Canada’s Quiet Bargain: The Benefits of Public Spending

[marmar]

from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives:



Public services a bargain for Canadians: Study

April 15, 2009


TORONTO – The majority of Canadian households enjoy a higher quality of life because the public services their taxes fund come at a solid bargain, according to a new study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).

Canada’s Quiet Bargain: The Benefits of Public Spending responds to incessant calls for tax cuts and concludes public services make a significant contribution to the majority of Canadians’ standard of living – worth at least 50% of their income.

“What passes for a tax cut debate in Canada is really only half a debate,” says economist Hugh Mackenzie, the study’s co-author and CCPA research associate.

“Our taxes pay for services that are extremely valuable to Canadians. The suggestion we often hear, that taxes are a burden, hides the reality that our taxes fund public services that make Canada’s standard of living among the very best.”

The study shows middle-income Canadian families enjoy public services worth about $41,000 – or 63% of their income. Even households earning $80,000-$90,000 a year enjoy public services benefits equivalent to about half of their income.

The study also shows 80% of Canadians would be better off if the federal government hadn’t cut the GST; 75% would be better off if their provincial governments invested in public services instead of broad-based income tax cuts; and 88% would be better off without federal cuts to capital gains taxes.

“Tax cuts are always made to sound like they’re free money to middle-income Canadians – they are anything but,” says Mackenzie. “We’re far better off with the public services our taxes fund than we are with tax cuts.”

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For more information please contact: Kerri-Anne Finn [phone] x 306. Visit www.policyalternatives.ca or www.growinggap.ca to download the report and calculate the value of your family’s public services.


http://www.policyalternatives.ca/news/2009/04/pressrelease2190/?pa=BB736455

[Canuckistanian]

1. You won't see any "tea parties" in Canada

I think all of us understand the value of our Government Services.

Universal health care alone is worth the price we pay.

[Spazito]

3. Well, there may be a few nutters in Alberta who will try this...

after all, this is Texas lite and the home of CRAP (Conservative/Reform/Alliance Party), lol.

[Canuckistanian]

5. True, but they really can't complain about taxes

After all, Alberta has 0% PST.

They're the least taxed people in Canada.

[Spazito]

6. ROFL! Well, I did say they were nutters!

:rofl:

[Stellabella]

2. Exactly. This blind stupidity against all taxes is really inhumane.

I'm so sick of all the whining 'mine mine mine'. Especially when most of the protesters I saw yesterday must receive Social Security. They are getting back far more than they paid in to the system. But try to tell them that - their ears are plugged with idiocy.

[Captain Hilts]

4. Exactly. nt