Focussing on the 1 per cent is an easy political win (everybody hates/envies the 1 per cent). But it’s not a realistic way to substantially raise more taxes. If we want to do that, we have to look to the models of countries that actually fund more robust public services. And this is the model: higher income taxes at all income levels, and 15-25 per cent sales tax.
The reason North Americans don’t have the public services of our counterparts in Europe is because voters at all income levels balk at paying those kinds of taxes. Instead, we point to the 1 per cent and say make them pay.
We also conveniently ignore the other wide and growing inequality in our society between the 20 per cent - college-educated dual-income professionals - and everybody else. I imagine that includes a lot of people on this forum. Are we the baddies?
Jeff Bezos paying a 10% income tax rate, while his middle class workers pay 30-40% tax is absurd.
Using wrong numbers in hyperbole doesn't really help drive your point home.
Firstly, his "middle class workers" aren't paying 30-40% tax. In Alberta, effective tax rate on $75k/year income is 25%. In Washington state (where Amazon is headquartered), it's more like 20%.
Secondly, everyone always spouts off the tax rate percentages of the rich and never mentions the proportion of absolute tax they actually pay. I'll give you a couple of examples: in the US, the top 50% of income earners pay 97% of the personal income taxes. That means that half of the population effectively contributes nothing to taxes. In Canada, the top 40% of income earners pay about 85% of the tax, while earning 72% of the income.
I know it's easy to have the populist opinion of "tax the rich" because it's easy to pinpoint a group of people and say that they're the problem. By no means am I saying they shouldn't contribute more. I would happily pay more tax - my problem with it is that I believe the government is terrible at spending my money. It's bureaucratic, inefficient, and a lot of that money gets needlessly wasted, so I have zero confidence that extra tax paid would do much to measurably improve our quality of lives.
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Using wrong numbers in hyperbole doesn't really help drive your point home.
Firstly, his "middle class workers" aren't paying 30-40% tax. In Alberta, effective tax rate on $75k/year income is 25%. In Washington state (where Amazon is headquartered), it's more like 20%.
Isolating numbers to suit your narrative isn’t helping to drive your point home either.
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Secondly, everyone always spouts off the tax rate percentages of the rich and never mentions the proportion of absolute tax they actually pay. I'll give you a couple of examples: in the US, the top 50% of income earners pay 97% of the personal income taxes. That means that half of the population effectively contributes nothing to taxes. In Canada, the top 40% of income earners pay about 85% of the tax, while earning 72% of the income.
Funny how they pay so much more in tax yet somehow their earnings growth is still managing to outpace the lower earners by leaps and bounds.
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I know it's easy to have the populist opinion of "tax the rich" because it's easy to pinpoint a group of people and say that they're the problem. By no means am I saying they shouldn't contribute more. I would happily pay more tax - my problem with it is that I believe the government is terrible at spending my money. It's bureaucratic, inefficient, and a lot of that money gets needlessly wasted, so I have zero confidence that extra tax paid would do much to measurably improve our quality of lives.
Governments may waste money, as does private industry, but I’m still willing to bet they could have managed to pay for some hospitals or universal healthcare programs with the money that Jeff Bezos spent on his fly his ego to space vanity project. Are you sure it’s everyone else’s quality of life you’re looking out for?
To get this thread back to real estate, couldn’t help but share this amazing write up I came across.
1101 Reader Crescent NE. $1,288,800. 788 sq ft bungalow.
Spoiler!
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For more information about this listing, please click the “View Listing on REALTOR Website” link, or the “Brochure” button below. The sun hugs you with its warmth, and sunbathers love it! Naturalists want fresh air. One building is a carriage house suite that offers sunbathing on a winter morning, as you wake up with sunshine on your cheeks. The air system within the bungalow mimics natural rules setting higher standards and offering natures gifts. Working with the lay of the land, the sunshine is wrapped within fortress fences that divide the lot into two private yards. Within the yards there are gothic gates and nine decks, looking for a place to happen. The front half of the lot has a ready-to-move-in Jewelry Box Bungalow that comes with a tax free limestone basement suite. The main floor is boat house themed. There is a dock deck, a carpeted deck and side deck with a swing which are all connected to the main floor kitchen. There is a tax free 448 sq-ft third floor loft designed as a wooden boats hull. A modern woodworkers design with chunks and solid timbers throughout the project. The bungalow has many spaces to store your things and handle them comfortably. A breathable house is considered to be the healthiest in its class. As air rises it is brushed along open faced cedar then up into a 27 foot long air vent which is charged by three skylights mimicking what nature does. Not heard of in the HVAC industry, the furnace duct work has all factory oils removed before installation of the duct work inside the walls. Removing the oil helps eliminate homes for mites and dust to live. Due to these measures air quality tests have an amazing scores. Both kitchens are preset for adding appliances of your choice. Bath for two in the sunshine in both ensuites. Squirrels, rabbits, wild birds and kids play in the park across the street. With a big sky background Reader Crescent park adds a fantastic quality to the location of this lot. Aerodynamically designed the cold winds are deflected off the property and the warmth of the sun is stored in the lot during the winter. Infrared test in the winter temperatures prove a 35 degree Celsius advantage in the 20 foot span side deck. Summer months designed to cool with its own non Freon air-conditioning. Main Floor and Basement Suite 1556 sqft, plus the Loft 448 sqft with a total of 2004 sqft. All nine decks 1185 sqft. Triple Car Garage main floor 657 sqft, plus the unfinished top floor carriage house suite 550 sqft, with a total of 1207 sqft. This is pretty good math for two buildings on one lot with character and the comforts of nature. The many other comforts include Net Zero compatibility, low utility and tax bill packages. This carriage suite has its own private entry and views from the side street not the back alley like most carriage house suites. The opportunity to invest $220,000 to finish the carriage house suite and the back side of the lot. R3 Zoning protects this investment, plans are available too.
