a 1% tax on net wealth above $20 million would generate nearly $70 billion in new revenue in 10yrs

billionaires rights are important

 

It's a pretty slippery slope to start taking rights away based on wealth. You are likely in the top 5% of wealth holders on the planet. How long until they come for yours?

 

It’s just weird that middle class people would fight against taxation of a wealth class they’ll never belong to.

 

Definitely interesting conversation and perspectives.

 

welp - dunno why I worried about trying to build a bridge to understand your point of view earlier.

 

Big protest in Halifax this week to support billionaires rights to hoard money. You guys in?

 

Right, why stand up for morals when you could be stealing other people's money?

 

Don't protest. Just go to work and make some of your own money so you don't have to steal from others.

 

Morals? Sounds like you're standing up for greed.

I pay my fair share of taxes and I expect others to as well.

 

I'm not standing up for greed. I am standing up for a person's right to do what they consider right with their money. Bill Gates is one hell of a philanthropist and I don't feel that his money is better in the hands of the government. Some billionaires are not as generous as he is, but that is their prerogative. They paid taxes on the income generated, they should be free to spend the rest as they wish. I'm not even against an increase in their income tax, push it up if they want to. I am against a wealth tax because it's no longer about percentage of income which is a fair system of taxation.

I don't criminalize legitimate success, I cherish it and so should everyone else. It's why we have the standard of living that we do as opposed to say Somalia.

 

No I think you expect others to pay more than their share just because you don't have what they have.

 

How is it possible that RC has two people in the 98% who are in favour of wealth inequality?

 

Billionaires do tend to create jobs for several other people, which then pay into a tax system. How many jobs did the Westons, Thompsons, Saputos, Stornachs etc create, its probably close to half a million employees working today. I am not saying that fair taxation shouldn't be considered but driving away investment shouldn't be what the government is striving to do.

 

It's definitely a tough problem to crack. It really does make you wonder what the end game of limitless capitalism really is. A small percentage of the population owning everything? Even if you look over the past 50 years, the amount of wealth consolidation is staggering. Look how many small companies have been swallowed up by mega corporations. Where does this end up in another 100-150 years?

 

Because we are mature enough to understand economics while also having respect for what others have built? As an entrepreneur, I understand how difficult it is to build a company and I respect anyone who can reach the pinnacle of success. Nobody bats an eye at a basketball star getting paid millions of dollars to play a sport, yet you have an issue with someone who built a business that provides society with enough benefit that they will pay billions of dollars for that product, and at the same time they create thousands of jobs which helps propel the economy even further. I cringe to think where we would be without billionaires; we'd still be in the dark ages. Every major advance of our society has created a new group of billionaires, and while they get a much higher benefit from their creations, the rest of society is usually much better off as a result.

 

The more you post the more insane I feel for participating in the discussion lol

Where would we be without billionaires

 

I know you think that is a rhetorical question but it’s pretty much the same as asking what we would do without every inventor who has made your life as good as it is thanks to modern technology. If the guys that created the ability for me to run a tech company enjoy their nice yacht as a reward for their efforts who am I to complain? They have enriched my life as well as billions of others.

 

Whatever happened with the Panama Papers?

 

That’s asinine. It’s like us Telling you that you don’t want a tax implemented because you’re under the impression that someday you might have what they have

 

The difference between millions and billions is orders of magnitude: https://kahlerfinancial.com/financi...umn/millionaires-and-billionaires-infographic - Lumping them together is ignorant.

Being an entrepreneur with enough success to get you into the range of net worth where a sports star might be is hard work - anything past that can be attributed to a lot of luck as well. I also understand economics and have huge respect for, say, what Bill Gates has built. It doesn't mean that I think he (or anyone else) should be able to personally control so much money - it is ridiculous. While he has pledged to spend all of that money philanthropically, it is almost impossible to think that he will given his current spend rate. The last I checked, if he were to spend $1million per day, it would take him 245 years to spend his net worth.

The problem is having a small set of people in the world in charge of so much of the world's money. You can't argue that they have the world's best interests in mind - they wouldn't have accrued that much money if they only had the world's interests in mind.

 

Ok, well show me a country with no billionaires and we’ll compare the standard of living shall we? I’ll wait.

 

What a weird ass conversation, but to be literally accurate I am also more in favor of fixed rate income taxes with no loopholes available at all. Only twist to this is I think people under a reasonable living wage like $35k should pay no taxes.

I am not big on a wealth tax...but the only way the system works is if the people who make the most can't loophole their way out of the flat tax.

 

While I can see both sides (somewhat), this is the most logical post I’ve read here.

Everyone pays their fair share, without finding a loophole to skirt around paying said share, and things would be much better.

Then we’d just have to reign in some of the government waste, and we’d all be in far better shape as a whole.

 

Agreed, I'm all in favour of closing loopholes, having people pay all of the due tax on their income, possibly even higher rate taxes on extreme annual incomes north of 1 million, but to try to tax someone's net worth somehow, on already taxed income is straight fucking retarded. But let's be honest, NS is ok with taxing a Used car as many times as it can be sold, so can we really be surprised that somehow many of you cant see the stupidity of it all

 

I think the used car tax is ridiculous and hurts the consumer and car industry, however it’s so far down the list of Nova Scotia problems it’s not even an afterthought.

I agree with Wayne on the taxation rate, but 35k is way high. The median household income in NS is 60k. That’s a shitload of people not paying income tax anymore.

 

I am all for a flat tax.

 

Yeah, $35K might be high but I am not running for office so never put much effort into the right number, just the idea. Basically a person should be able to afford food, shelter, and basic transportation for employment before having to pay taxes so maybe the actual amount is determined by province and cost of living.

 

Remember that this is almost never true for the mega rich that we are discussing in this thread. They typically aren't paid a taxed salary and they earn their money through other means (stocks, investments, etc) which are taxed differently and due to the loopholes mentioned, often this income can be sheltered. A lot of these super wealthy individuals go to great lengths to avoid paying taxes.

Also infatuous the super wealthy live in countries like Canada and the USA because they want to live in great countries. They are here because of our standard of living, not the other way around.

 

So you think they made a fortune in Somalia and then moved here? Lol no. Those fortunes only get made in high grossing capitalist societies.

 

The standard of living was here before the billionaires and would still be here if they were gone.

 

Flat tax should apply to every dollar earned regardless of the source. That's what I mean by closing loopholes. If you make $100k a year salary and $5.2M in capital gains, and the flat tax is 20%, you pay 20% on $5.3M. Of course RRSP and TSFA limits and shit like that should still apply but they are capped each year as it is.

But the problem is people making up phony expenses to reduce revenue, etc of course...aka loopholes.

 

The tax base you and I would have to pick up if they were gone would not be pretty. Again, the top 1% pay about 40% of the tax base. 40% of the tax base is a fuck ton of money that the average middle class would never be able to pay.

 

It's closer to 20% actually. You're also assuming that all forty five of Canada's billionaires would leave the country. Not gonna happen. I'm sure the majority of them aren't going to care if they are worth a few billion less. I mean, I'm assuming that these people live up to the same high moral standards as yourself.