Canada’s largest bank is warning that housing has never been less affordable. New data from RBC shows housing affordability is now the worst it has ever been as of Q4 2023. Income failed to keep up with mortgage payments, resulting in affordability erosion in every market they track. Forecast interest rate cuts are expected to […]
This is absolutely asinine coming from the people who made money on the problem in the first place.
Here’s an idea: lobby the government to raise taxes on the rich and really raise taxes on real-estate speculation, and then use those taxes to build public housing at scale.
…silence…
What, bankers don’t want to pay for the kind of society that wouldn’t have a housing shortage? Quelle suprise…
Far more is needed than simply taxing the rich. The problem is that our (capitalist) economy depends on the exploitation of people in order for it to work.
If it’s not workers, it’s tenants, and if it’s not tenants, it’s shoppers. As long as someone can be milked for everything and anything with no protection whatsoever, the higher-ups will continue to do it.
Raising taxes on the rich will just result in the rich taking it out on the poor to make up the difference. And a little money out of a rich person’s pocket won’t hurt them, but a little more money taken from a poor person (a.k.a. everyone who isn’t rich) is a death sentence.
That’s not how exploitation works, not really. The rich will exploit as much as they can. Prices are already set to maximize profit. The rich can’t pass higher prices along, because if they could charge more, they already would. Cutting taxes on big companies doesn’t create jobs or lower prices – and raising taxes won’t destroy jobs or raise prices.
The rich can’t pass higher prices along, because if they could charge more, they already would.
They already have, and still are.
Obviously, they aren’t going to jack prices up 5000% in a day, but 5% at a time, and all of a sudden we’re paying a lot more than we should. It’s been happening at a record pace, and we have no government mechanism to stop it.
And it doesn’t have to be them jacking up prices, either. Replacing quality ingredients with cheaper stuff while charging the same. Or shrinkflation. These all adds up to people getting less, while someone else is getting more (money).
Cutting taxes on big companies doesn’t create jobs or lower prices – and raising taxes won’t destroy jobs or raise prices.
I agree with the first point, but the second point has been disproven by the fact that (in the United States) it does affect consumers.
"This paper provides evidence that corporate taxes impact retail product prices, and that a significant
portion of corporate tax incidence falls on consumers.
and
“Approximately half of corporate tax incidence falls on consumers, suggesting that models used by policymakers may significantly underestimate the incidence of corporate taxes on consumers”
Increasing personal income tax on the rich may have a different effect, but simply taxing big companies isn’t enough without protections to consumers and workers.
This is absolutely asinine coming from the people who made money on the problem in the first place.
Here’s an idea: lobby the government to raise taxes on the rich and really raise taxes on real-estate speculation, and then use those taxes to build public housing at scale.
…silence…
What, bankers don’t want to pay for the kind of society that wouldn’t have a housing shortage? Quelle suprise…
Far more is needed than simply taxing the rich. The problem is that our (capitalist) economy depends on the exploitation of people in order for it to work.
If it’s not workers, it’s tenants, and if it’s not tenants, it’s shoppers. As long as someone can be milked for everything and anything with no protection whatsoever, the higher-ups will continue to do it.
Raising taxes on the rich will just result in the rich taking it out on the poor to make up the difference. And a little money out of a rich person’s pocket won’t hurt them, but a little more money taken from a poor person (a.k.a. everyone who isn’t rich) is a death sentence.
That’s not how exploitation works, not really. The rich will exploit as much as they can. Prices are already set to maximize profit. The rich can’t pass higher prices along, because if they could charge more, they already would. Cutting taxes on big companies doesn’t create jobs or lower prices – and raising taxes won’t destroy jobs or raise prices.
They already have, and still are.
Obviously, they aren’t going to jack prices up 5000% in a day, but 5% at a time, and all of a sudden we’re paying a lot more than we should. It’s been happening at a record pace, and we have no government mechanism to stop it.
And it doesn’t have to be them jacking up prices, either. Replacing quality ingredients with cheaper stuff while charging the same. Or shrinkflation. These all adds up to people getting less, while someone else is getting more (money).
I agree with the first point, but the second point has been disproven by the fact that (in the United States) it does affect consumers.
"This paper provides evidence that corporate taxes impact retail product prices, and that a significant portion of corporate tax incidence falls on consumers.
and
“Approximately half of corporate tax incidence falls on consumers, suggesting that models used by policymakers may significantly underestimate the incidence of corporate taxes on consumers”
SOURCE
Increasing personal income tax on the rich may have a different effect, but simply taxing big companies isn’t enough without protections to consumers and workers.