Canada Post LOST $750M last year and $3B since 2018. Packages take forever to arrive, if they come at all. Now they want to strike during Christmas season, demanding higher wage. They want $35/hour to be a mail carrier? What a joke. : r/Canada_sub
Matthew Lau: The only way to save Canada Post is to privatize it - "as Ian Lee, an associate professor at Carleton University’s business school, said in a recent interview with CTV News, “Canada Post is going to lose more money next year and even more money the following year.” While Canada Post had a 62 per cent share of the parcel delivery market in 2019, it has since plummeted to 23 per cent, a metric that will not be improved by the ongoing strike of 55,000 Canada Post workers. The postal service’s record of losing money brings to mind Milton Friedman’s astute explanation of private versus government enterprises. The private system “is often described as a profit system, but that’s a misleading label,” Friedman explained . “It’s a profit and loss system, and the loss part is even more important than the profit, because it’s what gets rid of badly managed, poorly operated companies.” Meanwhile, in the government system, badly managed, poorly operated companies can lose money and continue shambling on — like Canada Post. In addition to its poor financial results, one fairly conclusive sign that Canada Post is not well operated and not efficiently organized is that it is unionized. Indeed, the entire economic purpose of a union is to raise members’ wages above the market price — in other words, to drive the cost of labour as high as possible. By design, unions exist to reduce operational efficiency. Demonstrating this commitment to reducing efficiency and inflating costs, one of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers’ demands is for weekend deliveries to be done by full-time employees instead of by contractors or part-time staff, as Canada Post prefers. The deleterious effects of unions are well known. Unions break the link between workers’ productivity and compensation through collective bargaining, and in doing so, they discourage work effort, protect unproductive workers, disincentivize workers from investing in their own human capital and kill innovation. These negative effects get worse over time, as workers who value productivity and innovation stay away from unionized jobs, while unionized workplaces attract people who value being protected from the negative consequences of their poor job performance. Given all this, it is no surprise that unions are highly prevalent in inefficient sectors but don’t tend to do very well in competitive environments — witness the 73.5 per cent unionization rate in Canada’s public sector versus 13.7 per cent in the private sector. The fact is that Canada Post’s parcel delivery service is uncompetitive. In a recent paper , Ian Lee found that the all-in operating costs (labour, vehicles and fuel) of delivering parcels is about $50 to $60 per hour for Canada Post, compared to $40 to $50 for legacy couriers such as Purolator and FedEx, and $20 to $30 for private competitors using gig workers. The union’s demand that weekend deliveries be handled by full-time staff, which will necessitate the hiring of more workers at above-market rates or overtime for existing employees, will only make the Crown corporation less competitive. While Canada Post is uncompetitive in parcel delivery, in letter-mail delivery, it doesn’t have to compete — the federal government has given it a monopoly. Which makes its record of losing money even more offensive: not only has Canada Post lost $3 billion in six years, it has done so while gouging customers in the letter-mail market through its monopoly. In the past, Canada Post used its monopoly to keep its net income positive, but now even that is not enough to cover its inefficiency. This means that taxpayers may soon be on the hook for its losses. Canadians are paying a triple price for Canada Post: disruption of service during strikes, price-gouging on letter-mail delivery and potential taxpayer exposure to losses"
Clearly, the solution is for taxpayers to subsidise it
Canada Post is once again on strike! And of course it happens a few weeks before Christmas, during one of the busiest times of the year. There is no reason to keep this government monopoly. : r/Canada_sub - "Our local liquor store union cannot go on strike as they’re considered an essential service but CP can… funny."
