“I feel like you would defend Hitler himself if he was rich,” said a poster to me some hours ago. “After all, burning Jews in Europe doesn’t directly affect my life, or yours. But that doesn’t mean we have to be cool with it, or worse, start investing in German oven manufacturers.”
“But hey, it doesn’t affect Garth Turner’s pocketbook in Canada, so who cares, right? We obviously need to focus on the real crimes, like a duly elected government raising taxes a tiny amount on those whose cup is overflowing.”
I’ll spare you the rest of the vitriol, which came as a result of my response to the Panama Papers – the latest leak telling you rich people are different. Who cares, I said? This will not affect your life, or mine. Get over it. Focus on what does. And someone else then responded, “Telling somebody to ‘get over something because it’s legal’ doesn’t carry much weight when you consider that at one time slavery was legal.”
Hitler. The Holocaust. Slavery. Damn, I should know better than to rise to the bait of the left-wingers who come here to be irritating (it works). They see the world divided into two pieces. A little tiny hunk of folks who have too much wealth, probably stole it, and should be ashamed and taxed mercilessly. And the rest, who (regardless of merit) deserve more in the name of economic and social equality. This, of course, is the world view of the T2 crowd, whose very first act was to take from the rich (creating a new tax bracket for high incomes) and give to the poor (lower middle class tax cut).
Hating rich people, or spending time vexing over the ‘super elite’ like sexy Vlad Putin or that dumb Icelandic guy who resigned today, is pointless. Just as unrealistic and useless as writing to blogs decrying all the Chinese-looking dudes buying houses on your street that you can’t afford. There’s a certain perverse comfort in feeling like a victim – it relieves you of responsibility for your own inadequacies – but it’s a giant waste of time. Like saying I’d support Hitler. Or selling people.
For the record, lots of smart folks have money in many jurisdictions and, yes, usually for tax purposes. The largest US corporations, like Apple or Google, are perfect examples. But avoidng taxes by choosing to hold funds in a less-taxed jurisdiction isn’t illegal. Nor are the tax avoidance techniques this blog talks about all the time. It’s perfectly okay and above-board to give your adult kids TFSA money, put cash into your spouse’s RRSP, establish a family trust, do an estate freeze, create a tax-deductible mortgage on your house, get money from a RRIF free of tax or avoid probate fees with joint accounts.
Tax avoidance is a cornerstone of financial planning. If your advisor isn’t aggressive about it, get a new one.
And, for sure, the tax code does still favour people with money to invest, because they’re also the ones whose capital ends up funding corporations and creating jobs. Thus, profits made on financial assets which rise in value (like stocks or ETFs, for example) are 50% tax-free. If you earn $200,000 working you’ll lose half of it in tax. If you earn the same amount investing, your maximum tax falls to just 25%. Plus, interest on money borrowed to make money is fully deductible from the money you earn. And you can receive dividend income every ninety days in return for holding assets, and collect the dividend tax credit each year. You can even use life insurance to create a 100% tax-free pension income stream. Business owners can income split with spouses or kids, using salary or dividends. And more. Lots more. All kosher.
Tax evasion, however, isn’t okay. You’ll go to jail for it. And these days it’s increasingly difficult to get away with such criminal activity.
The key flaw in leftie thinking is that people who have more money than you are depriving you of it. They believe wealth in some creates poverty in others, that if rich people were “properly taxed” government programs benefitting everyone else would be better capitalized and prosperity would ensure.
Really? When T2 promised his special eat-the-rich tax would totally fund a very modest middle-class tax cut, reality intervened. Now we’ve added more than $2 billion to the annual shortfall because Ottawa learned there aren’t enough millionaires to soak. It could well be in future we find there are even fewer, as a high-tax culture drives them into places where wealth isn’t viewed as a social disease.
Last week I told you this blog won’t enable bigots, racists or any other dinglenuts who blame their own inability to buy a house on somebody else with more money and a different ethnic background. We’re not about to let you call wealthy people fascists or slave-owners, either. In fact, this site will continue to explain how to (a) make more money and (b) avoid losing it in tax. It will laud capitalism, support entrepreneurs, question politicians and remind you that nobody can be built up by tearing someone else down.
Get over it.
273 comments ↓
New Mortgage Rules Haven’t Slowed Down Toronto and Vancouver
http://investmentwatchblog.com/new-mortgage-rules-havent-slowed-down-toronto-and-vancouver/
My childcare benefits are going up. Now I can afford that house I’ve always wanted with the extra money every month instead of throwing my rent money down the drain paying my landlord’s mortgage. TFSA’s are for the rich, glad to see them go.
I don’t know why everyone is so against Trudeau. He’s a modern day Robin Hood.
Apathy over wide spread corruption staring us straight in the face is truly sad.
“Get over it.”
I wish people would get more angry about the rigged system, then maybe we could do something about it. Apathy towards our leaders just enables further corruption.
Instead, we have people like Garth living a very comfortable retirement telling the rest of us to “just get over it.”
I agree we have to do the best with the cards dealt to us, but we should not ‘just get over it’
Too many blog comments are negative.
Too many blog posts are about Garth defending either his position on things, or his logic.
It was so good back in the days. When this blog was only about finances.
First… class.
First!
So you show a beauty of an exponential chart in yesterdays blog that hammers the point that this is unsustainable- right!! It is ALL unsustainable. See any correlations?
http://www.peakprosperity.com/blog/exponential-money-finite-world/29744
This is not a housing bubble- It is a WORLD DEBT BUBBLE. We all know what happens to bubbles- POP!
Got Hard ASSETS?? Those crazy ‘gold nut’ guys who can multiply- 2×2 is 4 and 4×4 is 16 and 16×16 is 256 and 256×256 Well you know– Exponential Function CANNOT be sustained in a finite world.
Any idea where the CRA draws the line between investment earnings (capital gains) and income earnings (full tax rate) on unregistered accounts?
Obviously if I hold an ETF for a year, that’s capital gains. I understand that if I am an active day-trader, I lose my ability to call it capital gains and pay tax as if it were income.
What if I am swing trading with average holding periods of 1-3 weeks?
But how do you really feel Garth?
Hu Garth if we lived in a society of sound money based on saving as the vehicle for capital formation I would agree with you totally. We don’t however, and the richest have the freshest access to the newly created credit and lend it to the rest of us to buy assets that are over priced. It is a system that is upside down and backward. Saving with interest rates that are above inflation should be maintained at all cost.
Good to see Saskatchewan looked over to Alberta when voting last night and decided we want nothing to do with the “kick the economy while its down” NDP. Shows we want jobs here for those willing to work, not handouts for those who aren’t.
Great post Garth, time to take out the trash!
Garth:
Looks like Icelanders “got over” their offshore tax dodging/ conflict of interest Prime Minister….
… and gave him the boot.
(But that doesn’t affect me directly, so why should I care, right?)
Now kneel before capitalism and lick its shoe.
#3 Powderhound
What you said.
A simple question then, Garth.
Do you assist clients to offshore their money and assets in order to reduce their tax burdens in Canada?
No. — Garth
Outfront media used to be CBS outdoor. New name about a year ago.
Here in Canada, number two behind Pattison outdoor.
yeah…what the hell……..why p**s around………Best Defense Contractor Stocks to Buy for 2016
http://money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/mutual-funds/articles/2015/12/11/best-defense-contractor-stocks-to-buy-for-2016
Hey Garth.
Some very wealthy people do some very good things with their money. I walked by a Hospital and an Art Gallery and School that were funded in part by wealthy people. There is nothing wrong with trying to avoid taxes. But the tax system is designed to punish the middle and upper middle class. I can invest 5 million, collect quarter of a mil in dividends and distributions each year and be taxed very little. Then look at the doctor who makes a quarter million and he gives half to the government.
The thing that gets me, is these extremely wealthy folk are already in a beneficial tax regime, and yet they go out of their way to even cheat that. It makes you wonder if they are trying to avoid taxes, or just trying to hide their money.
Kilt.
PS – you should set up a like and dislike so your viewers can essentially sensor the comments by sending the crap to the bottom.
Truth is today people love to play the victim, & they also think they are owed something, or entitled to a wonderful existence! Sad but true, economically it will all end badly !
I take issue with corporate tax evasion, um… I meant avoidance.
If a corporation finds its business success in a particular country, that’s where taxes should be paid. If you don’t like the tax structure then go sell your product somewhere else. Take it or leave it.
On second thought, the like/dislike probably won’t work. The crap would probably float to the top instead.
:)
Kilt.
Great article Garth. Well said.
The future in Canada won’t be that great. Save some money, don’t buy any shades.
Classic on the business channel in the afternoon.Mortgage broker was asked is it still a good time to buy answer yes as prices will only keep going up Oh my the poor moist ones.
Thank you very much for your hard work running this blog! Please don’t let the haters stop you.
“Get over it” sounds a lot like “Let them eat cake”. Next thing you know, those ungrateful wretches were storming the Bastille, and a young army officer had to maintain order via the liberal application of grapeshot. Fast forward a few years, and France was invading Russia in the winter. But I distress.
These days the everything is political, as seen last election, and also this blog where politics is discussed so much despite our graceful host having taken his leave from it. However, the kids are starting to vote, and more of them are coming of voting age. And that keeps Garth from having the last word when he says “let them eat brioche”.
As seen with our neighbours to the south, there is tremendous appetite for someone offering something other than “get over it”. These feelings are roughly the same over the whole developed world, including here in Canada. Trudeau got elected in large part because instead of saying “get over it” he said “we will listen, and we will do something about whatever the concerns are”. Whether he will do it or not is another discussion, but he was the only one to offer it. The only one to break out of the box where the spectrum of choice is so limited, that it doesn’t matter who wins.
And to be fair, Trudeau is not even that far from the box himself. If his modest new tax bracket is war on the rich, then I’d love to know what you thought of Eisenhower. His marginal tax rate was 90%, and that persisted over a period of growth and prosperity unmatched since. Rich people didn’t move away. Putting your money in Panama is one thing, moving there is another.
Btw, about the Panama papers. It looks like something like 21-31 trillion USD is involved. This is one facilitator, in one tax haven. Over a period of only about 10 years. The scale of what’s happening must be much larger than that.
Hey VREU;
Did you see the March numbers for Victoria?
Year over year increase was 16.4% for Victoria Core !!
May be you could update your graphs. Oh I forgot for some reason you like showing us the years 2010 to 2014……bahahahaha
“A little tiny hunk of folks who have too much wealth, probably stole it, and should be ashamed and taxed mercilessly. ”
———————————————-
Only if by “mercilessly” you actually mean “at a similar rate to everybody else”.
I’m middle class. I have no issue with the top 1% keeping as much as they can. The vast majority of the 1% work there asses off to earn their income not to mention actually creating your job.
On the other hand what pisses me off to no end is Wynne and JT passing around tax payer money to every Tom, Dick and Harry who asks for a handout thus burying future Ontario and Canadian generations 6 feet under.
That’s what you should get all righteous and indignant about!
“There’s a certain perverse comfort in feeling like a victim – it relieves you of responsibility for your own inadequacies ”
Wise words. Too bad most will be “offended” or “upset” by them.
Easy there Garth, easy. Relax. Have some scotch.
Most of us get it. Chill.
Hey Garth, you mentioned using life insurance to create a 100% tax-free pension income stream. Can you elaborate on that in your next post, or just reply to my comment? It would be much appreciated.
It seems a number of the commenters have a lot of anger to vent but I don’t think that it’s simply tax evasion that upsets people, but rather the knowledge that the worst abusers of tax havens are also the sort who bootstrap their fortunes on the backs of Canadian labour, then when they feel our entitlements are too costly they offshore those jobs instead of supporting the Canadians that helped that business succeed.
It hardly seems unreasonable to expect these people to pay their owed percentage of taxes, even when it seems unreasonable to them because of how big a real chunk 30% is when you have millions. Life isn’t fair, and that’s fine, but when the laws are less fair to people with $1m+ then that’s not just unfair but downright unjust.
