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Originally Posted by toyota86
(Post 7505096)
imo voting either option sucks. people still end up paying more tax compared to pre hst.
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Yeah, but here's the difference between a VAT (value-added tax like this) vs. something like an income tax: with a VAT, YOU CAN CONTROL HOW MUCH TAX YOU PAY BY ADJUSTING YOUR SPENDING. Buy more generic products, or just buy less overall... you pay less tax.
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if hst stays, well obviously big businesses benefit.
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This kind of statement is so stupid and shortsighted. It's used all the time by people opposed to all sorts of government policies, as if "anything that's good for big business is inherently bad for individuals"... well guess what, big business employs a LOT of individuals, and if they do well financially, it allows them to expand and hire more individuals. Many big businesses also have profit-sharing programs, so if they do well, their employees benefit.
And for as much as this mantra has been trotted out for the HST debate, realize that the HST also benefits a LOT of SMALL businesses too. I work for a small company - two principals, two employees (me and another guy), and a half-dozen or so subcontractors around BC and Alberta. Our boss LOVES the HST for the way it saves him money through the supply chain. His wife, who does the books, also loves it because it simplifies her job substantially.
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poor people pay more tax. no more exemptions. trickle down effect is a troll concept. the reduction to 10% is a few years away and there are no guarantees how long it will remain at 10%.
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The alternative is a combination of two taxes that WILL remain at 12% for that whole period... so which is better, three years of two taxes at 12%, or one year of another single tax at 12%, another couple years at 11%, and then an undetermined amount of time at 10%?
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either way, the average citizen still loses because tax payer are going to get the bill for the goverment to do studies and research, implement the hst, the cost of making this referendum happen, all the logistics, manpower, and all other associated costs.
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You know who you have to thank for that, right? Bill vander Zalm. Chris Delaney. Bill Tielman. All those wonderful people who've been beating the anti-HST drum in pursuit of their own political dreams and agendas. The people who blame the Libs for the "uncertainty" in the business sector over whether or not the HST would stick around... are the same ones who created the uncertainty in the first place.
I'll make a prediction right now: the "Fight HST" people *will not* go away, should the referendum come in in favor of keeping the HST. Zalm has been claiming to "speak for the people of BC" from the start - they don't give a fuck what "the people" want, they just want to keep themselves in the news. His petitions failed miserably. His recall campaign bombed in a huge way. Yet he still claims that he know what "the People" want. People are being led and used by this group and they're just eating it up.
