CaptainTrouble
Well-Known Member
Sometimes when I'm bored I look over the government budgets just so I can see how I'd run things.
The federal government only has a few expenditures which are required (this is the current spending):
Military: $60b
Intelligence: $4b
Infrastructure: $35b
Police: $5b
Judicial: $1b
Misc (Politician Salary): $1b
CRA: $22b
Prisons: $3.5b
Public Debt Interest: $54b
Total Federal Revenue = $185.5b
About $8b of this can be earned through service fees so the federal government only needs $177.5b/yr in tax revenue.
At a provincial government level, I determined looking across provinces that revenues of roughly $2,850 per person will cover provincial expenses that includes policing, infrastructure, miscellaneous, prisons and public debt. This factors in service fee revenues.
Total Provincial Tax Revenue = $111.7b
At a municipal level, I determined that cities need to earn over and above their service fees revenue about $2000/person.
Total Municipal Tax Revenue = 78.4b
For our governments to function they need about $375b in revenue.
Total Consumption in Canada is $2.33b. A GST of 16% without any exemptions would raise (in theory) about $375b in revenue.
Thus, Canada could fully fund its current government with only a 16% GST (without exemption). You lose free healthcare, free education and all social programs.
I did an estimate with AI and determined a healthy Canadian 30yo person would only need to pay about $4000CAD/year on healthcare costs (including insurance) in a FULLY free market healthcare system with $0 of government spending toward healthcare. Or, $330/month.
So, a person in Canada earning $80k/yr would be able to spend $5000/month on whatever he wanted, pay for his $330/month healthcare plan and he'd only pay $10,800 in taxes and he'd still be able to save $5000/year for a rainy day (retirement).
Currently, a person earning $80k/yr in Ontario only has $4,300/month to spend after taxes.
An average person in Canada would see their quality of life go up.
The savings go way up the more money you make of course which would improve our country's productivity. These values don't include any of the substantial economic gains from having 0 income/payroll taxes (lower wage expense for businesses) or corporate taxes or $0 in royalties.
Now, another fun calculation I decided to add is what happens if the federal government decides to enact a proper foreign trade program? This program would seek to enact tariffs on all products and services produced by other countries that ensure that the government supports provided by foreign nations to their domestic industries is equally penalized by an equivalent tariff placed on that product and service. I determined that if Canada was being fair, we'd place roughly a 5% tariffs on all products/services (as an average) which would generate about $51.5b in revenue.
This would mean the GST would only need to be 14% not 16% so the average guy making $80k/yr would only pay $9000 in taxes and have $6800/yr not $5000/yr for his savings.
Another way of putting this all, is that a guy making $150k/yr in Canada has about $30k stolen from him a year in taxes for no value added to his life.
I also didn't get into how 30% of these expenses are going to debt interest. Without this, we could manage on a GST of 10% saving the guy making $80k/yr another $2500/yr.
The federal government only has a few expenditures which are required (this is the current spending):
Military: $60b
Intelligence: $4b
Infrastructure: $35b
Police: $5b
Judicial: $1b
Misc (Politician Salary): $1b
CRA: $22b
Prisons: $3.5b
Public Debt Interest: $54b
Total Federal Revenue = $185.5b
About $8b of this can be earned through service fees so the federal government only needs $177.5b/yr in tax revenue.
At a provincial government level, I determined looking across provinces that revenues of roughly $2,850 per person will cover provincial expenses that includes policing, infrastructure, miscellaneous, prisons and public debt. This factors in service fee revenues.
Total Provincial Tax Revenue = $111.7b
At a municipal level, I determined that cities need to earn over and above their service fees revenue about $2000/person.
Total Municipal Tax Revenue = 78.4b
For our governments to function they need about $375b in revenue.
Total Consumption in Canada is $2.33b. A GST of 16% without any exemptions would raise (in theory) about $375b in revenue.
Thus, Canada could fully fund its current government with only a 16% GST (without exemption). You lose free healthcare, free education and all social programs.
I did an estimate with AI and determined a healthy Canadian 30yo person would only need to pay about $4000CAD/year on healthcare costs (including insurance) in a FULLY free market healthcare system with $0 of government spending toward healthcare. Or, $330/month.
So, a person in Canada earning $80k/yr would be able to spend $5000/month on whatever he wanted, pay for his $330/month healthcare plan and he'd only pay $10,800 in taxes and he'd still be able to save $5000/year for a rainy day (retirement).
Currently, a person earning $80k/yr in Ontario only has $4,300/month to spend after taxes.
An average person in Canada would see their quality of life go up.
The savings go way up the more money you make of course which would improve our country's productivity. These values don't include any of the substantial economic gains from having 0 income/payroll taxes (lower wage expense for businesses) or corporate taxes or $0 in royalties.
Now, another fun calculation I decided to add is what happens if the federal government decides to enact a proper foreign trade program? This program would seek to enact tariffs on all products and services produced by other countries that ensure that the government supports provided by foreign nations to their domestic industries is equally penalized by an equivalent tariff placed on that product and service. I determined that if Canada was being fair, we'd place roughly a 5% tariffs on all products/services (as an average) which would generate about $51.5b in revenue.
This would mean the GST would only need to be 14% not 16% so the average guy making $80k/yr would only pay $9000 in taxes and have $6800/yr not $5000/yr for his savings.
Another way of putting this all, is that a guy making $150k/yr in Canada has about $30k stolen from him a year in taxes for no value added to his life.
I also didn't get into how 30% of these expenses are going to debt interest. Without this, we could manage on a GST of 10% saving the guy making $80k/yr another $2500/yr.
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