Quote Originally Posted by slack_pie View Post
Who do you vote for in that case? The Libertarian Party? Do they still exist?
It's a difficult one. There's no mainstream political party that would advocate zero income tax. There's too many government jobs that rely on income tax - not to mention the number of accountancy firms that make a fortune out of it.

It's true that taxation is there to redistribute wealth, but what we assume is that it is redistributing it to the poorer members of society, whereas I believe that taxation benefits the super rich more.

Think about the carbon tax regime. Yes, large users of fossil fuels pay the tax in relation to the damage they are doing to the climate, but they don't pluck the money out of thin air. The man (and woman) on the street has to pay higher power charges to accommodate the carbon tax. The additional charges are often much greater than the carbon tax charges. Therefore it is taking more tax from Joe Bloggs and redistributing it to the super wealthy (the shareholders - not the mum and dad ones who own a few shares, but those that own a large percentage of the power generating companies). You don't think for one minute that the super wealthy don't have the means to pay as little tax as possible.

Anyway, in New Zealand, we have a libertarian party, called the ACT Party (Association of Consumers and Taxpayers). They believe in minimal interference from government and as we have Proportional Representation here, they have a large say in the coalition government.

They believe in reducing red tape and the cutting waste in the public sector. Not the same doctrine as many think libertarians are in the UK. The ACT Party is definitely the most right wing party in New Zealand. You can be libertarian and right wing too.