"In a successful economy one might have hoped that there would be many more really wealthy families, at least if that wealth had arisen from the creation and development of new businesses/products..."

"[T]he New Zealand economy has not exactly been a staggering success in recent decades. Setting the tax debate to one side for the moment, in a successful economy one might have hoped that there would be many more really wealthy families, at least if that wealth had arisen from the creation and development of new businesses/products....
    "[I]n the minister’s framing [of taxes levied on high-wealth individuals] there was no mention of the fact that New Zealand over the decades has had relatively low rates of investment (relative to OECD averages for countries with our sort of population growth) in land development, in building new houses, and in business investment more generally. What one aspires to have more of one generally should not seek to tax more heavily....
    "I have no problem with the notion that unrealised real capital gains add to the economic resources and future purchasing power of the owner ... But increases in asset values that simply keep pace with general inflation do not add to future real purchasing power and are in no meaningful economic sense ... economic income....
    "And in all this in a country where we systematically over-tax capital income already."

~ Michael Riddell, from his post 'Parker, taxation, and that IRD report'