Goodale: Boosting living standards

[Canuck E Stan]

Living well within your means

"But it's just the message federal Finance Minister Ralph Goodale will take to Canadians on a cross-country speaking tour where he'll urge greater private-sector investment as well as new government thinking on boosting living standards."

After falling behind the US in the standard of living for over twenty years are Canadians going to buy the message Goodale is preaching, and is business going to invest in the education,innovation and research programs the government is proposing. All this under the government's new tight budget plan. Sounds like an election is just around the corner.

[Canuck E Stan]

Experts: Feds won't cut energy taxes

It won't be through gas taxes relief that Goodale will be boosting the living standards.Maybe by boosting living standards he means boosting it in a negative way.

[Toro]

My question is, why? What is the incentive to boost business investment any more than what would already occur?

[Guest eureka]

Canada, like several European countries, does now invest more in R & D than the US. The US has been falling in that measure for several years and the consequences will show up in the not to distant future.

America needs to rethink itself.

[Toro]

But investment in R&D is irrelevant if its not put to use properly. America has had higher producvtivity growth than Europe over the past 15 years. That's what matters. It may be that Europe needs higher R&D relative just avoid falling even further behind America because their economy is so structurally worse off the America's.

Europe is the one that needs to rethink itself.

[Guest eureka]

I was reading something just a couple of weeks ago, about this. It gave figures on the decline in R & D in America in the context of other declining necessities of progress. One other was education as I recall.

The measure of the essay was the bleak future for the US if it does not reverse these problems.

[Canuck E Stan]

How is Goodale going to boost the standard of living in this country with all that is going on with gas prices?

Our standard is going down,down,down.

Canada’s economy and living standards will continue to fall further behind the U.S. over the next few years, a Bay Street think-tank says.

"Over the 2003-2006 period, growth in Canada will fall short of that in the U.S. every year, and cumulatively this will add up to about 3.3 percentage points of growth over the four-year period,” Global Insight said. “That is more than one full year’s worth of growth over a four-year period. As a result, Canada’s standard of living will fall from 87% of the U.S. level in 2002 to about 84% by the end of 2005.”

[Canuck E Stan]

Goodale talks boosting living standard

Senate committee urges tax cuts; Move would aid living standards Seeks forum to boost productivity

The Toronto Star, Business Section

June 23, 2005

The federal government should cut personal and business taxes over the next five years to boost Canada's living standards, a Senate committee said yesterday.

The banking committee also urged the minority Liberal government to establish a national forum including senior bureaucrats, business leaders and academics to find other ways to boost productivity.

The forum would be vital to improving the standard of living for average Canadians, said Liberal Senator Jerry Grafstein, chairman of the committee, in releasing the report. "Productivity gains will affect their real disposable income in the years ahead."

The report came as a result of "our growing concerns about Canada's productivity performance, its impact on the Canadian economy and its implications for our standard of living and our quality of life that affects each and every Canadian," Grafstein said.

As well as the forum, which would have a four-year mandate, senators urged the federal industry department to create a "productivity prism" through which federal policies and programs would be assessed to see what impact they have on productivity.

The report also urged Ottawa to

Cut the general corporate tax rate.

Eliminate the federal capital tax.

Cut income tax rates for middle- and upper-income earners.

Modify the capital gains tax system.

Increase foreign direct investment by eliminating "unnecessary restrictions."

Continue to pursue new global trade agreements.

Eliminate trade barriers between provinces.

Grafstein praised corporate tax cuts that Finance Minister Ralph Goodale has already promised.

Is Goodale listening? THe prices will be climbing on everything because of the gasoline increases. where will our standard of living go then.

[Canuck E Stan]

Study: Canadian poverty rising despite economic boom

Looks like Goodale had a lot of work cut out for himself.

[err]

How is Goodale going to boost the standard of living in this country with all that is going on with gas prices?

Our standard is going down,down,down.

Canada’s economy and living standards will continue to fall further behind the U.S. over the next few years, a Bay Street think-tank says.

And does your un-named think-tank think that gas prices in the states are going to go down any faster than our price of gas....

[err]

Senate committee urges tax cuts; Move would aid living standards Seeks forum to boost productivity

The Toronto Star, Business Section

June 23, 2005

The federal government should cut personal and business taxes over the next five years to boost Canada's living standards, a Senate committee said yesterday.

