Quote:
Originally Posted by CliffFletcher
The top 20 per cent of households in Canada (roughly $250k household income and up) pays 62 per cent of the country's income taxes. Raising their rates is politically unpopular because there's lots of voters who fall into range (I'd guess more than 30 per cent of the electorate), and many regard themselves as middle class.
Raise income taxes on the top 2 per cent won't generate much money for the simple fact there's a lot fewer people in that range.
DJones is right that sales and property taxes are reliable revenue generators for governments. The Nordic countries - the best real-world models egalitarian countries with robust public services - have 20-25 per cent VAT. And property taxes are a way to unlock the wealth of seniors who have seen their net worth increase substantially just because they bought their homes decades ago. That wealth would otherwise be passed down through inheritance, hardening intergenerational wealth inequality.
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The issue isn’t one specific tax and whether it’s good or not. It’s the pointless exercise of looking at high tax countries and how we could emulate them but not wanting to pay any additional tax overall.
If something costs $10 and you only have $5, it really doesn’t matter whether you offer to pay in coins or a bill, you still only have $5.