Categories: Potter Gold

Freedom comes early

Tomorrow is Tax Freedom Day! Celebrate by pledging not to call the police or…

by Andrew Potter on Friday, June 5, 2009 3:13pm - 17 Comments

Tomorrow is Tax Freedom Day! Celebrate by pledging not to call the police or the fire department or drive on a public highway for the rest of the year. Or just watch this video, which lists the various things you have to pay tax on. It also reminds Canadians that their tax dollars go for such horrors as CPP and EI.

Tags: ,

Bookmark and Share
  • http://intensedebate.com/people/jolyon jolyon

    "Celebrate by pledging not to call the police or the fire department or drive on a public highway for the rest of the year."

    This is a classic argument from big government fans. Like all the money raised by various levels of government goes to essential services we all support, even us libertarians who want to shrink government. But the argument is nonsense on stilts because we all know the budget for infrastructure and law/order is minimal.

    What many of us economic conservatives are concerned by is that government has enough money to pay for Miyo Yamashita to consult herself and no one bothers to look at what she's actually doing. And maybe there wouldn't be a need for CPP if the government let us keep our money instead of stealing it in order to fund lavish benefits and pension plans for a few autoworkers in important ridings.

    • Andrew (not P or C)

      "But the argument is nonsense on stilts because we all know the budget for infrastructure and law/order is minimal."

      You haven't the foggiest clue how much it all costs, do you?

      • http://intensedebate.com/people/jolyon jolyon

        I know the Ontario budget is around $100 Billion for 2009/10 and infrastructure and law/order will get about $5 billion of that.

  • Bailey

    This is by far my favourite quote according to The Star http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/646201

    The institute notes that tax freedom day arrived three days earlier this year than in 2008, primarily because of the recession. "When the economy slows and incomes stagnate or decline, an average family's tax burden tends to be reduced to a greater extent than its income," the institute said.

    So basically what they are saying is that it is during the boom years of the 90s under Chretien when Tax Freedom Day was later in June wasn't because of the high taxes it was because the economy was doing really well.

  • tom zimmerman

    Thanks to a testimonial posted by Ms Yamashita at http://thestrangfamily.com/thebabysource/testimon… Ontario taxpayers can at least take comfort in knowing what she and Michael Guerriere are spending their money on (and that they're getting a good night's sleep, too). Read on -

    “When you are a new parent, sleep is a treasured gift. But when you are new parents who run their own businesses and must also work full time while trying to raise a newborn, sleep is a necessity! For this reason, we were grateful to find Andrea. At first we wondered if we would be able to truly sleep at night knowing that a “stranger” was taking care of our son. But Andrea put our minds at ease from the moment we first met her. … The wealth of information and emotional support parents can gain from a night doula is unbelievably helpful”. Drs. Miyo Yamashita and Michael Guerriere
    “Miyo and Michael, ages 36 and 43, parents of John”.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/SisyphusThis SisyphusThis

    Well. There goes the invitation to the Donner family picnic.

  • Mike T.

    I think you've accidentally doubled the tags :)

    And the methodology used to calculate Tax Freedom Day is flawed. If I recall correctly, it actually comes one or two months sooner.

  • Party of One

    At one time, corporate and personal taxes were roughly 50/50 in terms of revenue to government. Now, corporate taxes represent less than 20 % of government revenues.

    Go on, I dare ya! Ask the Fraser Institute when "Tax Freedom Day" is for corporations!

  • madeyoulook

    Mr. Potter, having never answered the charge of unfairly characterizing this group's position on taxes…

    http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/05/28/tax-freedom-wh…

    …carries on with this bizarre line that if you think government spending has gone loco, don't you dare expect police and fire protection, or highways.

    I've read you for a while, Andrew. You can do way better than this.

Previous

Next

From Macleans