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Originally Posted by FireFly
I got those numbers from some article yesterday. It has to do with the amount a person (or family) will spend on articles that have GST. The person making $30,000 spends less on GST as they buy food (which doesn't have GST unless it's junk) and shelter (probably rent which also doesn't have GST). The middle classer gets the biggest bonus because they have a longer term mortgage and whatnot than the upper income guy, and since there's tax on a house, and that tax then has interest charged on it over a longer period of time.
The point is that people think this is a tax that will most benefit the rich as they spend the most on GST, (makes sense, they have the most to spend). However, that's actually not true because they will pay off their big ticket items more quickly than the lower classes and therefore not pay as much interest on the purchase price. The lowest class can't actually afford to buy much that has GST charged on it.
It's like King Ralph said: (and I paraphrase,) "the big wig at the private club is telling me how I should take that $400 and invest in something but the towel boy is telling me how awesome it was." That $200 means more to the guy only earning $30,000 than $2000 means to the guy making $150,000.
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Either way, you can't say that I'm benefitting from a %1 GST decrease. It evens out with my income tax increase and less of a GST rebate. That being said, I was ma enough about my income tax before it increased 0.5%. I realize half of percent is not a whole lot, but I'm broke and every little bit helps.