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Just the market regulating itself (lemmy.ml)

submitted 3 weeks ago by yogthos@lemmy.ml to c/canada@lemmy.ca

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[-] Windex007@lemmy.world 93 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

I worked at a Tim Hortons when GST was lowered from 7 to 5.

The day it went into effect, we raised the price of everything such that the customers paid exactly the same amount after-tax than they did before.

All that happened was It moved that 2% from going to the budget of the government to pay for Healthcare and roads, to going to a holdings company to pay for executive bonuses.

I remember when the doofus conservatives in my town understood that absolutely nothing got cheaper for them, they were like "nothing gained, nothing lost, big deal. Who cares"

Like, no, doofus, something WAS lost. Those taxes were paying for services we all benefitted from.

I will NEVER support the cutting of a sales tax.

[-] GreenBeard@lemmy.ca 29 points 3 weeks ago

I will NEVER support the cutting of a sales tax.

I mean, I won't speak for you, but a lot of sales taxes are regressive, hurting the average consumer a lot more than those who can and should be paying more (on account of their benefiting from the common infrastructure more, while also placing greater strain on it), but I will concede there are sales taxes that make sense, and fuel taxes are one of them.

[-] Windex007@lemmy.world 23 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

I will argue that the introduction of many sales taxes were a mistake...

But once they exist, removing them won't help consumers because the market will just raise prices to suck up the difference. It's a ratchet effect.

Edit: If we ever want to "reverse" a tax, then the solution is just to send people thier cash back after the fact. Like the Carbon rebate program (that 80% of Canadian households ended up getting more back in rebates then the paid in carbon taxes. Great program. Good politics to reverse, but terrible policy to reverse)

[-] CanadaPlus@futurology.today 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Yup. Income taxes are just a better way to collect funding.

If you want to add externalities back into the price of something, or literally just fund a government service the buyer is about to use like roads, it's a different story.