Shirley Tillotson

I feel the need to state an obvious & humane point this morning. Communities of people cluster together because that's what humans do. It's wonderful to be surrounded by people with whom you share a background. If there was a Newfoundland Town in my city, I'd probably be living there.

Nice commute! And I love the birches on BLTT near the join with COLT. They haven't turned colour yet, will be great in a little while

A gravel covered rail trail bordered by a mixed Forest, evergreens and colourful deciduous trees. A bright blue sky for that orange blue contrast combo

A happy cyclist! Srsly, this was not a selfie smile. It was the look on my face when I was taking a photograph of some leaves and decided to switch to portrait mode

Basking in the glow of a bike ride on an easy trail on a beautiful fall day.

I'm just here to say thanks to those who built the Chain of Lakes trail and the BLT trail, those who volunteer to maintain them, and the governments who support them.

The trails were full of walkers, runners, bikers! 😘

In studying the second world war, when the budget debate carried on into the summer of 1942, I must say I felt very, very sorry for official Ottawa.

There was more than one seasonal reason not to have parliamentary sessions in the summer. 🥵

Now? A new rhythm will have its own cost

And, yes, YIKES, in retrospect. Way the heck too close to home

It's all clear. I heard a great hullabaloo of sirens about an hour ago, but I didn't have a chance to check what the emergency was. Anyhow, it has passed

😅

I've always thought the April / May budget season was connected to agricultural / seasonal cycles, from back when seasonal industries shaped when legislatures sat.

Summer still matters, in different ways. I wonder whether civil service summers will change.

Overflowing kitty

Not a great trend, for sure!

I'm not a fan of that crowd for sure. I don't know whether there's a tax system that can be designed to do the job of preventing their existence that is also a good taxation system for other purposes. Maybe. I continue to think about it

*and persistent

bsky.app/profile/stil...

*delete the first "relative"

More than double. That said, they don't include an option for c. 12 brackets and 77% top rates, like the mid '50s. Generally, returns from the very high rates weren't great relative back in the '50s relative to results from later, lower rates.

Ready Reckoner share.google/iz54eaIIvqax...

Fiscally, you look at the revenue shortfall, the cost of collection, and then choose the most effective way to fill the hole.

The PBO has a great device for trying out various tax measures. Last time I looked, the impact of a 2% GST rise was greater than a 2% increase of the top PIT rate

I'm not always sure what I'm hearing, but the moral view might be more coherent (if contested). In its relation to the legitimation problem in progressive income taxation it's most solid - what Mill called "equality of sacrifice" in justifying a progressive rate schedule

Long COVID is here to stay—even in children Post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC, also known as long COVID) are complex, multisystem, long-lasting complications of SARS-CoV-2 infection that profoundly impact the daily life of those...

That we went from attempts to minimize impact of the disease on kids to denying they even transmit it! to finally acknowledging it has impacts on kids should be a bigger story

www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

I'm glad they are working on this. Canadian economic data is often missing in action

A perverse result, but you might be right

They're looking at top 10%, though, a much bigger number than the billionaire cohort. Doubling the n of that cohort gets washed out in the larger category, I guess

I was surprised to learn that the new PBO report on wealth in Canada says not much change in top share since 2019. We are constantly at risk of having our politics driven by American data

www.pbo-dpb.ca/en

Yes, and the tax treatment of philanthropy isn't much more encouraging. You're rewarded for giving it away

There is a stigma in some circles (most of mine) against great wealth and excessive consumption. Bezos and Venice, right? Hard to know if that sentiment has any effects. Not on Trump & his ilk

Yes, I'm familiar. My post was really about a very small aspect of tax policy. I share your desire that we as a society use every tool to prevent poverty and foster prosperity

That said, the work of making the system live up to its potential is good work

*and persistent

We have a bit of it in different tax treatment of passive investment income (rents, returns on savings) and active investment income (savings used to operate a business). The former (passive) in effect "sitting on it," the latter, used to generate productive economic activity.

There are legitimation issues to be solved, for sure. As the originators of progressive-rate, "universal" personal income tax in Canada used to say, "In theory it is the fairest of taxes." In practice, the problems of legal avoidance and illegal fraud have been present from the start persistent.

*taxing the billionaires

Audiobook cover for the crisis of democratic capitalism by Martin Wolf

I'm not sure where my rant is going to go. But yes, it has long been true that private fortunes or at least the value of big firms like insurance companies dwarf the financial might / economic role of the state

I am reading Martin Wolf (not the source of this number) to do a better rant