News:

And we're back!

Main Menu

Canada = Great Right North: Cato Institute

Started by Malthus, May 25, 2009, 11:53:26 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Oexmelin

Quote from: Barrister on May 25, 2009, 06:38:07 PM
That being said balanced budgets have been quite popular across Canada.  I believe until last year almost all provinces were in surplus (pretty sure Quebec, as always, was an exception).

Québec  has had a «zero deficit» law since 1998.
Que le grand cric me croque !

Admiral Yi

Quote from: Oexmelin on May 25, 2009, 06:45:39 PM
Québec  has had a «zero deficit» law since 1998.
Hijack in progess.

Americans do this thing where they hold up the index and middle finger on both hands and flap them up and down to symbolize quotation marks.  Usually used to convey irony or sarcasm. 

Presumably Frenchies can't do the same thing because you have different quotation marks.  Do you have a different hand gesture that means the same thing?

jimmy olsen

Quote from: Admiral Yi on May 25, 2009, 06:54:40 PM
Quote from: Oexmelin on May 25, 2009, 06:45:39 PM
Québec  has had a «zero deficit» law since 1998.
Hijack in progess.

Americans do this thing where they hold up the index and middle finger on both hands and flap them up and down to symbolize quotation marks.  Usually used to convey irony or sarcasm. 

Presumably Frenchies can't do the same thing because you have different quotation marks.  Do you have a different hand gesture that means the same thing?
Damn that was random
It is far better for the truth to tear my flesh to pieces, then for my soul to wander through darkness in eternal damnation.

Jet: So what kind of woman is she? What's Julia like?
Faye: Ordinary. The kind of beautiful, dangerous ordinary that you just can't leave alone.
Jet: I see.
Faye: Like an angel from the underworld. Or a devil from Paradise.
--------------------------------------------
1 Karma Chameleon point

Neil

Quote from: Admiral Yi on May 25, 2009, 06:27:16 PM
The only part I was remotely surprised by was the smallness of the Canadian federal debt.
Really, looking at the graph, it looks like the US started to run off course in late 2001.  The current figures look worse than they are because the Canadian line stops at 2008, while the US line projects forward, to where the stimulus bill is devastating the solvency of the government.  It's doubtful that the Canadian bill will be so damaging, but I'm sure there will be increases, and probably deficits.
QuoteOf course that leaves out provincial debt, which is not tiny, is it?
Well, it's tiny for some provinces.  But then again, the US figues leave out debt held by the 50 states as well.
I do not hate you, nor do I love you, but you are made out of atoms which I can use for something else.

grumbler

Quote from: Razgovory on May 25, 2009, 04:48:13 PM
Oh.   I was hoping it something to do with facts.
:huh:  The Economist doesn't have "something to do with facts?"  :huh:

Are you off your meds again?
The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.   -G'Kar

Bayraktar!

Admiral Yi

Quote from: Neil on May 25, 2009, 07:05:23 PM
Well, it's tiny for some provinces.  But then again, the US figues leave out debt held by the 50 states as well.
The states are required by law to balance their budgets annually.

Oexmelin

Quote from: Admiral Yi on May 25, 2009, 06:54:40 PM
Presumably Frenchies can't do the same thing because you have different quotation marks.  Do you have a different hand gesture that means the same thing?

Do the same gesture with a slight curve and voilà. But that's mostly something borrowed from your fiction (sit-coms, etc.).

That being said, we do have the "quote" symbol, as it is used when we have a quote within a quote:

«Horace dit "Ne vous querellez jamais"», ajouta-t-il.

Que le grand cric me croque !

Neil

Quote from: Oexmelin on May 25, 2009, 06:45:39 PM
Quote from: Barrister on May 25, 2009, 06:38:07 PM
That being said balanced budgets have been quite popular across Canada.  I believe until last year almost all provinces were in surplus (pretty sure Quebec, as always, was an exception).

Québec  has had a «zero deficit» law since 1998.
That's disgusting.  Zero deficit laws are annoying as hell.  Why take such a useful weapon out of your arsenal?

