How *exactly* you and your income are being affected by inequality.

by cognisonance 25 Replies latest social current

• 

  talesin

  Agree ^^^

  This is the truth - our money funds big business - when you factor hidden taxes on top of income tax, the poor and middle class are paying over 50% of their net income (ie, take-home pay) in taxes. Corporations have *deferred* taxes. It blew my mind when I worked at the telephone company, and was loaned to the Accounting Dept. for the year-end reports project. They paid ZERO taxes, and millions deferred - that was 1989/90 - imagine what that amount is now!

  Just a few weeks ago, I was reading about the shocking amounts of Corporate Welfare that the Canadian government is givng to the OIL PATCH. LMAO!

  Check out this article from The Tyee .. excerpt and url:

  http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2014/05/15/Canadas-34-Billion-Fossil-Fuel-Subsidies/

  The International Monetary Fund estimates that energy subsidies in Canada top an incredible $34 billion each year in direct support to producers and uncollected tax on externalized costs.

  These figures are found in the appendix of a major report released last year estimating global energy subsidies at almost $2 trillion. The report estimated that eliminating the subsidies would reduce global carbon emissions by 13 per cent. The stunning statistics specific to this country remain almost completely unreported in Canadian media.

  Contacted by The Tyee, researchers from the IMF helpfully provided a detailed breakdown of Canadian subsidies provided to petroleum, natural gas and coal consumption. The lion's share of the $34 billion are uncollected taxes on the externalized costs of burning transportation fuels like gasoline and diesel -- about $19.4 billion in 2011. These externalized costs include impacts like traffic accidents, carbon emissions, air pollution and road congestion

  [bold is mine]

  Facts - the internet is the education highway, and I think the road to change lies in education. Research - read sites ending in .edu or .gov , etc. for factual information. Be aware that blogs are opinion. Check several souces and newspapers / reports from different continents, and other countries.

  Be your own best gatherer of information, and encourage others to do the same. State when you are sharing your opinion vs. quoting facts. Have honest intellectual debate, losing the ego.

  This is part of our hard-won freedom. Eyes wide *open*.

  t
• 

  talesin

  What are "hidden taxes"? Think, "fees for government services", and actual invisible tax.

  * customs fees

  * excise taxes

  * access-to-information fees

  * federal hidden sales tax included in ticket prices of all retail items (ie, you pay sales tax on TOP of a hidden tax in the ticket price - double taxed!)

  * sales tax on used big-ticket items (ie, automobiles - double taxed! or triple, or many times!)

  * passport fees

  * government ID

  * court fees (!)

  * bank fees on transactions

  * inheritance taxes

  * road taxes

  * gasoline taxes included in ticket prices

  * insurance required by LAW for: auto, apartment insurance, mortgages, etc.

  Just sharing a bit of 'activist' thinking.

  To address the OP - Are we truly 'free'? Hmmmm ... food for thought.
• 

  Berengaria

  If you tax the top earners too much, who is going to open the new businesses to employ people? Read Atlas Shrugged.

  Can you show any evidence that this theory holds up in reality?

  When you take away people's insentive, things don't get better.

  What insentives? Which people?

  If capital gains were raised I would invest less of my money. Less money going into investments ( new resturants, drugs, hospitals, stores) not good. Why are people mad when other people work really really hard and are sucessful ? Alot of those people give people jobs.

  How and where do you invest your money, and why would you invest less? These lower gains rates are rather new, yet people have always invested when able. Why do you equate a more reasonable capital gains rate to people being "mad"? How is earning off of investments "working really hard"?
• 

  Gregor

  The godamn word is "incentives". More simply called ambition. This is a very individualistic thing. Certainly not something that can be engineered by big government. "Income equality" is a foolish, socialist lure for the ignorant dreamers.
• 

  BizzyBee

  Income inequality is bad for humans, bad for democracy and historically leads to societal collapse.

  It is a naive notion that "income equality" is the opposite and preferred state of affairs. One must understand the difference between relative and absolute.
• 

  Fernando

  Thank you for sharing those links cognisonance.

  Some may be interested in this book:

  Full description for "The Spirit Level"

  • It is a well-established fact that in rich societies the poor have shorter lives and suffer more from almost every social problem. "The Spirit Level," based on thirty years of research, takes this truth a step further. One common factor links the healthiest and happiest societies: the degree of equality among their members. Further, more unequal societies are bad for everyone within them-the rich and middle class as well as the poor.The remarkable data assembled in "The Spirit Level" exposes stark differences, not only among the nations of the first world but even within America's fifty states. Almost every modern social problem-poor health, violence, lack of community life, teen pregnancy, mental illness-is more likely to occur in a less-equal society.Renowned researchers Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett lay bare the contradictions between material success and social failure in the developed world. But they do not merely tell us what's wrong. They offer a way toward a new political outlook, shifting from self-interested consumerism to a friendlier, more sustainable society.