OPINION: I watched Jesse Mulligan on The Project recently saying something like the only people who did not support a capital gains tax were rich selfish people, and I could not help but disagree.

I do not own an investment property, profitable businesses, shares or farms, so a capital gains tax will not necessarily affect me, but I do have an opinion on it.

The premise behind a capital gains tax is that people who work pay tax but people that get income from investing in capital – ie: shares, farms, rental properties etc do not and that this is somehow unfair.

I think they (Government advisors) are projecting to the future and realising that with an ageing population and less young people working in relation to old people on pensions that we could quite easily run out of money and they are grasping at straws - what can we tax that we aren't already taxing?

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If you have money, someone, somehow, sometime has worked for it, says Lyn Webster.

The prospect of a capital gains tax has been bandied around by politicians for years.

The way I see it is that money is hard earned and doesn't come from nowhere. If you have money, someone, somehow, sometime has worked for it. Maybe it was you or maybe it was a long ago relative that worked hard, recognised an opportunity and made some money out of it.

If they were really astute they may have made an investment that has succeeded though their family for generations and remains strong today. Some farms in New Zealand would be good examples of this type of investment.

Other farms in New Zealand have been gambled or pissed away, poorly managed, gone broke and sold to the highest bidder.

Other fortunes have been whittled away by Government policy. If Mum and Dad worked hard and banked a small fortune, then ended their days in a rest home as now is common, then rest home fees could take care of any spare cash not hidden away in some clever trust, leaving the family bereft of their inheritance and forced to stand on their own two feet maybe muttering mean things about baby-boomers?

Imagine if two people were given the same amount of money to do what they liked with. One person worked hard and studied, sacrificed their social life, had respectful habits in not drinking or smoking or over eating, saved diligently and set goals resulting in being able to invest in a rental property which over time grew into a profitable portfolio of rental properties.

MARTIN DE RUYTER/STUFF Building wealth through assets like houses and investing is astute and shouldn't be punished through tax, says Webster.

The other person was more YOLO and spent up large on home appliances, skipped between jobs, partied up large, travelled, abused their body a bit and ended up broke, on the sickness benefit - easy enough mistakes to make.

Everyone is entitled to live their life as they see fit. But why should the more astute person who perhaps sacrificed a bit of fun for hard work and saving, be made to pay a capital gains tax? Haven't they earned their gains?

Are they not a person to be admired and perhaps emulated rather than labelled greedy and selfish and called to be taxed? What of the other person?

Political correctness prevents us from saying dole-bludger or beneficiary or loser but surely we each pick up the stick we want to get hit with?

Unfortunately it seems the Government of the day appears to have lost sight of the purpose of hard mahi, business and investment, preferring to dole out handouts from a 'never ending' money tree to whoever fits the 'criteria'.

When did working hard and having financial success became a dirty word in New Zealand?

- Lyn Webster is a Northland dairy farmer.