Jesse Kline: Canada Post went on strike and no one cared - "In fairness, some Canadians will be impacted by the strike — namely those in rural and northern communities where private couriers find it unprofitable to operate and residents benefit from shipping rates that are subsidized by city-dwellers. People who run small, often home-based businesses peddling wares on sites like Etsy and Shopify have also taken to social media to express their outrage over a strike that was timed to correspond with the busy holiday shopping season. But eventually, they’ll realize that companies like UPS and FedEx offer similar services, as do discount couriers like Sendle and Chit Chats. So, too, for that matter, does DHL , the multinational that has run the German postal service, Deutsche Post, since it was privatized in 1995. In recent years, DHL has greatly expanded its global footprint, including its 2016 acquisition of UK Mail , a private postal service that competes with Royal Mail in the United Kingdom’s deregulated postal market. Last year, DHL reported a net profit of 3.935-billion euros (C$5.8 billion). This contrasts sharply with Canada Post, which lost $748 million in 2023, and nearly $500,000 in the first half of this year. Between 2018 and 2023, the Crown corporation managed to lose $3 billion. It has outstanding loans totalling $1 billion and expects that, in the absence of serious reforms, it will need to take on an addition $1 billion a year in debt for the foreseeable future to “maintain operations and meet our employee obligations.” What’s amazing is that the Canadian Union of Postal Workers looked at this bleak financial picture and said: What can we do to make the situation worse? The union is demanding a whopping 24 per cent pay increase over four years, along with a host of other benefits, including higher short-term disability payments, more paid sick days, as well as paid meals and breaks. The question is: whose going to pay for all this? Canada Post doesn’t receive government subsidies , other than to provide free material to the blind and offset the cost of postage-free letters sent to government officials. But if the corporation keeps accumulating debt, there may come a time when the federal government is forced to bail it out. It does have the option of raising rates or reducing service, but that will incentivize Canadians to rely more heavily on online communication and banking. Any increase in its parcel rates will likewise cause the postal service to lose ground to its private competitors, which are already cleaning its clock: since the pandemic, Canada Post’s share of the package delivery market has dropped from 62 per cent to 29. To become more competitive, the corporation is looking to expand package delivery on weekends, but the union wants to make this less profitable by forcing Canada Post to use full-time staff rather than contract workers. Another potential solution would be to have community mailboxes replace door-to-door delivery, but that plan was killed by the federal Liberals, who campaigned against it during the 2015 election, before it was completed. Which leaves few good options aside from privatizing the letter carrier, as Germany did with Deutsche Post 30 years ago, and getting rid of Canada Post’s monopoly on delivering letters so other companies can compete in the space. Canada Post has already begun this process, selling off its third-party logistics business to a Montreal-based company and its IT services division to Deloitte earlier this year... Canada Post is an antiquated institution that clearly can’t compete with the private sector. And repeat strikes — this is the third time letter carriers have walked off the job since 2011 — certainly don’t give it the reputation of a trusted partner in an era in which businesses are increasingly reliant on e-commerce. It’s time to free the post before the Crown corporation’s mountains of debt come back to bite taxpayers in the butt."
Left wingers claim that Canada Post losing money is not a bad thing because it has service mandates and services rural areas. Ironic, given that they want to force rural dwellers to move to cities because it's more efficient. But they love government monopolies and unions and hate the private sector more than they hate the countryside
Canada Post versus the union: Is this the last strike? - "With each passing year Canada Post sinks deeper into irrelevance, its 19th-century monopoly model eroding and overtaken by the miraculous forces of innovation and market competition. There was a time when management and the unions could parlay their way through ritual confrontations unfazed by competitive risks. Consider this bit of history from a 30-year-old paper titled Monopoly and the Mandate of Canada Post. In the 26 years between 1965 to 1991, postal workers went on strike 12 times. As unions consolidated, they also gained new powers to resist Canada Post’s attempts to improve operations. Among the union gains “at the expense of Canada Post and Canadian consumers,” the most significant benefit was that “all unionized employees have job security: they cannot be laid off.” The authors of the 1997 paper reach an obvious