Canada’s unsustainable economic structure: why your taxes will increase by 50%

One third of people in this country do not work for a living, yet are not considered unemployed. Of the two-thirds of the population that work, a quarter are in the public sector or unemployed, neither of which creates any wealth. This means half the people in this country pay all the bills.

The average personal tax rate in Canada is 33.3%. One-third of the producing population’s earnings are taken away to pay for the needs of everyone else. But this isn’t enough !  To balance the books productive taxpayers have to pay 50%. We have structural deficits of 16.6% of GNP every year because taxes are too low to pay for the number of people who don’t produce. To balance the books rates have to be hided from 33.3% to 50% which is a fifty percent increase in average tax rates.

Surely these numbers can’t be true ?!? Well, very sorry to tell you they are. Every figure used here comes from Statistics Canada or the OECD. See footer for reference links.

As for the logic, it is pretty hard to refute that the very young, the unemployed, the retired and employees of government contribute to economic productivity, because they don’t. Government employees do not create wealth, they redistribute and consume it. Spending savings does not create wealth either.

And then there’s the argument that businesses and government employees pay taxes too, so it isn’t all on the productive workers that the burden falls, right ? Not so, I’m afraid. All of the taxes paid by businesses come out of the pockets of shareholders. Corporate tax law is structured to accelerate collection of taxes, not transfer tax burden to them. Taxes paid by government employees come out of government wages paid, which are financed by the productive population (plus the structural debt). In a way, government employees work for a net wage of 66 cents on the dollar. But that 66 cents is inescapably paid for by the productive population…and debt.

Sorry, folks, your tax rate is going up by 50% before the decade is out.

David B. McNab

Statistics Canada References

Labourforce http://www40.statcan.gc.ca/l01/cst01/lfss01a-eng.htm

Government http://www40.statcan.gc.ca/l01/cst01/govt62a-eng.htm?sdi=public%20sector%20employment

Unions http://www40.statcan.gc.ca/l01/cst01/labr69a-eng.htm

OECD Reference

Effective Tax rates by Nation  http://www.oecd.org/document/4/0,3343,en_2649_34533_41407428_1_1_1_1,00.html

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