22 Replies to “Addicted To Government”

  1. Well stated.
    What is missed here is that there are people who are NOT addicted to government, but we have no choice, and we certainly don’t get ‘high’ from others’ addiction.

  2. I’ve been saying this for decades… the numbers change over time … getting worse …. but the same dynamic is in force.
    Saskatchewan … Manitoba … Ontario … and from coast to coast …. it’s all the same.
    Take the time yourself if you can … to calculate how much of your income goes to governments.
    Between direct income taxes … forced deductions for programs …. three levels of government taxation …
    sales and GST … taxes hidden in product costs … fees … service charges.
    You will find that you are paying more than 50% of what you earn … you have no choice in the matter.
    But unlike this point of view where the population is addicted … we are not … it is the segment of the population that derives its livelyhood from tax revenues that is addicted. Politicians are addicted to using our money to bribe others or to pay extortion in securing support for their own careers.

  3. That’s a very good post. Yes, our tax rate is just about 50% of our income. Yes, taxes do -not- cover government spending in total in Canada. Yes, this is a situation we’ve been talked in to over the last 70-odd years by people with a conflict of interest in how things go, and yes its going to get very ugly very soon unless we FIX IT.
    The only functional way to fix it is with a -massive- tax cut. The reason is things like Gun Control. As we saw in the previous post, gun control is a public policy which produces no public good. It does however produce a great deal of tax dollars that can be re-directed to Friends of the regime and of course to swelling the ranks of the public sector unions.
    Pretty much all our regulatory base is made up of things like that. If it all disappeared nothing bad would happen, except a lot of government employees would be out of work.
    You can’t root that kind of entrenched power base out with legislation and reform efforts. Inertia alone will kill you. The only way to get them out is to -starve- them out. Its a siege.
    We can either end the siege of Fortress Ottawa voluntarily with mega-budget cuts, or we can do it Euro-style. Bank failures, mass riots, and probably a nice civil war or two coming down the pipe. Maybe even some forced-march atrocities, always a popular option in Europe.

  4. One thing I’ve never understood about Saskatchewan is the sky high fuel tax rate – the highest in North America – yet the highways are garbage. Main ones are ok (1 and 16) but most of the secondary highways are in very bad shape.

  7. And we NEVER hear any such numbers from the media during election camapaigns anywhere in Canada at ANY level … NEVER hear such issues being asked / discussed / debated in campaign events.
    ALL candidates of ALL major parties seem to have a silent agreement never to discuss these ugly realities – they simply want to get THEIR hands on the taxation machine that funds these addictions.

  8. @ The Phantom 11:43, I suspect that it will be the latter option in your last paragraph, as the bureaucrats and public service unions have so much influence on public policy that we, the general public, do not count, except during elections when they treat us like mushrooms and want to rearrange the deck chairs.
    There is a constant barrage of voices asking for more expenditures. The governments cannot say no, as they want the votes, and fiscal responsibility is thrown to the winds.
    The current election in Saskatchewan is another example. All the parties are falling all over themselves making promises to give us more of our money.

  9. The newspapers of Canada are addicted to federal and provincial advertising for a agood part of their revenue so dont expect stories supporting it ending.In fact,in any single party country the pushback towards freedom does NOT come from the newspapers but is resisted by those very same newspapers. The pushback comes from very brave individuals that start a freedom movement to stop and turn back govts power.

  10. Ommag
    As I have posted before…most are unaware that 50% of their REAL WAGE is siphoned off as deductions and payroll taxes before they get it.
    Then the smoke and mirrors(Nominal Wage, Real wage, take home) confiscation is further embellished with sales and excise taxes/fees.

  11. The current level of the Canadian regulatory/entitlement leviathan is not even sustainable with the current “boom” in commodities (particularly energy) which drives the portion of the economy responsible for making up the difference between the total public expenditures versus average personal tax expenditure. If that falters, welcome to Greece.

  12. I think the stats are full of holes. The feds “spend” 8000 per cap, but some of that goes to the provinces in health transfers transport projects and other programs – including to municipalities. So you can’t simply add them together.
    Also what is neglected is that the province generates 56 billion (2009 via wiki) in GDP. There are corps that generate income and pay taxes too.
    I suspect the per cap govt spending all in is more like 12000 per cap – not 21000.
    Don’t get me wrong – govt is far far too big relative to the economy and far far too involved in peoples and commercial activities – but if we are to make that case we need to use statistics that are not subject to such easy refutation as being very inaccurate – we do great damage to our argument when we do so.

  13. So much for Premier Brad Wall ‘ending Saskatchewan Socialism’. Meet the new boss same as the old boss. I still expect the partisan dolts here to cheer him on to no end.

  14. I don’t cheer on Wall, though I voted for him last time. The road repairs are an absoulte nightmare where I live. The money would have been better spent on beer and popcorn.

  15. ‘So much for Premier Brad Wall ‘ending Saskatchewan Socialism”.
    He may be continuing the socialist policies of his predecessors, but at least he is not bringing in communism by creep.

  16. Wall is a populist and booster, he doesn’t “get it” the way Harper gets it.
    The only good thing is the Sask Party isn’t the NDP

  17. Gord,
    My stats were influenced by William Garidenrs book ‘The Trouble With Canada…Stilll’.
    Using Stats Can data he showed that government spending at all three levels in 2008 was just over $18,000/person.
    Stats Canada has updated that info and spending sits at about $19,000/person – http://www40.statcan.ca/l01/cst01/govt48b-eng.htm
    In the 2010-2011 year, Sask. alone spent $1,000/person more than the previous year…and municipal and federal spending has also gone up since 2009.
    The most questionable figures in my post have to do with federal spending because of the transfers in question. However, provincial spending ($11,000/person) and municipal spending ($2,500/person)…for a total of $14,500/person..are, I believe less questionable.
    Jason.

  18. Wall isn’t as bad as some would have you think. There’s a lot of delicate public sentiment at stake, the decades of brain rot with the Tommy Douglas gang will take decades more to bring around. I’d rather see a slow move back to the right than lose an election and see the leftards ruin us once again.
    I too live on a highway that is crumbling. Patience is a virtue – things are improving. Just my two cents.
    We’d have never seen a debt payment as large as the one made a couple years ago under an NDP government. We know things are headed in the right direction.

  19. I hear you, Derek, but I’ll be holding my nose when I vote. My highway’s not crumbling, it was destroyed by a roving band of highway workers who really should have jobs other than what they have. And to think they were probably paid big bucks for this outrage. Anyone seen Highway 2, south of Assiniboia? That’s what I’m pissed about. That’s stupid spending. Doesn’t anyone in Gov’t inspect work done?

  20. Elections drive me crazy – I would gladly vote for anyone who promised to drive down government spending. Any new spending would be cut out of old spending and any new regulation would mean the elimination of old regulations. Cut the size of government – period. That’s what needs to be done.

  21. Derek, I hope that you are right, as I am too old to have a “progressive” conservative for too long.

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