Recently, an article titled Canada-The Land That Scandal Forgot, analyzed quite a few of the recent tax scandals from around the world. The author of this article mentioned outrageous tax scandals of the United States, of Britain, of France, of Italy, of South Africa, as well as those of Mexico. While the author also mentioned a tax scandal of our very own country, Canada, it was concluded in this article that the Canadian tax scandal was nothing compared to those of the other countries. Our tax scandal was bland, and the Canadian citizens must 'glamorize [...] and perversely virtuous politics as colourful [which is] not an insuperable challenge' (paragraph 5).
In the Working with Economics textbook, we are told that direct tax is 'one imposed on the individual who should pay the tax' (page 126). Within all of these scandals mentioned in this article, direct tax is a part of it. The governments of each country basically applied a direct tax to it's citizens and then used that money for other reasons other than benefits for their citizens. As well, some governments even applied legislative costs onto the tax payers. That way the government people wouldn't have to pay for their own messes, but the tax payers would-probably not even realizing where their money was going.
In my opinion, i think that what the governments have been doing with the tax people's money is irresponsible and dishonest. To think of a government, the people supposedly in charge of our country, participating in such scandalous acts is quite worrisome. While the author of the article thinks we should be glad Canada hasn't had any scandals that could compare with that of other country's, i think we should become much more aware of where our tax money is going. If it can happen in other countries then surely, it can happen here.
Link: http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/08/14/conrad-black-canada-%E2%80%94-the-land-scandal-forgot/
Lorena Laurencelle
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ReplyDeleteI thought this was a wonderful and informational post. It made me see that the government is hiding some information the general public should know about our tax money. I agree with what you said about the government being irresponsible with our tax money. The government collects lots of money from taxes every year. As tax payers, shouldn't we have the right to know where our money is going? I think we do. In the article I found, it mentioned investing more money in our education and healthcare, but it didn’t mention where the rest of the money was going. Every year, I think the government should ensure that its citizens view a report on where tax money is going and the public should be able to give feedback on this information.
ReplyDeleteJ. Savage
I found this article to be quite informational. One thing that I found quite obvious was that the government uses our money irresponsibly. The people in power have itchy hands and with that much tax money from one of the highest taxing countries in the world, it is hard not to spend that. People often forget that we get benefits from this "irresponsible" spending. It could provide more jobs to people. The issue is, if they don't spend the money then why should we pay taxes with no benefits in return?
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