CorbeauNoir
Registered User
- Apr 13, 2010
- 933
- 165
One of the differences between socialism and capitalism today is the capitalists want government to give them the tax money and leave taxpayers with nothing with which to fun key city services.
In a properly functioning socialist system (Which we are a long way from having here) the tax money is invested in government projects and stays within that circle. In Calgary, for example, a socialist government would build an arena (Let's call it Red Banner Arena for kicks and giggles), invite the Flames to become a tenant and then insist that the Flames become a club team run by the government.
(BTW - those old Soviet architects would have built a nicer looking arena than the tin can proposed for Calgary here)
But we live in a world that is living out a messed up version of capitalism where private entities insist on taking all the tax money for themselves. They want zero risk and all the profits. And they don't care what happens to the average person left in the dying cities around them.
The question for me is this - If the billionaires are abandoning Canada why are they insisting that they get free tax money for projects here in Canada?
If Murray Edwards wants to leave he can go and quit bugging us for money. He can let somebody else build an arena and own the Flames.
Okay. And in that properly-functioning socialist system where is that tax money going to come from with all the 'billionaire masters' packing up and leaving? You and me, because there's no other pockets available to pry the money out from. Paying a lower percentage of taxes than they ought to is still objectively better for everyone involved then them leaving (and in so doing paying precisely 0% in taxes) and having everyone else pilfered to make up the difference as we're now stuck doing. The dopamine-bait bread and circuses that is NHL-level hockey should be the absolute least of your concerns in that circumstance.
I agree, they want zero risk - which is why Calgary's corporate real estate is now emptier than it ever has been, and gets emptier every time someone chirps about "tech" or "diversification" magically being our economic saviour. If government at any level were actually bending over backward to accomodate their every whim and desire, they would be staying put and taking advantage of it - the exact opposite of what they're actually doing.