You've never had a bill you couldn't pay? Major assets are usually tied up in long term investments with breaking costs due to illiquidity or taxation (e.g. sell a house before the bright-line period is up and you may pay a lot extra tax). You are showing your ignorance of the issues. Have you saved enough for your retirement or are you going to live off the backs of other New Zealanders? Good luck to you.
Paying the tax bill can mean selling an investment at a loss or borrowing. Not much different from someone poorer pawning what they own or selling their car because they need the money. It costs me 8.8% at present to borrow on my mortgage - (due to bank conditions I can't borrow cheaper). The same thing can easily occur to wealthy people (managing investment risks sucks).
Many people have already paid tax - their savings are what they have left over after tax. A wealth tax can be a double taxation - another taxes on top of money that was already taxed. Plus the wealthy still often get to pay income tax on any dividends or other gains.
There's a lot of people out there that blow all their money on shit and then put their hand out to the government. I watch friends on low incomes absolutely waste money and don't give a shit about saving. Not all of them, but enough. I've seen friends get big ACC payouts - and a few weeks later its all burnt on nothing. Or inheritances and lose it all. Luckily they live in New Zealand where they can get money from family or get some living expenses from other NZers (the government). Certainly not flash living, but better than most places in the world. Some of those millions come from my tough job earning export income. I get fuck all of the money I bring into the country (after expenses, salaries risk and taxes).
I bet if we met you would have a lot of complaints about how hard done you have been with taxation. It's the same issue.
So why argue this passionately against a non-existent tax that failed at the ballot box on A. assets that doesn't kick in until above $10 million by citing B. an income of near enough $0?
> You've never had a bill you couldn't pay? [...] Have you saved enough for your retirement or are you going to live off the backs of other New Zealanders?
I'm pretty sure that in either of those scenarios, there is no practical difference between having twenty million and twenty million minus $150,000 a year, reducing to zero by ten million, in assets.
> I've seen friends get big ACC payouts - and a few weeks later its all burnt on nothing.
Hmmm, sounds like they irresponsibly spent it somewhere in the economy. My guess is that they might have enriched people who have invested in medium to large businesses in the consumer discretionary sector, the sort of people who would have a net wealth north of $10 million. But since they were provided with, and I quote, "nothing" goods, the owners of the businesses providing those goods should have relatively no problem dealing with high taxation.
If you feel this doesn't apply to you, you might want to revisit your investments before complaining about hypothetical tax policy.