In less than just a few decades, countries around the world have all but managed to bankrupt themselves. It has not just been the result of catastrophe or war but too often the result of bad government and an unwarranted sense of entitlement fueled by greed by too many within our different societies.
Infrastructure is crumbling. Unemployment is rising or is static as jobs are disappearing to more tax-friendly jurisdictions. There is an absurd lack of prudent financial planning for environmental or other catastrophic events thanks to a complete lack of discipline by politicians and special interest.
Every special interest group has its hand out for more government largesse and politicians and political parties have been only too happy to pander to those demands in order to get elected or re-elected and it has all been financed on borrowed money.
The United States leads the world in external debt at $15.8 trillion or approximately $50,000 per person, double that for each actual tax payer. This is almost double the external debt of the United Kingdom but which sees citizens of the UK owing $143,000 each. Americans and the British should, however, count themselves lucky. Although Luxemburg comes in at number 10 with only a $1.3 trillion debt, that is the equivalent of each citizen of that tiny country owing more than $3 million…..and you thought your total credit card debt was a little high.
For those who are interested, Canada is ranked number 13 with a $1.18 trillion dollar debt or $29,000 per person. That sounds pretty good except that the figure jumps to more than $40,000 when it actually divided up between taxpayers only and you consider that the average Canadian family income is $41,000.
People in democracies all around the world now pay the equivalent of six months of their annual income just to meet their tax burden. In the United States, it's slightly higher at 197 days.
People in democracies all around the world now pay the equivalent of six months of their annual income just to meet their tax burden. In the United States, it's slightly higher at 197 days.
The amount of government debt is staggering. It totals almost $100 trillion world-wide and does not include state/provincial or municipal government debt. Considering that the GDP of all countries combined is a mere $60 trillion, it is basically like having a mortgage on your home for 166% of its value and we all know how well that worked out in 2008 during the sub-prime mortgage fiasco. What is even more incomprehensible is the cynical and absurd approach most governments are taking to address the debt crisis. Typically they bring three priorities to dealing with the debt:
1. Promise the moon in order to get re-elected – “we can sort it out after the election”
2. Increase taxes or freeze public sector incomes or both but never to “our” supporters or specific special interest groups
3. Cut government spending if you have to but only if you have to and spread as many of those cuts over as many years as possible to avoid doing too much damage to the party's re-election chances.
We not only support this insanity, we are part of it and we encourage it as long as it doesn’t hurt our group or faction. For a few years, we used to blame all those living below the poverty line for the cost of social assistance. We pointed out examples of welfare fraud and opportunities for abuse of the system. Now we blame those who have been successful. The solution to our own greed and stupidity is always to blame someone else and this time the solution is to tax the wealthy.
Forget the fact that in Canada, for example, unions pay absolutely no tax on membership dues or the income they earn from investing those dues. Tax the wealthy.
Forget the fact that donations to political parties are as much as 75% tax deductable or that until the current Conservative government put an end to it, they paid themselves millions in tax payer dollars every year just for getting votes. Tax the wealthy.
Forget the fact that the Obama administration blew $500 million on Solyndra, a failed solar energy corporation or that the Liberal Government of Ontario is paying ten times more per kilowatt hour for energy from renewable sources, what it costs for hydro electric power. Forget the fact that the province already generates more power than it consumes and it actually pays other jurisdictions to take the surplus power. Tax the wealthy.
Forget the fact that in the United States, for example, forty percent of middle class families legally avoided paying any federal income tax thanks to various tax deductions available to them. Tax the wealthy.
Forget the fact that in the United States, for example, forty percent of middle class families legally avoided paying any federal income tax thanks to various tax deductions available to them. Tax the wealthy.
Forget that governments in Canada squandered $1 billion on the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Commission, Ad Scam, the $2 billion HRDC fiasco, another billion on the failed eHealth system and God knows how much on the current Ornge Air Ambulance scandal. Toss in a couple of billion for cancelling helicopter deals, procurement processes that are horribly out of whack and political pensions and compensation packages that are obscene. Tax the wealthy.