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To get this thread back to real estate, couldn’t help but share this amazing write up I came across.
1101 Reader Crescent NE. $1,288,800. 788 sq ft bungalow.
From what I can tell it's a bungalow, with a partially finished basement. Plus they've built some kind of space over top of the garage, which likely is not properly permitted.
We also conveniently ignore the other wide and growing inequality in our society between the 20 per cent - college-educated dual-income professionals - and everybody else. I imagine that includes a lot of people on this forum. Are we the baddies?
The baddie is always someone making more than you.
If I'm at 50k, 6 figure earners are the baddies.
If I'm at 100k, those above 300k are the baddies.
And on and on.
Most proposals of taxing the "rich" are based on the desire to pull back the people above, not pull up the people below.
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From what I can tell it's a bungalow, with a partially finished basement. Plus they've built some kind of space over top of the garage, which likely is not properly permitted.
What, you don't think this passed inspection?
Spoiler!
The cardboard toilet, uh, collar is a nice touch that would in no way get gross.
In the far right of this picture you can see a set of raggedy stairs. I presume these lead to the living space over the garage? Maybe a sun deck on top of the main house I can't tell. Who lives up there? Roofio and the other lost boys? I can't possible imagine why these people think it would be a good idea to build something like that and then publicly advertise it.
None of these outdoor wooden structures they've built look weather treated either, and are likely massive fire hazards. How has at least one neighbour not complained about this.
I can guarantee that's not the case. I'll be the first one to hang my middle finger out the window at you if you're driving 1km/h below the speed limit and I am the guy who whistles at dogs in people's cars when stopped at a red light to try to get the dog to freak out. Still an ####### over here.
We have been conditioned to think like capitalists, but you look at countries with more of a socialist bent with better social safety nets (Nordic countries?) and it seems higher taxes can equate to better lives for more people when the tax revenue is invested back into elevating/protecting people. Surely that line of thinking is shared by many of us and I sure hope more than 0.01% of us.
Like, at what point does a guy have enough? I feel guilty about owning a business sometimes. I'll talk to other business owners or wealthy people and they're always bitching about taxes and the new generation being lazy and on and on. Then I'm like, you have three houses, vacation in Hawaii annually, drive the best cars, do the coolest stuff and you're whining about your $20/hour employees not doing enough for you? Like, WTF. How does a guy think like that?
What we need here is more socialism. Higher tax rates at the high levels. I hate watching the spread between the haves and the have-nots widen. And I look at my kids and the leg up they'll have (paid-for university, down payments on houses, no debt) and it just seem so unbe-fataing-lievably unfair to their peers.
I actively vote against my own self interests in favour of parties who will do more for the greater good. You cut corporate taxes for a guy like me and I don't even fataing notice. Why give me that? Take it from me (I won't notice) and give it to 10 people for whom it will put literal food on their table or pay for their kids' dental work.
Honestly, good on you man. That is pretty altruistic and commendable.
I think that most humans to varying degrees feel like you, but will immediately recoil to me-first attitude when they see the ultra wealthy not paying their share.
They then vote for individual self-interests and the cycle continues. Kinda like prisoner's dilemma on a grand scale.
The baddie is always someone making more than you.
If I'm at 50k, 6 figure earners are the baddies.
If I'm at 100k, those above 300k are the baddies.
And on and on.
Most proposals of taxing the "rich" are based on the desire to pull back the people above, not pull up the people below.
Completely disagree with this take
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I really don't want to fuel the continued derail, but honestly, some of you guys need to understand the difference between the concepts of taxation of realized gain/loss and unrealized gain and loss as well as the difference in taxation of things like dividends, taxable capital gains, wages and interest.
There'd be a loss less drivel if more people understood some of these basics.
That has to be a joke. Those photos look like they were taken on an iphone 4. The roof looks like it has shingles lining the top but aren't the same color and they don't look to be nailed down. All for $1.3M
This has to be a joke. I mean, parts look quite nice, but other parts are an absolute train wreck. 1.3 mil????
If you go on google maps streetview you can see the "garage" being built. It's a brand new structure. It doesn't actually back up into the alley, and looks like they've basically built some kind of second house onto the property.
It's going to cost you $10k just to haul that thing away. Maybe more, if they've done something extra stupid like tap the new structure into the electrical, plumbing, and drainage.
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My wife and I looked at buying a place on Reader Cres last year. $1.1 Mil, brand new build, finished basement, integrated Alexa, triple garage and the house footprint was much bigger than your standard infill.
So the area itself is expensive, but that is a joke for a small, old home. IMO that whole thing is a teardown and build new. The land value would be expensive, but not 1+ Mil expensive
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