and prophetic conclusion: “The power of the postal worker unions to extract such a concession casts serious doubt over whether Canada Post can ever be the lowest-cost provider of competitive postal services.” As Carleton University’s Ian Lee reports in a recent paper, Canada Post is the highest cost provider of services in an industry that has been transformed by lower-cost and innovative competitors. According to his industry sources, Lee writes that the average all-in operating costs per hour of parcel delivery at Canada Post is $50 to $60 compared with $40 to $50 at such legacy couriers as FedEx and $20 to $30 at private competitors who use gig workers... In his paper, Lee says Canada Post is at a point where radical action is needed. Canada Post is currently uncompetitive in parcels and is losing market share. Its letter mail mandate is increasingly irrelevant, although it delivers profits. But even that benefit is set to decline as even more nimble private competitors cherry-pick the most profitable aspects of the business. Lee has his views on how to restructure Canada Post into a competitive and profitable operation, one that is radically reduced in scope, size and manpower. In an interview, Lee estimated that a proper restructuring of the operation could involve reducing staff levels from existing 55,000 employees to 15,000. Lee proposes franchising all post offices, an end to door-to-door delivery and partnerships with existing parcel delivery services. But Lee’s ideas are just the beginning of an economic and corporate policy debate that now needs to take place. Writing in the Globe and Mail, Larry MacDonald outlines the role that privatization could play in resolving Canada Post’s financial crisis. How far should such privatizations go? Canada Post, with its complex “universal service” mandates and union structures, is not just another Air Canada. The restructuring would also have to take into account the ongoing emergence of new competitors coming up through the market. An example is Trexity, an Ottawa-based parcel and letter delivery service with operations in major Canadian cities. The founder and CEO of Trexity is Alok Ahuja, an entrepreneur now set to deploy his gig-driven business-to-business and business-to-consumer tech-driven operation to replace Canada Post in coming days as the strike continues. Looking ahead, however, Ahuja told me in an interview that his business model could not only compete with Canada Post and other delivery services, it could also become a complement — even a partner with— a revamped and reformed Canada Post."
Clearly the solution is to ban private competitors
Meme - "Canada post blocking Purolator. They just don't want your mail coming in"
Lazy union workers want video doorbell evidence excluded from discipline : r/CanadaPost - "So, I’ve had it with Canada Post. You know the drill: you order something, eagerly await the delivery, only to find that dreaded “Sorry we missed you!” notice in your mailbox—despite being home ALL DAY. This isn’t a one-time thing; it’s a pattern. Let’s call it what it is: Canada Post employees couldn’t be bothered to do their actual job. Instead of walking the extra 20 feet to knock on your door, they slap a delivery notice on your mailbox and drive off. Why? Because it’s easier for you to go pick it up at the post office than for them to deliver it properly. And here’s the kicker: with the rise of video doorbells and security cameras, people started proving that delivery drivers weren’t even attempting to deliver the packages. You’d see them casually walk up, drop the “Sorry we missed you” notice without even knocking, and walk away. Caught red-handed. So, what does the Canada Post union do in response? Do they encourage their employees to, you know, actually do their jobs? Of course not. Instead, they try to get security camera footage excluded from disciplinary actions because their members kept getting called out for being lazy. That’s right—when faced with undeniable evidence, their solution wasn’t to improve service but to shield workers from accountability. And if that wasn’t bad enough, when their demands for less accountability aren’t met, they go on strike. So now, not only are we dealing with lazy workers who don’t want to deliver packages, but we’re also subjected to strikes that disrupt the already unreliable service. All because they’d rather protect bad employees than fix the system. Let’s not pretend this is about “working conditions” or “overburdened staff.” This is about workers taking advantage of union protections to avoid doing their jobs properly. Meanwhile, the rest of us are stuck wasting our time and gas to pick up packages because someone didn’t feel like delivering them. I get it, delivery jobs aren’t easy. But you know what’s also not easy? Rearranging my schedule to go pick up a package because someone didn’t feel like doing the most basic part of their job. If you’re not willing to deliver packages, maybe find a different line of work? Anyway, rant over. Let me know if you’ve had similar experiences, or if you actually trust Canada Post to deliver anything properly these days. Maybe it’s just my area, but I doubt it.