Forget the fact that there is billions being spent worldwide on elections by special interest on both sides of the political divide and all of it financed by tax deductions on the donations. Tax the wealthy.
Forget the fact that post-secondary students in Canada and in many European countries already receive subsidized or even free tuition paid for with borrowed money. Forget the fact that a bunch of self-impressed students barely out of high school threw an extended hissy-fit in the streets of Quebec leaving taxpayers to pay the millions in damages they caused during their riots. Forget even that there were many including unions, academics and politicians who supported and encouraged this expensive orgy of selfish stupidity. Tax the wealthy.
Forget the fact that activist groups and quasi-political NGOs receive significant tax-free status and/or outright grants from governments. Forget all those foundations that then use their special tax status to raise more funds to lobby for more regulation against business or to impose more taxes on the rest of us to fund their particular cause. Tax the wealthy.
Forget the fact that politicians and their governments squander billions on entitlement programs and pork-barrel projects all paid for with borrowed money for which taxpayers are ultimately responsible. Tax the wealthy.
Forget the fact that it was governments who instituted the investment tax deductions used by the weatlhy in order to encourage them to invest in companies and thereby create jobs. Tax the wealthy and hope it doesn’t have a negative impact on already high unemployment rates in many countries.
For that matter, tax the wealthy and hope it doesn’t drive even more jobs off shore than non-competitive tax rates, crumbling infra-structure and outrageous union demands haven’t already done.
Forget the fact that almost two million people in Canada don’t have a family physician. Cut the incomes of doctors to save money and raise some more by….say it with me….taxing the wealthy.
Forget the fact that the public sector takes more money out of the economy than the rest of us can put in or that public sector salaries and benefits have risen far faster than those in the private sector. Tax the wealthy and leave public sector unions and jobs alone.
It is, of course, the perfect solution. Demonize the wealthy and tax them so that more of us can continue to get stuff for nothing. Of course it isn’t really for nothing. Even when we tax the wealthy, it doesn’t reduce the annual deficit of most governments let alone begin addressing the current outstanding debt. Governments simply take whatever new money they raised and squander it and too many of us just stand there, hand out, encouraging them all the way.
In Ontario, for example, the government has just added a surtax on income over $500,000 per year. It will generate approximately $350 million in new taxes. That same government will squander $1.5 billion per year on full-time pre-kindergarten or as it is more properly called, free babysitting. This would be the same government that squandered $180 million to save a cabinet minister’s seat in the last election when they cancelled a power project that was near completion but highly unpopular in his electoral district. Even more interesting, this decision was taken by political strategists during the election, not by government or even bureaucrats.
I have no issue with everyone paying their fair share in taxes and I do mean everyone including the wealthy, unions and a whole lot of other special interest groups. But attacking the wealthy rather than reforming the tax act to ensure everyone pays their fair share is just one more self-serving lie fed to us by politicians. It is the same lie told to us about the poor and social assistance. It is a lie told by politicians and special interest groups trying to protect their entitlements or get elected but here’s the question.
When there are no more wealthy people to tax, when we’ve taken all the money and are still in debt far beyond our ability to pay….what are we going to do then?
What indeed.
I know there are many who think that nothing will happen and that we can just borrow our way along indefinitely. That is nothing but a self-serving delusion. We already owe more than all of the GDP of all countries in the world combined and sooner or later, that bubble is going to burst and when it does, it will make the Great Depression and what has been happening in Greece look like a Sunday afternoon stroll through the park.
Our delusion is built on borrowed money. It is not money we earned, it is money we borrowed to finance services and entitlements we can't afford. It is nothing less than greed; the same irresponsible greed that fuels consumer credit card spending and insane orgies like Black Friday.
Greed comes in many forms but the most insane is the greed of a people too stupid to face the reality of their situation; a people who have allowed themselves the delusion of thinking that there is no price to be paid for such abject stupidity and whose greed has eroded whatever common sense they may have once had.
It catches up to you sooner or later and when it does, life is not kind to that level of stupidity.
It catches up to you sooner or later and when it does, life is not kind to that level of stupidity.
