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Originally Posted by crazy_eoj
LOL that's hilarious. There's plenty of evidence that low corporate tax rates are a huge factor behind North America leading the world in economic growth over the past several decades.
However, why not just take a look at Canada.
Alberta has had the lowest corporate tax rate over the past decade. Alberta has had the strongest economy over the past decade.
Alberta leads the country in investment dollars. Alberta has increased investment in the province every year outside of the year Stelmach increased taxes/royalties on oil and gas, which saw investment plummeting by billions.
We've seen multiple head offices relocate to Alberta because of tax treatments, including CP rail and Imperial Oil. We saw Burger King relocate to Canada just this year because of corporate taxes. Pretending that tax rates do not effect investment and economic growth is one of the craziest claims I've read on here.
Take your assumption to the extreme Flash, why not just tax everything 100% ? What's the optimal level of taxation if, as you say "high corporate tax rates and profound public services grow the economy" ?
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All of this economic magic (low taxes, inflow of investment, etc) is contingent upon being located over the Western Sedimentary Basin and the world buying our oil to feed their internal combustion engines.
Our wealth (and ability to afford/subsidize low taxes) is because of a 'business model' that, for now, generally works (e.g. exporting oil)...but in the future it may not be as lucrative as it once was.
What if you could look into a crystal ball and see that Alberta has 2 'windfalls' left (a windfall is a prolonged period of high resource prices...the opposite of what is going on now). After the 2 windfalls global supply and demand for oil is forever skewed against Alberta and we are left with essentially coal. What should we do with those windfalls?
Alberta needs to get its #### together and build an economy/government that can weather economic volatility and attract corporations with compelling value. It does not have to rely on discounts like the 'Alberta Advantage' of minimal taxes.