Fabulous post, Garth. I too get fed up with people who feel victimized and also have a sense of entitlement. I am also very disappointed with T2’s direction with our country. He is enabling generations to believe in this sense of entitlement.
As Canadians, we live in a land of opportunity. The operative word is opportunity. These opportunities are everywhere. Your blog is an excellent source and I will always be grateful to have found it many years ago. My husband and I built our wealth over 4 decades and are now retired and able to have financial freedom and health during our early retirement. It is possible for anyone willing to work hard and be disciplined.
I’m what people who call themselves right-wing would call a “lefty”, and I think comparing you to Hitler is idiocy.
I also agree that people stashing money in Panama is perfectly ok.
And I think calling people right or left is more idiocy.
Now the Iceland situation may involve conflict of interest, money borrowed from failing banks, then negotiations with creditors… stuff that would excite Martha Stewart.
You go Garth. Income isn’t a zero sum game. The system isn’t rigged. Our standard of living is higher than ever and people have been conditioned to expect more than they can afford.
As Dylan sung “Steal a little and they throw you in jail, steal a lot and they make you king.”
Let’s face it, those who have a LOT of money influence those in power that make the laws that are LEGAL FORMS of paying less tax. It’s called lobbyists and huge donations to political parties. This is REALITY 101.
Most mere mortals, the 99% of us reading this blog if we have the chance to make the money to take advantage of all the tax breaks Garth wisely suggests would and are doing the same.
You just have to know the rules to play by them and all Garth is doing is trying to tell you what the rules ARE. Not how they were made or why.
So spend your energy trying to influence those who make the rules…Don’t shoot the messenger.
Garth, I know you say that the outlook of the market right now is still good despite the recent volatility. And I know that you tell people to invest their money accordingly. However what I’m interested in knowing is what would be your strategy if the outlook on the market was exactly what the doomers on this site say it is our will be? …what would be the the plan of action if everything started going south? Would you be able to see soothing like that in advance? Or would it just happen without notice?
Personally I’m worried about a unicorn stampede. — Garth
Doesn’t matter to me? Being concerned about the ability of my government to fund the services I may need to depend on to stay alive is pointless?
“It’s perfectly legal” doesn’t cut it. That’s just a sign that the law needs to be changed.
“…..Tax evasion, however, isn’t okay. You’ll go to jail for it. And these days it’s increasingly difficult to get away with such criminal activity……..” – Garth
__________________________
au contraire…….
“…The Canada Revenue Agency offered amnesty to multi-millionaire clients caught using what’s been called an offshore tax “sham” on the Isle of Man — a reprieve that was supposed to remain secret and out of the public eye until it was uncovered by a CBC News/Radio-Canada investigation.
Canada Revenue officials demanded, and offered, secrecy in a no-penalty, no-prosecution deal to high net worth clients of accounting giant KPMG involved in a dodgy offshore tax scheme. (CBC)
The amnesty allows for “high net worth” clients of the accounting giant KPMG to be free from any future civil or criminal prosecution — as well as any penalties or fines — for their involvement in the controversial scheme.”
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/canada-revenue-kpmg-secret-amnesty-1.3479594
San Francisco. I spent enough days and time there to really explore the city. And Alcatraz. And up and down the coast. Beautiful place to holiday if you’ve never seen it. Lots to see. Amazing how many people live in such a small area in SF.
Sure not as flat or as dry as the prairies.
Yes. Sad. Envy and jealousy are deadly sins for a reason.
I try to keep a low profile in my personal life. Still shaking my head over people who think we should not be anonymous here.
Garth knows my name and where to find me. I’m good with that. To the public? That would be crazy.
Garth,
You forgot to include our Canadian banks who use the “offshore business” to shelter their tax burden.
TraderX
Great post today Garth.
It all boils down to envy. That I deserve what others have…but only if they have more. If they have less, oh well, they must not be as hard working or smart as I. Contentment is nowhere to be found. If you find it, it is worth more than many riches.
#11 Freedom First
Fully agree.
First rule my mom taught me was “Never tell anyone what you have…no matter if you obtained it by hard work, smarts, etc if they have less they will be jealous and do all they can to take it from you to bring them down to their level.”
This was awesome Garth!
When you have a little time, could you also explain with the usual elegance, why is more and more wealth is concentrating in shrinking percentage of the population?
While there, you could also shine the light of your logic to tell the poor about the ample benefits of the emerging billionaires.
$8 trillion in illicit capital outflows from developing economies in the last 10 years affects us all, everywhere. Meanwhile, Canada continues to enable the criminals. Sometimes i think you take pleasure in being contrarian to passive aggressively troll your readers. In any case, dismissing criminal enterprise and corruption as “leftie” hysteria is non sequitur.
“I don’t know why everyone is so against Trudeau. He’s a modern day Robin Hood.”
____________________________________________
Utter non sense. No income splitting means the T2 government does not respect stay at home mothers who in my case are raising 3 children. Is it a liberal value to suggest that the work is not real or valued. Wait until our population ages to see the incentives that will be necessary to encourage larger families.
It takes youth to look after wrinklies.
A true Robin Hood scenario would be to take from Canada and other rich resource guzzling nations that have been responsible to the rape of the planet and distributing it to poor nations across the globe.
I have not met anyone who is part of this ‘elite’ that can take advantage of this ‘rigged’ system. The people that I know are largely self-made or one generation removed.
Someone on yesterday’s blog commented that the wealthy were lucky. I would like to expand on that. If self-made, they are lucky in the sense that the combination of hard work, intelligence, internal fortitude happened to be rewarded on this specific occasion.
I have combined those traits on a couple of deals that have built up my wealth. I also went through two deals were I made little and one were I ended up with a negative net worth for a couple of years. Big rewards come with big risk.
Sure – someone might have been born the son of Hugh Hefner with riches and access beyond what most can dream of. So what – I have seen those people have other trials and tribulations which I would rather not go through. Overall – in our society, mobility is achievable through a number of mechanisms. A retired millionaire told me when i was twenty that the secret to getting rich was to work two jobs. That way you earn double the income and spend less (too tired to go out)… Good advice and less risky.
If you want to be rich, what are your doing to achieve it?
My suggestion is to read How to Get Rich by Felix Dennis (Founder of Maxim magazine). It is humerous and insightful. Importantly, it helps you understand what it takes and makes you think if you really want to pursue it.
Justin Trudeau is an idiot.
Taking away my wife and I’s child benefit because we make 200,000 and giving more to somebody who makes $150,000 is criminal.
All he cares about is winning the next election by not pissing off anybody who makes $150,000 or less
It has nothing to do with good public policy
Of course the best bit in this chunk of social commentary is that the hardcore leftie T2-and-Bernie brigade decry the wealthy from their latest iGadget – supplied to them by a tax-avoiding company that has been known to accept questionable ethics in their production facilities yet compensates their executives very nicely.
#17 cmj
Fabulous post, Garth. I too get fed up with people who feel victimized and also have a sense of entitlement. I am also very disappointed with T2’s direction with our country. He is enabling generations to believe in this sense of entitlement.
As Canadians, we live in a land of opportunity. The operative word is opportunity. These opportunities are everywhere. Your blog is an excellent source and I will always be grateful to have found it many years ago. My husband and I built our wealth over 4 decades and are now retired and able to have financial freedom and health during our early retirement. It is possible for anyone willing to work hard and be disciplined.
*******************************
Panama apparently is also a land of opportunity.
You’re missing something here, when money goes offshore it leaves the rest of us holding the bag to pay for government services.
I’m a lefty, I work, I am happy to pay taxes. Its pretty reasonable for me to ask the 1% to pay their fair share too. Why do you think I feel entitled?
Good blog Garth. I’ve been to Cuba and I saw how communism works (it doesn’t). No thanks.
“It will laud capitalism, support entrepreneurs, question politicians and remind you that nobody can be built up by tearing someone else down.”
We don’t have capitalism.
In a capitalist society there are no bailouts, subsidies, CMHC schemes that create moral hazard, welfare programs, subsidized housing, patents, etc etc.
We have a mercantilist system with many elements of socialist planned economies (e.g., the Farm Bill). Most of these appeared in the 1930s, by the way.
As for the lefties and their hatred of the elites, I’m no fan of left wingers at all. However, many of these elites did NOT become successful in the free market or by legal mechanisms.
The ‘Russian’ oligarchs, for instance, looted the wealth of the Soviet Union after its dissolution using rather underhanded means. That is a clear case of depriving Russian citizens of wealth.
Every time governments shovel money at special interests at above market prices or without tendering the contract, taxpayers are deprived. (A good example being CGI, the execrable company that couldn’t build a simple gun registry or health insurance exchange, but managed to bill hundreds of millions for their incompetence)
Every time government workers embezzle funds (e.g., Chris Mazza), taxpayers are deprived.
Lottery winners, NHL stars, true private sector entrepreneurs (e.g., Steve Jobs) are quite different from the parasitical elites who merely redirect public funds to their own accounts.
Wow! Extremely well said. Here come the haters!!!
@powder_hound86 it might be a rigged system, sure. Success is still possible even when you’re plankton in an ocean of whales. Get a job/education in an industry with a future; your polisci major with a minor in art history is garbage. Blame the universities for not providing real guidance, blame your parents for telling you that the trades or accounting was for losers. Most of all, blame yourself for believing it’s easier to complain about the squeaky wheel than it is to create and sell the grease and live well.
My generation is full of entitlement. Be a winner or be weak; just stop making it everyone else’s problem.
47 TS on 04.05.16 at 7:30 pm
Justin Trudeau is an idiot.
Taking away my wife and I’s child benefit because we make 200,000 and giving more to somebody who makes $150,000 is criminal.
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Looks like name calling at the feeling of entitlement is not restricted to low-bracket lefties.
What is Garth saying?
“There’s a certain perverse comfort in feeling like a victim – it relieves you of responsibility for your own inadequacies – but it’s a giant waste of time.
Get over it.”
Well written Garth . If you didn’t turn the lefties a little to the right side with this post I know a nice little village in North Korea for them to live.
Doing my taxes, found something intersting, a charitable donation only costs me about 50% as I get half of it back…. I plan to donate more next year… I would rather be in control of who gets my money, than giviing to the Government to waste…
I approve of tonight’s post.
I approve of TAX AVOIDANCE to the best of my ability.
I approve of a “BUY LOW” and “SELL HIGH” strategy, whether we are talking about Real Estate, Stocks, Bonds, or used KIA’s or, CADILLAC’s or anything in-between.
I encourage coupon clipping, but ONLY when the original price was one you would buy the product.
I do believe this would also encompass most all of the readers of this sometimes very pathetic blog.
As a resident of the US and a resident of a place where fully improved lots sell for $7,500 in my town, RE is hardly an issue (true, how many do you want?).
Let’s remove our heads from our collective behinds and start looking at the world with a bit wider scope than your local problems. Trust me, they ARE very temporary.
Personally I’m worried about a unicorn stampede. — Garth
—
You mean like companies that let you take naked selfies then deletes them automatically and valued at 25 billion or whatever. Or the one that sends a guy to bring your fast food to your door valued at 10 billion or some stupid number. Lots of them around.
Garth, if you are hoping people will ‘get over it’ I think you will be waiting a very long time. It is far easier to blame someone or something else for your troubles than 1) accept that at this point in time your financial life may suck & 2) acknowledge that your own actions may have been responsible for said financial woes.
Also, if people didn’t think it was easier to take from others rather than earn, create or build for themselves we would not have words like ‘theft’ ‘expropriation’ ‘nationalization’ etc. I’ve no doubt there are multiple examples where expropriation benefited society as a whole, but there are also examples of where that tool was used by powerful interests to line their own pockets at the expense of others.
“Proving that certain behavior is “legal” does not prove that it is ethical or just.”
