mr harper's GST rollback

[timouse]

so i'm the money guy at home, and in order to work out exactly how our money disappears evey month i have a spreadsheet that keeps score for us. i feed it reciepts and it does the math to tell me that we're spending a month on food/groceries/car/mortgage and so forth.

i got thinking the other night about all the stuff that we as a 2 income no kids household purchase, and how mucg of it is subject to GST in order to asess the impact of a GST rollback.

here's what i worked out.

GST eligible purchases:

$1300

GST on said purchases:

$93

if GST rolled back to 6%:

$79

rollback savings:

$14 a month or $168 a year.

Yep, $168 a year. That's what a 1% rollback amounts to.

meh.

Vote Green!!!

[SevenSeasJim]

that we as a 2 income no kids household

Let's hear you say it..........DINK'S

[djmelbatoast]

That's almost as meaningful as $25 a month for child care. (for kids under 6)

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

I can vouch that they have a house filled with quite ravenous cats, rats, and a turtle .

Tim, I always admire your accounting skills.

[djmelbatoast]

sorry I meant week

[SevenSeasJim]

I can vouch that they have a house filled with quite ravenous cats, rats, and a turtle .

Tim, I always admire your accounting skills.

OK

DIMP's (Double Income Many Pets)

[bouche]

I'm afraid that the people who will be swayed to vote for Sir Harpsalot will not get even close to figuring out the math involved and they will only see the headline of "SAVINGS". $25/mth is such a joke.

I can only compare their offerings to the so called pack of peanuts on an airline. You get as many as you would in a 25 cent candy machine, and even the vending machine ration is a joke.

harper's GST rollback=airline peanuts

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

DIMP's (Double Income Many Pets)

.

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

I'm afraid that the people who will be swayed to vote for Sir Harpsalot will not get even close to figuring out the math involved and they will only see the headline of "SAVINGS". $25/mth is such a joke.

I fear you're absolutely right.

And I'm reminded of that figure I once read in a Harper's about the airline that figured they could recoup $500,000 a year by trimming two olives out of each meal served (I can't imagine how that one worked out). The fun you can have when you're dealing with millions of people and nickel-and-diming around with them.

[Birdy]

whatever happened to a penny saved is a penny earned?

$25 a month is basic cable in these parts, or half of my phone bill. $25 a month is $25 i didn't have before.

[SmoothedShredder]

"The most powerful force in the Universe is compound interest."

Albert Einstein

[Birdy]

damn straight is al.

[ollie]

whatever happened to a penny saved is a penny earned?

$25 a month is basic cable in these parts, or half of my phone bill. $25 a month is $25 i didn't have before.

It's not like the Liberals don't have tax cuts in their platform. The point is that what sounds like a sexy one percent cut in the GST amounts to about the same kind of savings you'd see from a personal income tax cut. So making this a deciding factor in your vote isn't a shrewd thing to do.

[guigsy]

whatever happened to a penny saved is a penny earned?

i dunno, i always likened that phrase to actually saving it myself, thus earning it myself. ie: i dont buy a cd this month, i got money for my cable bill. or, in my case, i dont have cable, so i have extra cash for a cd, or whatever else. saving is saving. not having to pay an extra 1% is just not having to pay. i see a difference.

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

whatever happened to a penny saved is a penny earned?

Ben Franklin. Clever fella. Pity so many of his writings got purged as too raunchy by the cultural censors of the day.

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

not having to pay an extra 1% is just not having to pay. i see a difference.

Exactly - are the CPC going to tell us exactly what services they plan to trim with all these savings, so we can decides for ourselves whethere it's going to be worth it? Or is that going to be left to the whims of these people once they get the power?

[Birdy]

It's not like the Liberals don't have tax cuts in their platform. The point is that what sounds like a sexy one percent cut in the GST amounts to about the same kind of savings you'd see from a personal income tax cut. So making this a deciding factor in your vote isn't a shrewd thing to do.

i hear ya. i wouldn't recommend making this the deciding factor either. i guess i just find it somewhat hypocritical that liberals condemn the PC party for introducing GST, putting a blackball on their record, and then give them shit again when they try to take it back. what's up with that?

i dunno, i always likened that phrase to actually saving it myself, thus earning it myself. ie: i dont buy a cd this month, i got money for my cable bill. or, in my case, i dont have cable, so i have extra cash for a cd, or whatever else. saving is saving. not having to pay an extra 1% is just not having to pay. i see a difference.

i don't think before now i've ever tried to liken the phrase. but let's say the government sent me a check tomorrow, i'm not sendin' it back.

