wealthy

Restoring inheritance tax could raise education revenue

Almost 40 years ago, Ottawa quietly cancelled Canada's estate tax.

Few Canadians even knew about the tax. Those who did mostly belonged to a small number of wealthy families who were rich enough to pay it. With its cancellation in 1972, this tiny crowd was suddenly a lot richer.

U of T economist John Bossons calculated that ending the tax amounted to a windfall of about $12 billion ($62 billion in today's dollars) for Canada's wealthiest families.

The removal of the estate tax, which remains an obscure event in Canadian history, had momentous implications, depriving Ottawa of revenue and putting Canada on a path toward greater inequality.

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Columnists

A number is never just a number: The dominance of Canada's 1%

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$201,400

The entry point to become one of Canada's richest 1% of income earners. In other words, if you make more than $201,400 you earn more than 99% of Canadian income earners. (Source)

254,700

Number of tax filers who ranked among Canada's richest 1% in 2010. (Source)

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poverty income inequality economic inequality wealth distribution wealthy Hennessey's Index 1 percent

The rich stay rich, according to Fraser Institute report

David Macdonald

| November 23, 2012

A new report came out from the Fraser Institute this week looking at income mobility. It certainly doesn't intend to make this conclusion, but a thorough look at their data shows that the rich stay rich as everyone else fights for entrance to this exclusive club.

Revivals of protest in the class war

Gerry Caplan

| May 14, 2012

When Linda McQuaig and Neil Brooks write their sequel to The Trouble With Billionaires, let's hope they'll help us understand why the 1 per cent whine even when they win.

Take Stephen Schwarzman, chairman of one of the world's largest private equity firms, the Blackstone Group; worth $4.7 billion, Mr. Schwarzman is the 52nd richest person in America. He describes his business philosophy candidly: "I want war, not a series of skirmishes. ... I always think about what will kill the other bidder." He sees Wall Street locked in fierce battle with President Barack Obama which he once described, yes, as a war: "It's like when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939."

Columnists

Andrea Horwath's bold call for higher taxes on the rich

It's hard to fight a class war without a billionaire onside. Hence Andrea Horwath's dilemma.

The Ontario NDP leader has thrown down a gauntlet of sorts -- demanding, or at least politely requesting, that Dalton McGuinty's Liberal minority impose a new slightly higher tax rate on Ontarians making more than $500,000 a year.

The move is a small toe-in-the-water toward restoring the progressivity that's been stripped out of the Canadian tax system. But it's also a bold unlacing of the stays on the political bodice that has confined mainstream Canadian politicians for the past few decades.

Of course, U.S. President Barack Obama is paving the way.

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Barack Obama tax system ondp economic inequality wealth distribution tax increase Andrea Horwath wealthy

The cheating rich

Gerry Caplan

| March 27, 2012

The dastardly, dishonourable, relentless war against the natural leaders of society continues without pause.

Recently, the Huffington Post carried this headline: "One out of every ten Wall Street employees is a psychopath, say researchers."

That was just the beginning. In February, this very newspaper offered readers its own version: "Cheat, lie, break the law? Chances are, you're rich." The sub-head poured salt into the wound: "Findings from seven studies show upper class more likely to lie in negotiations, steal from others and endorse unethical behavior." The article couldn't have been more twisted:

The wealthy really are different from everyone else: They're more likely to cheat, lie, and break the law.

Rags, Meet Riches: Celebrating the growing gap's real unsung heroes

Erika Shaker

| February 13, 2012

I have to admit that lately I've been thinking maybe some of us in the 99 per cent have been just a teensy bit unfair.

And it hurts -- really hurts -- to say this, but I'm wondering if the CCPA also bears some responsibility for inflaming that whole "don't hate me because I'm beautiful -- sorry, I mean incredibly wealthy," class-warfare-y thing that in January had the National Post (not to mention several other media outlets) setting its hair on fire.

Columnists

Mitt Romney's 'one nation under God' does not include poverty

Although Mitt Romney has yet to win a majority in a Republican primary, he won big in Florida. After he and the pro-Romney super PACs flooded the airwaves with millions of dollars' worth of ads in a state where nearly half the homeowners are underwater, he talked about whom he wants to represent. "We will hear from the Democrat Party the plight of the poor, and there's no question, it's not good being poor," he told CNN's Soledad O'Brien. "You could choose where to focus, you could focus on the rich, that's not my focus. You could focus on the very poor, that's not my focus. My focus is on middle-income Americans." Of the very rich, Romney assures us, "They're doing just fine." With an estimated personal wealth of $250 million, Romney should know.

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presidential election U.S. politics poverty economic inequality wealthy Republican Party Mitt Romney Occupy movement

The political roots of inequality

Andrew Jackson

| January 23, 2012

Last Thursday I was at an event on the issue of rising income inequality, sponsored by Canada 2020. It featured one of the authors of the recent OECD report on inequality, who highlighted the "skills-biased technological change" or SBT hypothesis so favoured by mainstream economists who desperately avoid discussion of inequality as a political as well as economic phenomenon.

Rising inequality spooking the 0.0001 per cent at World Economic Forum

Toby Sanger

| January 18, 2012

Contributors to this blog -- and CCPA experts -- have been warning about the negative economic and social consequences of rising inequality for decades.

Now the even the 0.0001 per cent are getting concerned. Experts polled for the Global Risks Report for this month's meetings of the World Economic Forum in Davos -- one of the most elite gatherings of the powerful in the world -- selected severe income inequality as the most likely global risk to manifest in the next 10 years.

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