"[NZ] Governments of both the left and right invested heavily in public infrastructure such as water, roading and power networks from the 1940s to early 1970s, paid for with sharply higher income taxes, land taxes and estate duties. Government investment as a share of GDP ranged from 10-15% over that period and income tax rates were over 50% for many."
"Tax rates were cut from the late 1980s onwards on the assumption of low-to-no population growth and less need for new infrastructure. Land taxes, estate duties and taxes on capital gains were dropped. But population growth has actually [been about the same], with infrastructure investment at less than half the rate of the baby-boom years... despite population growth being only slight less from 2004 to 2024 than over the 1947 to 1967 period."