Freethinker said:
nomore said:
It dosen't seem like much....but it is more than the liberals $0.
You are also forgetting many other things. Poor families have houses too, GST applies to them as well. GST on a $150,000 mortgage is $10,500, do you call this insignificant?
You were discussing people who are not taxed. Which means they would make something like $8000. If you make $8000 you are not buying a house or even a new car. Besides your residential home is GST exempt is it not?
I have no problem with the wealthy benefiting from tax cuts, but I don't think they should disproportionately benefit. Anyone who is genuinely poor essentially pays no GST once rebate is taken into effect. The real beneficiary of the GST cut is the wealthy especially when comparing to a plan that will cut middle class on lower middle class incomes. The Capital gains tax exemption is aimed soley at benefiting the wealthy. So the overall benefit is overwhelmingly for the wealthy.
It is all about whether you think the current gap between rich and poor is too small and needs to be wider. Then you want to vote conservative. I think we don't need that gap to be wider and will be voting against them.
All western democracys are some mix of unbridled capitalism vs socialism. The question is do you want your country to move more toward unbridled capitalism like the USA, or more socialism of the Western European countries. Personally I like the mix we have now. But if we had to move, I would prefer to be more like Western Europe than the USA.
If you look at the Gap between rich and poor it is largest in the USA and autocratic despotic countries like Sierra Leone and the Gap is smallest in enlightened socialist democracies Such as Japan, Finland, Sweden, Norway. Canada is between the USA and Norway. The US republicans have accellerated that change in the USA I have no desire to see it accellerated here. The greater the inequity, the greater the social unrest and crime.
This goes hand in hand with things like CEO compensation. Which has now reached over 500 times worker compensation. In 1980 CEO compensation was 50 times worker compensation (In Japan it still is).
I find it funny that we have people on the right wing complaining about pampered union personel making $80K, but it is fine and dandy for clueless CEO to pull down $80 Million?
These trends are only accelerating in the USA and I can't see how they are healthy. I don't want to see them accellerate any more than they already are in Canada.
Must we continually accellerate the growing disparity between rich an poor? If so, how in any way is this beneficial?
The conservative policies are clearly aimed at accelerating this trend. That is something I oppose. Along with almost everything they think needs changing.
You are missing the point completely. Sure people that make 8000 aren’t buying a house, but they do buy other things. Heat, hydro, used cars, water, living supplies, etc.
And you can still make more than $8000/year and still be considered below the poverty line, and these people, especially families ARE buying houses, cars, children’s goods, furniture etc.
But the ultimate point is the fact that under all income levels, everyone benefits from the GST cut, more so than a Liberal income tax cut of 1% (whether you are poor, middle class, or rich) It doesn’t matter. And this isn't even including all the other tax incentives the cons have proposed.
Now onto the other "socialist democracies Such as Japan, Finland, Sweden, Norway"
Look into the history of these countries, you will be very surprised at what you find.
Japan, has the 2nd largest economy in the world, and has a -0.7% inflation rate, yes that is a negative number, not a typo. They have the economy to support any socialist ideals, so there is no way you can compare Japan to Canada. Japan reached it's status as a world economic superpower, by increasing industrialization, through tax breaks for company's, incentives for workers, and many other ideals that sound very familiar to conservative ideas. Not to mention their population pays way less in taxes than Canadians do in all tax brackets.
Finland, Also has lower taxes, but is offset by an extremely high growth rate, and they are arguably one of the most globalized nations in the world, since the majority of it's income comes from exports. They have an extremely high unemployment rate 8% (approx). Funny too, that they introduced just recently a capital gains tax incentive...(sound familiar)
Next, My personal favorite, Sweden. I could go on forever about the history of Swedish economics, but I will attempt to abbreviate it.
Sweden was once recognized as one of the richest countries in the world, circa 1960's. From there they began the increase of social spending, program integration etc. In the late 80's early 90's due to an unbelievable deficit, and huge national debt, inflation rates skyrocketed, and taxes were so high that they became non-competitive on the world market, and they almost bankrupted themselves. In the early to mid 90's they proceeded to introduce, significant tax reform, in order to entice business. They also had to significantly roll back, many of their social spending, and programs. (Sound familiar)
The simple fact is that these countries have been at this game for much longer than Canada has, they have learned from their mistakes, and earned the right to stand where they are.
Canada can't support this continued socialist path without first building the economic framework to support it, over taxation (as history has proven) is not the answer.
Just also as an interesting side note, all the above countries provide a parallel private health care system, just like the rest of the industrialized nations (except Canada of course)
And all the nations listed above also have some of the lowest government corruption rates in the world (not Canada though.)
