Meanwhile, north of the border, we have a new federal budget. Today on the news, one of our darling Opposition critics was complaining about the Prime Minister's "tax gimmicks" - Harper plans to cut taxes as part of a package to get people spending. Calling this a "tax gimmick" is vicious - money collected by taxes does not originally and automatically belong to the Almighty State - it is taken by force of law from the people that own it. A personal income tax cut, for example, leaves more money in the hands of middle class and working poor. The "gimmick" is in taking this money away from them, then giving it to failing multi-nationals that are probably going down anyway (both because they have totally failed to renew and revitalize their business processes and their products, and because they're being bled out by the labour unions). These are the same multi-nationals whose US CEOs flew to Washington to beg... each in their own private executive jet. A gimmick like that, we don't need. In either country.
Reply from Farhad Khan at 2011-01-01 09:48:05.06
Ian, I could not agree more with you!! I used to be part of the failing Nortel and while everyone else cried fowl when the Canadian Govt. refused to bail out Nortel, I was one of the few that agreed to the Govt's decision. We don't want tax-payers' money to end up in the hands of these rich fat execs.
Re. your quote on tax - "it is taken by force of law from the people that own it." - the govt. needs funds to run itself, to build roads and highways and to run other public services. That is probably the one and only justification of the tax system. The amount of tax we pay in Canada may not be justified given the quality of service we get in return, but won't you agree that "some" tax needs to be paid?