The Parkland institute reports:
Just add a few Oil Barons to make this Alberta specific.
EDMONTON— A new fact sheet released this morning by the University of Alberta’s Parkland Institute says that the “flat tax,” introduced by Ralph Klein in 2001, is costing the province in excess of $5 billion a year. Given the projected deficit of $4.3 billion this year, simply returning to the progressive tax structure that existed in 1999 would be more than enough to move the province from a deficit budget to a surplus budget.
Holy cow, not rocket science. Progressive taxation is a good thing.
Alberta’s lowest tax bracket, for example, is taxed at a higher rate than that of six other provinces. And an Alberta family earning $75,000 per year in Alberta pays more tax than the same family in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec, the Yukon, the NWT, and Nunavut.
The fact sheet also points out that returning to a progressive tax structure in Alberta would also serve an important economic stimulus function.
What? Tax-breaks for the poor will stimulate the economy? Enough of this crazy talk, we all know that only cutting taxes on the rich creates economic stimulus (see chicanery).
People are stupid. We hear the matra over and over again the Alberta has the lowest taxes in Canada. What utter horse-pucky. We have the lowest taxes, if and only if, you happen to be rich. Welcome to Alberta where we cater to the rich and special interests 24/7, 365 days a frakking year.
bleatmop
Mystro
Dead Wild Roses 
2 comments
March 4, 2011 at 10:25 am
albertansagainstrestriction
Are you serious? Let me run a little scenario for you. A husband works away 90% of the year to bring in a good income for his family. He didn’t have the opportunity for post secondary education. His parents “made to much money” for him to qualify for a student loan (for these parents to put their 3 sons through college, while still raising 2 younger children would have bankrupted them). Scholaships and summer job savings weren’t enough to sustain his living expenses on thier own. So he went to work “in the patch”.
He pays almost 40% federal income tax, and soon, 15% provincial tax. He has 3 children and a wife. He pays more in tax than his wife would make, were she working. He does not qualify for daycare subsidy. The costs of daycare for those 3 children are more than his wife makes a month. It costs them money if his wife works, so she stays home, and volunteers extensively in the community, takes care of her children on her own, and does everything around the house and in the yard, as he is away, and cannot contribute around the house.
She has her dreams too, but those dream are a financial strain on her family, which would requre her husband to work even more. They have a house with one bedroom for each child, and one for the parents to share. They only have one vehicle. They do not eat out unless they are forced to by being out of town. They do not wear designer clothes, and are not ‘jet setters’. They do not own a lake property, or any recreational vehicles.
He worries day in and day out if his relationship with his wife can be sustained by their almost constant distance. He worries about the effect his absence has on his children.
Every summer, the school supliy shopping and school clothes shopping starts. Can you imagine the expense to outfit 3 kids with the supply lists the teachers hand out? (And half the supplies are not even used!)
And then he gets to watch as others who had the same or more opportunities that he did in his youth collect social services, social services that his time away from his family makes possible. He pays for the extra school supplies, so that a child who comes from a lower income family can have supplies to learn too. He does not fill out exemption of fee forms, and his wife raises money so that children who have less income can participate in the programs without paying the fee. They ask for no breaks, and they both work very hard, one for an income to support the family, and one for no income to support the growing need for social services. And then they watch, as these same parents who fill out exemptions forms buy the most expensive clothes, and have recreational vehicles, go out for supper and order in all the time, and basically use the exemptions to facilitate a lifestyle they cannot afford. They watch as their hard earned money is used to treat the same drug addicts over and over again, and in an economic downturn, their politicians take a pay INCREASE!
They pay for their children’s dental work, the government does not pay for it. The pay for their children’s perscriptions (2have athsma, one severe), they are not on a government subsidy. They watch as “low income” people, who get these government programs, have more “fun” money than they do.
Granted, there are some people out there who really do need and appreciate these programs. They have no problem working to help these people.
What they have a problem with is people who had the EXACT SAME OPPORTUNITIES whine and complain that they are so hard done by, and expect the government to pick up the tab using money from people who work hard to give their children more opportunities.
Socialism only facilitates the lazy. Honest, hardworking people will always be helped by their “neighbor”, especially if we paid less taxes for a beaurocratic mess, and gave it directly to those who needed it.
Alberta doesn’t “cater” to the rich. The Alberta governement caters to itself. Get your facts straight. After all, why is it that this mans taxes are going to pay the wages of the worker who is supposed to intake people for social services, and then turn around and either deny them, or not give them enough to live on, forcing them to lie to survive, while this worker gets a warm desk, a 9-5 job, Mon- Fri, all holidays and stats. I mean, is there no need for social assistance on a weekend?
Please consider the fact that it is not you fellow Albertan who is getting “catered” to, but the ellected government of the day. And yes, we do have a Progressive tax system. It looks like a flat tax, but when you adjust for the personal basic exemption and compare it to the income, you will see that the more you make, the higher you per dollar percentage is. One more example of your goverment leading you astray.
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March 5, 2011 at 8:34 am
The Arbourist
Socialism only facilitates the lazy. Honest, hardworking people will always be helped by their “neighbor”, especially if we paid less taxes for a beaurocratic mess, and gave it directly to those who needed it.
I was wondering when you would get around to slamming Socialism. When I see anecdata about “hard working people not getting ahead while freeloaders coast on their coattails”. The faulty conclusion that is almost always drawn that it is the damn socialism’s fault which, clearly, it is not.
Any institution in society will be corrupt to a certain extent whether it be a public institution or a private one. When looking to a disparage a program or institution of course all you see is the bad examples. Did you bother to look for the best examples of what socialized programs do for society and then compare them? Most likely not.
Are you serious?
So, yes I am serious. I am in favour of progressive taxation of individuals, as far as the 90% rate that was present in the 1950’s which, oddly enough, is often looked at as a ‘golden age’ when there was opportunity and prosperity for a large percentage of society. The more egalitarian a society, the more healthy and fundamentally strong its people are.
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