Of course, deficit-busting has probably been the most important political trend in Canada over the last 15 years.  It made Paul Martin seem prime-ministerial, it allowed Ralph Klein to run roughshod over anyone who opposed him, it got Mike Harris in in Ontario, and it did enormous damage to many provincial NDP parties, as well as the federal party.  It seems like that's faded away a bit, now that the huge deficits are gone, but some of the legacy remains.
I do not hate you, nor do I love you, but you are made out of atoms which I can use for something else.

Neil

Quote from: Admiral Yi on May 25, 2009, 07:10:39 PM
Quote from: Neil on May 25, 2009, 07:05:23 PM
Well, it's tiny for some provinces.  But then again, the US figues leave out debt held by the 50 states as well.
The states are required by law to balance their budgets annually.
All of them?

No wonder your country is in trouble.
I do not hate you, nor do I love you, but you are made out of atoms which I can use for something else.


Habbaku

The medievals were only too right in taking nolo episcopari as the best reason a man could give to others for making him a bishop. Give me a king whose chief interest in life is stamps, railways, or race-horses; and who has the power to sack his Vizier (or whatever you care to call him) if he does not like the cut of his trousers.

Government is an abstract noun meaning the art and process of governing and it should be an offence to write it with a capital G or so as to refer to people.

-J. R. R. Tolkien

Oexmelin

Quote from: Neil on May 25, 2009, 07:13:33 PM
That's disgusting.  Zero deficit laws are annoying as hell.  Why take such a useful weapon out of your arsenal?

My guess is it comes from the same «common-sense» fallacy that equates a State's budget with a household budget.
Que le grand cric me croque !

Barrister

Quote from: Oexmelin on May 25, 2009, 06:45:39 PM
Quote from: Barrister on May 25, 2009, 06:38:07 PM
That being said balanced budgets have been quite popular across Canada.  I believe until last year almost all provinces were in surplus (pretty sure Quebec, as always, was an exception).

Québec  has had a «zero deficit» law since 1998.

I stand cheerfully corrected.
Posts here are my own private opinions.  I do not speak for my employer.

ulmont

Quote from: Admiral Yi on May 25, 2009, 06:40:14 PM
Quote from: ulmont on May 25, 2009, 06:36:51 PM
But one of the lowest effective corporate tax rates...
Please elaborate.

The 35% corporate tax rate has a sufficient amount of credits that corporations end up paying more like 25%, and 2/3 of US corporations paid no income tax between 1998 and 2005.  At the end of the day, most of the Western governments get more corporate taxes as a share of revenue than the US.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/11/AR2008081102324.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122653707274922763.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2008/08/12/no-corporate-taxes/

alfred russel

Quote from: ulmont on May 25, 2009, 08:42:07 PM
Quote from: Admiral Yi on May 25, 2009, 06:40:14 PM
Quote from: ulmont on May 25, 2009, 06:36:51 PM
But one of the lowest effective corporate tax rates...
Please elaborate.

The 35% corporate tax rate has a sufficient amount of credits that corporations end up paying more like 25%, and 2/3 of US corporations paid no income tax between 1998 and 2005.  At the end of the day, most of the Western governments get more corporate taxes as a share of revenue than the US.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/11/AR2008081102324.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122653707274922763.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2008/08/12/no-corporate-taxes/

That is misleading. There are different types of corporations in the US: S Corps (generally small businesses) don't pay taxes at all, and since these are probably a majority of US corporations, I'm not surprised that most don't pay taxes.

For C Corps, there is a top rate of 35%, but the rate is graduated somewhat and there have been a number of tax breaks with phase outs that effect smaller corporations.

For large C Corps, which are most of our publicly traded companies, the effective tax rate tends to be between 35-40% (state taxes are not included in the 35% number that is often quoted). The exception being that some companies can strategically locate their production activities in low tax jurisdictions. Pharma companies have much lower effective tax rates, usually under 20%, because they put much of their production in places like Ireland. (does anyone want to guess what those tax dodgers at Exxon pay?)

So it is true that on a total basis we don't necessarily tax our corporations that hard compared to foreign countries. But that doesn't help our multinationals, that must pay almost the highest taxes in the world and are taxed by the US on their worldwide income.
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

There's a fine line between salvation and drinking poison in the jungle.

I'm embarrassed. I've been making the mistake of associating with you. It won't happen again. :)
-garbon, February 23, 2014