Half of Canadians can spell Pfizer now. That’s something.
Our still not massively funding research and manufacturing is a national embarrassment. As if this will be our last pandemic.
I doubt Canada is alone on that front. I still remember that in the early phase of the pandemic the calls for our own production of PPE equipment were made. I havent heard anything about it recently and I doubt it will be a talking point after the pandemic is over until the next pandemic at least.
We are also a rich nation. It’s just not that simple sometimes. In our facility we do the PCR testing, the quick tests and we have to do our normal work as well. If there weren’t so few surgeries right now which freed up personal we couldnt do it. And we have staff that just doesnt want to do additional work. In the end its mostly the same people that volunteer. That will work only for so long. The whatsapp group is ridiculous sometimes. Nurses complain when there are too many tests on a friday and they have to do the extra work after 1pm, because 1 pm is also known as the “holy grail” of quitting time for the weekend. Sometimes I think people forgot which career path they chose. On the other hand the pay is miserable and you always have to deal with the threat that they might leave so you cant say too much. There has to be big discussion about the worth of healthcare and other essential workers because I understand that you dont want to sacrifice everything if you get only very little in return.
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This is a scary headline, but I have to say that the risk of the US having some bank account info they don’t need seems like a reasonable price to pay in exchange for more transparency about where the rich are hiding all their assets. If anything normal people should be kicking and screaming that more information needs to be shared between governments. This seems to me like rich people and their tax advisors leaking “tips” to the media to demonize tax authorities.
The FATCA regulation referenced in the articles is specifically about intergovernmental exchange of information so that a person that resides and pays taxes in Country A cannot store their assets in Country B and avoid paying taxes on those assets. I know where you’re coming from, but this regulation is unambiguously good for society even though it is burdensome for those that are well off. We absolutely need MORE government crackdowns and sharing of information about assets held in out of country accounts. The reason that this kind of propaganda works is specifically because they are tugging on your very legitimate concerns about the privacy of the little guy, but it’s really a big misdirection to get you to side with rich people that don’t want to pay taxes.
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The burdens fall largely on normal people who don’t have anything to hide, and the rich just avoid the taxes some other way. The only other country on earth that taxes its citizens on income earned abroad is Eritrea. The only reason the US can do it is by bullying everybody else. And there can be significant negative consequences for many people, like having their accounts closed at banks that don’t want to deal with the hassle.
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I wouldn’t say the burden fall largely on normal people who don’t have anything to hide. It falls on anyone that has assets in multiple tax jurisdictions.
FATCA and related tax programs are burdensome and administrative. But they are necessary. It is easy PR to attack the IRS or CRA or whatever because TAX MAN BAD is an easy sell. But to have an honest view here you have to ask yourself the question - should the richest people be able to dodge paying taxes because it’s administratively burdensome to make them pay? Wealth inequality is a defining problem for our time. These programs, or even better versions of these programs, are essential.
That’d be great if it was accomplishing any of that. It’s not. It’s a huge administrative burden that does nothing. The rich never suffer consequences for anything.
Strongly disagree.
Also, to the extent that regulations like FATCA don’t catch enough rich people, its because the regulations are too weak and the IRS is underfunded. One of the root causes of wealth inequality is rich people capitalizing on instinctive dislike of the IRS. Progressives need to go on a PR campaign in defense of the tax man. Double the IRS budget IMO.
How much did it cost to collect that $10 billion? Many countries have estimated compliance costs in the hundreds of millions.
And saying how the IRS should function bears no relation in how it does, or what a reasonable person should expect from it in the future.
Finally, why should world governments be forced to help the US raise revenue that it spends primarily on itself, often for bombs and other horrible shit that make the world a worse place for everybody?
The entire annual IRS budget is $12 billion. Virtually any project they undertake is a net positive at this point because they’ve been cut down so much since 2000.
Note that many if these tax deals are also mutual. We help the US with FATCA, but they help us with CRS.
I dont want the US to spend more money on bombs either but all of the stuff we do want to solve (wealth inequality, climate change, health care, etc.) will require tax revenue. There is no path forward where governments continue to leave taxes uncollected and the world gets better. Your perspective here is valid on its face, but IMO given the current reality anti-IRS narratives carry weight for rich people first and foremost. The answer is better tax collection and better policy. Progressives needs to be pulling in that direction on all fronts.
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Alberta government announced new curriculum today. Under music, required teaching is big band and duke ellington didn’t make the cut as required example but our premier’s grandpa did. Nobody on earth knew he was even a musician until today.
LolAlberta.
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Mart Kenney is clearly more famous than duke Ellington.
Ya it’s total Onion shit. Just unreal.
It’s also now required in grade 6 social studies to teach about the gospel, life of Christ, and the trinity. I’m not making this up!