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By BobInnes (registered) - website | Posted April 29, 2011 at 00:04:30
Borrelli's song is the sweetest music I've heard for a long long time, even though I'm right in the middle of his cross hairs. He isn't the only person who worries about such things but its much clearer from his perspective than my own, and hopefully his peers will get interested in these vital issues.
My own view is that the gummerment has become bloated, taking on too many mandates so now it soaks up roughly 40% of the economy. Confucius warned many thousands of years ago that any kingdom which took more than 10% in taxes would become unstable and end badly. Taxing 4x above this rate has to be unsustainable. One might argue that the modern technical world demands more regulation so maybe 20% might be accepted by the people, maybe. Social services and health are the biggies, but these are entirely discretionary. I see health as the carrot that Trudeau put in front of the taxpaying donkey.
My own recollection is that Trudeau singlehandedly built an enormous federal cake, with a bunch of -isms for icing, destroyed our Bank of Canada and therefore got a credit card from Phantom's banksters (who rewarded him with Club of Rome footstool), and then walked away. Despite huge debt charges, it was like we just let interest pile up, especially when rates hit 20% 'under Volker'. Mulroney, unable to keep up, got blamed for deficit spending. Thanks Pierre. My penance for voting for him (Trudeau) is now, via the Canadian Action Party, to try to undo his BOC move so we can better control banks and where interest payments go. Right now we pay $57bn to banksters. Free tuition for all would be a fraction of that amount.
A Smith raises good points about how taxes burden the economy, but what is the limiting factor? This truly shocking podcast made me realize that the limit is zero which might gladden the heart of any Libertarian. Canada is rapidly lowering corporate taxes in an effort to respond to this kind of 'competitive' environment but the nearest tax haven is less than 9 hours drive. One could argue that no corporation ever paid a tax since tax is just another cost to pass on to the customer. Also, since health is a people issue, perhaps the burden should fall squarely on the people who demand the service - only when we feel the true cost can we have a proper dialog.
I think we must look squarely at all our main programs and ask how, as Borrelli puts it, are the generations to be squared with each other - hopefully sometime before we boomers expire at 100. It's a long time to wait, but hey, we can't take it with us!
There has to be a better way to have a social supporting mechanism. I say break the pot and start afresh. Something new, something Canadian.
Health care will probably have to be severely limited for us oldsters. Good health is really up to the individual but too often folks rely on the medical profession instead of their garden and the gym. The free service is thus abused as A Smith would likely predict.
The student debt issue is truly an outrage, especially given the rapidly vanishing jobs outlook. Most of my colleagues in CAP want to smash NAFTA as a means to staunch further job destruction - one way to tackle the problem that is reminiscent of former cycles - ie. free trade collapsed under WW1. We would miss our cheap IPODs and such. But if our warnings go unheeded and something is not done to reign in excessive corporate bullying, manipulating, evading, outsourcing, temping, etc. by 'gentle' means, such drastic action will be unavoidable, and not just for generational reasons.
Tackling these issues will go a long way to easing Borrelli's pain.
Frogs, the pot is getting warm.
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