Posts by Paul Campbell
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I think a CGT would only apply if you had a second set
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Hard News: A Capital Idea?, in reply to
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. :)
I was going to use the words "demented weasel" but I thought that might be unkind
(to weasels)
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Hard News: A Capital Idea?, in reply to
Giovanni: I think that it's important to treat day trading and its equivalents the same way we treat house flipping, or currency speculation - they're all things that have no real economic benefit other than enabling bubbles - they suck capital out of more long term things that take years rather than days or minutes and that create jobs and create real wealth - the trick is to encourage investments in those real things - Kiwisaver was a great start but really we need more - Key keeps talking about moving salaries to be the same as Oz - to do that we need actual local investment (not investment from the Oz retirement system)
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Honestly I think they haven't gone far enough - do what the US does - tax capital gains at people's marginal tax rates, like GST everything gets taxed the same - then carve out lower capital gains rates for things that are economically important (long term capital investments in things that make jobs or exports) or politically important (the family home)
In the US there's no CGT on your house if you trade up within a year (buy a more expensive house) - there used to be a one time (at retirement) CGT freebie when you trade down - now days you can claim it (up to $500k) every 5 years or so - you can't buy a house, move into it, do it up, flip it 6 months later and avoid CGT - in practice this means most people never pay CGT on the family home.
In the US a "Capital Gains Tax" generally has a different meaning than in NZ - when they say they have a 25% CGT - they really mean that for qualifying long term investments they have a lower tax than normal (there a CGT is a lower tax not a higher one - so a good thing rather than a bad thing as far as the low-tax zealots are concerned)
If we want to make more jobs, high value tech jobs, here we need lots more capital investment - much of that's stuck in our overvalued property market, sucking it out can only be a good thing.
And yes Deborah Coddington sounded a touch disconnected from reality this morning.
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I've found that "when I was a child, we didn't have dishwashers, we had to wash and dry the dishes by hand if we want our allowance" has no absolutely effect - apparently their on to us when we're making it up (even if we're not)
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well as mentioned in my dishwasher story above - not as much as parents might want .....
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Hard News: #NetHui: it's all about you, in reply to
Just out of curiosity, why was she routinely carrying around refrigerator magnets? Where they the flat adware ones that she handed out as promotional items?
She was a preschool teacher who had been gifted them by a small child
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Hard News: #NetHui: it's all about you, in reply to
Magnets: friends of mine had this problem - she kept destroying credit cards, ATM cards, BART tickets, ... she'd borrow his, a few days later they'd be cut up by some imperious shop assistant ... they came close to divorce over this ... one day we're we're sitting at the movies and I asked "you don't have any magnets in your purse do you?" .... she pulls out a hand full of refrigerator magnets ....
We also used magnets on the brand new brushed steel dish washer ... to help the kids remember who's job it was to empty it .... "if the light is on and the magnet is on your side you have to empty it right away, turn it off and move the magnet carefully to the other side" - sadly the "carefully" bit didn't register (well to be the rest didn't register most of the time either) .... that rule lasted 2 weeks now there's a great big ugly scratch across or nice new dishwasher and the magnet has been banished back to the 'fridge ....
how do they work?
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Hard News: #NetHui: it's all about you, in reply to
I hang the socks out on the line in pairs for the same reason
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Actually we do all have dishwashers, it's just that some are more automatic than others .....