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Originally Posted by Leondros
How were we even supposed to know your opinion on the matter when you legitimately just posted a title and 2 videos to go along with it?
As some have stated, 'tax the rich' is not a solution. When you have other favorable tax jurisdictions with low barriers to entry you will see the rich leave and take their tax dollars with them. Look at Murray Edwards. Another consideration is that unlike the US which each citizen is taxed on worldwide regardless of place of residence, Canada only taxes deemed residents. That is to say if I want to cut ties with Canada temporarily and live elsewhere, I will not pay a penny in taxes to Canada.
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From the 100 times in the Canadian Politics thread where I mentioned we need to get the rich to pay their fair share in taxes.
Yes we need to tax all citizens not just residents, but that's not my main gripe. The biggest problem with the system right now IMO is that those who own huge stock portfolios can secure massive loans at virtually zero interest, live lavishly off the loan money, and basically circumvent the tax law by not bringing in any of what's considered "income" for tax purposes. When the loans are due they can just get more loans to cover off the previous ones, and repeat the cycle indefinitely because the value of their assets increase way faster than their debts do.
And yes it's a big problem that in Canada right now there is no estate tax. In the US there is one, but the rich find sneaky ways around that too, so I'd hope those loopholes get closed if/when Canada implements an estate tax.
The conversation around capital gains tax is a complex one, because you don't want to gut punch small time investors and 401ks, but at the same time you do want to raise more revenue from the ultra wealthy.
That said, keeping tax rates low for the wealthy purely out of fear that they'll leave and go elsewhere, is a fool's errand. When all the countries of the world compete for investor dollars, it becomes a giant reverse-auction and a race to the bottom. In this game, everyone loses except the wealthy. The only way to avoid losing this rigged game is to not play it. I always chuckle when people complain about inflation because "there's too much money circulating in our economy" and then turn around and suggest that we should keep tax rates low to woo more investment dollars to Canada... to add more money to our economy.
The bottom line is this: Canada is a beautiful country with great people and a stable economy; people want to live here. Will raising taxes on the rich cause some of the ultra-wealthy to leave? Perhaps. But that outcome is preferable to having a joke tax system where we leave all kinds of loopholes in it because of the misguided notion that wealthy investors are "job creators".
Look at this, the pandemic has caused billionaire wealth to soar while everyone else has been suffering:
https://ips-dc.org/global-billionair...-wealth-surge/
How can anyone not be upset by that? Ultimately, I think there needs to be some kind of shift in the way we tax; there needs to be more emphasis on taxing already accumulated wealth, and less emphasis on taxing income.