Ryan Bridge: The Green's wealth tax isn't going to happen

There's no point talking about the latest loony bin tax plan grab from the Greens because it's not going to become anything more than a word doc on their website. It's not going to happen.

An inheritance tax is about the cruellest thing a state can impose on a grieving family. 33% when mum or dad dies. You've got to then take out a loan from the bank, congratulations bank and pay the government. Or sell the shares or property or whatever. Then pay the state. Congratulations state.

The idea is that somehow, this act of forced goodwill, taxing assets your family's worked hard to acquire, using money that's already been taxed, earning income that is already taxed, will somewhere, somehow materially change the livers of others is absolute BS.

I've just been in France where they have exactly this system. They have high personal income tax rates. And they're swinging far right.

And this plan includes a wealth tax on everything from shares to companies, which only a handful of countries around the world bother doing because you may have asset, but it doesn't mean you've got cash to pay a tax on it.

Just a reminder. This is not how a country gets rich. This is not how you create more jobs and industry. It's not how you grow an economy.

And if you're not doing that. You're standing still or going backwards.

We've been doing that in this country for too long.

Ideas like this, may be appealing on paper, in reality almost never deliver the things the politicians espousing them promise on the hustings.

You don't hear this said often but thank god for Labour completely ruling this thing out.

Ryan Bridge is a New Zealand broadcaster who has worked on many current affairs television and radio shows. He currently hosts Newstalk ZB's Early Edition - where this article was sourced.