Quote:
Originally Posted by mariners_fever
Fair enough, obviously I didn't have the time to do a full quantitative study for a simple forum post. However, anyone who studies economics and public policy knows instinctively through the study of various past examples that any additional bean counting requires a robust bureaucracy.
In this particular case, it would require a large administrative effort at the federal level to first charge the tax then determine how much should be disseminated to each municipality depending on which ones opt in. Each municipality would then add another level of bureaucracy to ensure that they received the correct amount then disseminate those funds properly as the city sees fit.
It's also the reason why many of the Alberta Advantage ideas that were touted by the right 10 years ago are also bad ideas; they would have created another provincial bureaucratic branch alongside the already existing federal branch.
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I don't have the numbers either, going off gut feel here. But there's no way it would cost 1% of Canada's GDP (GDP's probably a poor word, but you know what I mean) to manage this.
Hate the idea, sure. That's a good debate.
But I doubt there are many economists out there who would tout this as inefficient. Pretty sure they agree that GST one of the most efficient taxes possible. If the added distribution body costs, which admitedly will be large, come anywhere close to 1% GDP then something's wrong.