Thread by @ArmineYalnizyan

Canada is the 10th largest economy in the world, with a fraction of the other economies' populations.
We can build whatever kind of world we want.
#cdnecon

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Pharmacare? Child care/early childhood education? Dental care? Post-secondary education? Housing? Public transit? Legal aid? Access to hi speed internet? Basic income?
We can improve any dimension of our lives we choose.
#cdnecon

What we *can't* do, if we want to improve everyone's quality of life, is continue to offer tax cuts. That includes not enforcing existing tax rules/permitting tax evasion.
Tax cuts are sold as "more money in your pocket".
Two things that are misleading about that framing...

1) The people who most *need* and would *use* more money in their pockets are the least likely to be helped by tax cuts.
Tax cuts *can* be designed to go to the poorest, but in Canada they've tended to benefit most the most affluent over past 25 yrs (cuz they pay the most taxes)

2) "More money in your pocket" means you can buy more, but you can't buy something that doesn't exist. Tax cuts don't create one new high-quality child care space, buy one new streetcar, build one new unit of affordable housing.
BUT....

Programs like pharmacare, dental care, child care, housing, public transit, .... all focus on affordability/access to high quality services.
*That* puts more money in your pocket too (pay less for child care, have more to spend on other things).
But what's even better....

Easy access to services that improve quality of life means everyone can optimize their contributions to the economy.
Healthier, more educated, more connected people.
Better economic performance.
More growth.
*Better lives*, individually and collectively.
#cdnecon #10thlargest

What the tax cut agenda means is "you can't have more, you can't have better".
It's framed as being about choice - you know how to spend your money better than government.
But you can't choose things that markets don't create: affordable housing, childcare, good transit etc.

Drives me crazy when politicians promise to keep your taxes low, freeze them, or cut them.
What they're saying is - we're going to give you less (inflation, maintenance costs will mean you get less quality and less quantity).

Let's challenge this in Toronto, in Ontario, in CDA

I'm totally OK if people don't want to raise taxes to improve things from where they're at.
But we need to escape this fiscal fantasy that we can improve things without paying more in taxes.
And if we don't pay more, nothing improves.
Growth isn't the secret sauce it used to be.

Canada is the 10th largest economy in the world, with a fraction of the population.
We can create any type of society we want.
Whatever we choose, we'll pay for it: through taxes, through our "pockets", through what we don't accomplish as a society.
*That's* our choice.
#cdnecon