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Tuesday, April 5, 2016
21 Defendants Charged with Fraudulently Enabling Hundreds of Foreign Nationals to Remain in the United States Through Fake ‘Pay to Stay’ New Jersey College
Twenty-one brokers, recruiters and employers from across the United States who allegedly conspired with more than 1,000 foreign nationals to fraudulently maintain student visas and obtain foreign worker visas through a “pay to stay” New Jersey college were arrested this morning by federal agents, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman for the District of New Jersey announced.
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pension skimmers
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, April 5, 2016
Two Former Senior Executives of Global Financial Services Company Charged in Scheme to Defraud Clients through Secret Trading Commissions on Billions of Dollars in Securities Trades
Two former high-ranking executives of a Boston-based financial services company that is one of the world’s largest asset managers and custody banks were charged in an indictment that was unsealed today with a scheme to defraud at least six of the bank’s clients through secret commissions applied to billions of dollars of securities trades (doj)
http://www.bostonherald.com/business/business_markets/2016/04/feds_2_ex_state_street_execs_bilked_clients_out_of_millions
T2 and gang are not fixing what everyone rails about …he is just muckin’ about …rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic so to speak …here is the real problem IMO. Just big government at work and lots seem to think they want more.
From http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com
“Meanwhile, capitalist prosperity is in crisis because the central bank’s free money is destroying honest price discovery in the financial markets, deforming the free market allocation of investment and other economic resources, crushing savers, retirees and real entrepreneurs and generating unspeakable windfalls to traders and speculators.”
Now you know why you cannot afford a house ….
the poor w always try to ‘get’ the rich. will never work cuz the people in charge are rich. one and the same. the poor are on their own
Communism always promises a lot. It sounds sweeter than honey and it raises hopes of people into bright future. Then it stings you like a viper but by then it’s too late.
It’s interesting that the commi guys always say that we can build, then it turns out that we the people have to build and they will manage.
Those who work under capitalism will survive under communismm since lazy people don’t produce even though they work. Same concept as when everybody follows policies and procedures but the business goes bankrupt.
Working and producing are not the same.
My parents came to canada with 6 kids and no english in early 90s. They learned English, worked, paid off the house. They don’t order takeout, Tim Hortons or Starbucks.
So produce taxpayers for Canada if you’re worried about people coming in with money. Dogs and cats will not buy houses or start businesses. God save the Queen!
I’m paraphrasing someone I can’t remember here but here it is:
It is everyone’s duty to pay the least tax they can.
Garth, I am with you in that I am not in favor of what you call or have described as the “doctor tax”. (Lawyers should be included too in the age of divorce being an inevitability.) Because I know who pays that tax. It’s not the doctors or lawyers, it’s me when I am forced to use their services. And I have been several times and I am sure it will happen again. You can tax doctors at 95% if you want, that just means my copay will go from $20 to $20,000 dollars for a simple visit because it hurts when I pee because I hooked up with some tramp. Not that I am a tramp by no means.
Successful people are successful because they look at a situation, and find a way to win. If they try something, and they aren’t successful, they dust themselves off and try another strategy. In my experience, successful people are successful despite their circumstances, not because of them. A key part of that success is being brutally honest with themselves, in terms of what they want, and how to get it.
People who wait for success to come to them, are rarely successful. What’s more, if, while they’re waiting they spend their time whining about their lack of opportunity, or ‘the man’ keeping them down, or fantasizing about the life they’ll lead, or the things they’ll own… when they’re successful, they won’t notice opportunities to be successful.
Success is not a target or a goal, it’s a way of life.
I’m usually a fan but today seems a bit partisan. The basis of what you’re slighting as a ‘leftie argument’ isn’t just an empty rally against the monied just because they have money. It’s a legitimate grievance over the fact that economic capital is used to generate political capital in ways that undermine democracies by elevating the individual interests against the public interest (see – CRTC rulings, super PACs, Gilded Age oligarchs, etc). I get that there are legal reasons to have private offshore accounts in tax havens, but there are also a lot of illegal ones. It’s also a separate issue from ‘bad government policy’ – the shadow economy directly and negatively impacts the ability of government to provide services and infrastructure, inefficient though it may be.
In a country such as Canada there’s no real reason why we can’t enjoy both strong private enterprise as well as a robust social net provided by a economically and socially responsible government, but I guess that presupposes a modicum of good faith across the board.
Everybody has their FYGM line drawn somewhere, but suggesting we shouldn’t care too much about these revelations because the money would have been wasted anyways is effectively a vote for the status quo.
That being said, I’ve never run an economy. Would love to sit down over a beer and see where this discussion ends up though. Maybe one day…
Garth,
Although I’m sure there are some vitriol spewers out there, I don’t think it is about “tearing people down”. That is a bit extreme.
Taxing people who can afford it isn’t a punishment. Nor should it be viewed that way. If you are paying more tax, it means you are also taking more home, which is a sign you are doing well for yourself. You of all people should know that we still have a progressive tax system. The first $40,000 earned by the richest guy in Canada is still taxed the same as the guy who only earns $40,000. If you gross more, you will also net more. So what if you pay more taxes if you can afford everything you need, and a big house, a hummer and a Harley?
I don’t think that all rich people are fascist, but in what universe is it a good thing to marginalise the people who can already barely afford to eat?
It is pretty destructive and irresponsible to perpetuate the meme that all rich people are deserving of their wealth, and that all poor people “just didn’t work hard enough”. A lot of it comes down to dumb luck. You could have easily been born in Syria, where it wouldn’t matter how hard you worked, you will still probably get bombed. Or maybe you were born in Canada, but your parents were crack fiends. Good luck there.
I’m not suggesting that everyone should make the exact same, obviously that doesn’t work either. But giving back to the society that helped you get where you were makes a better place to live for everyone (including yourself).
And if, like most conservatives, you don’t prescribe to this way of thinking, and you believe that you got where you are solely by your own doing, and nothing else, that’s fine. But even from an economic perspective it doesn’t make sense for a few to hoard wealth. The guy with 1000x as much money as the average person will not be buying 1000 pairs of shoes, or 1000 cars, or 1000 Harley’s… It makes sense to have money in the hands of as many people as possible. That keeps demand for goods high, businesses open, and thus people employed.
Anyway, I enjoy the blog. I come for the housing bit. At least I can agree that people are mental for thinking houses will always go up! (I happily rent)
Wife and I bought a new condo (not a pre-sale, builder sold in final months of construction!) in 2011. Great neighbourhood, a block west of Main/Broadway, Mt. Pleasant. Great building, 634 sq. ft., beautiful one bedroom, $338,000 all in. Very happy past 5 years. Sold in March (finishing PhD in Computer Science, heading to US) for asking, $462,000. Several open houses, lots of good reviews, but no bidding wars, and only a single offer after 3 weeks just below asking. Eventually sold at asking with a few pieces of furniture and inspection. Kind of disappointed, considering the regular RE news out here, but still set a per sq. ft. building sales record at $728. Another unit in building priced much higher has been sitting for weeks. Hard to know what the truth is until you actually sell a place. Will miss YVR, but Seattle is not so far away. :)
Great post, Garth…but sad so many idiot commenters still don’t get what you are trying to say…and misconstrue everything you do say to boot.
If they don’t want free advice about how to save, invest and pay less taxes, and would prefer to blame others and unfairly accuse them of being corrupt or injust, then they should F*%k off to some other blog.
And no, I do not condone corruption, political apathy or tax evasion, and yes I do decry social injustice when it applies. But attacking ANYONE who happens to have reached a certain tax bracket and trying to make them pay for your shortfalls in life is not Kosher.
Oh, and please don’t accuse me of being a 1%er. I’m in the average salary range, as is my partner. We work hard and don’t want to drive every successful business and professional (especially not doctors, thank you!) out of this country. Go ahead and kick the “rich” to the curb morons…you won’t have jobs or social benefits…duh!
I don’t know what lefties have to do with much of anything…I see just as much hate, anxiety, failure to comprehend, lack of ability to spell, etc from both sides of the spectrum on here.
At least the self identified lefties on here can post coherently and seems to me they are concerned about the common good, not fishing for free investment advice for themselves.
As to the wit who applied Godwin’s law to him or her self to start this kerfuffle..well read some of the comments that follow. Neither the right nor the left have any overwhelming claim on stupid.
When a person uses language that polarizes, pits one against the other, the result is a sort of tribalism as some flock to the OP to voice their concurrence with the thoughts written or spoken, while others rush to present the opposing or contrary point of view.
Eventually those tribes break down into smaller and smaller groups and original mode of operation or reason for existence is fogged over at best or lost. Witness the GOP in the US.
Witness what is happening within Stephen Harper’s Conservative Party of Canada. a squeak here, a grunt there but mostly crickets.
You right leaning folks, the base, if you will, instead of spending your time demanding your party get its act together and present Canadians a coherent, sound and workable platform that unifies the right, you spend your time making up cute/rude nicknames for anyone who is currently elected to lead Canada or its provinces.
Go on, spend all your time telling me how much you hate Vancouver, how much you hate how I live, where I live, how I conduct myself in business and in life.
Never, ever, in over 60 years of awareness and more than 50 years of voting have I seen that as a part of any conservative party’s platform.
But, you know, as an old Progressive Conservative who wouldn’t ride in the same elevator as Harper and is chagrined about what he did to Canada, its institutions, its people and its reputation, I say keep on with the name calling, keep on with the divisiveness, the hate, the rancor without introspection because all that does is keep your side out of power.
Right about now, in these times, I welcome that.
Garth, all nazi references aside, you cannot be ok with a company that fires its workers, offshores and then stashes profits in Panama. This has to make your skin crawl, legal or not.
What company is that? — Garth
Hi Garth, I just wanted to say thanks for writing this blog. It has been very helpful to get a second opinion on the Canadian economy and the consequences of world events on it.
Lots of Canadians hate people with $1 more than them, but if they realized for a moment that they are considered rich by many countries around the world, perhaps they wouldn’t have so much vitriol for others.
I’m always amazed that some people would rather tear down a successful person, than try to learn from them.
Keep up the great blog so that I can read it forever!
#46 waiting on the westcoast on 04.05.16 at 7:29 pm
I have not met anyone who is part of this ‘elite’ that can take advantage of this ‘rigged’ system. The people that I know are largely self-made or one generation removed.
Someone on yesterday’s blog commented that the wealthy were lucky. I would like to expand on that. If self-made, they are lucky in the sense that the combination of hard work, intelligence, internal fortitude happened to be rewarded on this specific occasion.
I have combined those traits on a couple of deals that have built up my wealth. I also went through two deals were I made little and one were I ended up with a negative net worth for a couple of years. Big rewards come with big risk.
Sure – someone might have been born the son of Hugh Hefner with riches and access beyond what most can dream of. So what – I have seen those people have other trials and tribulations which I would rather not go through. Overall – in our society, mobility is achievable through a number of mechanisms. A retired millionaire told me when i was twenty that the secret to getting rich was to work two jobs. That way you earn double the income and spend less (too tired to go out)… Good advice and less risky.
If you want to be rich, what are your doing to achieve it?
My suggestion is to read How to Get Rich by Felix Dennis (Founder of Maxim magazine). It is humerous and insightful. Importantly, it helps you understand what it takes and makes you think if you really want to pursue it.
—
The system is rigged in one sense: it benefits arguably proportionately the risk taking entrepreneurs, while obviously not all the 7 billion people is wired to become one.
On top of that, wealth has been able to successfully influence politics, law making to further maximize the already achieved wealth.
As an ugly side-effect, it also makes apologists of the wealthy declare “Vlad Putin sexy” and “the Icelandic guy who resigned today dumb”.
Apparently channeling Hitler. The Holocaust. Slavery. is no-no, only envy lefties would resort for that.
The thing that the complainers always forget is that the world has *always* been tilted in favour of the rich.
