Raise the Hammer

canbyte, the big problem with Hamilton, as I see it, is that the people have been under-taxed for decades. Buying up properties and fixing them up, or buying up shares in companies, are both ways that the city can use taxpayer money to fund future growth.

The alternative is to under-tax, allow roads and sewers to fall apart, make the government's financial position even weaker than it is and watch as Hamilton becomes a smaller version of Detroit. The people there have been under-taxed for decades as well, and the result has been crumbling infrastructure and falling home prices.

The State of Michigan does not help the situation either, as it spends one of the highest percentages of GDP on public health, education and welfare. It's the freebies to people that wreck government finances, not investments in businesses or infrastructure, both of which make the government wealthier.

If the USSR had forced people to buy their own food, shelter and medicine, and then taxed them to build up the military and other public assets, it would never have collapsed. This is what China is doing today, allowing the market to create profits and then simply taking what they want to build up their balance sheet.

Communism failed because it placed too many demand on the state. To the extent that Canada is now doing the same, with our ever expanding social benefits, like free health care and education, our governments will suffer the same fate. Look at the U.S., people hate both parties and it's not because of over taxation, it's because governments are trying to buy their votes with freebies. In the mid to late nineties, the government reduced spending, raised taxes and improved its balance sheet. The result? People were happy. And they were happy because they were treated like adults, not like children who need an allowance.