TL;DR: Canada Post employees are lazy union workers who leave “Sorry we missed you” notices instead of actually delivering packages. With the rise of video doorbells proving this, the union tried to get security camera footage excluded from disciplinary action. When that didn’t work, they go on strike. Tired of wasting my time because they won’t do their job. Anyone else?"
Cp workers need a reality check : r/CanadaPost - "They are posting on canadapostcorp about how people are really suffering and feeling the effects of the strike and how it's working in their favor. Buddy, pissing people off and ruining Christmas is not the win you think it is. And now they are moaning about how people are not supporting their struggle and how negative the public is... Well, you can't gloat about how many people you are pissing off and then not expect the same people to get mad at you. Especially when there's a 70% chance you're making over 30 bucks an hour to deliver mail terribly. From the majority of the public, go fuck yourselves."
"I saw a comment bragging about being ready to strike until February to (indirectly) help working-class conditions od all Canadians. Seriously? Let’s talk about the real impact. Small businesses have been forced to shut down their online shops, people have lost their jobs, and countless companies are hanging by a thread. Some are now being forced to lay off employees, who earn far less than CP workers, because they couldn’t get the income they desperately needed during the holidays. But hey, as long as it fits your narrative, right? Gloating about how much damage you’re causing and calling it a “win” is disgusting. Ruining Christmas for families, destroying livelihoods, and pushing struggling businesses over the edge isn’t just tone-deaf, it’s cruel. Don’t expect sympathy when you’re deliberately making others suffer and then whining that the public doesn’t support you. People are furious, and they have every damn right to be."
"I saw a comment on the other sub referring to the small business’ affected by this effectively saying “if you can’t go a month without then you probably shouldn’t have a business”. These people are fucking ridiculous. I’m all for everyone having a living wage but some of the comments I’ve seen are disgusting. They wonder why they have no support."
This is just an extension of the left wing claim that if your business can't survive without paying a "living wage" it doesn't deserve to exist
Federal government orders end to Canada Post strike : r/canada - "“The federal labour minister says the government will remain on the sidelines as the Canada Post strike nears four weeks.” “We believe that the best deals happen at the bargaining table,” Trudeau responded. https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.7407425 That was just two days ago! "
Meme - "Seems about right.
r/antiwork. Star Trek ruined my life
Ever since i started watching this show I spend my evenings hearing quotes like "the acquisition of wealth is no longer the driving force in our lives, we work to better ourselves and humanity", and seeing the amazing possibilities we could achieve if humanity got it's shit together. then i have to wake up the next day and spend basically all of it make some rich asshole richer. I feel like i'm stuck on Ferenginar."
Jay Parsons on X - "Do "landlords" profit by keeping vacancy higher? Common sense, science, math, and Econ 101 all say no. But conspiracy theorists say yes, so NMHC did a research paper on the topic. They found, not surprisingly, that higher vacancy is correlated with lesser rent growth. When supply exceeds demand, vacancy goes up and rent growth goes down. When demand exceeds supply, vacancy goes down and rent growth goes up."
The Relationship Between Vacancy and Rent Growth in Apartments
Left wingers think "greed" is what sets prices, not demand and supply
Meme - Alex Svanevik 🐧 @ASvanevik: "Here’s how insane things have gotten in Norway: The Socialist Party has a “wall of shame” in their office with “rich people who have left Norway” - due to the outrageous taxes they’re now being charged. Who do you find on that wall? Startup founders like @hagaetc - who was forced to leave the country because he was paying ALL of his income (!!) in taxes. When the Soviet Union is becoming the role model of your country, time to GTFO."
Left wingers just hate rich people
Emil O W Kirkegaard on X - "Export winners, import losers is not a winning strategy."
hagaetc.eth on X - "So I tried to build a tech company from Norway and here’s what happened:
1. Two years of building without almost any money/funding, better part of a year without salary
2. Raise VC and become one of Norway’s first unicorns
3. Face unrealized gains wealth tax bill of many x my annual net salary. ofc the company is loss making and all the investors have preference shares so I can’t take out any money.
4. Call out publicly that this does not make sense. Independent of level, taxation needs to happen when you actually make money.
