HST whining

Pretty sure that this post will piss off as many people as my anti-union rant but oh well, here goes:

I am sick of seeing some of my friends on Facebook and elsewhere jumping on the ‘Down with the HST’ bandwagon. You say that it’s not fair to pay more taxes yet you have no problem soaking up everything that comes from the collection of taxpayer money: parks, trails, education, health care, etc. I hate to shove academics down ones throat but if you would open up a book once in a while and take an unbiased basic look at some basic lessons in economics, perhaps you would understand why a consumer tax such as HST is actually not all bad. However, I'll give you a quick primer anyhow seeing as I am a huge econ nerd.

When consumers have money, they buy things. This creates demand. Demand requires increased production, which requires more workers to build the products and provide the services. More workers means more hiring. More hiring means less unemployed, which means less people to choose from and thus higher wages must be offered. Higher wages means more money in consumer pockets to spend on goods and services. See the cycle here?

By replacing the PST with HST and removing an entire provincial tax collecting department, we are receiving nearly $2 billion from the federal government to make this transition. Also, they aren’t touching my income, just my spending. So I can save or invest more with the actual cash in my pocket instead of a ‘tax credit’ like in the old system. British Columbia (and Ontario as they too have HST) will now be more competitive and attract foreign businesses looking to set up shop over here which means, yep, more local jobs for all. Attracting foreign investment to BC not only brings high-quality, well-paying jobs to the province, but for our provincial government, it generates major tax revenues that help to pay for education and health care and all the things everyone expects a Canadian government to provide.

I get it, you hate Gordon Campbell and you are mad at the way that he brought in the HST, I agree, it was definitely sneaky and I don’t like it either but I do feel for the guy. He is dealing with a province full of left leaning people who don’t want to pay for leftist programs, not to mention the uneducated hordes who do not ‘get’ what supply and demand entails. And what the hell is wrong with you people? Do you not remember Vander Zalm and the chaos that he brought to this province not all that long ago? You anti-HST people are all a bit strange; I am all for argument but when you have nothing to say besides “It’s not fair, taxes suck” then please come back to me when you’ve read the Coles notes on economics 101 and actually understand the role of taxation. I would rather be taxed on what I buy/consume than on my income any day, period.