It isn't Rocket Science; it isn't radical; it isn't communism or any other ism; it's common sense, lost somewhere in the empty jingoism and hate-speech that is the curse of our times - and many other times. The idea has been around for a long time. Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., is credited with saying, "Taxes are what we pay for civilized society." This perspective suggests that taxes are a necessary and positive investment in the public goods and services that create a functional and advanced society, rather than an involuntary burden. There is a perception, hard to deny, that civilization is breaking down.
Right now the onus is still on the middle class. I remember a year when I discovered that I had, as a young public librarian, paid more taxes than a certain member of one of Canada's very wealthy families. With the cooperation of their political operatives, they can hide much of their wealth. Those fortunes have been created, not only by inheritance, but also by availing of goods, services and infrastructure for which we ordinary folks all pay. Our civilization is not advancing. Artificial Intelligence designed to eliminate human workers and private space tourism are not my idea of advances in civilization.
I see the results of our failure in the streets of my country every day. It makes me angry. I donate to charities. I give money to people on the streets. I talk to them. I see them. It isn't enough. Our system is responsible. Our culture promotes blaming victims. I shall complain and will continue to do until saner, more compassionate, leaders enact a guaranteed annual income. Nominal tax cuts for the middle class only decrease the revenue streams we need to provide all goods and services, and pay down interest on the national debt.
There is already a substantial study published by the CPPA in 2009 discussing ways and means by which a more uniform and efficient system could be attained. Punishing and judging people for being on the margins is not the way I want our country to operate. We all benefit when our most vulnerable people are helped.
Opinion by Chuck Collins for CNN Business Perspectives - an American perspective but applicable enough
According to a new report published by Fight Inequality Alliance, the Institute for Policy Studies, Oxfam and Patriotic Millionaires, a small, annual wealth tax on the world’s wealthiest billionaires and multi-millionaires could raise over $2.5 trillion each year. (That’s based on a graduated rate structure of a 2% tax on wealth over $5 million, 3% on wealth over $50 million, and 5% on wealth over $1 billion.)
This is enough revenue to lift 2.3 billion people out of poverty, vaccinate the entire world, and deliver universal health care and social protection for all citizens of low and lower-middle-income countries — an estimated 3.6 billion people.
In the United States, a tax like that could raise nearly $930 billion a year. And with a more progressive rate structure — say, a 10% rate on wealth over $1 billion — it could raise over $1 trillion. Numbers like that could put us on the path to universal health care, a decarbonized economy, and much more.
It is probably more efficient and consistent to do this at the national level probably through restructuring our current bureaucracies, whose workers are currently overworked and stressed and need some relief. The "frauds" that might result from some people scamming the system pale beside the tax dodges of the very wealthy.
My father was a war veteran and a Conservative Party supporter until Stephen Harper became leader, especially because of environmental issues and Harper's cracking down on scientific research and muzzling researchers. He would be horrified now, as am I, by the crowd to the south, whose philosophies and actions are poisoning the entire world. Neither the vapid sloganism and opponent bashing, nor the people you seem to admire, indicate that you and your party have the qualities to provide the leadership we need right now.
