How has Biden gone right? He’s clearly farther left than Obama or Clinton. Even Bernie has said that Biden is a much more progressive president than he was a senator.
SkepticalButOpenMinded
joined 2 years ago
“No consistent correlation” means that likely nothing dramatic will happen. Police don’t prevent crimes. They come after a crime has already occurred.
Montreal has always built more housing than any of the major anglophone cities. Makes no sense to criticize Canada’s best city on housing.
The article says that “Most taxpayers would view this outcome as a ‘good thing.’” But that is only true if, contrary to fact, "most taxpayers" have lower income growth than inflation.
I think we're talking past each other a bit instead of really disagreeing. I get your perspective that, given that one's income is fixed, it's better to pay less in taxes to reflect how much poorer you've become. Sure, that makes sense.
But here's another perspective: the tax brackets are adjusted for inflation because inflation exists. Income tax wouldn't function otherwise. So, if you're paying less nominal taxes, it's only because this year you're poorer than the last. That is a strange thing to celebrate.
Ah thanks for looking into that. The framing of the original article was pretty silly:
"Generally, where an individual’s income remains constant but tax brackets increase, an individual can expect to see their income tax liability decrease,” Abdulla added. “Most taxpayers would view this outcome as a 'good thing.'"
That is irrational. One should not mind paying more taxes because of making more money! This is similar to when people turn down a promotion so that they’re not “bumped up” into the next tax bracket.
If you’re worried about cost: car infrastructure is the most expensive per capita. Unlike public transportation, roads are almost entirely government subsidized, with virtually no tolls or pay roads anywhere in the country. The worst part of subsidized highways are the spillover costs: oceans of subsidized parking lots and wide subsidized roads to service all the cars. In most NA cities, 60% of surface area is devoted to cars. What a waste.
That’s not counting the private costs, which people massively underestimate. Cars cost an average of $14k a year. This is why Canadians and Americans spend more on transportation than almost any country in the world.
And what do we get for all that extra cost? A lower quality of life: The longest commute times in the world, amongst the highest traffic deaths in the developed world (which is the biggest killer of children in Canada), a housing crisis due to low density, obesity and cardiovascular disease due to lack of incidental exercise, and high property taxes to maintain all that inefficient asphalt.
Canadians are also amongst the highest per capita carbon emitters, in large part due to tailpipe emissions and car centric urban design.
Canada today is almost certainly less corrupt and rent seeking than the literal Gilded Age, when the country was founded! In fact, the Pacific Scandal was our first major political scandal, involving political bribery by railroad investors and leading to the resignation of John A Macdonald.
I really have to push back against this pessimism about government. It only serves conservative pro-privatization interests to push that narrative. The problem is political will. Voters easily approve major new highways in ON. We would get rail if voters demanded it. So let’s start a movement!
The “good news“ mentioned in this article is that your effective tax rate is lower because wages haven’t kept up with inflation. Yay?
Yes it should be something like: “Audio of Ohio police raid that left a baby injured contradicts police report”
The RCMP has its own history of suppressing and murdering indigenous people. Colonialism, apartheid and genocide are some of the main reasons the RCMP exist.
That said, I agree that the RCMP are much better on virtually every measurable metric, as is policing in Canada in general.
¿Porque no los dos?
These aren’t mutually exclusive categories. For my part, I’m not prepared to attribute competent malice to everything the police do.
From what I’ve read, it didn’t sound completely like an accident to me. Working conditions were apparently so bad that the camera crew had walked off the set earlier that day. Non-union replacements were brought in, which is why safety standards were low and the set was chaotic.
This was a labor dispute, and Baldwin was careless with safety in order to avoid the costs of providing decent working conditions and pay.