The difference now is that, in the first world anyhow, if you work hard and are a bit lucky you can live a life that exceeds even what the richest had in the past.
Garth hit the nail on the head — taking personal responsibility for your situation is hard. Blaming others is easy.
Posting
Everyone is experiencing the same trash talk when you
can hide behind a keyboard. Solution – you can comment through your facebook account only – problem solved.
Garth, just read your post on Belfontain and, what a “splash from my past”.
My first home was just12 miles away from there. Grand Valley.
Had the great good fortune to be back there last summer.
Wonderful memories.
Thanks for the reminders. (We drove trough there, Belfontain that is.) On our way to Terracotta where my aunt lives.
Good luck with the renos. From the looks of the building you will need luck, and LOTS of money. LOL.
We live in the a time where opportunity has never been better for the average folk in the west.
You can work, save, invest and over time become wealthy.
You can travel with your wealth using a passport that is welcomed around the world. When travelling you will meet people who do not share your privilege and then you will appreciate what you have.
Or, you can sit around and wait for somebody else to do all this for you and complain because it’s not getting done.
It’s a clear choice IMO.
keep it up Garth! Always appreciate your blog everyday, as a young working male on the wet coast I look for any valuable information to increase my wealth.
@#2 Serenity Now says
“My childcare benefits are going up. Now I can afford that house I’ve always wanted with the extra money every month instead of throwing my rent money down the drain paying my landlord’s mortgage. TFSA’s are for the rich, glad to see them go.
I don’t know why everyone is so against Trudeau. He’s a modern day Robin Hood.”
I am a US born Canadian citizen. I gave up my USC when I became Canadian– the US wants to charge me $2,350USD and hit me with an Exit Tax to document my loss of USC. Trudeau campaigned as anti-FATCA (the law that the US will use to tax what they call “US persons” in Canada. Trudeau did a flip-flop post election– his government now supports FATCA.
Bottom line: the US now will tax the Child Care Benefit. Robin Hood? Only if Robin Hood stole from the average Canadian and gave it to the US govt!
Canadians just love victim mentality, just like feminism. There is always an invisible oppressor out there that they cannot even pinpoint, which makes them not take any responsibility in their lives. Got a shitty job? Must be the oppressor. Not rich? Must be the oppressor.
#25 Okanagan Man on 04.05.16 at 7:03 pm…
Methinks the reason is that the stats from 2010 show the SFH price at $ 711,392 and the report you quote shows the March 2016 price at $ 663,300.
Now I’m not a math whiz, but it sure looks like prices are still down from 2010.
Bahahahah humbug!
P.S. Are you really DA coming back to educate us?
There is no way that economic activity increased by 24% during the last year in Kitchener-Waterloo. Nowhere near it, in fact. This market is another bubble about to burst.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener-waterloo/2016-property-sales-up-24-per-cent-kitchener-waterloo-1.3521873
In fact, this site will continue to … remind you that nobody can be built up by tearing someone else down.
Get over it.
——
This is actually not true.
Capitalism was built up tearing down feudalism.
Companies built up tearing down other competing companies and entrepreneurs – all the time.
Uber is tearing down taxi companies to build itself up, just to name one of the latest. I could have mentioned Blackberrie.
New takes over by tearing down the old.
Yes, there are always people behind it.
Get over it.
If the income bracket that is getting the brunt of the tax burden shunned those who are sheltering money, maybe the sitting government wouldn’t have to raise the rates?
Don’t tell me the game is the same as it’s always been. Profits have been at a record steady high yet something is different this time around. They aren’t being funnelled back into the economy at the rate we used to see.
Now that the rug has been pulled back and the cockroaches are scurrying, I laugh at those who still want to paint welfare recipient abuse as the economic anchor. No denying that much like a big business, the public sector has inefficiencies…just like there is no denying that there is welfare abuse. But when you get the numbers, the amount of money that is being robbed from tax revenue, it makes the whole “the poor folk are breaking the system” 100% straw.
It may be legal but tax sheltering sure isn’t scrupulous
Love today’s post!!!
Everyone get over it and make a plan on how to improve your own life.
I’ve overcome so much adversity and so have others I know. The difference between winners and losers is hard work, goals and stop making excuses.
DELETED
I’m about as much of a bleeding heart liberal as there is out there, but Garth’s reasoning seems pretty sound to me.
By the same token, I think some of the commenters here who are piling on with the rage about “handouts” are indulging in the same type of ignorance and bigotry as those Garth has called out, and should in turn “get over it”.
I think we’ve lost our way as it relates to enforcement of regulations designed to protect the vulnerable, and in making sure the collective endeavour of government works to provide fairness and opportunity for the underpriveliged, but that’s another discussion for another day.
George Soros and Putin are trying to take over the world?
http://www.infowars.com/soros-and-ford-foundation-behind-the-panama-papers/
Garth,
I’ve been reading your blog now since 2012 and have always loved your writing style. You blend just the right amount of crass with sass. I recently saw a video of you and was shocked that your greaterfool persona didn’t carry over into the way your converse in person. I suppose even you can’t be all things to all people.
Now let’s forget about all things financial for just a minute and consider what’s really important. I want a golden retriever, my wife wants a cavalier king charles spaniel. Which one of us is in the right?
Am I the only one starting to feel uncomfortable because I don’t have to struggle paycheck to paycheck?
There just seems to be so much jealousy and the desire to take from me what I’ve spent 30+ years working towards.
It’s like I should feel embarrassed to be doing ok (finally).
I don’t like the current vibe at all.
The RE market could finally be slowing on the North Shore/ North & West Vancouver. Noticeable downturn in activity since Spring Break finished. More re-lists with lower ask, more price reductions, and more days on market. Buyer fatigue perhaps.
Time will tell.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/real-estate-news/article69248462.html
Seems that some of those funds have eventually found their way into Miami realestate…couldn’t be any in Van /To could there?
BOOM!
When a Primary is under way, are early returns reported on the idiot box in Badger country? Or do you have to wait for the final count? If early returns are reported, give us an update.
Maybe it live streams on Titter.
Just a quick update on the housing market up in Fort McMurray. Prices peaked in 2007, equaled 2007 in 2014, and now once again are in the absolute crapper. A house just a few down from my old one was listed a few months ago, and I just saw today it’s been relisted $30k less. The house/yard was much smaller than mine, but probably would have sold for high $500’s in 2014… It’s now competing with a LOT of other houses in the low $400’s. Ouch. Houses up there are honestly starting to become comparable to Edmonton or Calgary. If I didn’t know how much of a nightmare it is/can be to deal with scumbag renters up there, I’d be thinking of buying up a nice little house in the low $400’s, but I’m smarter than that now and don’t ever need that headache again
Well when you think about it..
Who is the bigger thief. T2 who wants to rob from the hard working and saver with his bank enforcers
or the poor guys trying to move their money into a safe haven just in case.
there are a lot of reason why people will move their money else where… Non Canadian dollar or US dollar.
EG bit coin. Just in case if hell breaks loose, they have diversified , same with gold
#78 Goofy
No you should not at all be made to feel embarrassed for what you do or earn. However,
With the middle class slowly shrinking and a 2 not 3 tier system – Upper and Lower, Have and Have Not class forming, when the various bubbles burst Housing, etc someone will have to pay in one form or another and guess who will be paying for the party the past 7 years????
Just wow. You go to extreme lengths to show how realty racism is unfounded and unacceptable, ban the intolerant, provide advice based on fact not conjecture, and then get compared to Hitler and a slave owner. Just wow. Reflect on my favourite quote : “never attribute to malice that which can equally be explained by stupidity.” Thanks for the blog. It’s helped me through years of sleepless night since my newborn (4 this weekend!) decided sleep was unnecessary.
Try being a conservative in Vancouver…….I’m surprised I haven’t been stalked, kidnapped, and sent to a reeducation camp to cleanse me of my toxic capitalist thoughts…..
Then again I very rarely venture west of Cambie (yes I rent because I #cantafford3million)
Wait back up – did 1 read you can get money from a RRIF free of tax ??? HOW ??
(I’ll tell you later, after the commies leave. — Garth)
Garth,
It looks like Ayn Rand’s dogwhistle works. I’m surprised that you actually believe we live in a meritocracy. Everyday I see examples of injustice, enough examples to laugh at some of the picture you painted above. Your nonchalant attitude to the Panama revelations will backfire and provide more fuel for those legitimately angered about the whole affair. Our perspectives are worlds apart.
They can be as angry as they want. If it diverts their focus from improving their own lives, guess who loses? Again. — Garth
#90 dirt dog
Really, a price drop on the North Shore?
This was the other open house I visited on the weekend in Dunbar a few blocks away from me. Hundreds of lookers. I went by today SOLD. I’ll find out in a couple of days if it went for over asking. Any one like to place bets the the orange mesh of death goes around the trees and the big machine comes in and mows it? Smart owners, they had it up for sale last summer took it off for more and the sign went up last week.
http://www.rew.ca/properties/R2049432/3479-w-19th-avenue-vancouver
Garth, I like you. Your financial pragmatism is great.
When it comes to pose as an apologist ideologue you just suck. You never managed to lift off from the Sun.
At least they used to have a sunshine girl.
Do what you do best, the leftie, rightie thing is just not your cup of tea. It’s your peril. I am telling you this, because I like you as a financial pragmatist.
Just read Jamie Dimon of JP MORGAN makes $106.514 a day..
What a sucker, should be playing major League baseball…
“laud capitalism, support entrepreneurs, question politicians and remind you that nobody can be built up by tearing someone else down”
Classic Garth-ism. The return of the Red Tory.
“Everyone is experiencing the same trash talk when you
can hide behind a keyboard. Solution – you can comment through your facebook account only – problem solved.”
Oh Garth please, please no… don’t make being a Face Booker a requirement for commenting here. Doing so would only skew the comments to even more self absorbed Millenial moisters. I would be pleased to give my name but I cannot abide losing enough self-respect to sign up for Facebook.
Thanks in advance.
“…In fact, this site will continue to explain how to (a) make more money and (b) avoid losing it in tax. It will laud capitalism, support entrepreneurs, question politicians and remind you that nobody can be built up by tearing someone else down.”
PREACH IT BROTHER GARTH!!!!!! AMEN!!!
“Damn, I should know better than to rise to the bait of the left-wingers who come here to be irritating (it works).”
————————————————-
You frequently manage to place out of context, vitriolic anti-NDP or T2 attacks in your blogs. Your ditto dogs love it, but you seem to get you noise out of joint big time when commenters take issue with your ideologies.
Legal tax avoidance for targeted groups or activities may have some benefits. Allowing tax avoidance for people just because they’re rich makes no sense at all.
Thomas Piketty’s “Capital”, identifies that capital is concentrating because it is now mostly inherited. Great-Grandpa was the original entrepreneur, but generations later the game is capital preservation only. Piketty’s recipe is to tax the hell out of the stagnant capital of the idle rich. I like it.
Moving capital off shore benefits a foreign jurisdiction and deprives Canadians of tax income for infrastructure, health care, education etc. Who makes up the difference? The guys with the T4 slips.
I see Obama is trying to address the issue and wants Congress to do something about it. Of course, Congress will reject it because:
1) He’s Obama
2) Eliminating off shore shelters would threaten those who’ll finance their re-elections.
Well said!
Garth wrote,
They can be as angry as they want. If it diverts their focus from improving their own lives, guess who loses? Again. — Garth
And if individuals lived in a vacuum, your prescription would be plausible. We all know there is a massive global financial lobby that basically writes the laws to make this tax sheltering ‘legal’…and you’re telling folks to focus on autobiographical solutions? LOL
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/panama-papers-neil-macdonald-1.3520491
The time you took today to vex and post here could have been used to enhance your own financial life. You wasted these hours. Zero. — Garth
Meh. Did anyone honestly believe that people with means are not trying to minimize taxes paid? Get real.
