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Shantastic Marie

FAST FACTS: Connecting the Dots | Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives - 0 views

www.policyalternatives.ca/...fast-facts-connecting-dots

Occupy Politics Thesis CCPA inequality

shared by Shantastic Marie on 23 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • rise in attention being paid to the growing poverty and inequality in Canada
  • The Occupy movement can be credited for much of the recent attention but it is the data being released by mainstream institutions and ‘think tanks’ that have made it politically acceptable to challenge the dismal reality. Most recent is the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) report Divided We Stand: Why Inequality Keeps Rising (Dec. 2011). It shines a spotlight on the growing inequality in OECD countries, including Canada, which is shown to have income inequality above the OECD average
  • significant coming from the OECD
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • recognition that significant change is in order
  • economic policies are at the root of the problem. The report acknowledges that the policies that have given us an increasingly low-wage economy, inequitable tax policies and a shrinking social safety net are not serving us well
  • OECD appears to be realizing
  • For the OECD, this is a major shift in thinking
  • Neoliberalism was supposed to make the world a better place for us all.
  • The OECD Jobs study had a significant influence on policy reforms in Canada through the 1990s, many of which were first outlined in the Liberal government’s 1994 policy paper Agenda, Jobs and Growth. This document provided the template for a restructuring of social policy in Canada throughout the 1990s – a template that continues to guide policy today.
  • “Canada spends less on cash benefits such as unemployment benefits and family benefits than most OECD countries. Partly as a result, taxes and transfers do not reduce inequality by as much as in many other countries. Furthermore, their effect on inequality has been declining over time.”
  • “publicly provided services fulfill an important direct redistributive role” and that the scaling back of employment protection, something that the Jobs Study advocated for “ had an overall disequalizing effect.” The OECD report leaves us with hope because it demonstrates that we need to rethink neoliberal economic theory.
  • begin a process of reversing the damage done
  • As recommended by the OECD, this will require that we return to a more equitable taxation and redistribution model, and invest in education and social programs
  • latest mantra—austerity
Shantastic Marie

Will the 'tax the rich' plan scare them away? - Canada - CBC News - 0 views

www.cbc.ca/...f-tax-the-rich-ontario.html

thesis canada tax

shared by Shantastic Marie on 02 Aug 12 - No Cached
  • But so too is the policy unlikely to have a huge impact on curbing the $15.3-billion deficit, one of the stated goals of the new tax, according to the premier.
  • Kevin Milligan, a University of British Columbia economics professor
  • A number of politicians have recently been championing the cause of taxing the rich
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • Barack Obama
  • France, Socialist candidate
  • deal with the NDP to support his budget and avoid an election. McGuinty said all revenues from that new tax would be devoted to "accelerating our plan to eliminate the deficit."
  • According to finance officials, about 23,000 people — or 0.2 per cent of tax filers — would pay an average of about $19,000 more in income tax. The Liberals and NDP have estimated the new tax will generate somewhere between $440 million and $570 million. But Milligan said those numbers are "ambitious."
  • "There’s very strong evidence there as well that, especially for the highest earners who have access to really good tax advice, when tax rates go up, they find legal ways to readjust their affairs so they lower their tax bill."
  • Asked about how that might affect overall revenues, Marion Nade, a spokeswoman for NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, said via email that "all governments are concerned with tax avoidance. We support any means of addressing those loopholes."
  • Milligan also said he doubted the tax would scare off the very wealthy.
  • “We know quite a bit about the impact of this kind of tax,” said Milligan. “You hear some people say it will deter business investment , this will deter entrepreneurship. And the evidence on that is pretty strong that that’s not the case.” Milligan said that's because at the very, very high end of income distribution, most of the income is earned income. "These aren’t entrepreneurs and investors. These are people who are working for a living. They are very well-compensated people working for a living, but it just makes it a very different set of people than if these were all investors with a big pot of money wondering where they will invest it." But Milligan said he doesn’t believe top executives won't work as hard or leave the province because they’re earning a couple percentage points less.
  • Milligan estimates that the marginal rate for someone earning over $500,000 would now climb to 49.5 per cent from 46.4 per cent. (When factoring in the provincial surtax, the overall tax hike will actually be 3.12 per cent.) But he also noted that tax rates approaching 50 per cent are common in other very high income OECD countries. He said there is a "tipping point" where pushing the tax rates higher could yield no more revenue, or, in fact, drop the revenue. "I don't think evidence suggests that we’re hitting that point yet. My own best estimate is you have to get rates into the 60s before you stop raising new revenue."
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