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Canada has no excuse left: it’s time for a wealth tax (canadiandimension.com)

submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by HellsBelle@sh.itjust.works to c/canada@lemmy.ca

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This Black History Month, it’s important to recognize that economic injustice—both in Canada and around the world—is deeply rooted in racism. The property system in Canada was founded on the forced displacement and exclusion of Indigenous peoples from their land and immigration policies that prevented non-white immigration, effectively barring many thousands of people from accessing property in Canada. These racialized colonial systems laid the foundation for the current racial wealth gap, where racialized Canadians have about half as much wealth as their non-racialized counterparts.

Unlike the United States, where constitutional barriers have historically shielded the ultra-rich from direct taxation, Canada faces no such constitutional legal obstacles—only political ones. And those political excuses are running out.

A wealth tax enjoys overwhelming public support. Nearly 90 percent of Canadians back it, yet successive Liberal and Conservative governments have refused to act. Their refusal isn’t due to legal constraints but to the immense influence of corporate lobbyists and billionaire donors who oppose any effort to make them pay their fair share.

Just last year, powerful corporate interests mobilized to kill a progressive tax measure that would have primarily targeted Canada’s wealthiest citizens and corporations: the partial closure of the capital gains loophole.

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[-] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 9 points 4 months ago

Some what true but 250k is essentially the upper class likely top 10%?

The real money is with the owner class, not wage earners.

People are focused so much on income, no realizing the core issue is that tax code discriminates against labour to favour capital.

[-] gonzo-rand19@moist.catsweat.com 5 points 4 months ago

Yeah, I think a tax bracket from 250k-500k and then 500k and above would be helpful to get at the people who are in the top 1% of earners. The ownership class, as you say. A big challenge comes from the fact that a lot of these people do not have liquid assets, it's often stocks or some other kind of investment product.

It's not a solution at all but it's a start. I agree that labour is inherently undervalued in Canada, this manifests itself in various ways across our laws, policies, cultural attitudes, labour relations, etc. It seems like untangling that would be a lot more difficult than changing the tax code, since a lot of MPs and MPPs have a vested interest in labour organizations and workers being powerless.

[-] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 6 points 4 months ago

It seems like untangling that would be a lot more difficult than changing the tax code

I think you got this a bit backwards tbh I would posit that we can't untangle unless we change the tax code.

Tax code arguably is the most effective policy tool a government has outside of guns which are dicey. If you notice, a lot of hand out to rich and corpos happen via the tax code. Straight state aid in sheep's wool.

Capital has to be decentralized so people can regain some autonomy and economic security. But we are in catch 22 or whatever scenario where labor has no capital to affect tax code reform. Labour will not get capital unless tax code is reworked.

Some people would argue that higher wages would help which I won't argue against but again... the rich will generate capital that is inherently taxed at lower rate over labour. So over long enough period of time, they will always get ahead.

Capital should be taxed at a higher rate than wages at least to obtain a distribution that provide social cohesion. So this will need to be in place to sustain a balanced system. And it woudl take too long to fix current inequality.

So the solution we need right now is tax on property owned by the rich. Tax stock as the way people pay taxes on houses and cars. Pedons already do it why did the rich get this nice little exemption?

Now all of this is easy to say and consensus is being built around the issue. But mark my word, if this gets a critical mass to try to force a policy change, we will get a civil war.

this post was submitted on 01 Mar 2025

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