Segacs's World I Know

Posts Tagged ‘taxes’

That’s the theory behind this site: We are the 1 percent. It contains manifestos of a bunch of people who claim to be part of the American super-rich, but who feel that it’s unfair that they aren’t taxed their fair share.

Now, admittedly, this concept might be better if more of the people in the blog’s photos actually said what they were doing to help the 99%, besides writing statements on paper. But the spirit ain’t bad.

The Occupy Wall Street movement has its share of problems, namely, the lack of any coherent demands, the lack of focus, and the general sense of a movement with lots of gripes but few answers. But they’re not wrong to point out the negative consequences of large income disparity in the US. And while the income gap isn’t nearly as dramatic in Canada, there’s a strong sense that we’re moving in that direction.

The fact is, while these people claim to be in the so-called 1% of Americans, and most of us aren’t, we’re pretty much ALL of us part of the luckiest 0.00001% in the world – we hit the mother of all jackpots just by being born here in Canada, having enough food to eat, a roof over our heads, security and safety and education and healthcare and the chance to grow to be an adult. It’s worth it for all of us to think about how we can do more to give something back.

(Not for nothing, but this goes back to my long-standing call for Quebec to raise university tuition for those who can afford it and increase bursaries and financial aid for those who can’t. More access to opportunity benefits everyone. Just sayin’.)

Our “distinct society” just got a bit distincter, with the introduction of a province-wide carbon tax:

Natural Resources Minister Claude Bechard, who announced Wednesday that a 0.8-cent-a-litre carbon tax will come into force on Oct 1, added that he hopes the oil companies, which are reporting record profits, would absorb the tax and not pass it on to the consumer. Oil industry spokespeople were unavailable for comment late Wednesday afternoon.

[ . . . ]

Asked why he thinks the oil companies will absorb the carbon tax, Bechard said, “Well, we count on the goodwill of the gas companies.”

Hah! Yeah, right. Cause we all know that the gas companies have philanthropy as their main purpose.

This may be a popular move for votes (big bad oil companies versus the underprivileged environment) but people don’t necessarily understand the impact of higher fuel prices. It’s not just SUV owners who get hit; trucks, public transit itself, shipping and the economy in general will all have to pay. The trickle-down effect raises prices on all consumer goods and on cost of living in general.

But of course, our government has a solution for that, too:

Bechard has also threatened to impose a ceiling price on gasoline. Wednesday he said an announcement on that matter would be made in a “few days.”

Right, because everyone knows that what our economy in Quebec desperately needs is more government regulation.

And to think, I was so optimistic after last week’s budget. Looks like that was a temporary blip; we’re back to business as usual in La Belle Province.

And here’s why, in a nutshell:

A whopping 70 per cent of Quebecers are opposed to the $950 million in tax cuts announced in last week’s provincial budget.

“One to look at it is that we’re the only people in North America not to want a tax cut,” he said in a follow-up interview.

[ . . . ]

A significant part of the explanation for opposition to the tax cut is the fact that 42 per cent of Quebecers of taxpaying age already don’t pay any income tax and stand to benefit from increased public-service spending at zero cost to themselves.

The standard answer in Quebec to any economic woes goes something like “tax the rich, the anglos and the corporations more”. And when that doesn’t work? The standard fall-back, right out of a South Park movie: Blame Canada.

But with more people living off the system than paying into it, Quebec’s economy is on the brink of collapse unless something is done. And when Canada can no longer be blamed, what then?

Stephane Dion is wasting no time clarifying the policy differences between his Liberals and Stephen Harper’s Tories, with his promise to scrap the GST cut to fund the environment:

He told the university audience that he would not follow through with a promise by Prime Minister Stephen Harper to reduce the GST to five per cent, from six per cent, by 2011.

“(The GST cut) is $5.5 billion out of the economy every year and it will not transform the economy and it is not a good social policy,” Dion said.

Instead, he would introduce tax measures that would encourage people to choose appliances that conserve electricity, cars that use the least amount of gas and for retrofitting homes to reduce heating fuel consumption.

“We want to make a link between your wallet and the planet,” he said, adding that such measures will be part of the party’s next election platform. ”It’s the way you change the culture.”

This is actually pretty savvy of Dion. The announcement is clear-cut, it’s easy to understand, and it comes at a time when the environment is at an all-time high as a voter concern.

Now, we can argue all we want about whether it’s a good idea to reverse tax cuts to try to use the government for social engineering, or whether the GST cut was a silly idea to begin with, or what the best way really is to help the environment. But whichever side of this one you’re on, the most encouraging sign is that suddenly we have a debate that’s once again about vision and policy, rather than about scandal and character. If this is a sign of things to come, I, for one, find it downright refreshing.

In his first major campaign promise since swearing to once again fight to restrict the rights of gays to get hitched, Stephen Harper vowed to slash the GST from 7% to 5% if the Tories are elected.

This is exactly the sort of thing I’d like to see from the Conservative party. But if you want voters to buy in, you need to convince them you’ve thought it through and you can afford the tax cut while still maintaining a balanced budget. And somehow, comments like this one aren’t doing much to reassure me that Harper understands the intricacies of economic policy:

“I’ve never supported the GST myself. I believe all taxes are bad. Lower taxes are good,” Harper said.

Wow, that statement is nearly Bush-like in its oversimplification! (Does that mean that Harper is promising us Bush-like deficits, too?)

There are lots of places where the government could cut useless spending to afford a tax cut. I’d like to see Harper suggest some of them. Otherwise, this is nothing but an empty campaign promise and I remain unconvinced.

Is it just me, or is the “tax the rich more” mantra getting a little old to anyone else, too?

I’m tired of hearing that everything is the fault of “the wealthy” or “corporations”. I realize it’s easier to blame those we envy. I understand that “corporations” are widely perceived as the big, bad bogeymen and that, because we don’t identify faceless corporations with actual people, it’s simple for us to advocate raising their taxes. After all, it’s better than raising our taxes, right?

Sometimes I wish that – just once – a politician would have the courage to tell it like it is. That is, to say that, while, yes, rich people should pay more tax than poor people because they can afford it, there are limits. And that the flip side to over-taxation in the highest brackets or for corporations is a lagging economy and less jobs for the “little guy”. If instead of the faceless corporations, people saw the faces of the employees facing layoffs and unable to feed their families, people might see it differently.

Or maybe not. “Blame the rich” is just too tempting, isn’t it?