Tax And Spend

At a recent meeting (political of course) a DNPP supporter suggested financing social improvements by postponing tax cuts. Indeed, this misguided political dinosaur suggested increasing revenues. Fortunately for civilization, a member of the New Progressive Reform Canadian Conservative Don't Ask Me About Our Name Liberal Alliance Party party was present. "What?" screamed this person. "You want to go back to Tax and Spend politics?" Well, it is the sad duty of the DNPP (a party which has a four letter word for a name) to inform that person from the NPRCCDAMAONLAP party that all politics are tax and spend. Governments tax and governments spend. That is what governments do. If the people are lucky, they do it well. If the people are unlucky, they don't. At the very top of the list of things for governments to do is ... Maintain an orderly society. That doesn't mean everybody saying please and thank you. No. That means governing in such a way that property is secure. And the more prosperous you are, the more property you have. Wealth needs security. Every day people leave their homes empty and travel 5, 10, 20 or more miles to work. All their possessions are left in the care of our society for hours and hours. This is possible if opportunities within a society are available to everyone. Opportunity is important to social harmony. So is wealth distribution. The DNPP does not mean that everybody should be paid 50,000 a year, or that everyone can become the CEO of CPR. But everyone should have an expectation of a decent, useful life. A "useful life" can mean many things. To us, a person who can fix a tractor tire is of greater value than an advertising executive. That might reflect some prejudice, but that is our prejudiced opinion. If our world disproportionately rewards an adman who sells soap, SUVs and sanitary napkins, then government should take more from Peter Adman than it does from Paul Tireman. And use the money to provide services for all. Part of the bargain (it is a bargain) between the taxed and taxers is that Adman gets all the services that Tireman does, but he also gets to leave his cabin cruiser and SUV in the driveway while he goes to Paris for a conference. With a reasonable chance it will be there when he gets home. Theft, vandalism, murder, violence and kidnapping is reduced in more equal societies. North America is a useful illustration. Income disparity is least in Canada, greater in USA, and greatest in Mexico. Violence is least common in Canada, more common in USA, most common in Mexico. See a pattern? Worldwide, poverty and hopelessness breed violence. And while poor people victimize poor people more than they do rich people, the rich are uneasy. Razor wire on fences around gated communities, security guards and alarms are testimony to fright. Peace of mind might come cheaper in a friendlier world. Redistribution of wealth does not have to be a hardship. All we DNPP'ers suggest is 1999 levels of taxation. And a little fiddling with the banking system. Of course the Really Rich will howl. But they were howling all the time they were getting rich and will continue howling while they are getting richer. Must be genetic. With 1999 tax levels and elimination of some abuses of the system, spending on housing, highways and hospitals will be greatly increased. Of course, when you spend on infrastructure or services, dollars multiply. Spend a million on a road today, and if we do it right, the country will get back a million and a half by 2025. And the road will still be there. Give a million dollar tax cut and it could vanish in the stock market. Or, we could give a million dollar tax cut. And then go and borrow back the money we need to build the road. Then pay interest until the sun grows cold. That interest is the key. Since 1975, as government, we have paid over one trillion in interest. That is $1,000,000,000,000.00. Do you know where that money went? Most of it, in one form or other, to the RR (the Really Rich). And what did they do with it? Lent it back to government so they could pay more interest to the people they gave the tax cuts to in the first place. We (Canada) never had to be in debt. We (Canada) built that debt deliberately. We (the DNPP) can get rid of the debt. Trust us. Of course that means each RR (Really Rich) family will lose its risk free bond income of about half a million a year. It will be their own darn fault. After all, they have been screaming for years that we should reduce the debt. But they won't lose their capital. As the bonds mature they will be paid. That will mean billions of loose bucks. They can build factories for windmills, high efficiency electric motors, solar panels and so on. No debt and 1999 tax levels means over a 100 billion to spend on those things plus everything from sewage plants to senior housing. The money now wasted on interest would employ a million people and return 40 to 50 billion in new government income. At that point, with everything fixed, we would start cutting taxes. First the GST, then increased equalization (conditional on provinces cutting sales taxes). Then income tax. Now we have a stable healthy environment. A country even the wealthy would enjoy. To accomplish this we only have to put greed on a shorter leash. We don't wish to eliminate greed, just moderate it. After all, the main attraction of the DNPP is the way we will provide every person with around $5,000 to $7,000 of increased services or reduced taxes each year. That is $20,000 a family. If we are going to buy votes, we will not be cheap about it. http://www.dnpp.ca/ ********************* Makes sense to me, but then I'm not RR. I'm not the one doing the screaming.