How Poor is Poor Enough?

Harper and Alexander

Recently Conservative Chris Alexander made the assertion that Canada has eradicated poverty.  Statements like this are disheartening.  Many Canadians have to make the difficult choice between paying the rent or buying food.  And because people in Canada live on more than $2.00 per day the Conservatives would argue that they are not poor.

If Conservatives are as fiscally intelligent as they claim to be, it would be obvious that purchasing power and not just net income must also be considered.  I would challenge this Candidate to live on the social assistance or minimum wage of his province and see how much of a challenge it can be to acquire the essentials. Yes Mr. Alexander for the most part we do not have people starving in the streets, though we do have many that go hungry.  In a country as rich as Canada, it's a national disgrace.

If the money that Stephen Harper wants to spend on giving tax cuts to profitable corporations was instead spent on addressing the root causes of poverty.  Then, maybe we really could eliminate poverty in Canada.

No policy your party has presented so far will help people living below the poverty line.  News flash low income families rarely have the money to put their kids in organized sports or join fitness clubs.  And I can guarantee you they do not have enough money to max out their TFSA (assuming they have one) at the current limit let alone this mystical increase that will supposedly happen 5 years from now.

It has always been amazing to me how Fat Cats can convince the mice to vote for them but it happens time and time again

Flaherty continues his War on Education

Many Ontarians remember how the Mike Harris Government waged war on the Ontario education system and spent much of their time trying to vilify the province’s school teachers. Well it seems former Harrisite Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is trying to recreate the bad old days on a national scale. The target this time is a private members bill that would offer parents the ability to deduct up to $5000 in Registered Education Savings Plan contributions from their income.

His reason, it would cost the government coffers "$1 billion or more." Hmm… Stephen Harper’s Conservatives’ 1-point reduction in the GST cost the federal government over $4 billion. It seems Finance Minister Flaherty feels that parents would rather save a penny on their morning coffee than put their kids through school.

Reaction to: Conservatives outline plan to kill Liberal RESP bill

Billionaire Warren Buffett says - I should pay MORE in Taxes

Billionaire Warren Buffett when interviewed by NBC's Tom Brokaw said that he has felt for years the the U.S. tax system placed too high a burden on its middle class. Buffet said,"The taxation system has tilted toward the rich and away from the middle class in the last ten years it's just dramatic and I don't think it's appreciated. And I think it should be addressed"

In a voluntary survey of his employees he discovered that their average tax rate was around 32%. Buffett's secretary pays 30% of her 60,000 dollar income while Buffett himself, pays only 17.7% of his 46 billion dollar income.

"There wasn't anybody in the office, from the receptionists on, that paid as low a tax rate [as myself], I have no tax planning, I don't have an accountant, I don't have tax shelters. I just follow what the U.S. Congress tells me to do." noted Buffet.

When asked what he thought could be done to correct this imbalance in taxation Buffet said, that a progressive consumption tax - a type of sales tax that places a higher rate on luxuries and exempts most basic necessities - would be better than the current system.

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