Sowell says

"Although the big word on the left is 'compassion,' the big agenda on the left is dependency. The more people who are dependent on government handouts, the more votes the left can depend on for an ever-expanding welfare state."

— Thomas Sowell (@ThomasSowell) March 12, 2019

Sowell says

"If you cannot achieve equality of performance among people born to the same parents and raised under the same roof, how realistic is it to expect to achieve it across broader and deeper social divisions?"

— Thomas Sowell (@ThomasSowell) March 5, 2019

Sowell says

“The grand fallacy of the political left is that evil is localized in some set of 'oppressors' from whom we can be 'liberated.' That is also its great attraction, for it allows people to attribute their dissatisfactions to other people.”

— Thomas Sowell (@ThomasSowell) February 25, 2019

Sowell says

"Virtually no idea is too ridiculous to be accepted, even by very intelligent and highly educated people, if it provides a way for them to feel special and important. Some confuse that feeling with idealism."

— Thomas Sowell (@ThomasSowell) February 26, 2019

Sowell says

"There are few modest talents so richly rewarded — especially in politics and the media — as the ability to portray parasites as victims."

— Thomas Sowell (@ThomasSowell) February 17, 2019

Sowell says

“In the academic world, diversity means black leftists, white leftists, female leftists, and Hispanic leftists. Demographic diversity conceals ideological conformity.”

— Thomas Sowell (@ThomasSowell) February 18, 2019

What’s fair?

Definitions of fair include: treating people equally without favouritism or discrimination and: without cheating or trying to achieve unjust advantage.

By either of these definitions attempting to make the tax system fairer is doomed. To take a lot more from some people than from others in very similar circumstances is not fair.

There’s rarely a tax the left doesn’t like and it is particularly enamoured of capital gains tax.

A CGT might be fair in theory but as one of the three dissenters to the Tax working Group’s recommendations, Robin Oliver, said, he’s against it in practice.

There’s a strong argument for taxing capital gains, as you put it, in theory, the problem is the practicality and of making it work. . .

Kathryn Ryan asked him if, all things being equal and as a tax expert would it be good to do it and her replied:

In the actuality of what you have to do to get such a tax in place, no.

Oliver is a former deputy head of Inland Revenue, former Treasury advisor and an expert on the tax system whose views should be taken seriously.

He gave several examples in the interview of how the CGT as recommended would not only not be fair but would lead to perverse consequences including making it more attractive for foreigners to invest in New Zealand and for New Zealanders to invest overseas, and for people to hold on to assets and businesses when without the tax they would be better to sell them; and that it would have made little difference to the housing boom.

He also said that the current law on the bright line test has low compliance and we should make current rules work before starting to think of highly punitive  ones.

That would be fair.

 

"Increasing numbers of people seem to have convinced themselves that they are entitled to a 'fair share' of what someone else has earned."

— Thomas Sowell (@SowellDaily) September 23, 2018