Excited Delirium

Stories about Excited Delirium, the Shock Economy and a little fiction here and there.

Daily Archives: March 26, 2008

“We’re OK with it all …”

A very interesting closing speech from the show Boston Legal:

http://www.boston-legal.org/19-stickit/BL-2×19-Stick-It-ClosingArguments.asx

The original reference was with What Really Happened.

I have a theory as to why “we’re OK with it all”. It has to do with demographics. The bulk of the North American population was ‘young’ in the 1960s. What do you worry about when you’re young? Nothing.

Now, that generation (the Boomers) is well into their 60s, which means they’ve got everything to lose.

Or so they think. A time will come – very soon, I believe – when most people that grew up with 60s ideals and stuffed them into a closet while they bought cars and assumed mortgages and raised kids and invested in stocks and lost money on stocks and bought cottages and then bought SUVs and so on and so on, will come back in a severe a overwhelming pendulum-like crash. Their sense of commitment to finally changing the world will kick into full gear and we’ll see change like we’ve never seen it before.

Soon, they’ll realize that the one thing they have to lose will be their sense of purpose, their morality. Their immortality or legacy. When they realize this, and hopefully not too late, they will push forth with a tsunami wave to all that’s ugly in the world.

Yes, I’m an optimist. And I think we can all convince each other that it’s worth being inspired by something like James Spader go on a little rant about the state of the States.

If we don’t, our collective sense of purpose will be lost.

Canada’s Wealthy Benefit Most from Tax Cuts

I’m sooooo glad that Dwight Duncan focused on investment and spending policies in the Ontario provincial budget instead of implementing tax changes, as Flaherty was bullying him to do.

Full Story Here.

While our economy falls apart due to tax cuts for the rich and tar sands exporters, enjoy your potholes and old smelly buses.

Here are some details from the story:

Canada is among a minority where most of the relief has gone to high-income earners and the least to lower-income workers, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

“Across the OECD, tax-burden changes have tended to favour low-wage earners,” the Paris-based organization said in a report on changes in the tax burden on wages in its 30 member countries.

“But in a significant minority of countries, tax reforms have mainly benefited high-income groups,” it said in the report, citing Canada, and a handful of other industrial nations, including the U.S.

… in Canada the drop in the tax burden for single workers ranged from a hefty 2.3% for those earning 150% to 200% of the average wage to a 1.6% reduction for those earning 100 to 150% of the average wage to just 1.0% for those earning between two-thirds and 100% of the average wage and to only 1.1% for those earning one-third to two-thirds of the national average wage.

… Further, the report deals with the 2000-2006 period, and tax changes since, including the tax-free savings account in the latest federal budget, are tilted even more in favour of better off Canadians.

The best places, where changes favoured a more progressive approach: France, Belgium, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands and Portugal.