Worry about your own life and what you actually can control. The rest is theatre.
Thanks Garth for everything! I’m a faithful reader and your blog is right on point (as always)!
There is a growing meme in Canada that being wealthy or successful is criminal. The majority Canadians have no interest in taking responsibility for their own financial futures and it’s only after they’ve spent themselves into financial oblivion (170%), that they turn to our elected officials to provide them with a solution – queue Class Wafare. Our current liberal government used this national sentiment/opinion to gain power, and are just trying to keep the fire stoked during their 1st term to guarantee a 2nd.
I would have no problem supporting any government party that enacted effective social programs directed at supporting those Canadians most at the margins of society. But i do have difficulty accepting and supporting a new middle class welfare state. The “feel good-ery” of the T2 government is light on substance – just wishes and pixy dust! Moving the age of eligibility back to 65 for CPP/OAS is just optics!! It makes no sense mathematically – no one cares!
How much leftist hang-wringing is done over the billions of undeclared incomes by waitresses and bartenders? or the billions of cash work done by contractors?
You forgot about the suites. — Garth
looking forward to the rrif tax thing
It is pretty simple. The higher a countries tax rate at the top end, the less money will remain in the country for investment and taxation.
Setting a tax rate is like a business setting it’s price for the product or service it sells. There is a sweet spot. Price or tax things too high and you end up with less. It is that simple.
T2 and his group of misfits have made all the wrong moves. Net tax revenue will plummet under the T2 regime. End result, more debt and less money for social programs. That is what the naive voted for. They just don’t know it yet.
The time you took today to vex and post here could have been used to enhance your own financial life. You wasted these hours. Zero. — Garth
It took approximately fifteen minutes, and I don’t consider a visit to your blog with the odd comment added here or there a total waste of time.
Then you certainly need help. — Garth
Could one of you socialists here start your own blog:
The Leftie Fool.
Get bent.
Are Canada’s leftists so politically correct that the country has shifted to politically corrupt?
http://www.bnn.ca/News/2016/4/5/Canadian-bank-fined-11-million-for-failing-to-report-suspicious-dealing.aspx
Are we so afraid to name names that we can’t even say the name of the offenders for fear of telling the truth? That my friends is corruption not accommodation.
Who are the ‘unnamed criminals’? Which bank has done the dirty deed and stuck the knife in the backs of Canadian home buyers? For whom is the media willing to hide the facts for fear of offense. Why is it so offensive to tell the truth and name the traitors and the players?
@70 Metaxa-
Seconded.
I hate this US style polarization of politics. The centre is were it’s at.
WHERE it’s at!
I have to share this…
2008 850 sqft condo in Port Coquitlam aka. Pocompton
Assessed $313k, asking $350k, sold $422k
OMG!!!!!
I see one of two things happening here.
1. Either Vancouver “IS” different and condos 45 mins out of Van will be half mil + or….
2. The correction or “crash” will be far more severe than everyone is predicting.
I can see the headlines now……..
More and more middle class Vancouverites towing there homes behind them.
I saw an affordable one on Craigslist. Do those things come with in trailer laundry???
On a more serious note.
Garth, I believe some people can blame others for not getting into a house.
I know many people who make well above average incomes including myself and are not even close to buying. $150,000 + should be more than enough. These people have a right to be angry.
Your comment as a whole within Canada makes sense, but if just directed towards Van and Tor it doesn’t.
They are on a whole different playing field where even the wealthy to Canadian standards can’t afford to live.
You should read Picketty’s Capital. I think there is something inherently wrong with the system where it is expected to earn 7%+ on capital in a deflationary/low inflation environment. Labour should count for more then what you have in your bank account and under these rules it only snowballs into fewer and fewer hands.
People are getting wise to this…
#74 GEM on 04.05.16 at 8:09 pm
You can also have noname dispodable email/facebook account, so that won’t fix it. There is no easy fix for lack of integrity…
Let me tell you something about , your internet/router/system firewall is set up the way to prevent non desirable data entering your device/computer/cell, bou it does nothing acrualy does very little to prevent data leaving your device.
And if you think that I am full of $#!7 you might be on to something…
http://webkay.robinlinus.com/
RE:
Well then, enough of this weeping and gnashing of teeth. Get on with it!
With about 30% of the vote in here are there Stats:
DEMOCRATS
Bernie Sanders 54%
Hillary Clinton 46%
REPUBLICAN
Ted Cruz 53%
Donald Trump 31%
John Kasich 15%
Media are calling it for Sanders and Cruz
I get outraged at the growing socialist thinking in the western world and then I remember it is just a cycle. The best thing that could have happened to us is the Liberals winning the October election. The liberals will oversee the greatest economic slide since the 30s and their junk interventionist policies will only fuel the collapse. The public of slowly rising as they are starting to understand the massive corruption that festered between government, the financial and RE sector, public sector unions and a small number of large global corporations.
The kleptocracy we are living in is desperately trying to cling to power and they will stop at nothing until they have pillaged everything. The massive debt and spending binge will lead us to dictatorship and a major loss of prosperity. Those who think they can avoid the coming onslaught by maxing out TFSA and rsp will be sorely mistaken
When the final hours come and find bond market refuses to lend money to the crooks watch out
Hey VREU;
Did you see the March numbers for Victoria?
Year over year increase was 16.4% for Victoria Core !!
May be you could update your graphs. Oh I forgot for some reason you like showing us the years 2010 to 2014……bahahahaha
———–
Exactly. Now the latest data is in, and oh look, prices have swollen 16% in a short month. Gee, who could have seen that coming?
Even in my bedroom community, I am seeing houses that sold for 500k two or three years ago go for easily 100k or 150k more.
I am still waiting for the exact reasons VREU why we are seeing the price increases.
Is it the economy – nope, still the same government town. Is it the low interest rates – nope, they have been down for over a year now and as you point out – down for 8 years without significant sale and price increases. Oh I know, local incomes have skyrocketed 16% – nope.
Hmmmm….maybe, just maybe, its the flood of capital from Vancouver buying up properties, being pushed here by an even bigger flood of foreign capital.
I warned you that the Vancouverization of Victoria would happen – and guess what, this months numbers are the first test of that wave of capital. Hold on young girl because its going to be a ride to the top – unless you continue to stick your head in the sand.
Turning a blind eye is an idiom describing the ignoring of undesirable information.
In regards to rental shortages and low listing supply due to fear of not finding or affording a suitable replacement;
How come seller clauses aren’t written in to lease back
empty houses after HAM buys a house to park money a la Swiss bank account.
Win win, seller cashes out at high market, rents home for a while (no moving but scads of cash-yeah!), HAM has money safe in a house that otherwise wouldn’t be available.
Might even bring prices back to reality. Seems like a realtor marketing advantage not fully exploited.
I hope TheDude reads this.
BTW, Hitler was a socialist…
#89
Just tell everyone you pay child/spousal support/big mortgage payments.Never let on that your getting ahead and doing well it puts a target on your back.Keep learning and growing financially and keep it to yourself.Its a nice feeling to be debt free and increasing your net worth every payday,see what happens when your pool of cash gets to the mid six figures and you start making more than you earn at your job.
@BC_Doc re: ” Bottom line: the US now will tax the Child Care Benefit. Robin Hood? Only if Robin Hood stole from the average Canadian and gave it to the US govt!”
Yes sadly, average law-abiding Canadians with the curse of the red, white and blue tattoo (one million of us) are being sacrificed by the Canadian government to the USA (under threat of 30% withholding of all US passthrough payments to Canadian banks for non-compliance) under the guise of helping USA hunt for ‘tax cheats.’ When people hear the word ‘tax cheat’ they get their panties all in a knot whether there is any real cheating going on or not. Canadians living in Canada earning Canadian only income, paying Canadian tax rates, and having Canadian only bank accounts are hardly tax cheats. Meanwhile USA has refused to join the CRS, and with FATCA’s one way data flow is fast becoming the largest tax haven in the word.
the poor vote in the rich who talk best about helping the poor. never happens. rich always help the rich. the poor are on their own.
RE:
Look at line 314 on your tax form and guide.
http://www.moneysense.ca/save/retirement/get-money-out-of-your-rrsp-tax-free/
Free advice from a Leftie Loser.
Mr. Turner has finally (perhaps many times before?) joined an elite list of individuals compared to Hitler. It’s a phenomenon known as Godwin’s Law or reductio ad Hitlerum (check wiki). Congratulations.
Not sure why all you blog dogs are pawing at the golden feet of the 1%.
Because they sure as heck don’t think twice about you.
Ironically, so many of us who decry tax avoidance and the rise of the 0.01% continue enriching and enabling them.
If we are really serious about putting an end to this, rather than being angry and demand more taxes, stop buying their wares and services.
Vote with your wallet. Get rid of the smartphone, do not use social media, no $600 tablets. Use regular taxis. Eat out only at mom-n-pop restaurants. Bank at a credit union. Grow you own food. Buy made in Canada (hope you get the idea).
But that would be hard and require sacrifice. Making principled personal choices is apparently less preferred than tweeting and blogging our outrage – by using services and goods that capitalist, entrepreneurial, ambitious minds devised and became rich selling to chumps like us.
And by the way, aside from taxing the rich more, what are we the middle class doing to help the less-than-middle class? I get the rich must be soaked to pay for our tax cuts, but what are we giving up to help the rest?
Do we tear the rich down while building the poor up?
I fear we have focused on the wrong one…
Garth great comment tonight as always. A suggestion for you in an effort to quell the latest socialist uprising. Why don’t you just throw everyone a bone and outline in painstaking detail the step by step process required to set up and take advantage of the tax benefits provided by a family trust? And I don’t mean just going and telling everyone to do it. Hold our hands, explain how we can make the tax law work for us! Make piano lessons, little kickers, and God forbid the odd flight down to Tampa tax deductible. These people deserve to know. It’s the closest thing any layman will get to achieving tax efficiency in their sheltered Canadian lifetimes. Surely none of these dogs would ever solicit your services in that regard, let alone offer to compensate you for it. Kill them with kindness and silence all your critics by allowing them to lift the veil on tax avoidance strategies regularly employed by the 1%. It’s within everyone’s grasp and irony is a b1tch.
#125 macroman
The house down the street from me was sold as a leaseback. The vendor tried this two years ago and was not successful but with the hot market late last year they got a sale for 1.3 million and are still living there.
Also I know of a renter where the house was sold and the new owner kept it as an “investment” and the tenant stayed put at their old rent. So it doesn’t always follow that a sale equals an eviction.
There is no shortage of rentals in the burbs at least, in spite of what the fear mongers like to say.
@nsask_pirate85 {
@powder_hound86 it might be a rigged system, sure. Success is still possible even when you’re plankton in an ocean of whales. Get a job/education in an industry with a future; your polisci major with a minor in art history is garbage. Blame the universities for not providing real guidance, blame your parents for telling you that the trades or accounting was for losers. Most of all, blame yourself for believing it’s easier to complain about the squeaky wheel than it is to create and sell the grease and live well.
My generation is full of entitlement. Be a winner or be weak; just stop making it everyone else’s problem.
}
Your assumed stereotypes about me are so far off base its hilarious dude! Thanks for the laugh.
Oh and you missed the part where I said you have to play the cards your dealt in best possible way. This means working hard every day to earn an honest living and provide for my family and make due despite living a world full of corruption where the same rules don’t apply to the wealthy. Yes you have to make due, there is no alternative.
That doesn’t mean I have to accept what is happening as right or just ‘get over it’ and be completely apathetic about things.
Obama: ‘tax avoidance is a big global problem’ – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35971835
Big corporations that can and the little guys that can not…
“You can even use life insurance to create a 100% tax-free pension income stream. ”
Could you please elaborate more on this scheme in a future posting?