5. I move to Switzerland because no politician cares/listens.
6. I still don’t get any tangible and sensible answers to my criticism of unrealized gains tax, BUT I do get put up on the “wall of shame” at the socialist parties offices…
I’m Norwegian and I love Norway but the socialist politicians are taking the country down a dark path. It’s a real life Atlas Shrugged."
This is why American left wingers love scandinavian countries so much - they hate rich people and success
Austen Allred on X - "Earlier this year I shared a hypothetical example of how a wealth tax on unrealized gains would destroy startups. Soooooo many people said that was unrealistic or misunderstood. Now that exact thing is happening in Norway, forcing the founder to move to Switzerland."
Norway Has a Message for Democrats Pushing a Wealth Tax - "With a higher wealth tax hitting, Norway’s rich are abandoning the Land of the Midnight Sun for countries that allow them to keep more of what they earn, a warning to the Democratic senator from Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren, as she drums up support for her Ultra-Millionaire’s Tax. “A small tax on the great fortunes of more than $50 million,” Ms. Warren says, “can bring in nearly $4 trillion to rebuild America’s middle class.” The operative word is “can,” as human beings are dynamic and react to factors such as a higher cost of living. Norway is learning this lesson the hard way. It is one of the few nations in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development that taxes not just income but net wealth. Its Labor Party increased the bite that the government takes out of nest eggs. Now the golden geese are roosting elsewhere. The third-largest newspaper in Norway, Dagens Naeringsliv, found that more than 30 Norwegian multimillionaires and billionaires pulled up stakes last year, more than in the previous thirteen years combined. “Even more super-rich individuals are expected to leave this year because of the increase in wealth tax in November,” reports the Guardian’s wealth correspondent, Rupert Neate, “costing the government tens of millions in lost tax receipts.” Norway’s fourth-richest person and its highest taxed last year, Kjell Inge Røkke, relocated to Lugano, Switzerland, taking his $1.9 billion fortune with him. The move will allow him to keep $16.3 million each year and change the calculus of Oslo’s government. Mr. Røkke’s open letter explaining his flight to the Alps from the fjords illustrated the fact that people and capital are more mobile than ever. While the city across the Italian border “is neither the cheapest nor has the lowest taxes,” he said, it has “a central location in Europe” and “for those close to the company and to me, I am just a click away.” Like Ms. Warren’s “small tax,” the Norwegian increase sounds tiny, a 0.1 percent hike on the old top state bracket of 0.3 percent, which is combined with the 0.7 percent municipal tax rate for a maximum bill equaling 1.1 percent of an earner’s net worth. The municipal wealth tax rate applies to single taxpayers with assets of $158,000 and $316,000 for married couples and the state rate — with the new, higher bracket — to net worths of $1.8 million and $7.4 million for single and married citizens respectively, the figures converted from Norwegian Kroner. Those aren’t the “great fortunes” Ms. Warren and others describe when pitching their tax hikes, yet those citizens and others making even less are now left to pick up the slack for earners who fled. A projected increase in tax receipts on paper is now projected to bring in about 40 percent less in practice. “The recent wealth tax increase in Norway was expected to bring an additional $146M in yearly tax revenue,” a management advisor and author, Luca Dellanna, tweeted. “Instead, an estimated $54B-worth of ultra-rich left the country, leading to a lost $594M in yearly wealth tax revenue, a net decrease of $448M.” Norway’s pursuit of class warfare over common sense recalls many similar examples, the most infamous being the 10 percent luxury tax on yachts, private planes, and scores of other items, part of the 1990 budget deal championed by Massachusetts’ Democratic senator, Edward Kennedy. Congress estimated that $31 million would gush into the Treasury. The actual sum was half that, not to mention losses when boatbuilders were forced to fire thousands and file for bankruptcy as customers shopped — and paid taxes — elsewhere, turning America from a net exporter of yachts into a net importer... Democrats like Ms. Warren often cite Scandinavian countries as roadmaps for America’s path to a socialist utopia. On the wealth tax, Norway is flashing a stoplight, warning that you can only tax golden geese so much before they fly away, taking their golden eggs with them."