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with regaards to taxing the wealthy, walter e. williams made note of the fact that if every american with incomes of 250k + were taxed at 100%, the money would run the u.s. government for 141 days.
ReplyDeleteCountless studies have been done which have clearly shown that a simple flat tax system with no deductions and no tax for those below the poverty line would be the most fair and the most efficient. It would fund government without a deficit and in most countries would repay the existing debt in less than twenty years. It makes you wonder why governments refuse to implement it, doesn't it?
DeleteHmmm,,How many real charities are there??Are there any real charities anymore and can you name them?How much of the money sent to Africa gets there?Does any of it get there? Why can we not just cancel or say F O to all special interest groups..How about making it against the law to ask for donations at every store you enter,more recently Walmart is now asking for donations to some charities when you check out.It is very hard to be polite when this begging keeps getting worse and worse every year.The world's countries cannot look after their own population or finances,so they came up with this fantastic scam of making the rest of the world pay for their stupidity and send them money..Africa for instance keeps showing kids with flies on their faces or disfigured children to make us feel bad and send money..This has been going on how many years now,? 50 years or more? How about cutting off all aid to all countries and start telling them to grow up and take care of them selves.Nations that are much older than Canada should be able to take care of themselves without having the almighty dollar sent to them.STOP ALL FUNDING TO ALL SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS ..NOW..
ReplyDelete****Now,here is something that would win votes & probably the election for any party with guts to implement if elected..
Example:I bought a house in 1950 for $25 thousand and the mortgage is paid in full now.I have lived in this house all my life,but cannot afford the taxes anymore & must move to an old aged home,because some fool in Toronto says my house is worth 400 thousand and I now pay taxes on 400 thousand instead of $25,000..My take on this is hundreds of thousands of old people have been placed in this situation,forced out of their homes because of the evaluation of their homes by greedy tax grabbers..I say whatever the value of your home WHEN YOU BUY IT,should be the value you are taxed on until you sell your house.So an elder person who bought a house for $25 thousand pays taxes on $25 thousand not $400 thousand.Then they could spend their sometimes meager pension money on food and things they enjoy in their old age,instead of sending it all back to some idiot in Toronto to buy a wind mill..
CNN has been running an expose on a fund raising organization that raises money for various charities. It has raised more than $50 million for an American Veterans group, none of which went to help veterans. It all stayed with the fund raiser. A Canadian charity based in Montreal hired the same fund raiser and now is actually in debt to that same organization despite the millions raised in its name.
DeleteAll of the funds donated are, of course, tax deductible which means that the money went out of tax revenues and into the pockets of the fund raising organization.
It is the same with activist and political foundations who raise money based on a particular tax status which sees the donor get their money back in the form of a tax credit and tax payers making non-voluntary donations to each group.
It is one stupid system that will not be improved by pointing fingers at the rich or trying to hide behind cheap tactics like taxing the wealthy.
Hi Bear
ReplyDeleteWe can stand and point the finger at the politicians and 'the system', but we seem to conveniently forget our own complicity in maintaining the status quo.
We demand more and more as our 'right' from government services, yet without a thought as to how it's going to be paid for. Doh. We can't seem to get it through our thick skulls that the purse is empty; that it is not bottomless and never has been.
We are ALL greedy and spoilt protectionists. We demand, expect, whinge and bitch, then sell our vote to the politician who can shout 'tax cuts' loudest.
And really, can we please quit with the insincere moral outrage when things have turned around and bitten us well and truly on the arse. Cause and effect, guys. Cause and effect.
Grrr. I shall go and have a lie down now...
Chastity x
You get it ma'am. Politicians merely pander to our greed. We talk about eradicating poverty but never get around to it because it gets in the way of our own selfish sense of entitlement. We want it both ways. We want what we haven't earned and can't afford and we want someone else to pay for it. Politicians are only to happy to promise it to us even though they've never figured out how to make that happen. There's a hard rain coming Miss Chastity.
DeleteDarned tooting. Pulling on my galoshes as we speak...
Delete