https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/25/warren-buffett-and-bill-gates-the-rich-should-pay-higher-taxes.html

Yes, that link is two years old, but I have been having discussions and debates with some of my friends on this matter as of late. Everyone knows I have a strong dislike for rich people in general, the exception being Warren Buffett and Bill Gates due to their philanthropy as well as championing the cause of making the rich pay more into the pot.

I have an arrogant friend (who is bordering on not being a friend much longer) that makes $97,000 a year plus bonuses, etc. He believes that people like him should pay a lot less in taxes because "life is already hard enough". I personally think that is crap, and if anything he and people like him should pay A LOT more.

For example, his income bracket taxes him 20.5%, and should be raised to about 30% to makes things a little more fair. I bring home a little over $30,500 (under a liveable wage) and yet I'm taxed 15%. That rate should be lowered to 10% or less due to the fact that I make less than a third than he does.

People making six digit incomes are taxed between 26% and 29%, and I firmly believe that it should be raised to 35% and 41% respectively. Anyone making seven digits annually or more should be taxed 50% to 60% to make things even.

The rich and well-off have the money, and should be taxed a lot higher than someone like me that does not have the money to be taxed. One of the reasons why we have such a disparity between the rich and poor is because of the tax rates. The middle class has been virtually eliminated due to this and other factors, and the ends don't support the means.

To fix the economy as well as society, we need to start making the rich pay more, and right away. The less advantaged need to pay less taxes (or none at all, depending on the situation) so that we can not only get by, but contribute the way we used to.

-J.

   

Buy, Borrow, Die: How Rich Americans Live Off Their Paper Wealth

tl;dr: The very rich can borrow money against their earnings, which they don't have to pay tax on and reduces their overall income to zero.

   

All the more reason to tax them into submission, and have them forfeit portions of their wealth so the poor and underprivileged can benefit, instead of them.

-J.

   

Progressive, flat tax. I've always been a proponent of this. Everyone pays a percentage of income, and that percentage increases with income.

In conjunction with a universal basic income, that would be the fairest tax system. And the cost saving on the bureaucracy would pay for the UBI alone.

   

Increase the income tax rates on people in the higher brackets as much as possible, and lower tax rates for people in the bottom brackets that need the help.

I still don't like the concept of UBI, however.

-J.

   

You will warm to it. It eliminates so much overhead. No EI, no Welfare, no Child payments, no Disability payments. We've seen with CERB how a simple system would work. Imagine if all those departments federally and provincially were eliminated, in favour of making sure people aren't homeless? Or that the disabled can actually afford both food and heat? Single mothers can raise kids?

It solves so many problems.

   

CERB was a mess. Money doled out to people who stopped working and/or don't want/can't pay it back. The CERB should have gone to small businesses to keep people employed, instead of going to individuals and giving them a reason to be couch potatoes.

It's almost guaranteed that if our own government decided someday to roll out UBI, they'd screw it up badly. Doesn't matter which party either, as they're all a bunch of meatheads.

-J.

   

CERB, Old age security, disability, social services and mental health are all variations on a theme. Instead of reinventing the wheel make ONE program. That's what UBI is. As long as Canada has a SINGLE billionaire I will support the need for a UBI. Taxes, even flat ones, can be avoided, deferred and even ignored you want a fair market you make the rich pay up front for services not after the fact. Fact is taxes are a gimmick we use to keep the poor inline. The government already has all your tax info anyway and the major tax companies that have spawned from it like H&R Block know this and try to game you out of doing it yourself for free so they can get paid. This is THEFT and a GRIFT. There is NO NEED for these companies to exist and they make everyone but the rich pay more because the rich DO NOT NEED some flunkie from H&R to file their taxes.

   

^^^

CERB was the program for people laid off or underemployed due to business closures. There was a separate small business grant system that supplemented 75% of employee wages to encourage businesses to remain open if possible.