What will we lose next.... CPP?

Without a Debate on Taxes, We Risk Sleepwalking into the Future (by Alex and Jordan Himelfarb)

Some months ago, we published a collection of essays designed to promote a discussion of taxes in Canada. The book’s premise is that the current tax conversation is distorted. While we rightly ask of any new policy or program proposal, “what will it cost and how will we pay,” we do not ask of proposed tax cuts, “what will we lose.”

The two-cent GST cut alone costs about $14 billion annually – about half the cost of Old Age Security or the larger part of our defence budget – and it passed with almost no debate or push back.
Five hundred years ago, Machiavelli warned “the prince” not to be too generous lest he have to raise taxes. So in a sense nothing much has changed on that count. Politicians of every stripe have long been wary of the political costs of raising taxes. But something has changed. Taxes are no longer just an irritant; today they have become a political no-go zone, a four-letter word.

Of course, we will always have arguments about how much tax and what mix is best, arguments between those with a restrictive view of the state and those with an expansive one, between those who view redistribution as essential and those who see it as illegitimate.

The danger of our current, distorted conversation is that it sidesteps these debates and allows us to sleepwalk into a future we haven’t chosen.

READ MORE: http://afhimelfarb.wordpress.com/2014/04/29/without-a-debate-on-taxes-we-risk-sleepwalking-into-the-future-by-alex-and-jordan-himelfarb/