So it looks like we'll be heading into an election soon. That's pretty exciting at least for a political junkie like me. There's also the US election of course, which everyone here seems to be following, some a lot more closely than the Canadian election that's coming up.
There's also the fact that I'll be heavily involved with my school's student society, while working and taking a course.
Boy it sure sounds busy.
I think it'll be alright though. I feel like I'm better organized that I have been in a while.
It's been fun to meet the new incoming MA students, I'm fairly impressed so far, and times will tell how they fare. A lot of intriguing interests, and reasons for studying public policy. Some had a really clear idea, while others it seemed like they hadn't thought of it at all.
I'm looking forward to all the busyness this fall.
As for the election, I'm thinking it could be a conservative majority. If that happens, i have a feeling we might be back to deficit territory given their penchant for irresponsible tax cuts. Should that happen, it'll be interesting to see what happens.
I find it absolutely hilarious that the Conservatives are trusted to manage the economy, given that they reduced us from surplus to near deficit ( not that I think the huge surpluses weren't too high). Irresponsible tax cutting, basically wasting what could have been significant productivity enhancing income tax cuts with populism.
Talk to any economist and they'll tell you it was stupid. GST cuts encourage consumption and do nothing for productivity. Some economists feel that GST are the most neutral taxes because they don't distort people's decisions to work and invest.
But hey, I guess to a populist conservative, economists are just liberal elitists. Then again isn't Stephen Harper an economist?
1 comment:
"Talk to any economist and they'll tell you it was stupid"...
Even though you have said over and over again you don't like economists, I find it surprising that you will rely on their opinion when it suits your own purposes.
I would agree that at a very macro level, cutting the GST encourages consumption and does nothing for productivity (nobody said VATs were imposed to encourage productivity). However, I think you need to take a hard look at what the Grits were proposing before you can enthusastically say their plan was better vis-a-vie the Tories.
Cutting the lowest bracket by 1% and saving, at most, the poor a couple of hundred bucks a year will NOT increase productivity, if for the only reason that poor people don't invest or save or buy things that encourage productivity. Cutting income taxes on corporations would encourage investment and enhance productivity, but the population would never got for that (i.e. business is seen as bad). If the Grits were serious about improving productivity, then corporate tax rates need to come down and so do the highest marginal tax brackets at the individual level -- since, practically speaking, they are the ones that actually invest and save.
In the end, at the micro level, it doesn't matter which side of my pants the government takes money out of -- it still comes out of the pants. And that's why cutting the GST, at a populist level, worked.
Although truth be told, I wouldn't expect liberal elistist to understand that.
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