A Letter We Should Widely Share

Although he likely doesn't articulate anything that progressive bloggers don't already know, Star letter-writer Paul Kahnert of Markham neatly and succinctly addresses the real design behind tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy. It deserves to be shared widely with those who may not be fully aware of some essential facts.

Have we had enough? Insight Jan. 4

Tories like Stephen Harper and Rob Ford (and Tim Hudak) follow the Tory plan of tax cuts, which mostly goes to corporations and the wealthy. Tax cuts then create a crisis in public services. Then the Tories bring in privatization to deal with the crisis by selling public assets and services to the corporations and the wealthy.

Why do we the public constantly vote for this scam? You can’t build a civilization on tax cuts. Look where we’re going with the Tories. A just civilization was never built on tax cuts and never will be.

Where is the politician who promises fair taxes, good governance and independent oversight? This is how we built our city, our province and our country before. This is how we built a just society.

There is more wealth now than there ever has been. We can afford healthcare, education, public services and livable pensions. The only reason Harper doesn’t want to increase the Canada Pension Plan is because his friends at the banks won’t get their service charges.

Strip away the smoke and mirror show of Harper, Ford and Hudak and you’ll see the truth. The only thing that Tories do, is transfer public wealth to the private few.

Paul Kahnert, Markham

A Sage Observation

Paul Kahnert of Markham has an uncommonly apt observation in this morning's Star, one that I'm sure the ideologues leading us both federally and provincially will choose to ignore:

Re: Canada’s idle threat, Business Aug. 25

It’s time to reverse corporate tax cuts. David Olive’s article was proof positive that tax cuts don’t work. Weren’t tax cuts for corporations supposed to make them “competitive” and create lots of job for Canadians? We’ve been conned. The only thing tax cuts created was massive wealth for corporations and the top 1 per cent.

Corporate tax cuts have been one of the main contributors to the $526 billion of profits sitting idle in their bank accounts. Right now provincial and federal deficits are running at about $65 billion a year. All governments are crying poor and say they can’t afford to pay for public services like health care, education and infrastructure like water, sewage roads and bridges. Baloney.

We don’t have a deficit problem. We have a distribution of wealth problem. Governments need to tax that money back and get on with the job of building this country with good jobs.

And all of us need to stop voting foolishly for politicians who keep promising us tax cuts.