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Originally Posted by WarrenC12
Top 2% Canadians? What difference does it make?
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This is a few years old but a great CBC article that talks about who the "1%" are in Canada:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/who-a...op-1-1.1703321
Most are entrepreneurs or working professionals. Particularly medical professionals.
So trying to tax their income, in particular, is going to have some adverse effects. We'll be back to the 90s when doctors, engineers and anyone with a decent idea was fleeing the country.
Quote:
Originally Posted by WarrenC12
How would you propose we pay for the COVID19 bill?
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We need to decide what the purpose of our tax system is. If it's just to pay for services, that simplest and broadest taxes are best. ie consumption taxes.
If we're trying to address income inequality, then progressive taxation, which we already do.
But the problem that a lot of people have is with wealth disparity. Not income disparity. Though a lot of people conflate the two. And the largest part of that wealth disparity comes from capital gains. I remember watching a documentary that used Shaq as an example to explain this. He made $300M playing basketball. But he now has investments that make him $30M per year. It's easier to make money when you have money. And at a certain point that goes well beyond what somebody can actually earn through skill. In other words the return on capital is substantially surpassing the return on labour. The only way I can think of addressing that is through 100% inclusivity on capital gains. How to implement that without hurting investment though is an important question. Especially in an era where startups often reward early investors and employees with shares.