[Regina]

Alberta needs to have a sales tax like everyone else.

[andyt]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

andyt andyt:

And kudos on the medicare fee - the more you earn the more you pay. Like to see BC adopt that.

WTF kind of nonsense is that? Would you have people pay at restaurants and grocery stores according to how much they earn? Then why pay different rates for the same healthcare?

Move to Venezuela and see your bullshit Utopia writ large. Venezuela is proof that even if you live in a country that's drowning in oil socialism can still make you poor.

You really should write to Jim Prentice instead of me - he's the one who put it in. Good Conservative that he is and all. By your argument, everybody should pay the same amount of taxes since those fund other government services, aside from healthcare, based on income. We also need a system of progressive fines, like Sweden has, where some guy just had to pay 20k for a speeding fine because of his income. The more you earn, the more you should support the system that's letting you do that. Pretty well a rule in any democracy.

But not to worry. The healthcare system of any province is nowhere near funded by the medicare fees. So most of it comes from income tax, including the taxes levied by the federal government.

[DrCaleb]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

andyt andyt:

And kudos on the medicare fee - the more you earn the more you pay. Like to see BC adopt that.

WTF kind of nonsense is that? Would you have people pay at restaurants and grocery stores according to how much they earn? Then why pay different rates for the same healthcare?

At least Klein made the rate the same for everyone over 18. $68 / quarter.

Seems kind of silly that someone with more income would use more healthcare, when we know it's the poorest who eat the cheapest and least nutritionally robust foods, have the worst diets and therefore need healthcare the most.

[andyt]

And yet it's already the case that medicare is paid for on a scale based on income, since the fees come nowhere near paying for it, it's mostly paid by general revenue. The principle for medicare is that anyone should be able to access it, regardless of income. Putting in regressive fees goes against that principle. Using your logic, the poor should pay more for it than the rich.

[DrCaleb]

andyt andyt:

Using your logic, the poor should pay more for it than the rich.

Yes, that's what I said.

[OnTheIce]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

andyt andyt:

And kudos on the medicare fee - the more you earn the more you pay. Like to see BC adopt that.

WTF kind of nonsense is that? Would you have people pay at restaurants and grocery stores according to how much they earn? Then why pay different rates for the same healthcare?

The joys of a public medical system.

The poor, and plugs like Andy like to talk about equality and fairness but that doesn't seem to extend to those paying for these types of fees. There's nothing fair or equal about paying more for the same level of service.

[herbie]

Why should the poor pay less for gov't services?
What a fucked up, selfish, American way to think.

[Yogi]

Regina Regina:

Alberta needs to have a sales tax like everyone else.

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[Regina]

[raydan]

Wouldn't it be more logical to raise taxes when things are going well, and lower them when things go bad?


Or is that just me?

[Yogi]

raydan raydan:

Wouldn't it be more logical to raise taxes when things are going well, and lower them when things go bad?


Or is that just me?

That's why you could never be a politician, Ray.

[andyt]

DrCaleb DrCaleb:

andyt andyt:

Using your logic, the poor should pay more for it than the rich.

Yes, that's what I said.

You didn't say it, but your logic implied it. Anyway good luck running a country where the poor pay the same as the rich.

[bootlegga]

Talk about a fail budget - all those increases and still a huge deficit, not to mention corporations getting off scot-free while Albertans get hosed.

[andyt]

bootlegga bootlegga:

Talk about a fail budget - all those increases and still a huge deficit, not to mention corporations getting off scot-free while Albertans get hosed.

I think it makes sense to have no corporate taxes at all. Just make sure capital gains are taxed at the same rate as any other income. That way you are still taxing corporate profits, but only once they are actually paid out.

According to the received wisdom, what you need is a consumption tax. While I'm always leery of regressive taxes, pretty well everybody seems to agree its the way to go, and my economic darlings, the Scandinavians sure seem to make them work and still have less inequality and poverty.

[OnTheIce]

bootlegga bootlegga:

Talk about a fail budget - all those increases and still a huge deficit, not to mention corporations getting off scot-free while Albertans get hosed.

Yea, let's hose the job-creators during a tough economic time.