Left wingers just hate the rich, so they mock those who leave and tell more to do so
Luca Dellanna on X - "The recent wealth tax increase in Norway was expected to bring an additional $146M in yearly tax revenue Instead, an estimated $54B-worth of ultra-rich left the country, leading to a lost $594M in yearly wealth tax revenue A net decrease of $448M+ (sources and calculations ↓)"
Luca Dellanna on X - "CORRECTION: it seems like the numbers cited by the Guardian above, which I used as the source for the computations above, were incorrect. Instead, a recent Q&A with the Norway Ministry of Finance reports that only $4.3 of wealth left the country in 2022-23, resulting in a net gain of about $100M rather than a loss of $448M. (link to this report in the last tweet of the quoted thread). This means that the immediate result of the wealth tax increase was net positive. That said, it doesn’t mean that the Laffer Curve isn't wrong. It is very much right; it just means that Norway’s current position on it isn’t as far to the right as I previously thought. The long-term net result of the wealth tax is still to be seen, though, as some billionaires might take longer than one year to move their fiscal residency. Moreover, people moving out of Norway hasn’t just an immediate negative effect on wealth tax but also a longer-term negative effect on economic growth – which is why the optimal point on the Laffer curve isn’t the apex (point B in the chart above) but a point somewhere to the left that maximizes growth (point A). However, as mentioned, at least the immediate net result was positive, and we got better information about Norway’s Laffer Curve’s shape. Apologies from my side for having taken for granted the numbers reported by Guardian without double-checking and many thanks to @jdcmedlock for pointing out the error and providing a solid source for the correct number. This is, by the way, why I’m glad I provided the sources for my computations: hadn’t I done that, spotting the mistake would have been more difficult. Also, I’m grateful to James for having not just pointed out the mistake but also provided a better source, which made it easier for me to verify and correct. I hope that the 4.5k people who retweeted my tweet will also retweet this correction. I also hope that @CitizenX and whoever plagiarized my tweet will issue a correction, too. This is one more reason why plagiarizing is bad, especially if you do it like @CitizenX , who copied the text but not the sources, making it difficult for their audience to check the claim and spot the mistake. Don’t plagiarize but if you do, please also copy and publish the sources."
PolitiFact | Confiscating US billionaires’ wealth would run the US government about 8 months - "Hypothetically, seizing the estimated $5 trillion in current wealth from America’s billionaires would be enough to run the federal government for about eight months, based on what was spent in fiscal year 2021...
Such a move would likely reduce federal revenue because other wealthier people would seek to protect their assets."
There are actually many commies who want to seize 100% of their wealth
andrewism🌻 on X - "people don’t just deserve to eat food, they deserve to eat delicious food. people don’t just deserve clothes, they deserve nice, stylish, well-fitting clothes. people don’t just deserve the bare minimum to be alive, they deserve to live fully and have nice things and be happy."
