There is a new group on the scene. Canadians for Tax Fairness say they promote a progressive tax system, based on ability to pay, to fund the public services and programs required to meet our social, economic and environmental needs.They also tell us a couple of things about money and who has it.
For example, what is rich, and what is really rich?
Last year, the average income for the top 10 US athletes was $44.6 million. Wow! The top 10 pop stars averaged $87.2 million. If you think that is over the top, right? Well, think again.
The average income for the top 10 hedge fund managers was $1.7 billion. Yes, that’s billion.
The term “billions of dollars” is now thrown around with such frequency that many people simply have no feel for what it means. In their book, The Trouble With Billionaires, Linda McQuaig and Neil Brooks put it in perspective: “Imagine this: you are given one dollar every second. At that rate, after one minute, you would have sixty dollars. And after twelve days, you would be a millionaire – something beyond most people’s wildest dreams. But how long would it take to become a billionaire? Well, at that rate, it would take almost thirty-two years.”
A billion dollars is an astronomical amount of money. And those with billions, hundreds of millions, tens of millions or even a few million can certainly afford to contribute more taxes to build and maintain a healthy 21st century society.
Last year, the average income for the top 10 US athletes was $44.6 million. Wow! The top 10 pop stars averaged $87.2 million. If you think that is over the top, right? Well, think again.
The average income for the top 10 hedge fund managers was $1.7 billion. Yes, that’s billion.
The term “billions of dollars” is now thrown around with such frequency that many people simply have no feel for what it means. In their book, The Trouble With Billionaires, Linda McQuaig and Neil Brooks put it in perspective: “Imagine this: you are given one dollar every second. At that rate, after one minute, you would have sixty dollars. And after twelve days, you would be a millionaire – something beyond most people’s wildest dreams. But how long would it take to become a billionaire? Well, at that rate, it would take almost thirty-two years.”
A billion dollars is an astronomical amount of money. And those with billions, hundreds of millions, tens of millions or even a few million can certainly afford to contribute more taxes to build and maintain a healthy 21st century society.
Taking a look at the corporate world. Do you wonder if Canadian Corporations are hurting so much that our Harper government has to give them tax cuts. No so, Erin Weir writes in Rabble, Canadian corporations sit on a huge amount of cash. He tells us that that private non-financial Canadian corporations held $471 billion in cash in the first quarter of 2011 saying “If corporate Canada already has half a trillion dollars more than it wishes to invest in physical or financial assets, there is no reason to expect that corporate tax cuts will boost investment. On the contrary, if the government collected more of this money and invested it directly, Canada would have more investment in total,”
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