“Get over it.” – HonGT
#The70’sAreCalling… #CanYouHearThem?…
https://youtu.be/-0kcet4aPpQ
https://youtu.be/Uw0G7H1EOho
I work with a large group of Gen-Xers and Millenials, most of whom bought homes within the last two to seven years. They got married and started families and did what most average young Canadian family does, make the biggest purchase of their lives. All I hear from these groups each day is their expectations that prices will keep rapidly climbing. Most truly expect the average million dollar Toronto home will soon be two million! Reasons: Some draw parallels to NYC and how Toronto is an emerging world class city and many immigrant families that initially moved there were eventually priced out of their own neighbourhoods. Shear population growth like NYC will continue to drive prices much higher. Another point is that foreigners will continue dumping their money in major Canadian cities, since Canada is a safe haven.
First off, the NYC housing market has not climbed non-stop and has undergone some major corrections:
http://furmancenter.org/files/Trends_in_NYC_Housing_Price_Appreciation.pdf
Second, I think Jason Kirby has it exactly “right” in this Maclean’s article.. Read Gen-Xers and Millenials:
http://www.macleans.ca/economy/economicanalysis/the-insane-expectations-driving-the-canadian-housing-market/
Finally, doesn’t it get worrisome when so many US investors keep taking major positions against Canadian housing:
http://renx.ca/boardwalk-reit-squeezed-by-double-short/
Many are also talking a global asset bubble as many other economies have experienced such rapid house price growth, take Australia for example:
http://worldhousingbubble.blogspot.ca/2016/01/how-australian-households-most-indebted.html?m=1
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-24/new-big-short-australias-housing-bubble-grip-insanity
Australia seems to be experiencing very similar woes to Canadian housing.
Housing goes thru cycles, periods of growth and contraction just as any normal business cycle. Don’t be fooled!!! The latest charts from Garth and Jason Kirby appear to be that typical blip in prices and herd psychology in human behaviour before a major collapse. Don’t get caught with the herd!
Yaaaaayy to a)
25 Okanagan Man on 04.05.16 at 7:03 pm
Hey VREU;
Did you see the March numbers for Victoria?
Year over year increase was 16.4% for Victoria Core !!
May be you could update your graphs. Oh I forgot for some reason you like showing us the years 2010 to 2014……bahahahaha
*********************
Wow…who you quoting…the local realtor board or an article written by the local realtor board and distributed as news by a local rag.
Didn’t we expect a slight up tick is sales due to the down payment changes. I know two younger people who bought before the rules changed so what.
Check this out: Close to your neck of the woods. (note: article refers to 2008 oil crisis, it should have read 2015 oil downturn).
Unfinished condos in Columbia Valley declared a ‘nuisance property’
Neighbours growing weary of looking at unfinished buildings
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/columbia-valley-nuisance-property-1.3522064
When oil money was gushing into Alberta, many turned to B.C.’s Columbia Valley for vacation homes. But when the oil markets dried up in 2015, construction came to a stop.
Toxic ‘accidental’ fire in Radium Hot Springs under investigation
“There was a lot of development going on, then everything came to a screeching halt,” said Clara Reinhardt, mayor of the Village of Radium Hot Springs…”
Nothing to worry about folks…just an isolated instance I guess.
While what you say is true, one ignores the plight of the rabble at their own peril. Income disparity has not been a positive development in many latin American countries over the decades, for example, where many expatriates who never even saw themselves as remotely rich found the locals had other ideas and discovered machete justice can be highly unpleasant. When so few control so much, systems and conditions tend to be unsustainable. Canada has little to worry about in this regard, and even the US it seems is taking further steps to avoid guillotine redistribution, never a walk in the park. I agree that equilibrium will be maintained, but this perch on the ledge will be walked back, quickly, and soon. Nothing that Warren Buffett hasn’t himself said, and often.
I don’t see this as a left vs right issue. It is more of capitalism vs what we have today, which is crony capitalism. Banks that are too big too fail, trade agreements written in secret by corporate lawyers, massive subsidies to certain industries, massive money printing used to prop up failed institutions, manipulation of forex, libor etc.
I refuse to accept the defeatist Margaret Thatcher attitude that “there is no alternative” to this system. It is as simple as reinstating Glass/Steagle.
Sorry to hear that people are so rude Garth, people can be so awful!
Thank you for continuing despite their awful comments, you are doing a tremendous service.
The people that follow the rules will always finish 2nd in todays world.
4 GEM on 04.05.16 at 8:09 pm
…. Solution – you can comment through your facebook account only
..
………..
What about those who are not teenage girls, and therefore don’t use Facebook?
There’s nothing more outraged than a indebted socialist.
Well, if socialism is your “thing” and you think that everyone should earn the same amount of money….time to move to Venezuela. The “Bolivarian revolution” started by the late Hugo Chavez has almost totally bankrupted the country.
Or Zimbabwe perhaps? Where the 36 year experiment with socialism has proven only one thing. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
$5 US dollars is worth 100 billion ( with a B) Zimbawean zlotys or whatever they have called their worthless currency.
Socialism. When hardly working people only work hard at blaming the hard working people.
T2 doesnt give two shits about you voters, he just talks that way……..
Canada has been slowly going Left over the last 10 years. It is more noticeable now as the process has speeded up. It is a natural reaction to lack of opportunity for those under 45 in Canada today.
Worldwide though going Left has never in the history of man solved any problems long term. It is a ‘let’s all be poor and suffer together’ mentality.
Here in the EU the countries that have led the world in Left thought such as Norway and Finland are struggling economically as money and people have fled to lower taxed countries. There is no-one there with money left to tax.
Globalisation and open borders have built today’s 1%ers.
I really don’t know what the answers are but higher tax isn’t one of them. High tax just destroys opportunity and drive.
retriever
Well said, Garth.
Garth,
I do agree with the position that Canadians are woefully ignorant of the fundamentals of finance, and their current quest for home ownership at any cost is
insane, and is a contributing factor to the massive real estate bubble we see now.
Your efforts to educate through your blog should be appreciated by all.
But I am not so sure that I agree about your perspective on the nature of issues such as the impacts of offshore wealth, uncontrolled flows of foreign funds,
and the social issues that may result.
Look at recent examples of policy that is not responsive to its citizenry.
The European Union Schengen agreement has been touted as a progressive treaty that allows citizens in the European Union the ability to cross country borders freely, with border control, using common visas. Sounds like a great policy to allow free movement of goods and people throughout the union.
However, because of the massive exodus of refugees from Syria, Iraq, etc, and the recent tide of economic
immigrants from other poor countries, the Shengen agreement means that many member states cannot control the flow of refugees and migrants via their own borders.
This is causing huge societal, cultural and , economic problems in many member states, and it threatens to be
a potential contributing factor to possible EU breakup.
In fact, many states have erected new border controls, with armed guards, to try to defend their borders,
in direct opposition to the EU policy.
It’s all great and nice to have principles, but when these effect of these principles cause economic hardship and
societal discord, then the population begins to push back.
Or take the concept of globalization, where economies have been opened domestically and internationally to
allow freer access to foreign markets and trade, with reductions in trade barriers and movement of
capital and money.
Great principle, in theory.
But there have been, and are, impacts of these policies.
The hollowing out of many middle class jobs in Canada and America is a prime example.
Yet of the impacts of these policies, many of which are felt by local business, local cultures, and local people, are mostly ignored.
Surprise, not everyone that loses a job in manufacturing to offshore, can be trained to be a web designer.
Not everyone in the labor market that loses their job can be a ‘knowledge worker’.
In America the Trump effect, is a prime example of people trying to push back, perhaps in a misguided way. But other politicians have not listened and Trump seems to care. Sanders is having the same impact for the left.
In Canada, the issue today is of the possible impact of offshore wealth on certain real estate markets.
Right now we have a couple of major municipalities where locals are showing concern. And many of these frustrated folks see a common theme.
The problem is that no one is really willing to do the work to analyze the issue.
And therefore it a little unfair to claim that no issue exists.
It is a little trite to say, ‘take responsibility for yourself’ or ‘stop blaming others’ or’ignore what you cannot change’, or ‘your not entitled to own a home’.
Especially, since your generation (and mine) have had every opportunity, in our lives, to pay a fair amount for fairly valued real estate, all the while earning a fair wage, in a fairly predictable job market, that could support a reasonable standard of living.
Methinks that politicians better be very careful as to how they approach this particular issue.
And I ain’t no leftie.
“…because they’re also the ones whose capital, ends up funding corporations and creating jobs. ” Nice to see the “job creators” meme re-cast in a truthful way.
Tax avoidance is in fact the fiduciary duty of the corporate officers of these multinationals. If there is a loop-hole they are obliged to make use of it and the penalty for not doing so runs all the way up to jail time.
T2’s and Notley’s policies are working:
http://calgaryherald.com/opinion/columnists/milke-its-no-suprise-that-higher-taxes-chase-out-entrepreneurs
Good job with this blog Garth, keep up the good work. The idiots will always come out to play. I know, I used to run one of the worlds biggest forums. You just have to ignore it.
In other wishes, Wish I knew somebody here in Regina to properly invest with…
I hope you didn’t just say that wealth will trickle down to benefit the non-wealthy because the wealthy invest in commerce and create jobs. I’m just going to assume I misunderstood and go to bed.
I’m a pensioner with about 16k in pension income.
Anyone out there, please let me how I can avoid paying taxes?
Love your posts Garth.
Further to your point, let’s ask the readers/victims who complain.
When the Canadian dollar was high, and US real-estate was low,
a) Did you look into buying a rental investment in the US?
If not, that is failure #1. Why didn’t you think to do it? Answer that question so you don’t make the mistake again today or tomorrow. (hint: it may not be the US, it might not even be real-estate… but chance favors the prepared mind, so ask yourself what you are doing to prepare.)
b) If you did think about it, why didn’t you go through with it?
Answer that question, and you figure out whether or not you are either lazy or risk averse or both.
And as proof, I know more than one person who profited handsomely. The rental has now gone up in value, they get US $ income, and US dollar has gone up.
c) Now, ask yourself, if you were successful in (a) and (b), how much should do you feel you should share it with those who didn’t do that? Are you generous? Would you give 10% of it as fair? How about 50%? How about more than 50%?
Garth, all nazi references aside, you cannot be ok with a company that fires its workers, offshores and then stashes profits in Panama. This has to make your skin crawl, legal or not.
What company is that? — Garth
=========
http://anonhq.com/walmart-has-76-billion-stashed-in-magical-tax-havens/
Ah, yes. Credibility. An anonymous poster quoting the Anonymous web site quoting a flawed report. Love it. Sorry about the Kia, though. — Garth
#52 Damifino on 04.05.16 at 7:36 pm
Wow! Extremely well said. Here come the haters!!!
============
Nope. Liberals are the ones in power.
Enjoy your day Damifino!
SIMPLE QUESTION …….
How many of you out there that have a problem with those “Panama Paper Villans” have ever and still has someone on their payroll?
In other words do you hire people full-time and pay them out of your pocket or through the business that you own and run….I bet not one.
Those “Panama Paper Villans” are responsible for creating 100’s of thousands of full time positions….and probably some that you may either directly or indirectly don’t even realize you work for.
Plain and Simple…..THE RICH CREATE JOBS…….. !!!
YOU DON’T……SO GET OVER IT !!!
@ #150 Jane
Canada has been slowly going Left over the last 10 years.
Harper was left? Or Harper caused Canada to veer to the left? I’m uncertain what exactly your meaning is here.
I really don’t know what the answers are but higher tax isn’t one of them. High tax just destroys opportunity and drive.
How about fair taxation with all citizens and corporations paying their fair share?
If we (all of us) stop worrying about left or right and start listening and speaking to one another and start to vote at the local level for those who are promulgating real workable ideas and concepts instead of those who rail against the food bank applicant who has a cell phone…maybe then we get the politician we really, actually want and deserve.
Because it starts right there, in our back yards.
