Comment 102329

By notlloyd (registered) - website | Posted June 11, 2014 at 11:38:20 in reply to Comment 102323

I guess that depends on how you define wealthy. One of the major investors in Ontario bonds are public sector unions. The majority of Ontario's debt is held by the general public.

There is no automatic correlation between the wealth holding of the top 1% of the population (which pays about 33% of the taxes)and the holding of Ontario debt.

If you break it down even further, the top .1% of wealth holders hold a vastly disproportionate share of wealth and pay even less tax as a proportion of their wealth, but a far greater share of taxes in proportion to their numbers.

So, if you want to stop borrowing money from those wealthy public sector union members go ahead. My point was that union members are free to lend to whoever they want and they will stop lending to the Ontario government if it is too risky.

(Also - Ontario is not a OECD government - it is a province. It cannot set monetary policy.)

Ontario has not reduced taxes. It has reduced corporate taxes. Income taxes, surcharges, HST and user fees have risen consistently in my lifetime. Remember that corporations are way stations. They pay their employees who are taxed on that income, some tax on annual income at a certain rate and then when they pay dividends to their shareholders, those are taxed as income. When you combine them, the marginal rate is consistent with the general population. IOW, all they do is defer taxes so that companies can re-invest capital. They are vehicles of wealth that serve their employees who earn their income through the corporation and are taxed accordingly, and through their shareholders who own the capital. It is arguable that they should pay no income tax at all and that all taxes should be on dividends or capital gains.

Comment edited by notlloyd on 2014-06-11 11:47:49

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