I recently wrote a couple of blog posts on Warren Buffett and the need for higher taxation of the very wealthy, an idea that is gaining currency in a number of countries, including France and Spain, the latter actually recently imposing a new tax on the wealthy. While conventional news formats are reluctant to pursue the issue in any depth, alternative sites for news and opinions like our own rabble.ca and Truthdig, an American-based site, are not shying away from this contentious topic.
A Truthdig article entitled Why They Hate Warren Buffett examines the backlash from the right provoked by Buffett's plea for higher taxation of people like him, and is well worth perusal.
Showing posts with label tax increases. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tax increases. Show all posts
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Increased Taxation Of The Rich In Spain
Having written previously on the logic and desirability of increasing taxation on the wealthy, I was heartened to learn that Spain recently increased its rate for those with real estate assets (excluding their principal residences), stocks and bank holding of more than 700,000 Euros annually. It is expected to raise revenues of about €1.08 billion if applied uniformly.
While including real estate holdings in the calculation may strike some as excessive, the measure at least cuts through the deafening silence with which the suggestion to increase taxation levels is met by all three of Canada's major political parties, not to mention the scorn that was heaped on Warren Buffet by the American right-wing for advocating such measures.
While including real estate holdings in the calculation may strike some as excessive, the measure at least cuts through the deafening silence with which the suggestion to increase taxation levels is met by all three of Canada's major political parties, not to mention the scorn that was heaped on Warren Buffet by the American right-wing for advocating such measures.
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Taxpayers Versus Citizens
It probably doesn't take a genius to understand the basic philosophical and fiscal difference between the moderate and the right-wing is that the moderate recognizes the needs of the collective, i.e., the entire society, while the right-wing gives precedence to, indeed exalts, the individual.
The traditional moderate's view on taxation accepts the progressive model, whereby the amount of taxes we pay escalates with our economic standing; by contrast, the right talks only of low taxes so that the individual can decide how to spend his or her hard-earned money. The latter, of course, totally ignores the fact that “no man (woman) is an island,” that we are all part of a larger community, with both collective rights and collective responsibilities.
Yesterday's Star had an excellent column by Edmund Pries, a professor at Wilfrid Laurier University on this distinction. Entitled Taxpayers vs. citizens, it is well worth a few minutes of your time today.
The traditional moderate's view on taxation accepts the progressive model, whereby the amount of taxes we pay escalates with our economic standing; by contrast, the right talks only of low taxes so that the individual can decide how to spend his or her hard-earned money. The latter, of course, totally ignores the fact that “no man (woman) is an island,” that we are all part of a larger community, with both collective rights and collective responsibilities.
Yesterday's Star had an excellent column by Edmund Pries, a professor at Wilfrid Laurier University on this distinction. Entitled Taxpayers vs. citizens, it is well worth a few minutes of your time today.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
The Timidity Of The Ontario NDP
I wrote earlier this month about the growing call from certain monied sectors for an increase in their personal taxation rates, arguing that they are not paying their fair share to support the country in which they grew and prospered. That plea, as noted earlier, is being egregiously ignored by all political parties, including Ontario's NDP, led by Andrea Horwath, a politician who is becoming increasing difficult to distinguish from the leaders of the other parties.
My observation, and I don't think it is a particularly startling or perceptive one, is that slowly and inevitably, the party, both at the federal and provincial levels, is becoming very 'mainstream' as the prospects for increasing their electoral success improve.
Take, for example, Ms. Horwath's position on corporate taxation. As reported last May in The Toronto Star, the NDP would raise corporate taxes by a mere 2%, to 14% from the current 12%. As well, as reported in today's Star, the party would cancel the entertainment tax breaks enjoyed by corporations, such as being able to write off some of the costs of a corporate box at the Air Canada Centre.
While I do not dispute that these would be useful measures that would hardly send corporations fleeing to other jurisdictions, they also strike me as extraordinarily timid, a kind of nipping around the edges of fiscal policy. I do realize there is an argument to be made for proceeding slowly in a compromised economy, but I worry that the stated policy direction suggests that should they ever regain power, the NDP would once again make the same kinds of mistakes that were made during the disastrous Bob Rae years, when the now interim federal Liberal Leader bent over backwards to placate business at the expense of party policy and principles.
Until I hear someone talk about raising the personal income tax rate on the ultra-wealthy, I shall remain dubious of the integrity of NDP principles.
Please sign this petition urging Prime Minister Harper to stop threatening Michaela Keyserlingk and to stop exporting asbestos.
My observation, and I don't think it is a particularly startling or perceptive one, is that slowly and inevitably, the party, both at the federal and provincial levels, is becoming very 'mainstream' as the prospects for increasing their electoral success improve.
Take, for example, Ms. Horwath's position on corporate taxation. As reported last May in The Toronto Star, the NDP would raise corporate taxes by a mere 2%, to 14% from the current 12%. As well, as reported in today's Star, the party would cancel the entertainment tax breaks enjoyed by corporations, such as being able to write off some of the costs of a corporate box at the Air Canada Centre.
While I do not dispute that these would be useful measures that would hardly send corporations fleeing to other jurisdictions, they also strike me as extraordinarily timid, a kind of nipping around the edges of fiscal policy. I do realize there is an argument to be made for proceeding slowly in a compromised economy, but I worry that the stated policy direction suggests that should they ever regain power, the NDP would once again make the same kinds of mistakes that were made during the disastrous Bob Rae years, when the now interim federal Liberal Leader bent over backwards to placate business at the expense of party policy and principles.
Until I hear someone talk about raising the personal income tax rate on the ultra-wealthy, I shall remain dubious of the integrity of NDP principles.