I don’t see that happening soon tho…evidence on this very blog…posters spewing hate, fighting with each other, asking for free specific financial advice…its a sad situation.
I’ll tell you a quick story tho….not a rant/lecture to you, Jane, for everyone to ponder.
I live next door to a RCMP officer. He sees the worst every day, rarely the best right?
I have a hard time telling him we all aren’t pukes.
His environment has made him feel that anyone out and about is wrong somehow, some way.
his environment has conditioned his response to those around him and he is/was a bitter, suspicious man.
As we got to know one another he relaxed a bit around me and I felt it OK to invite him salmon fishing a year or so ago.
So him, me and a friend from Colorado went out for a week with another friend who is a guide, has the boat, the skills.
My buddy from Colorado used to work for his government in far away dusty lands, seen some stuff. His environment shaped him too only his was far, far more onerous than being a RCMP officer in a mid sized city on northern Vancouver Island.
Just that week out of his normal environment, being with folks who know stuff…real manly stuff I might add… literally changed my cop neighbor’s world view.
For the better, over the past year and a bit his rank has improved and he is now in charge of a specialty unit that carries significant prestige in ranks and looks good on his resume to boot.
He was a loner, introverted, drunk, bad cop putting in time. now he is promoted, in charge of a specialty unit, doing well and likes himself.
Get out of the echo chamber, talk to your neighbours, allow others to hold contrary opinions, get comfortable in your own skin and you will be amazed at what can happen.
Thanks for your perseverance Garth! The opening two paragraphs of dinglenuttery was almost too much for my weak constitution.
#122 BOOM! on 04.05.16 at 9:59 pm
With about 30% of the vote in here are there Stats:
DEMOCRATS
Bernie Sanders 54%
Hillary Clinton 46%
REPUBLICAN
Ted Cruz 53%
Donald Trump 31%
John Kasich 15%
Media are calling it for Sanders and Cruz
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
yeah? And? NY is next with 95 delegates where Trump will get all 95 plus many more eastern states. And Trump is still 226 points ahead. Good luck with that “lying Ted”.
Not everyone who is upset about the revelations in the Panama Papers is mad some people have lots of money. It has exposed corruption that causes a world of hurt to a lot of people all over the world, may of these the poor and vulnurable(who don’t really have the ability to invest in ETFs and follow a rule of 90’s).
This blog is about money. I get it. But I think dismissing a large scale ring of corruption because it doesn’t directly affect our portfolios shows there might be another bubble that needs to burst.
I won’t get over it. I hope our leaders won’t either.
https://panamapapers.icij.org/
Oh good, more class warfare.
This is as much a useless distraction as talking about the weather and climate change.
Inequality is getting worse. We need to work on it. Period.
Personally I’m worried about a unicorn stampede. — Garth
0101010101010101010101010101
Why that’s just silly.
We have to worry about a collider generating a black hole that implodes the planet and then ingests the rest of the solar system.
Get your priorities straight man.
Get a grip.
Young people have been ditching Facebook for other social medias like Instagram as their parents join Facebook.
Keep up.
I’d reference Adam Smith’s, “The Wealth of Nations”, where he makes the case that the more wealth you have, the more you have used the common goods of society, and the higher your rate of taxation should be to pay back society for this use. This seems much more supportable than Friedman’s flat tax or user pay goobly-gook which has resulted in 40% of profits going to the finance industry, the continuing depression of 2008, and the impending takeover of the west by Russia, another oligarchy. With the impending loss of 95% of jobs to deep AI, robot production lines, and computers, where will demand come from? I can forsee the torches being lit and the pitchforks rustling, particularly in the gunslinging culture to the south.
Well, if I were (super) rich and had the money invested, it would likely deprive you of little.
But if I were rich and bought a super-yacht (built in Halifax, of course), then it would deprive you of your proportionate share of whatever trinkets those Haligonians would have been productively employed to produce otherwise. Personally, I never have enough trinkets.
Guys, don’t be lazy, do a search, you’ll find everything you want to know. For instance, re.
Life insurance to create a 100% tax-free pension income stream – see for instance:
http://lighthousewealth.ca/belleville/our-services/specialized-planning/insurance-planning/
Estate-Friendly Investing Through Life Company Products:
https://www.cibcwg.com/c/document_library/get_file?uuid=432e0c39-7de2-4e6d-80e5-fa86cd936961&groupId=487787&version=1.0
Is searching and reading too much work for you? Talk to an insurance agent, he’ll explain it all for you. Still too much work? Get a fee-based advisor to set it up for you.
Mr. Turner, one question: have you ever had any offshore company? Or do you have one now?
No. And that matters, how? — Garth
Here’s a thought experiment:
Just imagine if we had one unified world government now, and were finally trying to effectively address global issues like climate change, poverty and infant health etc…with our total collective tax dollars.
What would the rich do?
Of course, they would try to “off-planet” their wealth, to holding companies set up in small robot satellites on the Moon and Mars.
“All perfectly legal”.
Because they say so, and they have influenced lawmakers to bend to their whims yet again.
Does that sound at all implausible? It’s not really, just a logical extension of the thinking of the elites who do this sort of complete bullshit and those who enable them.
The games must stop.
The game players must be made to follow their money offshore, and not be allowed to return, and/or simply have it confiscated and face legal consequences.
***These are largely NOT “job-creating entrepreneurs”. They are the privileged, suckling second and third generations of the rich, just as Piketty has so accurately documented.
Tax them, jail them, get rid of them.
We have big issues to deal with on this planet. We are long past the 1870s. Time to move forward.
Plain and Simple…..THE RICH CREATE JOBS…….. !!!
——————————————
Ridiculous, arrogant drivel.
The rich “create” jobs in the same way that irrigated fields “create” corn. Sure, irrigated fields help, but you can bet your life savings that if the middle class is so gutted that they can’t afford to buy corn, no entrepreneur is going to waste his money irrigating a field to grow corn as a charity.
Also @ #160 Example, if people can’t afford houses in Canada, what makes you think they could afford houses as an investment in the USA? Also, it sounds like you don’t think people should have to pay tax. Have you got something against roads and hospitals?
There is no word more “dangerous” than liberalism, because to oppose it is the new “unforgivable sin.”
-Fulton J. Sheen
America faces a fundamental choice: either the blessings of liberty or the servitude of liberalism. In the political struggle for survival, one or the other is headed for extinction.
-Nancy Pearcey
The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of ‘liberalism,’ they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.
-Norman Thomas
For the average American, the message is clear. Liberalism is no longer the answer. It is the problem.
-Ronald Reagan
The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of ‘liberalism,’ they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.
-Norman Thomas
That’s what liberalism is all about, is promoting incompetence on the basis it’s fair, because people would be the best if they weren’t discriminated against.
-Rush Limbaugh
The primary goal of collectivism – of socialism in Europe and contemporary liberalism in America – is to enlarge governmental supervision of individuals’ lives. This is done in the name of equality. People are to be conscripted into one large cohort, everyone equal (although not equal in status or power to the governing class) in their status as wards of a self-aggrandizing government.
-George Will
In a country where the sole employer is the State, opposition means death by slow starvation. The old principle: who does not work shall not eat, has been replaced by a new one: who does not obey shall not eat.
-Leon Trotsky
Liberalism is the ideology of Western suicide.
-James Burnham
At the core of liberalism is the spoiled child — miserable, as all spoiled children are, unsatisfied, demanding, ill-disciplined, despotic and useless. Liberalism is a philosophy of sniveling brats.
-P. J. O’Rourke
You cannot extend the mastery of government over the daily life of a people without somewhere making it master of people’s souls and thoughts…. Every step in that direction poisons the very roots of liberalism. It poisons political equality, free speech, free press, and equality of opportunity. It is the road not to more liberty but to less liberty.
-Herbert Hoover
One must never underestimate the profound bigotry and anti-intellectualism and intolerance and illiberality of liberalism.
-Richard John Neuhaus
When one becomes a liberal, he or she pretends to advocate tolerance, equality and peace, but hilariously, they’re doing so for purely selfish reasons. It’s the human equivalent of a puppy dog’s face: an evolutionary tool designed to enhance survival, reproductive value and status. In short, liberalism is based on one central desire: to look cool in front of others in order to get love. Preaching tolerance makes you look cooler, than saying something like, ‘please lower my taxes.’
-Greg Gutfeld
The politician’s promises of yesterday are the taxes of today.
-William Lyon Mackenzie King
No one can be, at the same time, a sincere Catholic and a true Socialist.
-Pope Pius XI
Garth, I enjoy your blog and your messages. You provide interesting insights and make me think. I have full access to Wall Street and I choose to read you. When you stop enjoying writing this blog, you should stop. That is logical. I will miss it. As a reader, I find it frustrating that your have to defend yourself. Perhaps comments are untenable and you should start there. Anonymity gives people license so Facebook registration would reduce some burden and increase your exposure. You will still get some rudeness, just less. John Oliver has a great rant for and against commenters (in his piece on cable companies)
Here’s an explanation of offshore banking for five year olds (or the average neocon IQ).
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/05/how-to-explain-offshore-banking-and-when-it-is-naughty-to-a-5-year-old
Garth,
In my book this one ranks as one of your best posts ever. Thank you. I wish I could express myself so well when I discuss such matters with the few self-absorbed extreme lefties I unfortunately have to deal with on a regular basis.
Quote of the year: “There’s a certain perverse comfort in feeling like a victim – it relieves you of responsibility for your own inadequacies”
How to explain offshore banking (and when it is naughty) to a five year old:
http://gu.com/p/4t4f8?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
‘This, of course, is the world view of the T2 crowd, whose very first act was to take from the rich (creating a new tax bracket for high incomes) and give to the poor (lower middle class tax cut).’
Garth –
This happens to be precisely the worldview of one Barack Obama, the hero of the millennial generation. Given that Mr. Obama has been in power for almost eight years and has benefited mightily from relentlessly fawning MSM coverage, it is hardly surprising that the average ill-informed yet over-educated millennial has adopted this outlook as well.
It always surprised me that Canadians voted strongly for Stephen Harper in 2011 – at the time, I attributed it to an outbreak of common sense. Evidently the reverse was true last October.
http://www.thestar.com/business/real_estate/2016/04/05/greater-toronto-area-real-estate-market-on-pace-for-another-year-of-record-breaking-sales.html
At some point, someone might argue that people who continue to think that the prices of detached houses in Toronto and Vancouver will one day “crash” back down to affordable levels, may be very disappointed.
The rest of Canada may have a housing correction, and Alberta already is. However, these two cities, Toronto and Vancouver, may never fully “correct”
The danger for all is that even a modest correction will seriously sink recent buyers with less than 10% equity. How they react, when everyone has expected continuously rising prices, is unknown. We do, however, know how it ended in the US. — Garth
capitalism is the only available moral system.
both socialism and communism necessarily involve continuous initiation of force.
consequently, empathetic, moral individuals can NEVER endorse left-wing ideology.
repeat after me every immoral, hollowed-out, unhinged left-wing psychopath:
force is NOT compassion.
force is NOT compassion.
force is NOT compassion.
I wanted to like T2. I really did. I consider myself very socially liberal. But I am also very fiscally conservative. I feel like I became that way when I bought my first house almost 7 years ago. With a mortgage and more coming out of my account every month, I started to ask questions anytime any level of government put its hand in my pocket. It’s not that I don’t support various social programs… it’s that I have my own “programs” to support (aka my family).
Anyway, back to T2…
Despite my open mind about the regime change, I feel like T2’s introduction to me was to give me three swift kicks in the nuts. One, the higher tax bracket. Two, the cancelling of our childcare benefits (because I make too much money). Three, the cancelling of income splitting (my wife is a hard-working stay-at-home mom).
Yet every time I voice my displeasure with our new leader, I am shouted down or told to go join Trump.
