Median Ages in Europe: 1960-2060
26 May 2017 Leave a comment
in population economics Tags: ageing society, Europe, Population demographics
Instead of contributing to the @NZSuperfund? @TaxpayersUnion
11 May 2017 Leave a comment
in politics - New Zealand, population economics, public economics Tags: ageing society, social insurance, Social Security
Spending on health or education could have been increased by a quarter or the company tax rate cut by up to 10 percentage points but for the Cullen Fund.
Dead Wrong® with Johan Norberg – Hans Rosling
28 Apr 2017 Leave a comment
in development economics, population economics Tags: The Great Escape
The case against an immigration economics and for a population economics
28 Apr 2017 Leave a comment
in labour economics, labour supply, politics - New Zealand, population economics Tags: economics of fertility, economics of immigration
Source: The case for immigration – Vox.
125,000 years of human migration in one minute
16 Apr 2017 Leave a comment
in economic history, population economics
Shock, horror! Chinese government statistics are unreliable
14 Apr 2017 Leave a comment
in development economics, population economics Tags: China, communist party, economics of fertility, one child policy, Population demographics
My Chinese friends at a Japanese university in 1995 must have been born in the 1970s at the height of the one child policy but always had a younger brother if the first child was female.
The way to tell whether the Chinese student was the daughter of a party member was to ask if they had any brothers or sisters.
Morgan’s capital tax forgot 30% retirees move every 5 years @TaxpayersUnion
30 Mar 2017 Leave a comment
in politics - New Zealand, population economics, public economics Tags: 2017 New Zealand election, capital taxation, inheritance taxes, Opportunities Party, optimal tax theory
With 30% of retirees changing address every 5 years, they will have to downsize into hovels because they have to pay IRD the great big new tax on their capital championed by Morgan and his Opportunities Party well before they die.
Morgan’s 1.8% tax on equity capital is not an inheritance tax for the majority of retirees. It is a nest egg tax as they downsize after the kids fly the nest, grandchildren appear or they move to a more convenient place as they become frail.
Because they will have to pay back taxes of tens of thousands of dollars to IRD every time they sell their house, retirees either will not be able to move closer to family because of grand-children or health issues or they will have difficulty moving into a retirement home of their choice.
This is the first in a series of blogs showing how the Opportunities Party is too clever by half in its manifesto development. By insisting on having different policies to everybody else by a good country mile, it ends up having to take up the policies others rejected because they do not work.
In the case at hand, they put an inheritance tax on ordinary New Zealanders at the same rate as the rich including the founder of the Opportunities Party. This tax will be the only capital tax anywhere that is not progressive.
Over 70% of the retired own their own house mortgage free. The majority of that equity will now go to IRD plus interest by the time both members of the couple die given the average capital tax will be about $10,000 per year in Wellington and twice that in Auckland. They face up to 20 to 25 years of deferred capital taxation that will take half the value of their house easily. It will be hardest if they must cash-out their house to go into retirement home.
The purpose of buying a house is to have a nest egg for retirement. You may draw down that capital because of health issues or pass it on to children if you are luckier than that.
Morgan wants to radically change the way in which retirees go into the evening of their days. People who just managed to save for a house will have nothing to pass on to their children. No more bank of mum and dad either.
US immigration rates since 1820
18 Mar 2017 Leave a comment
in labour economics, labour supply, politics - USA, population economics Tags: economics of immigration
Do Parents Matter? Q&A with Bryan Caplan, Author of Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids
15 Mar 2017 Leave a comment
What demographic crisis in the USA?
13 Feb 2017 Leave a comment
in fiscal policy, macroeconomics, politics - USA, population economics Tags: ageing society, demographic crisis, retirement savings, social insurance
Source: OECD (2015), Regional Statistics (database), http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/region-data-en (accessed 10 September 2015).
100 years of family spending in the USA
03 Feb 2017 Leave a comment
in economic history, population economics Tags: The Great Enrichment
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.@realdonaldtrump @WinstonPeter @NZGreens fellow travellers on immigration
29 Jan 2017 Leave a comment
Source: New Zealand Greens Immigration Policy
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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