Please sign this petition urging Prime Minister Harper to stop threatening Michaela Keyserlingk and to stop exporting asbestos.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Why Higher Taxes For The Ultra-Wealthy Is Truly Progressive Taxation
Back from my annual retreat from technology, I've had the opportunity to do a bit of thinking within a relaxing environment. The following is one of the things I've been thinking about:
Current political orthodoxy suggests that income tax increases are a thing of the past, and that only by continuing to reduce the tax 'burden' on both individuals and corporations can prosperity for all be assured. Happily, that specious argument is coming increasingly under fire.
The central thesis of The Trouble With Billionaires, written by Linda McQuaig and Neil Brooks, is that the growing inequality gap being experienced in North America can be narrowed by a return to the notion of progressive taxation directed at the ultra-weathy who now pay a historically low rate on the tremendous income they enjoy. Soundly reasoned and within a rich historic context, the authors make some compelling arguments for their vision. It is reading I highly recommend.
Similarly, in a recent op-ed piece for the New York Times, share one of the world's richest men, Warren Buffet, makes a similar request. He says people with wealth of his magnitude, and there are many such individuals, need to be taxed at substantially higher rates, given that they owe much to the countries that have made it possible for them to prosper, offering an effective challenge to the myth of the self-made man or woman.
A few days later, a group of French billionaires made the same plea, arguing that they can and should do much more to help their country's economy. 16 company executives, business leaders and super-rich individuals called for the creation of a "special contribution" that would target wealth without forcing the rich to quit France for overseas tax havens.
In a recent Toronto Star article entitled Where is Canada's Warren Buffet, Larry Gordon asks the pointed question of why Canadian wealthy elites are not offering similar help to our country.
Sadly but predictably, the political establishments in the aforementioned countries don't seem to be listening. Indeed, in the United States, the extreme right, aka The Tea Party, has mocked and lambasted Buffet for his proposal.
And in Canada, neither of the two main opposition parties federally has shown any enthusiasm for the idea. During the recent federal election, the boldest suggestion made was to roll back some of the corporate tax cuts. Not a mention was made of increasing individual rates.
We have to wonder why the shyness exists. For the NDP, it is perhaps to avoid the traditional association of being the party of high taxation as the only solution to inequality. The Liberal and The Conservative reticence on the issue is consistent with the contention made by many that despite the facade of democracy reinforced by going to the polls every four years or so, the voice of the people is not the voice these parties listen to. Rather, they listen to those with whom they most identify and stand to benefit from, the economic elite of the country.
At one time, I would have attributed such a notion to the rather overwrought ravings of the extreme left. Today, I see it as a realistic assessment of the current sad state of politics in North America, a state where few politicians dare challenge the orthodoxy of spending cuts as the way to a productive and responsible economy, resulting in societies that increasingly seem to afford benefits only to a select few.
It is time that we we begin to force a change in the conversation. More about that soon.
Please sign this petition urging Prime Minister Harper to stop threatening Michaela Keyserlingk and to stop exporting asbestos.
Current political orthodoxy suggests that income tax increases are a thing of the past, and that only by continuing to reduce the tax 'burden' on both individuals and corporations can prosperity for all be assured. Happily, that specious argument is coming increasingly under fire.
The central thesis of The Trouble With Billionaires, written by Linda McQuaig and Neil Brooks, is that the growing inequality gap being experienced in North America can be narrowed by a return to the notion of progressive taxation directed at the ultra-weathy who now pay a historically low rate on the tremendous income they enjoy. Soundly reasoned and within a rich historic context, the authors make some compelling arguments for their vision. It is reading I highly recommend.
Similarly, in a recent op-ed piece for the New York Times, share one of the world's richest men, Warren Buffet, makes a similar request. He says people with wealth of his magnitude, and there are many such individuals, need to be taxed at substantially higher rates, given that they owe much to the countries that have made it possible for them to prosper, offering an effective challenge to the myth of the self-made man or woman.
A few days later, a group of French billionaires made the same plea, arguing that they can and should do much more to help their country's economy. 16 company executives, business leaders and super-rich individuals called for the creation of a "special contribution" that would target wealth without forcing the rich to quit France for overseas tax havens.
In a recent Toronto Star article entitled Where is Canada's Warren Buffet, Larry Gordon asks the pointed question of why Canadian wealthy elites are not offering similar help to our country.
Sadly but predictably, the political establishments in the aforementioned countries don't seem to be listening. Indeed, in the United States, the extreme right, aka The Tea Party, has mocked and lambasted Buffet for his proposal.
And in Canada, neither of the two main opposition parties federally has shown any enthusiasm for the idea. During the recent federal election, the boldest suggestion made was to roll back some of the corporate tax cuts. Not a mention was made of increasing individual rates.
We have to wonder why the shyness exists. For the NDP, it is perhaps to avoid the traditional association of being the party of high taxation as the only solution to inequality. The Liberal and The Conservative reticence on the issue is consistent with the contention made by many that despite the facade of democracy reinforced by going to the polls every four years or so, the voice of the people is not the voice these parties listen to. Rather, they listen to those with whom they most identify and stand to benefit from, the economic elite of the country.
At one time, I would have attributed such a notion to the rather overwrought ravings of the extreme left. Today, I see it as a realistic assessment of the current sad state of politics in North America, a state where few politicians dare challenge the orthodoxy of spending cuts as the way to a productive and responsible economy, resulting in societies that increasingly seem to afford benefits only to a select few.
It is time that we we begin to force a change in the conversation. More about that soon.
Please sign this petition urging Prime Minister Harper to stop threatening Michaela Keyserlingk and to stop exporting asbestos.
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