does and control the vehicle appropriately.
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OnPoint: Don't put words in our mouths, Rob, in reply to Lucy Telfar Barnard,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Informal_value_transfer_system or more poetically, “flying money”.
I’m guessing a lot of SME exporters like Ali Baba traders will offer their clients the option to pay in FX to a bank account in the importer’s country, and then they can swap the offshore NZD or whatever for RMB in a Chinese account.
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OnPoint: Don't put words in our mouths, Rob, in reply to Kumara Republic,
SEA countries that traditionally haven’t see eye-to-eye with mainland China
I'm trying to think of a country in SE Asia that * has * had traditionally friendly relations with China.
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Why do you want to tax foreigners in a discriminatory fashion?
There are measures that could be taken (up to and including a 100% stamp duty on the marginal value of sales exceeding a certain percentage of GV) that would stop property inflation and hence remove the incentive to speculate.
Do that, and you get back to a situation where you buy a house to live in, or to rent out for a cash profit, not an untaxed capital gain.
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Polity: A week on from the housing controversy, in reply to Katharine Moody,
Is property speculation OK if done by New Zealand residents?
Yes, it is okay!
Well, if you don't consider:
- reinforcement of inequality by enriching those who got in early (or get out early) at the expense of the rest of the population
- enrichment of those with the good sense to inherit wealth at the expense of wage earners
- damage to the productive sector because real businesses are unable to compete with the returns from leveraged land speculation
- losses to those left with negative equity after the bubble bursts
- potential loss of banking services if a crash undermines the banking system
- cost to taxpayers of bailing out banking sector (remember, this is the alleged reason for austerity in Europe)
- loss of tax income as taxable earnings are replaced by tax-free capital gains
- damage to the environment from urban sprawl justified by a semi-imaginary need for more housing landNot to mention:
- damage to the economy of other countries (China, in particular) by the diversion of productive investment into offshore speculation
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my disdain for imperialist rules
The English language evolved amongst the ordinary working people of Middle Ages England, at a time when their lords and masters spoke French and used Latin for governmental and religious purposes. It isn't imperialist, and using it correctly in discourse merely indicates that you've taken the trouble to consider your thoughts (as opposed to pouring out 900 words of semi-literate drivel that few will trouble to read).
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Well, if you won nothing else, you got rid of half of Pagani and Quin's nascent "faction". I'd call that a win.
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Speaker: Identification strategy: Now…, in reply to BenWilson,
Van Gogh’s and the like are Veblen goods – their desirability is based on the price.
A better example of a market good would be secondhand cars, which rise and fall in price according to supply and demand. If there’s a shortage of cars, the price goes up, but only by a limited degree, as people settle for older and rattier cars and more vehicles are imported.
In the case of Auckland property, you need to consider whether anyone would buy a tumbledown shack in a semi-ghetto for a million dollars if there was no expectation of substantial future gains. Probably not. Some people would be forced to, but many would rent or move elsewhere – and nobody would buy properties to rent out unless the rent covered the mortgage and other costs.
(In most countries, most of the time, you can buy a property on a mortgage, rent it out and make a small profit. This hasn’t been the case in NZ for years. Same with farms, even at inflated dairy prices).