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comment by b_b
b_b  ·  4603 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: We Can Cut Government Size ... Like Canada Did
Canada, the Cato institute's wet dream?! Who knew the Cato institute was for dramatically stricter bank regulation, universal health care, and higher marginal income tax rates? Notice in their story they leave these inconvenient facts out of their analysis. Universal health coverage takes tons of pressure and cost off business, tougher bank regulation has helped them avoid the calamities of the last four years, and their higher tax rates have prevented a lot of the wealth aggregation that harms spending here.

I don't think anyone here would argue with a flat 15% corporate income tax if that were really the rate. Our 35% nominal rate is not really our rate. With all the loopholes and deductions the average rate is something around 17%, except that some companies pay a lot and some get giant refunds (like GE getting $3B back a couple years ago). Its silly, and doesn't make sense.

Living in a border town, I do miss the days of the norther peso, however. Used to be worth making the trip across the border to go shopping :/





cliffelam  ·  4603 days ago  ·  link  ·  
Well, read the whole thing, the Cato guys thing the tax rate is too high, etc, etc.

Also, at the risk of opening a can of worms, Canada enjoys substantial "free rider" benefits to the tune of 3-6% of their GDP by not maintaining a first world military or medical and scientific research industry. Good deal, if you can get your uncle to pay for it.

-XC

JakobVirgil  ·  4602 days ago  ·  link  ·  
the benefit Canada gets from our Military Keynesianism escapes me.

The U.S. military is not a "first world" anything it like when your uncle blowing the medical insurance money and rent on Mexican fireworks. [It is awesome ]

of the big four medical research firms and by big I mean bigger than most economies Pfizer is the only "american" one but by their nature they are all transnational, Novartis[Swiss], Sanofi [French] and GlaxoSmithKline [British].

the biggest research grant giver in america is DARPA [the pentagon] I see it as a military distortion of academic life.

I see economies in a evo-eco mode. The buffet [Not Buffet] style of picking and choosing what you like from an economy rarely works. High capital gains and low corporate taxes is integral to how the Canadian economy works.

-oh and the cato institute is run by easy answer magic bullet dummies :)