Taxation in Canada

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Taxation levels are very complicated for Canadian citizens. I believe that Canada will economically break free when taxation levels become less onerous.

Government regulation hits our pocketbooks as surely as taxes do, but there is little information available about its cost. At a time when deficit spending is out of favour, and there is little appetite for tax increases, this lack of accountability makes regulation a tempting way for governments to achieve their goals without increasing their spending. Between 1975 and 1999, over 117,000 new federal and provincial regulations were enacted, an average of 4,700 every year. Over this twenty-four year period, federal and provincial governments have published over 505,000 pages of regulations contained in volumes that measure 10 stories when stacked.

The cost of complying with government regulation totaled an estimated $103 billion in 1997. The cost of regulatory compliance is borne largely by consumers since business pass on much of the cost of regulatory compliance as higher prices for goods and services. In 1997, regulatory compliance cost individual Canadians approximately $13,700 per family of four. The embedded cost of regulatory compliance exceeds spending on every item except shelter in Canadian households' after tax budgets.

One of the consequences of regulation not captured by measuring its direct cost (administration and compliance) is the severe limits it can impose on people's freedom to make their own choices based on their individual circumstances and tolerance for risk. Government regulation also dampens innovation, delays development of products, stifles entrepreneurship, restricts competition, and slows growth of productivity.

For example, today, taxes are im...

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...otle’s economic theory suggests that individuals’ rights and freedoms should take priority over the state’s needs in all but a few situations. This is known as the individualism notion. He argued that an individual’s property should have priority over state ownership for the economic well-being of the state. Supporters contend that an individual should have freedom over economic and political endeavours.

In conclusion, I am a proponent of Aristotle’s economic theory because I believe in individualism. I believe that Canada will break free economically if taxation levels were to become less onerous. In Canada, our systems are continuously being eroded. Canada is one of the most over-regulated and over-governed nations on the face of the earth. The amount of regulations in Canada is huge. When people are regulated to death, they cannot be regarded as a free people.

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