🚀 go-pugleaf

>>Taken in this light I cannot understand why, all else being equal, I should
>>be expected to happily see my tax dollars being used to pay government
>>employees significantly higher than (unionized) private sector wages. I
>>would much rather see this "extra" money be fed back into the system thus
>>attempting to provide BCers with the health care and education that they
>>should be getting. 
>
>yes, an interesting comparison, but it may be a bit misleading to assume that
>whatever unionised workers in the private sector are getting is fair - these
>things are constantly under negotiation, after all, and any inequities may
>be a sign that the govt is a slightly less unfair employer than anyone else.
>
>also, part of the equation is that while you and i and anyone else with a job
>pay our share of taxes, there are some fairly massive entities out there,
>generally glorying in the name of "companies", that tend not to pay a
>startling proportion of income or turnover to the govt. in fact, these 
>entities tend to paid by the govt to do this... it is interesting to note that
>many owners of these entities subsribe to the ptolemic theory of society -
>i.e., that everything revolves around them. this is all very interesting,
>i look forward to more.

Taxing corporations is bad, bad.  While corporations (and "rich people") are
the perennial targets when increased tax revenues are required, I simply
cannot see how this is justified.  Consumers (tax paying personel) are the
people who receive the bulk of the benefits of government spending.  And if
governments stopped pissing away money on corporate bailouts, consumers would
be getting basically all of the benefits.  Is not the main purpose of
government to equalize gross inequities between citizens and to provide
services to them (when justified by economies of scale)?  Government also has
the task of regulating corporations (which falls under the general task of
maintaining the laws that support human rights), but regulation does not
involve transfers and therefore should not include taxation.

The idea that if corporations are taxed, somehow consumers will get off the
hook is absurd.  Obviously corporations will pass the cost of new taxes on to
consumers.  Corporate boards will not consider new taxes and conclude that it
is only fair that they take losses to cover them - nor should they.  So if
corporations simply pass the cost of new taxation on to the consumers, why
not just get down to the nitty gritty - tax the consumers directly.  Make
people feel, directly, what they are paying for.  Many people today *do*
think that money grows on trees; that somehow they can get away without
paying for what they are receiving.  NOT!

Beyond this, there is an immediate victim of any increased corporate
taxation:  the small and medium company, the engine of our economy.  No
matter how things are arranged, they will always get hit when you go after
the "corporate giants".  I don't like massive property holders any more than
I like behemoth companies, but even though the former cause me to flirt with
the "economic injustice" ideas of my socialist comrades, I would never
consider attacking property rights for fear of harming the individual
homeowner.

When I graduate I hope to start my own company.  At that time I could think
of nothing more unbearable, after I have sweated by bag off and risked
everything, than to have the government cavalierly take an arbitrary cut of
my profits - with absolutely no effort on their part and red tape thrown in
to make it even more revolting.  This isn't just 40% off my paycheck - this
is *personal*.

But all this is moot.  In the rapidly emerging (thank the fates) global
Freetrade environment, countries will only be able to get away with taxing
corporations at the rate of competing countries (all of them).  Obviously it
won't be long before corporate taxation drops to zero.  At that point,
regions will tax their citizens exclusively to pay for the services provided
to those citizens.  These services will be determined by the community
standards that those citizens themselves wish upheld - knowing fully the
cost.  That's fair and it's good, good.

Ken Buckland                     Freedom.                     kenb@ee.ubc.ca