Let’s take the example of Quebec. Obviously, Quebec is a capitalist country. However, it is somewhat closer to the socialist model than, say, the US.
As I said, my sister pays more than my entire yearly salary in taxes. And what does she get in return?
Free medical care? Ha ha. She pays for a very expensive health insurance for herself and all her employees.
Free kindargarten for her kid? No, the cheap kindergarten next to her house gives all the spots to the kids of bureaucrats from the neighboring state official building. So my sister pays a fortune for a private daycare.
The knowledge she is helping eradicate poverty? Let’s not be ridiculous. Over 30% of children in Montreal’s public daycares live below the poverty line. And there are areas in the city that can only be qualified as slums. People we know who are in real need of welfare never qualify for a dime. But diamond-clad grifers get their lavish lifestyles sponsored by the state no questions asked.
My sister could take all that money she pays in taxes and create another great job opening at her company. Instead, the money goes to feed an army of bureaucrats who proliferate faster than bunnies in Australia and an army of con artists.
But she should be grateful because, with real socialism, she wouldn’t be allowed to have a company at all.
Clarissa's Blog 
I’m confused about why your sister pays for health insurance. I have quite a few Canadian friends and they all pay nothing for very good health insurance. And they are all professionals–not poor by any means.
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In Quebec, healthcare for people who are really sick and might die right now is amazing, phenomenal, the best. However, my sister is young and her employees are even younger. So their healthcare needs are not urgent, thankfully. And this is the kind of healthcare that is very hard to get. The first really major hypertensive crisis I had was when I was 24. I had no idea what was happening to me. And after 6 hours of waiting at the emergency room, I was given a Tylenol, and told to go home. This is what the private insurance wants to avoid.
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OH MY FUCKING GOD!!!!!! Quebec is a province in the country of Canada.
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Honestly, I think a government could perform all the legitimate functions of a taxed society (healthcare, education, a defensive army, a social safety net, and so on) while cutting most people’s tax rates in half. The only reason tax rates are so high and yet so ineffectual is because the money gets wasted on corruption and bureaucracy.
Australia, for example, has a universal healthcare system that is not only efficient but among the cheapest in the developed world. Compare that to the British NHS, which is expensive and barely functional these days.
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I agree whole heartedly with you Clarissa. Increasing the bureaucracy at the expense of the people is rarely ever good for the economy.
I recommend you take a look at what is happening in France, where “Socialist” president Francoise Hollande has had to make a U turn when he realized that when Socialism theory is applied, it harms the economy. Now he is talking about tax cuts and budget cuts. Take a look at this article for further analysis of the situation there:
http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21593421-french-president-promises-serious-supply-side-reformsagain-fran-ois-hollande-liberal
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Bunnies in Australia?
Would your sister definitely create another job opening if her taxes were reduced? Is that how business work? They keep opening up more and more job opportunities?
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“Bunnies in Australia?”
– I read this books about Australia once and there was the story of rabbits being imported into Australia and becoming a huge disaster because they were breeding too fast and eating all the grass that normally went to the sheep. I’m not insisting on the veracity of the story. 🙂
“Would your sister definitely create another job opening if her taxes were reduced?”
– Yes, they want to grow the company and even open another branch in Vancouver.
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IN Australia we are currently being told that mineworkers should be satisfied being paid $2 a day, because taking any of the profits away from businesses discourages their growth.
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Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England, previously governor of the Bank of Canada has criticized businesses for hoarding their money, rather than creating jobs. So although your sister might spend any extra money she saved from taxes on job creation, it appears that lots of other business think differently.
“Statistics Canada numbers show Canadian non-financial corporations with a cash hoard of $526-billion at the end of the first quarter of 2012, an increase of 43 per cent since the recession ended in 2009.” from the Globe and Mail.
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I’m talking about a specific small business that belongs to a specific person I know. My sister can’t save any money on taxes. The point I’m making is that the taxes she pays are ruinous and unfair.
“It appears that lots of other business think differently. “Statistics Canada numbers show Canadian non-financial corporations with a cash hoard of $526-billion at the end of the first quarter of 2012, an increase of 43 per cent since the recession ended in 2009.” from the Globe and Mail.”
– Good for them. But how is this relevant to what we are discussing? Of course, people should do whatever they like with their money. I’m obviously not disputing that.
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Those Canadian corporations with an increased cash hoard of a couple of hundred billion in the last few years are obviously doing ok paying Canadian taxes.
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It isn’t like these corporations are organizing daycare for the workers. My sister is a small business owner and has been paying $65 per day for her child’s daycare. And that’s on top of really ruinous taxes.
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I shall introduce you to the term “giro technician”, which has come into use in British English …
Once upon a time, there was a Giro payment system, and it was used to push payments to accounts, rather than pulling payments through cheques as is done typically in North American banking systems. The Giro system went away, but the welfare benefits system remained on a Giro-styled system. (In North America, I’ve heard it’s called EBT.)
So now people who have figured out how to engineer benefits payments from the welfare system are referred to as “giro technicians”.
Phrases like that come into use because people notice the behaviour …
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