Not just must everything be free, it must be good too
Meme - "*Woman with ugly painting*
Eat The Rich. $3,500"
Labour could solve its ‘black hole’ by abolishing just one tax - "Labour’s biggest election promise on tax, the one that has Chancellor Rachel Reeves like a worm desperately trying to wriggle off a fishing hook, is very simple: “We shall not increase taxes on working people”. And she has said it many times. So pleased were Labour politicians for thinking up that line that Sir Keir Starmer and his cabinet still repeat it at every opportunity. In response, opposition politicians and economic commentators have sought to press Labour for who it considers to be the “workers”, believing a very narrow definition will leave the Government free to raise all sorts of taxes without any sense of guilt about duping the public. It has led to widespread speculation about which taxes Ms Reeves can raise with a straight face and no sense of betrayal of Labour’s past values. Top of those taxes is capital gains tax which is often presented as a tax paid only by the rich – those disposing of assets most people do not have, such as businesses, large shareholdings or second properties... a new report, written by Peter Young for the Adam Smith Institute, argues the tax does in fact punish Britain’s workers, and that were it to be abolished, the benefits would amount to a £25bn increase in national income a year by 2025/26. The resulting tax revenues across the wider economy would both replace the lost revenue from capital gains tax, and over time, more than fill Ms Reeves’s imaginary fiscal black hole. Imagine that, abolishing just one tax could have so much impact that it would give the economy a £25bn boost – what’s holding the Chancellor back? Surely not blind prejudice and an out-of-date belief that capital gains tax enables the use of the tax system as a redistribution tool. Mr Young claims capital gains tax is the worst tax on working people because it holds down people’s wages through its effect on reducing productivity. He points out that annual average growth in UK GDP per hour worked has been just 0.5pc per year since 2008, while it has been three times higher in the US. It is beyond contention that the result of higher US productivity is much higher living standards for workers, with US salaries some 30 to 50pc higher than their UK equivalents. By contrast, average UK real wages today are around their level achieved in 2005... Capital gains tax is especially damaging because it is effectively a form of double taxation, as capital gains in most cases result from profits already taxed at the corporate level or through dividends. This reduces the incentive to invest in equities and capital-intensive projects. Another negative is how capital gains tax does not take account of inflation, with investors being taxed on the inflationary gains of an asset’s value, which may represent no real increase in value, but still requires the tax to be paid in today’s money. This is particularly harmful in periods of high inflation such as we have had over the last three years. Ironically, it is the threat of Ms Reeves raising capital gains tax in this week’s Budget that has been driving many people to dispose of assets ahead of any rise so they do not get caught with an even higher tax bill... It is this behavioural response that has led to HMRC telling the Government that raising the higher capital gains tax rate by 10 percentage points would actually lead to a £2bn decrease in revenue by 2027-28 High capital gains tax rates disproportionately affect start-ups, small businesses, and venture capital investment, limiting innovation, job creation, and economic dynamism. Whereas reducing or abolishing capital gains tax would encourage more risk-taking and long-term investment, the type of investment the British economy sorely needs if it is to improve its economic growth and which labour says it wants. Indeed, countries like Belgium, the Netherlands and New Zealand have no capital gains tax, and historical evidence shows reductions in capital gains tax rates can lead to increased tax revenues. For instance, when Ireland halved its capital gains tax rate in 1997, revenues doubled within two years."
Meme - Aylmer @AylmerTH: "In the 1930s, manual labourers who belonged to the Workers Educational Association spent 49 hours a week reading, on average."
The Madwoman in the Classroom @heymrsbond: "I teach English. Part of my job is literally reading books and I’m barely making it through 2-3 a year. We’re asking the wrong question in ‘why the students don’t/can’t read.’ We should ask ‘where/when are we supposed to find time for joy in a world that only values capital.’"
Richard Hanania on X - "How screwed up is policy making in the third world? Nigeria has both fuel subsidies and price controls on fuel. They spend more on fuel subsidies than education and healthcare combined. Madness."
Meme - arctotherium @arctotherium42: "Post-1970 regulatory overreach is way more important for explaining the Great Stagnation than the # of regulations (left) implies. This is because the # of yearly changes (additions/deletions/modifications) shot up (right) - regulatory uncertainty is as bad as overregulation."
Hitchslap on X - "The original poster was likely engagement farming. Having said that some communities seem to have a strange acceptance of shoplifting that others clearly find anathema."
wanye on X - "I think it’s actually a pretty straightforward consequence of the communist worldview. Are shopkeepers people just like you and me who are making the free choice to operate a business? Or is there something fundamentally “other” about the people who run businesses in your neighborhood?"
Meme - Jinad O'Sullivan @SineadOS1: "It's nearly like Mazzucato is wrong about... everything."
Michael A. Arouet @MichaelAArouet: "Amazing chart. The state is not the solution for anything, the state is the problem. Only free market and private sector drive growth and prosperity."
"UK public and private sector productivity since 1997 *Private sector productivity up 40% after 25 years, government productivity up 5% after 25 years*"
