This week, weSA国际影视传媒檙e going to take aim at a popular and highly inaccurate meme.

It comes in a large variety of forms, but they all end in the same cryptic message: SA国际影视传媒淭axation is theft.SA国际影视传媒�

It rolls off the tongue nicely. ItSA国际影视传媒檚 an easy slogan to feed to crowds of angry people so theySA国际影视传媒檒l vote for you. And itSA国际影视传媒檚 complete, utter muskox excrement.

Unless you happen to live in the middle of nowhere, making absolutely everything you use out of the materials around you and never, ever interact or trade with society or use any technology that needs to be manufactured SA国际影视传媒� including ammunition SA国际影视传媒� you are benefiting from taxation. ISA国际影视传媒檓 not sure how you would possibly be reading this editorial since you wouldnSA国际影视传媒檛 have internet or any means of mail delivery, but weSA国际影视传媒檒l let that pass for the sake of this example. The key point is without taxes we wouldnSA国际影视传媒檛 be able to conduct business, grow or function as a civilization.

Here in the NWT, our businesses are crippled largely due to the lack of roads. Any roads that are built are constructed using tax dollars. Roads made by businesses, like the ones running to and from mines, usually have very specific purposes and almost always stop being maintained after the mine closes. Similarly, weSA国际影视传媒檙e not going to volunteer months of our time to construct a road ourselves. We want the government to pay someone competent to do it.

In the interim, government tries to help business through subsidies, which is essentially using taxes collected from one group to offset costs to another. The fossil fuel industry basically runs on this system SA国际影视传媒� the International Monetary Fund reports that governments subsidize fossil fuel companies to the tune of $7 trillion per year. ThatSA国际影视传媒檚 $7 trillion in taxes that someone else has to come up with, ie: the rest of us. In theory, these subsidies are an investment as they translates into larger economic activity when projects create jobs. But it wouldnSA国际影视传媒檛 happen if not for the initial pool of tax dollars made available.

Taxation is not theft SA国际影视传媒� itSA国际影视传媒檚 the pooling of our resources to accomplish bigger things as a society. Anyone who tells you taxation is theft is trying to sell you something.

What is true is that the tax burden has shifted disproportionately onto the backs of the middle and working classes. This is entirely the middle and working classesSA国际影视传媒� fault SA国际影视传媒� they make up the majority and they keep voting for low taxes for the wealthy. TheySA国际影视传媒檝e done so since the 1980s, when the ideology of slashing government deficits while simultaneously slashing taxes for top earners became required policy. Canadian voters have been so adamant that the aristocracy shouldnSA国际影视传媒檛 pay taxes that even the NDP hardly suggests raising taxes on the rich anymore. The message voters have sent to governments is clear SA国际影视传媒� solve more problems with fewer resources while we watch our rich live playboy lifestyles, before they ultimately move to the United States because itSA国际影视传媒檚 warmer, taking all the subsidies weSA国际影视传媒檝e given them.

What most middle and working classes donSA国际影视传媒檛 seem to realize is when they vote to slash taxes, they rarely see any results because their incomes put a limit on how much the government can collect already. Most big tax reduction bills benefit the ultra-wealthy and few else.

This has provided valuable cover for the wealthy to price gouge and otherwise take advantage of public ignorance. One thing I always find entertaining about anti-tax crusaders is they donSA国际影视传媒檛 seem to have any issue with costs going up for any other reason than taxation. Price of gas went up because Exxon-Mobil said so? ThatSA国际影视传媒檚 capitalism. Carbon tax to try and avert climate disaster? ThatSA国际影视传媒檚 theft.

You can see this phenomenon happening in real time as economists continue to point out that carbon pricingSA国际影视传媒檚 impact on the cost of living has been minimal SA国际影视传媒� what has really impacted the costs of items is supply chain disruptions from the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change caused disasters and completely unnecessary wars. Also, there appears to be some level of price gouging occurring SA国际影视传媒� major grocery companies were caught operating a bread price-fixing cartel from 2001 to 2015, forcing Canadians to pay far more for bread than itSA国际影视传媒檚 worth. This scheme does not seem to have created any new jobs in the bread-making industry, but itSA国际影视传媒檚 worth noting the CEO of Loblaw makes roughly $8 million per year and other CEOs of grocery chains are in a similar pay grade. Yet somehow itSA国际影视传媒檚 those damn environmentalists who are causing all the problems SA国际影视传媒� at least thatSA国际影视传媒檚 what the people actually causing the problems want you to believe.

Our problems exist because we allow the wealthy to flaunt their privilege and blame the government whenever the consequences of doing so become apparent. If we had a proper tax system like we had from the end of the Second World War to about the 1970s, we wouldnSA国际影视传媒檛 need as many consumption taxes to cover the gap.

Even the fact youSA国际影视传媒檙e reading this is owed to taxes SA国际影视传媒� someone had to pay a teacher to teach you to read. If literacy and education were up to business, you would know enough to do your job and that would be it. Any further knowledge would be a distraction and have no productivity benefit to the company.

So please stop copying and pasting this silly slogan. You are not being a rebel. YouSA国际影视传媒檙e not liberating anyone. YouSA国际影视传媒檙e simply being a fool.