I think journalists are unintentionally doing a disservice to the Greens’ wealth tax policy when they talk about in a single sentence. RNZ said something along the lines of “income guarantee, and tax changes, including a 2.5% wealth tax”.
In reality the wealth tax is only on wealth above a threshold that is set at $2m net per person. So few people will be hit by this, and those who are will be hit for less than they likely imagine. That’s a key part of it, I’d argue even more key than the actual %, yet if it gets glossed over it becomes a point by which people end up hating the policy, without even understanding the policy.
Giving the media the benefit of the doubt, which I think stretches credibility, I don’t think it’d matter even if it was fully explained.
There is a significant portion of the population who don’t want taxes raised, even if proposals like the Greens’ leave them no worse off than before. Some of it is the “temporarily embarrassed millionaire” mindset but I think mostly it’s that they don’t trust the government to actually use the revenue in way that materially addresses poverty.
Rising inequality is undoubtedly the cause of most of our current social issues and that really needs to be main talking point. All the policies of the other major parties are ambulances at the bottom of the cliff. The Greens at least appear to have a plan to fence it off to prevent harm in the first place.