[guigsy]

yeah, i got a check from 'em 2 or 3 days ago. im keeping mine, too. certainly with ya on that.

[SteveThe Owl]

whatever happened to a penny saved is a penny earned?

Ben Franklin. Clever fella. Pity so many of his writings got purged as too raunchy by the cultural censors of the day.

Here's my favourite Benjamin Franklin quote: "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."

Steve Fact Of The Day: Benjamin Franklin effectively founded Canada's postal service when in 1755 he opened the Halifax post office.

[SteveThe Owl]

are the CPC going to tell us exactly what services they plan to trim with all these savings, so we can decides for ourselves whethere it's going to be worth it? Or is that going to be left to the whims of these people once they get the power?

Remember when you were a kid and you would toss a handful of candies or pennies into a crowd of your classmates and shout "SCRAMBLE!" and watch them scramble and laugh? That's what the GST campaign promise reminds me of.

Not that the Liberals are much better. Which is exactly the problem.

[d_rawk]

And also to Franklin's credit, there are probably precious few people whose words are so often mistaken as biblical sayings (ie. "God helps those who help themselves"). (mind you, people thinking that such things are actual admonishments from God might not be such a great thing afterall

Anyone else read that piece in the weekend edition of the National Post about the GST? I can't remember who wrote it, but basically it went through all sorts of items that would simply have the prices raised to accomodate for the 1% cut, effectively taking the (meagre) savings out of individuals hands.

Like - you would save a penny on a newspaper. But that would make the newspaper suddenly cost an awkward .99 cents. So the publisher will raise the price by a cent bringing it back up to a convenient looney to buy. They get benefit of the cut then, not you. Good for the Aspers and Bell Globemedia's of the country.

A subway token, bus ticket, and similar items, same deal -- though I don't mind it so much here, as that is essentially more money for public transit systems.

[bouche]

Like - you would save a penny on a newspaper. But that would make the newspaper suddenly cost an awkward .99 cents. So the publisher will raise the price by a cent bringing it back up to a convenient looney to buy. They get benefit of the cut then, not you. Good for the Aspers and Bell Globemedia's of the country.

A subway token, bus ticket, and similar items, same deal -- though I don't mind it so much here, as that is essentially more money for public transit systems.

That's a VERY interesting perspective on such a move. A list of things that could be categorized as 'pay what the price tag says' might be a good thing to look over. and see what happens.

[d_rawk]

i hear ya. i wouldn't recommend making this the deciding factor either. i guess i just find it somewhat hypocritical that liberals condemn the PC party for introducing GST, putting a blackball on their record, and then give them sh!t again when they try to take it back. what's up with that?

A lot has do to with the fact that the GST cut is tied to reversing the income tax cuts supported by the Liberals and NDP. So under the Conservative plan, most Canadians are going to have their income taxes raised (retroactively back to Jan 1st), the lowest bracket rolled back up 1% to 16% and income taxes raised additional amounts each subsequent year, costed out to about 2010.

Combined with the capital gains tax amnesty/reduction, ala Mulroney era, which is a tremoundously troubling development and played a significant role in the debt and deficit situation that developed under that government's stewardship.

So the little GST hug & kiss is offered as comfort for the $45 billion that is to be redistributed from the middle class (and lower income Canadians) to the top tiers of the wealthy. The criticism isn't so much about rolling back the GST alone, as rolling back the GST by an amount that makes little to no difference for the overwhelming amount of people while increasing their actual overall tax burden.

It's a shell game. And a devious one, at that.

[ggrtrhhrtgg]

$25 dollars a month will cost our social programs what??

That is the million dollar question.

[SmoothedShredder]

I find it sad that people assume:

Conservative Tax Cut = Less Value in Social programs

Liberal Tax Cut = Mismanagers manage better with less