[lbo-talk] Canada's Surprising Prosperity: Is Taxing Consumption Key?

mike larkin mike_larkin2001 at yahoo.com
Wed Oct 20 20:15:42 PDT 2004


"But income tax has a dirty not-so-secret: to legally avoid paying income taxes, one avoids making an income. If enough individuals do this, it suppresses economic activity, and reduces the lot of individuals everywhere.

This is not a left-right issue; the Green Party of Canada acknowledges this by seeking to transfer the load of income taxes onto anti-pollution consumption taxes. If you consume more of the world’s resources, you pay more for their maintenance. If you wish to legally avoid paying those consumption taxes, cut back on your consumption (or cut back on the consumption that pollutes). This leaves the resources available for others, and it reduces pollution, so everybody’s a winner. Down with income taxes, and up with gas taxes and sales taxes. The rich will still pay more because the rich spend more, and their higher incomes will encourage them to spend. Even if this theory has flaws, simply increase the availability of the GST credit to lighten the load on the poor."

http://www.blogscanada.ca/egroup/CommentView.aspx?guid=cab62206-83e8-4531-bec0-a04fa9011b38

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