“Hang the rich”

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I know that it’s not a good idea to talk about politics, but I watched the first election debate last night and I would have to say it was a real gong show. One of the common themes was “Hang the rich”.  I guess that’s a way to buy votes, but every party leader has their own formula for what that means.

This is not a new theme, in fact it’s been around since the dark ages. It was wrong then and it is still wrong now. I’m not saying that the wealthy are not in a position to provide more support, but a complicated formula is not the way to do it. I believe we should simplify things.

There should be a personal deduction for every Canadian based on their cost of living and after that, there should be a common percentage that every Canadian pays to support the countries infrastructure. People who make less will pay less and people who make more will pay more, but the percentage will be the same for all.

We should eliminate all other complicated formulas for tax breaks.

Canada has a declining birth rate and we need to make it possible for citizens to raise their families (of future tax payers). Giving these people an allowance for their children’s future contribution is in everyone’s best interest and ties directly to cost of living. You could argue that the cost of living is effected by a number of geographic factors. Provinces and municipalities would have to contribute to the percentage calculation to take that into effect, so the cost of living allowance would not be the same from coast to coast. you would be free however, to choose where you want to live.

I am suggesting that there would not be separate provincial and/or municipal taxes.

Our income tax returns would be three lines. How much did you make, subtract your personal allowance and submit the difference between what you paid and what you owe based on that years percentage. Payroll would simply take the common percentage off your cheque each week and submit that on your behalf.

This formula would eliminate all other taxes (GST, HST, Sales Tax, etc). The price on a good or service would be the price with no hidden taxes. The wealthy will pay more, but as a percentage of income (above and beyond the common cost of living).

I’m sure that there are lots of holes in these ideas, but “Hang the rich” is not the answer.

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My mother taught me that “People are People” full stop. It is not right to differentiate based on any criteria, be that race, creed, colour, gender or wealth. There is no such thing as “Women’s Work”, just work. Everyone comes into this world with nothing and leaves the same way.

Let’s call this “The Gillette principle” even though my mother was born a Wood….

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