In his Second Treatise of Government, John Locke argued that land, when Common, was fallow and unproductive. Mixing one’s labour with the land, such as growing grain or picking an apple, however, privatized the land and allowed access to the fruits of the labour.[1] Eventually these private, “productive” lands were enclosed, most
Continue readingTag: tax
Alex's Blog: Tax Is More Than A Four Letter Word
http://castroller.com/podcasts/TheAgendaVideo/4043959 The Agenda – Steve Paikin interview before the Ontario Budget May 30, 2014
Continue readingAlex's Blog: Tax Is More Than A Four Letter Word
“Taxes are what we pay for a civilized society”, a quote from Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes on the IRS headquarter in Washington Ontario Budget 2014: watch my interview with Steve Paikin at The Agenda HERE
Continue readingArt Threat: Should artists be able to pay taxes with artwork?
As income tax filing deadlines approach across North America, many Mexican artists will be counting canvases instead of pay stubs. In Mexico, a country that has lost over $870 billion to tax evasion and money laundering, hundreds of artists aren’t required to pay a dime in tax. Instead, they pay
Continue readingPolitical Eh-conomy: Where’s the tax in BC’s carbon tax?
British Columbia’s carbon tax has been getting some high praise lately. A recent article in the Atlantic called it “the crown jewel of North American climate policy”. Such assessments need some tempering. BC’s carbon tax can tell us important things about the limits of fiscal policy today, which in turn
Continue readingPolitical Eh-conomy: Published elsewhere: Ontario is no California when it comes to debt
The Toronto Star just published an article I wrote in response to claims made by the Fraser Institute and the Toronto Sun that Ontario has a runaway debt problem worse than California’s. The short version: I call BS. The slightly longer version: California has constraints, such as limits on the
Continue readingThings Are Good: IMF: Tax the Rich to Improve the Economy
The International Monetary Fund has just completed a study that compiled data across time and space to conclude that taxation isn’t harmful for economies. Indeed, taxing the rich is actually very beneficial for any national economy because it stops inequality – which is an awful thing for both people and
Continue readingPolitical Eh-conomy: Economic history in the present: Potlatch and tax
This post inaugurates an occasional series I’m calling, “Economic history in the present”. This series will look at vignettes from global economic history with an eye to current phenomena or particular events. Some will be more speculative, drawing on anthropology and philosophy; some will be more rigorous. Hopefully, both aspects
Continue readingJoe Fantauzzi: Good Reading: Paisley Rae On Really Engaging With Toronto Politics
Toronto’s municipal election campaign is officially underway. When it is all over on Oct. 27, 2014, several school board trustees, 44 councillors and one mayor will be elected. Paisley Rae has written a poignant post pressing Torontonians to ask important questions about needs in the city and whether it is reasonable
Continue readingJoe Fantauzzi: Good Reading: Paisley Rae On Really Engaging With Toronto Politics
Toronto’s municipal election campaign is officially underway. When it is all over on Oct. 27, 2014, several school board trustees, 44 councillors and one mayor will be elected. Paisley Rae has written a poignant post pressing Torontonians to ask important questions about needs in the city and whether it is reasonable
Continue readingAlex's Blog: Saying no to the conjuror’s trick of tax cuts
Tax is Not a Four Letter Word is a collection of essays, published by WLU Press, I co-edited with my son, Jordan, Opinion Editor of The Toronto Star. The CCPA Ontario’s Jennifer Story recently interviewed me about the book, and our desire to get Canadians thinking differently about taxes. (The
Continue readingThings Are Good: In Ireland, Carbon Tax Means Less Waste and More Revenue
Modern economies indirectly subsidize environmentally damaging corporate practices by ignoring the environmental costs ( younger generations have to deal with the environmental damage), this can be seen in everything from the tar sands in Alberta to ewaste in electronics. In Ireland they have started a carbon tax to deal with
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: If A Fiscal Cliff Kills, Canada Should Tax Death
“In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” – Benjamin Franklin The fiscal cliff in the United States did not just endanger its own country’s economy but the world’s, including Canada’s heavily dependent one. But in the American problem lies, at least partially, a
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Blandness Is Easy To Merge With Liberals, NDP, & Greens
Why should the Liberal Party, the NDP, and the Green Party merge? Because they are already united in blandness.
If these parties were not bland, if they were not vague, or if they even had the slightest unique trait among them, merging would not be an…
Continue readingcartoon life: CARBON TAX! ON EVERYTHING!
Especially relevant if you are a Canadian, or paying any attention at all to our present political situation in Canada, where the governing party fantasizes its opponents. Filed under: art, comment Tagged: carbon tax, chicken, chicken little, humor, humour, politics, Stephen Harper, tax, The sky is falling!
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Canada Already Has A 1¢ Carbon Tax
Last year this Conservative government collected $424,418,000 in taxes to pay for carbon emissions. That same year Canadians used 38,208,346,000 litres of gasoline. Doing the quick math, Canadians paid 1.1¢ or $0.011 for every litre of gas they consumed in 2011. Now Canadians weren’t taxed at the pump, though it
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: The Conservative Carbon Tax
Emitting carbon has a cost to Canadians, whether we call it a carbon tax or not. Considering this Conservative government is spending money on increasing health care costs from respiratory damage due to pollution, that it is spending money on additional infrastructure because of climate change, and that it is
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: How Reducing The GST Increased Your Debt
With declining productivity, higher unemployment, and deficit after deficit, it should be obvious the Canadian government would do anything to strengthen the economy, however it is not so obvious what that same government has done to weaken it. In a 2008 report it was predicted that the Conservative government in
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Thank You John Baird, You Saved My Life
Michael Ignatieff hated Canada, he was repeatedly caught feeding off of beaver spinal cord fluid. The Gun Registry was moments away from assigning bar codes to the foreheads of farmers’ first born children. Though a 5% GST is okay, the 7% variety flew the second plane into the World Trade
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