The banking committee also urged the minority Liberal government to establish a national forum including senior bureaucrats, business leaders and academics to find other ways to boost productivity.

blah, blah, blah....

And these objective senators have no business interests... wait... this important news bulletin just came in....

The Cat Senate says we should lower the price of cat food...  And dogs should be made to sleep outside.... and owners should spend more time petting their cats....

[Toro]

The report also urged Ottawa to

Cut the general corporate tax rate.

Eliminate the federal capital tax.

Cut income tax rates for middle- and upper-income earners.

Modify the capital gains tax system.

Increase foreign direct investment by eliminating "unnecessary restrictions."

Continue to pursue new global trade agreements.

Eliminate trade barriers between provinces.

Grafstein praised corporate tax cuts that Finance Minister Ralph Goodale has already promised.

Good Lord, is this Canada we're talking about?! And Liberals?! SENATORS?! Wow!

Man oh man, this is great stuff! I am bloody impressed. They get it!

I might have to move back to Canada!

[LotusLandLunatic]

As a result, Canada’s standard of living will fall from 87% of the U.S. level in 2002 to about 84% by the end of 2005.”

If you believe that I have Bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.

The number is 71% at best!

And I think I can prove it !

[LotusLandLunatic]

Maybe by boosting living standards he means boosting it in a negative way.

You mean like cutting down on sin taxes and such?

That would be good too!

[LotusLandLunatic]

Canada now invest more in R & D than the US.

Why bother?

Once in a blue moon if some Canadian scientist actually DOES come up with something GOOD,

the chances are that he/she will just sell it to the highest bidder. THAT'S the way it's done these days!

But I must say that I sincerely hope it's still the beautiful Americans that they sell it to.

Not the Chinese, please!

Why, you ask?

I'm sorry but I just can't shake the quote I read in David Frum's National Post piece of tomorrow where he will say .... "North Americans are facing a future in which the democracies of Europe will matter less and less - and an aggressive and possibly hostile China will matter more and more."

He is right!

[LotusLandLunatic]

Canadians are wasting their breath calling on governments to cut gasoline and home heating oil taxes, say economists and tax experts.

Yet they're ready to behead anyone who smokes tobacco a bit.

Go figure.

[LotusLandLunatic]

I'm sorry but I just can't shake the quote I read in David Frum's National Post piece of tomorrow where he will say .... "North Americans are facing a future in which the democracies of Europe will matter less and less - and an aggressive and possibly hostile China will matter more and more."

He is right!

Of course he is right!

He doesn't talk out of his ass as much as Mark Steyn sometimes does, and freely admits to doing.

Remember the time when he was contemplating renaming his butt in honor of Jean Chretien but changed his mind when he realized that his friends would then be saying "Steyn is talking out of his Chretien again."?

A good example of Steyn talking out of his ass was when once, about two months ago, he said to his Chicago audience that it's more likely that it is the Russians and not the Chinese who pose a bigger danger to the United States.

Of course he was wrong! And he has most likely changed his mind since.

[Canuck E Stan]

Some conservative blogging from Monte Solberg-Finance critic

Come on Ralph, pick on someone your own size

Personally I always thought a Finance Minister should look for ways to IMPROVE living standards. Ralph apparently sees it differently. When he announced that he would cancel advance tax rulings on the income trust issue he predictably wiped billions of dollars of market capitalization from Canadian companies and shaved hundreds and thousands of dollars from the savings and investments of ordinary Canadians. He must feel that investors and especially seniors just have it too darn good.

One gentlemen emailed me and told me that his portfolio took a 15% hit in one day. What my friend Ralph may not understand is that this man cannot simply hike a user fee or close a tax loophole to gain back what he has lost. Only a Finance Minister can do that. This man, especially if he is already retired, will probably have to eat the entire loss. I have this image in my mind of Ralph the gigantic finance minister walking through a village of Lilliputians, unaware that he is crushing their homes with every step.

I haven't seen anything that Ralph Goodale is doing that will improve my living standards.He doesn't seem to do anything for tax paying middle income and lower income Canadians.He won't touch corporate taxes or the bank merger either.Must be afraid to make waves before an election.