Burdening Future Generations
Building up government debts with annual deficits is financially and morally wrong. Canada鈥檚 national debt recently passed 1 trillion dollars, doubling in the last decade!
Yet Canadian GST is only 5%. In Europe, GST is typically 20% or more. Every GST increase of 1% brings in about $10 billion for the federal government. Stephen Harper鈥檚 drop of the GST from 7% to 5% put us into the red pointlessly. European corporate tax is 20-30% for small and large corporations vs. 15% in Canada (9% for small businesses).
It doesn鈥檛 have to be this way. There are actually countries with high standards of living with no government debt! Norway has no debt and $1 trillion in reserve! Germany has had 5 consecutive balanced budgets!
Debt is a bad word; so it is not mentioned. But don鈥檛 kid yourself, debt lowers the quality of life. It will take money directly out of your pocket, for example, by high park entry fees, high university fees, and crumbling infrastructure. Sadly, our politicians look towards only their short term electoral prospects鈥� primarily a power grab with no vision for the future. Contrast this with our wonderful Lake Diefenbaker, our railroads, the superb government buildings etc. 鈥� visionaries got that built, not political opportunists.
How do we change this sad status quo? By talking with your MP and 小蓝视频 or their constituency office secretary about these issues and stressing the importance of paying off our debts.
Eckhard Wiebe
Rosetown, SK
