Myths of the one percent

Canadian media have been having a lot of fun with the story that you only need to earn 200 thousand a year to be a "one percenter" here in the promised land.

Hell, there's welders in Fort Mac making that...

Guess those rich folks aren't that rich after all.

Once you've gone that far down the road the real issues around taxes and relative tax rates are easily left behind.

Oh the one percent are already paying thirty percent of the income tax, and besides, they're just regular folks, welders in Alberta...

It's true that higher taxes on the one percent will not get us to balanced budgets. We'll need higher taxes on the five percenters and the ten and twenty percenters too.

And of course as every realist knows we'll need to make some spending cuts too.

I figure we can save a bundle by steering clear of those exercises in neo-imperialism that our NATO pals are constantly trying to sucker us into. What did we accomplish in Afghanistan?

Or Libya?

In fact, it's high time we washed our hands of that NATO gang altogether.

An exit from NATO would render the sub purchase and the F-35 unnecessary.

That would sure help us on the path to a balanced budget.

To be sure, we'd need to increase income taxes. Even on Buddy out there in the oil patch with his B-pressure ticket making 200k a year.

But let's not forget that income tax is only a small corner of tax land.

Is it fair that Joe Schmuck who drives his 15 year old Cavalier to a $15/hr job in the next town pays the same gasoline tax as the bond trader filling up his Bentley?

Or that they pay the same tax on liquor? Or cigarettes?

Any reasonable person can spot the inequity here. Yet it is not practical to have variable sales taxes and so on. Means testing at the checkout counter is a non-starter.

That's what justifies higher income tax rates on higher earners.