Monday, August 28, 2017

Why Do Folks Vote Against Their Own Best Interests?

TheWingnutWelfareLongGame
InActionVille


In my opinion it is because of stuff like the Fraser Institute's 'Consumer Tax Index' and, worse, the fact that stuff like this ilk is so often wurlitzered, straight-up, by the proMedia.

This year, the TorStar's editorial board is not buying it:


There is no sweeter time of year for those perennially convinced of government’s greed and bloat than the release of the Fraser Institute’s annual Canadian Consumer Tax Index, which never lets the truth get in the way of a bit of anti-tax panic.

The numbers are again eye-popping. According to the authors, the tax bill of the average Canadian family has increased by a whopping 2,006 per cent since 1961. We now pay more in taxes than we do on housing, food and clothing combined, the report gasps, as it does every year.

As ever, however, the scandal the report purports to uncover would seem far less scandalous if only the numbers used were not so distorted and out of any context.

To take a few egregious examples: the report doesn’t account for inflation. It includes corporate taxes in the average family’s tax bill, though these are largely shouldered by richer Canadians. It presents the mean family as the typical one, though the median family, which earns less and thus pays less in taxes, would be more appropriate....

{snip}

...The study’s greatest failing, however – the omission that ultimately renders its statistics meaningless – is that it makes no mention whatsoever of what we get in return for our tax money. Nowhere does the report mention “public services” or “programs,” nowhere “roads” or “schools.” It’s true that taxes as a percentage of our income have risen over the last 56 years, by around 7 per cent, but consider what they have bought: medicare, for instance, and the Canada Pension Plan, to name just two programs established after their baseline year of 1961...



'Enuff said?


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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

And all this from a charity.Who funds this charity.?

Ed Seedhouse said...

Except that for a government, such as the Government of Canada, that issues it's own currency at essentially no cost, straightforward logic shows that taxes do not fund government expenditures at all.

Taxes have many functions, among them giving the Federal currency value,but funding Federal government programs is not one of them.

This is a straightforward consequence of the rules of accounting.

For governments that do not have their own currency, such Provincial and Municipal governments in Canada or members of the "Eurozone" in Europe, taxes do fund expenditure. But for governments sovereign in their own currency they do not.



Keith. said...

"Anonymous said...
And all this from a charity.Who funds this charity.?"

11:30 am, August 28, 2017.



In part Anon, we do, they get a tax break as they are a charity.

I'm looking forward to the F. institutes school ratings. I wonder how that will turn out.?

e.a.f. said...

OMG the Torstar said that? a MSM corp. not buying what the Fraser Inst. is selling. Too bad the MSM in B.C. can't figure it out. I'm sure we will hear about the Fraser Institute's grand findings shortly and it will all be the NDP's fault.

I'm good with a 7% increase since back in the day. I sure like my little brown envelopes which arrive each month in the mail along with the ability to go to see my dr. and not bankrupt me. Then there is of course our Federal Parks, Environment Canada, Veterans Affairs, We could do better in First Nations education health, etc. but at least we're doing something there with tax dollars.

For what we get for our tax dollars in this country, I'm happy. Those cheques parents receive each month for their children, nice!

The Fraser Institute gets charity status which is one of the reasons perhaps we have higher taxes. have they thought of that? When donors receive tax reductions for giving money to charities, the money has to be made up from somewhere. Perhaps the Fraser Insitute should drop their charity status and contribute to the reduction of taxes, however small it might be.

Justus Havelaar said...

I'm going to guess most of the entities and people who contribute the big bucks to the Fraser Institute cannot take advantage of any tax write-off.

Anonymous said...

SH:

I'm guessing that the Editor of the Toronto Star, unless independently wealthy, is among the Great Unwashed who enjoy, nay depend on our social programs…or their kids, or parents do...

As the Keefe, and the Dean age out, and are pastured at the Great Trough, the youngsters that follow, who also depend on our s.p's will also sing the same song as the Torstar.