John Minto: Why We Need Sleepless Nights In Remuera

The annual National Business Review rich list was out last week showing that the wealthiest 151 New Zealanders increased their wealth by $7 billion in the past year to a total value of $45.2 billion.

NBR editor Neville Gibson calls these people "national treasures". He seems to think they actually deserve these levels of wealth which the word obscene barely begins to describe. He even appears to think they actually earned the money but even the rich listers themselves wouldn't be so ignorant as to make such a claim.

Each of these people sees New Zealand as a source of unearned income. They are modern-day pirates with laws to legalise their larceny and regulations to prevent anyone stopping them. It's all part of the great game of capitalism where the rich strive to claw as much wealth from their fellow human beings as possible with the winner being the one with the most money when they die. Currently Graeme Hart is in the lead at $6.5 billion and still looks quite young so should be a good bet for the next while.

We are becoming too familiar with this annual story which speaks of the accelerating gap between rich and poor. Green Party Leader Metiria Turei has pointed out that we have a quarter of New Zealand children growing up in poverty and that the minimum wage, currently $13, would be $15.60 if it had increased at the same rate as the wealth of the richest New Zealanders.

Less aware is the general public that this gap is also the source of our growing social problems such as mental health issues, violent crime, obesity, alcohol abuse, educational underachievement, child abuse and is a direct result of government economic policies which have favoured the wealthy for the past 25 years.

The research linking inequality with massive social problems is now well established and yet we have most politicians, themselves in the top income bracket, defending unearned income and with no serious plans to reduce income inequality.

I've pointed out before that if we took just this $7 billion increase in wealth of the wealthiest 151 New Zealanders we could use it to give a 50% increase the income for each of the half million hardest working New Zealanders on $15.00 an hour or less. But no, our politicians say these 151 are the untouchables.

Meanwhile Labour leader Phil Goff tiptoes around the issue saying while it's great to see some Kiwis doing so well, it's not right that so many others are struggling to survive. He can't bring himself to join the dots - the poor are poor because the rich are allowed to rake in far more than they earn.

We need policies to dramatically shift the tax burden to the rich and bring deserved income to workers and those on benefits. We need a comprehensive capital gains tax, a financial transactions tax, death duties, scrapping GST and a progressive income tax structure which enables every breadwinner to have a level of income over 40 hours a week which is enough to raise a family with a decent standard of living.

In short we need policies which will bring sleepless nights in Remuera and turn tax accountants into honest brokers.

It's past the time for describing the problem. We need to move to action and a good dose of anger would be the best place to start.

Click here to comment on this article on Auckland Scoop.

© Scoop Media