@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Date: Mon, 9 Oct 1995 00:00:06 -0700 Sender: LECLERC YVES <•••@••.•••> Subject: Re: cj#269> Corp Tax Giveaways Does anyone know how the corporate/private balance of taxation evolved in the US over the last two decades? In Canada, official figures (dated March 1994) show that where the total of corporate and private income taxes were about even in the early 70s, the private income tax total today is about three times the corporate! So yes, we do pay more taxes (in Canada at least)... not because the govt is a spendthrift, but because the "private sector" isn't paying its share of public services! And to those who say "it's all the same, the corporations will pass it on to you anyway", I'll answer: Fine, then let the corporations pays *all* the taxes and the citizens none, since the end result will be similar. You'd have fewer sources to collect from and save a bundle of money in salaries, form processing and the like. How about it? And does anyone have comparable figures for the US? Yves Leclerc Dead-End Democracy? or open-ended government... Montreal, Quebec @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Yves, A few notes along these lines: William Greider, in "Who Will Tell the People?" reports that one of the major consequences of the Reagan era was the "gutting of the tax codes" -- in particular, the drastic reductions in corporate taxation. I personally remember one of Regan's very first acts being a ruling that gave an immediate $30 billion windfall to oil companies. Another thing: in all the campaign talk about restructuring tax burdens in the last U.S. presidential election, which talked about rich, poor, and middle class _individuals_, the issue of _corporate_ taxation was conspicuously absent. Those who say corporations "will pass it on to you anyway" must not believe in the free market: they evidently think prices are completely capricious and have no constraining forces, such as alternate suppliers. They also are ignoring the fact that these tax windfalls have resulted directly in astronomical profit increases, not price decreases. -rkm
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