No thats not true Andrew the richer you are the more places you can invest your money to avoid taxation.
Come on do you realy believe the rich and powerful, and multinational corperations pay their fair share of taxes.
Here are some facts!
Our standard of living is shrinking and has been shrtinking after inflation for decades. Our GDP has grown the same time . So where did all this money go? Our taxes have increased as a % of total income to compensate for the loss in spending power ( our midle class taxes that is big buisness pays a lot less today). So where did all that wealth go and why are we paying more of the tax burdon?
No a consumption tax is a good thing. Its a tax the working man can avoid by fixing and saving and tax the upper classes can't avoid of they wish to continue spending ( this of course require s a mechanism for avoiding money fleeing the country through investment banks ).
Besides we already have a value added tax Andrew its called the GST it simply needs some tweeking ( needs to be raised ) and our personal income taxes need to drop across the baord to reflect this
Gee Doug maybe you should start by reading what I wrote. The income tax we have to day is not fair, for the very reasons you cite. Im talking about taxable system that states clearly
How much did you make?
How much did you give to Charity (to a max deduction)
Pay your percentage - I dont care if it is flat or proportional
No ability to shift income to overseas like Paul Martin did, or get deductions like Jean Chrietien did for his golf course. Limit deductions to Charities, eliminate Political party deductions and the ability for political parties to get funding on the tax payers tit.
The govt can offer limited additional deductions like the home upgrade plan, or how about an energy efficiency grant or deduction for adding better windows or upgrading the furnace to high eff.
Income tax gets at the money, and if applied fairly can reduce taxes for the middle and lower classes. Right now only the rich can afford accountants to find all the loop wholes. We need to reduce the need to have accountants being paid to avoid taxes. A consumption tax means we have to pay to burry our parents or children, that women pay tax on fem hygiene products, or childrens clothes.. not something the rich give a damn about but joe and jane canuck sure do. See you see Lexus and Bently's being the problem and cash cow, I see the average joe having to pay taxes on stuff they need. How is that fair?
Actually come July we will have the HST with everything being taxed. Your heating bills, your wills, new homes, new cars, McDonalds, and of course Tim Hortons... so tell me how that is going to hurt the rich again? Thankfully Harper reduced it from 7 to 5 %, too bad the liberals in Ontario did not do likewise to keep the tax neutral
Doug, you still have not answered my question... show me one place were Karl Marx and the communist drivil he promoted has been a success for the Proletariat. BTW I will stick with my tag of Citizen, its noble and has meaning