I’ve long said that I’m open to hearing about any alternative political system, as long as it doesn’t diminish the incentive to work hard. The moment I sense it does this, I’m out, because it’s doomed to failure.
The B.C. NDP Party has clearly never learned this simple lesson. The founder of Lululemon, Chip Wilson, recently wrote an op-ed about this:
The NDP’s hidden “wealth” taxes are so burdensome that these people, ready to risk again, don’t. The short-term tax on the successful kills the incentive for middle-class entrepreneurs in B.C.
If a flat tax for all were implemented, of the 30 failed entrepreneurs who are given the incentive to try again, five would succeed, creating businesses, employing thousands, and forming a strong tax base.
The NDP will, of course, find an academic — who has never run a business — to refute this.
Saw an interesting post the other day regarding taxing the wealthy-
If the US government confiscated 100% of the wealth of all US billionaires , it would fund the government for less than year and there would still be a $1.7 trillion deficit.
Similar numbers for xanada, I assume.
Correction: it would be WAY less than a year; indeed, it would probably be measured in mere weeks or even days
That’s a great piece by Chip Wilson, BTW
Sorry fellows, both of you are wrong. The total wealth of US billionaires is approximately $3.2 trillion. (There are about 730 of them.)
Total outlays of the US federal government is approximately $6.8 trillion for 2024.
So, confiscate the wealth of all the billionaires and it will pay for about half a year of federal operations.
Are you counting “off-book” outlays as well?
semi-related:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/msnbc-bloomberg-error-brian-williams-mara-gay-a9383741.html
I saw Mara Gay in a video yesterday. The fact that she has proven to have worse math skills than a 13 year old and STILL has a job, proves the point that Promoting Failure Upward is a core tenet of the Left.
So, does she have a sister named “Enola”?
In Canada it would just cover a quarter of the annual federal budget.
Rush Limbaugh mentioned this frequently on his morning programs…. with the additional commentary that those top 1% of the wealthy, would then be broke and not hiring anyone to take the newly unemployed in a monetarily meaningful way.
They’d be on welfare forever.
From the post: “The NDP will, of course, find an academic — who has never run a business — to refute this.”
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Reality vs theory always reminds me of this Foghorn Leghorn clip, one of my favorites.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMyD3TSXyUc
Tom Mulcair to the rescue! This NDP relic writes weekly/biweekly some pos editorial at ctv.ca.
Every time he’s licking Blackie’s boots, adds some niceties for NDP of course and always-always spritzes all-over some anti-PP/Conservatives garbage.
I’ve noticed that, bringing old spider eyes out of his web pretending to be non bias
Unfortunately the typical conservative government is able to roll back only a handful of the previous socialist regime’s most blatant idiocies. It’s the reason why we still have rent controls in Manitoba. The reality is that most voters like all the free stuff purchased through exponentially rising borrowing.
As Maggie Thatcher said “It is all fun and games until you run out of other people’s money!” In other words, one day, the world will stop lending to Canada, The United States, Great Britain and the rest of the Western democracies.
My mantra is “Stop spending money which you do not have!”
Well, that’s why the print money. They effectively borrow it from us gullible taxpayers. That way they don’t need to borrow real money from other lenders.
It really has been one of the greatest advantages of the Anglosphere: the ease and confidence in the system to set up a business. This is being eroded at a rate of knots. In Germany they used to joke how Microsoft could never have started there because you are not allowed to open a business in a garage that does not have a window.
Thank you for this article. Lululemon is an excellent firm with good product. His comments are a good reflection of the situation in BC, with both NDP and so-called former Liberal/fake conservative governments sharing the blame. I have joked for years that all the potheads from University of Calgary, where I grew up, moved to BC, while the rest of us got real jobs elsewhere.
We called it “la-la land”. There are still way too many aging and new “tree-huggers” and drug-users. You can not cut down and replace an old tree without government supervision at expensive rates here.
BC does have better weather, though …
Ever since Vancouver became more trendy, no one except overseas folks, trying to off-shore/launder money into housing, can afford to live here. Also, municipal governments and the feds share the blame.
In the upcoming BC election, there are no “upstanding citizens” to vote for, as millennials were taught in school to be activists for some cause or another.
Every week, several stores, businesses and restaurants are closing doors.
You can not blame them, as input costs have increased dramatically since 2008, with increasing taxes.
Since COVID, no one is shopping or driving much, but we need freezers and an ample pantry. Many of us have jeans with holes, not because they are trendy, but because we have not replaced the ones worn 15 years ago. This is felt poverty in the upper middle class. So-called “free” health care will be a disaster.
Those of us from Calgary with property in BC joke that BC stands for Bring Cash!!
You are right about the pot heads. In fernie things happen at “BC time” slow and expensive.
What a joke. The canadian government taxes the a$$ of the middle class. It freaking stinks to be in the 55 to 60% tax bracket and not be rich. I was there 40 freaking years ago. I now live modestly but can still go south for a few weeks and travel to visit family. I doubt that I now have two years of Twaddels income left to live on.
Stupid canadians.
Ditto. The governments at all levels are trying very hard to make middle-level Canadians poor and to become MAID targets.
” Canada has the lowest productivity per person in the developed world”
Did not know that. I am wondering how that is measured, and by whom. And, where the US stands on that list.
StatsCan mentions “labor” productivity as GDP per hour worked and “capital” productivity as GDP per unit of capital (their definition not mine).
In Canada it takes more hourly labor or more capital to achieve the same GDP as other countries. My feeling is this definition (of productivity in general) has less meaning as you move to a service economy and away from a manufacturing economy.
despite all the bad press finger pointing and taxed to the hilt,
in my 74th year l conclude and state billionaires are the canary in the coal mine.
their presence is proof ‘something’ is working out to create such wealth they and the middle class and upper middle and working and poor can ALL coexist. note that covers those who only take, even their tab is covered.
then so be it. maybe a multitude of them is indicative of multple sources of wealth created all mixing in to one economy.
just saying.
their personalities and track records are a related but separate issue.
He’s 100% right but I don’t think this’ll help many undecideds here. The Dipshits will use it as more proof that the Cons and their supporters are evil, selfish and mean. And that will work wonders on the over-55s: the Dipshits’ most stalwart supporters.
I’m voting for the sawmill scion. It would be ironic to see the BC NDP laid low by a sawmill dynasty, considering how they went to war with the forest industry in the 90s.
“The whole gospel of Karl Marx can be summed up in a single sentence:
Hate the man who is better off than you are.
Never under any circumstances admit that his success may be due to his own efforts, to the productive contribution he has made to the whole community. Always attribute his success to the exploitation, the cheating, the more or less open robbery of others. Never under any circumstances admit that your own failure may be owing to your own weakness, or that the failure of anyone else may be due to his own defects – his laziness, incompetence, improvidence, or stupidity.” — Henry Hazlitt