Quote:
Originally Posted by polak
I never mentioned Ralph bucks. My whole point was that assuming you will always be operating in the lowest taxed jurisdiction in the country isn't a sustainable business model, especially when your economy is commodity based. Maybe it's just me but if I was running a business in Calgary as my sole source of income I'd sure as hell make sure it was sustainable at average Canadian tax levels at minimum.
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Just want to point out that this represents a lack of understanding about how market stability is supposed to work. Whatever role government plays in the market, however much or little interference it contributes, the important thing is to try to create stable, predictable conditions so that businesses don't have to guess what structural changes will be made in the future based on political swings. What you're describing, business creating contingencies for potential future government actions that worsen market conditions, is the reason that it's so hard to get investment in unstable countries in Africa or South America, for example. That's the extreme version of what you're talking about here.
In other words, whether you think there should be a carbon tax or the minimum wage should be X or the corporate rate should be Y, or there should be tolls on every major roadway in the city or whatever, one of the goals of each level of government should be to create a stable business environment where businesses do not have to do
precisely what you're suggesting every business should do.