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Originally Posted by Truenorth00
Probably the safest way to tackle wealthy inequality is inheritance taxes. Doesn't hurt the person when they are alive. And compels the offspring to actually compete a bit more on skill than wealth. But these are also easy to game and dodge.
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Inheritence taxes only encourage avoidance. Most US billionaires, for example, setup huge charitable foundations to avoid paying estate taxes. The likes of Bill Gates and Warren Buffet know they than diliver more public benefit from their wealth through foundations than could the government.
Canada would be better to reduce tax deductions and more aggressively claw back entitlements such as the child tax benefit and OAS from say the wealthiest 50%. Even more effective would be an end to unionization within the public sector as it is impossible to bargain in good faith with monopoly service providers. If the Feds could say reduce salaries by 10%, benefits by 25%, staffing levels by 10% and convert all defined benefit pensions, the savings would be enormous.
Australia ended defined benefit pension plans from the public sector, private sector and its equivalent of CPP, replacing them with Superannuation which is like a form of mandatory RRSP contribution. That extremely progressive move as well as its lower than OECD Heath spending are huge competitive advantages.