All of which is to say, I appreciated this blog post because I am tired of being made to feel like I am doing something wrong by making good money. I was raised by a single parent on Cape Breton Island. Now I’m a partner in a Bay Street law firm with a wife, two kids, and a single-detached in East Toronto. I don’t act or operate like I am “rich”, yet somehow I am made to feel like I am part of a larger social problem when I object to more hands going deeper into my pockets.
Thank you for making me feel normal for at least a few minutes.
The problem is that the government knows that tax evasion is wrong, but chooses to do nothing about it. They are too scared and underfunded to go to war with large corporations or scary organizations. Instead they close an eye to them and go after the simple peasant folks that they can easily beat up and kick around because they owe them money. Like the bully that gets his lunch money from the little weak guys, because they do not dare to get it from the teachers or the cleaners. Until the lawmakers do something about it, nothing will change. This is not about Liberal or Conservative ideologies either. This is about who has the money makes the rules, and the rest of us are led to believe think they have a choice by means of a vote. Ha ha.
“And the rest, who (regardless of merit) deserve more in the name of economic and social equality.”
Shame on them.
Brilliant Post Garth. The harder I work – the richer I get. The more I invest – the less I have to work. Long live capitalism.
I like Justin for many things but I hate his tax the rich more attitude. We are losing so many talents to US or elsewhere where they pay less tax and keep more money and his leftie Gov will only accelerate that.
This post is beyond asinine.
You may be aware that tax laws are a product of the laws of nations.
The tax avoidance schemes described in the Panama Papers reduce or eliminate tax liability by exploiting gaps between the tax laws of nations.
You may also be aware that there is no inter or supra-national regime overseeing the tax laws of nations. Therefore this kind of practice is likely to continue, unless the nations which ARE LOSING TAX REVENUE, i.e. MONEY, i.e. YOU AND I ARE BECOMING POORER (I’m using caps because there is no underline option) collaborate and crack down.
Inferring that something which is not currently regulated is MORALLY CORRECT and GOOD PUBLIC POLICY is ridiculous. Capitalism operates within a system of laws and rules – always has, always will. Moreover, the first markets sprung up around areas protected by the military. Those military forces in turn required taxes for their services. Taxes and capitalism have always been inextricable bedfellows, and thus the imposition of new laws, rules and taxes is NOT SOCIALISM. Stop repeating that absolutely ridiculous Conservative/conservative/republican refrain. It’s gibberish, and insulting to the intelligence of your readers.
On BNN: “A high-profile Toronto condo developer is facing panicked investors in Israel”
http://www.bnn.ca/News/2016/4/6/Urbancorps-financial-issues-unnerve-investors-in-Israel.aspx
“It’s perfectly okay and above-board to…… , get money from a RRIF free of tax”. Garth I wasn’t paying enough attention when you wrote about that technique in the past. Can you comment on that one when you get a chance please? Thanks
I once read where someone said that if the world’s income could be distributed uniformly where everyone in the world was equal and had the same amount, after 5 years there would be major inequity again. What was sobering is he said the people ending up with wealth & power would be the same people who have it today.
Real sobering to think about. The only disagreement I have is that it might take 15 years rather than 5.
I know most Canadians are weak willed followers who are bent over to corporations. No risk takers.
Let them eat cake.
@ Tron #79:
“We live in the a time where opportunity has never been better for the average folk in the west.
You can work, save, invest and over time become wealthy.”
At first I thought this was meant to be sarcastic but as I continued to read the post I see the author meant it seriously. Many working class people in Canada and elsewhere in the western world feel the exact opposite of that comment and that they don’t have opportunities to work and even sustain themselves and raise a family, let alone have money left over for investments and to become rich. But there are people such as Tron who actually believe we’ve never lived in a more golden time. It’s bizarre and disturbing how people can have such radically different perceptions of the same reality.
Garth, thank you for your blog today and the many brilliant posts that it inspired. How many people with off shore investments qualify for OAS and GIS when they hit retirement?
To person deciding Golden versus King Charles Spaniel. Go for the KCS, it slips into a canine carry on bag so when you are travelling, it sits at your feet in the airplane. Also anything that you can dump into a laundry tub to bath or wipe off extreme mud or snowballs on feet legs is a consideration.
Well the final numbers reflect accurately what the early numbers showed. Bernie (dem)., Cruz (repub).
So, the clown show moves east. Trump faired rather poorly I thought here in WI. Cruz surprised me, didn’t think for a moment he would pull 50% of the elephant’s voters. Kasich reflected too much like Scott Walker (our governor) and more than a few voted against him because he took Federal money to expanded medicaid
in OH. (don’t ask, I think he did it right).
Anyway numbers are in. Big Deal.
I will still live, and run my life the way best for me, and the family. Never worried about those with ‘more than enough’ we shall do fine, always have, right?
Never worried about those with ‘less than enough’ because only they can fix that problem. There is no magic number between these two camps, only their beliefs.
When will they EVER learn….
A joke of a bump to downpayment minimums were basically laughed off by the market. Especially foreign buyers with suitcases of cash who don’t need mortgages.
http://business.financialpost.com/personal-finance/mortgages-real-estate/ottawas-new-rules-showing-no-impact-on-hot-vancouver-toronto-housing-markets
Much of the concern about offshore wealth stems from the lack of trust of the citizenry in government, and its ability to address any issues of fraud or illegal activity.
While it is true that holding funds offshore is not illegal, doing so can allow the users to evade taxes or launder money or in the case of politicians, evade scrutiny.
Garth, you are right that these vehicles are really no different than other tax avoidance schemes except for one very important difference.
They are not transparent.
The examples you give for financial planning or legal tax avoidance methods, must all be transacted according to Canadian laws, and
must face the scrutiny of CRA.
Offshore vehicles are scrutinized by no one.
So David Cameron criticizes those who use legal tax avoidance schemes as ‘morally wrong’ but sees
no issue with members of his own family using similar avoidance opportunities.
And when it is ‘discovered’ that the Prime Minister of Iceland, is using these offshore accounts, in ways
that are obvious conflicts to him, people are appropriately outraged.
However, because no one knows that these other secret vehicles exist, (without leaking of documents) they cannot be scrutinized by any independent body and the holders cannot be held accountable for actions that ‘may’ be illegal or unethical.
If these vehicles are legal, then why are they not open to scrutiny from organizations such as the CRA in Canada, or any other taxing authority from any other country, or from ethics boards that are supposed to enforce rules and principles for politicians to follow?
All of my financial transactions (and the tax options that you have outlined) are subject to the rules and scrutiny of the CRA and Fintrac and other bodies.
The problem is not so much a bashing of the rich.
The problem is more one of being subject to a different set of rules.
There is one set of rules for those who live and work and transact in Canada and are subject to Canadian rules and ethics.
Seems there is different set of rule for those with enough resources to store their money offshore.
If it’s all above board and legal, then should the holdings and transactions not be open to review by taxing authorities, and in the case of politician, to the ethics boards that they are supposed to govern their affairs by, when they hold the trust of being in public office?
If I cannot ‘hide’ my financial transactions and am subject to the laws of my country, why should those who hold offshore vehicles be able to live and work in the same country as I live in with its defined laws and norms, but not have their transactions subject to the same laws that I must adhere to?
It is my gut instinct that Garth has strayed too far right on this….he is starting to alienate his readership.
What does he want….let’s tax the poor and give to the rich?
Instead of whining about how much the rich pay, why don’t we debate the merits of policy and discuss potential new policies that could make Canada a better place?
Not sure I can ‘get over’ Garth’s apparent stance on tax cuts to the lower middle class as being a bad thing…..
Where did I say that? Tax cuts are never a bad thing. Social engineering and over-spending usually are. — Garth
(I’m using caps because there is no underline option)
Always options, always.
#195 You’re Nuts
you are wrong yet again.
lol.
Dont know how you have the patience to deal with some of the people that write to. Must be very motivated and patient.
I have written to many blogs and there seems to be the general idea that being correct is the most important thing. “Winning” an argument seems to be the most important thing.
Envy is a part of human nature. So you post something and people go ballastic as if they are victims and were actually part of the concentration camp in Dachau. As if they lived there and can comment on it. Ask many concentration camp survivors, and many, the ones still alive, have learned to forgive, if only to protect themselves.
I see it all the time. I respond with a differing opinion, say at work, and oh no, the sky is falling, how could I possibly not agree with a co worker? Or in the gym. I remember when I was a student at the University of Washington in Seattle. 1991. There was a black guy named Daniel Stone at the IMA, the intramural weight room. This guy thought he owned the place. In I would walk and he would always confront me, as if he was the owner. “What’s up,” he would say, and I would repeat it, and then he would look at my sweatpants and flannel and act like I was Frankenstein. Then I would proceed to repping 500 for sets of 5 on deadlifts. I would get looks, some stares, and some guys would want to fight me, including an off duty Filipino cop who reverse grip benched 315 for reps. I explained to him that if I won the fight in the mat room upstairs he would arrest me, and if not I would lose the fight. Either way I would lose, so I declined. I soon thereafter left the weight room for good, because I got tired of the envy. It’s everywhere.
Instead of seeing someone rich and thinking, hey, I can be like them, if they can do it, so can I, some people, typically loser victims, blame the rich person and attack them either overtly or covertly. It’s not the rich people you have to worry about, it is the poor. Same as the gym example. I always worry about the smaller weaker guys, and if I go to a gym, that gym has to have guys that are stronger than me. Otherwise I avoid it.
These victims in their own mind are just losers. And yes, that is typical leftist mentality. It is like someone else is to blame for everything that happened to them, someone else is in control, and they abdicate responsibility for everything.
On taxes. Tax avoidance? Simple way to do this. Be American in Canada and dont file with the IRS. Cut your ties to the USA, because it is doomed. If Hillary or Sanders or Trump or Cruz gets in, its doomed.
Look to the Chinese: Study Go game(wei chi) and get some stock in an AI firm.
To quote Obama: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_didn%27t_build_that
If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business – you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.
Barack Obama, You didn’t build that, C-SPAN[1]
To say rich people create all the jobs is utter BS. 78% of job creation is made by small to medium size business owners. Not the 1%.
https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/061.nsf/eng/02806.html
.
syndicated mortgages: Just how safe is the ‘safe’ world of syndicated mortgages?
if something goes wrong with a project, syndicated mortgage investors are subordinate to banks and other primary lenders, meaning they’re further back in line for repayment—assuming there’s enough money left over after other lenders have received their share.
in the article there is a chart which shows how the banks fit in.
http://www.macleans.ca/economy/realestateeconomy/syndicated-mortgages-and-the-coming-condo-market-crash/
David Fleming wrote a good article describing bank financing:
http://www.torontorealtyblog.com/archives/9775/9775
the banks are in control, and if you’ve bought syndicated mortgages you’re a small fish in a big pond
Holy crap,
You ungrateful idiots coming in here and shitting up Garth’s blog. Not only do you insist on living in debt fueled squalor, but when someone tries to educate you, for free I might add, on how to get out of it, you bite the hand that feeds you.
Learn to read for the love of… yourselves!
Garth’s not saying “Get over it” regarding people breaking the law, embezzlement, or theft. He’s saying to get over the fact that wealthy people are trying to minimize tax exposure.
Finally, good luck trying to “tax” some of the ways these guys use to avoid paying tax here. Such as the example by another poster of a BVI shell company collecting consulting fees on behalf of the owner, which are then tax deducted even though they go back to the owner’s pockets in the BVI. What are you gonna do? Ban payments to overseas countries? Tax payments to overseas countries? Haha, it’s basically a choice between complete isolationism and tariffs!
I’m sure you lefty wingnuts will choose the tariffs, those costs will get passed back on to us, and woo hoo we’re ALL worse off than before!
T2 style progress for all!
#2 Serenity Now on 04.05.16 at 6:31 pm
My childcare benefits are going up. Now I can afford that house I’ve always wanted with the extra money every month instead of throwing my rent money down the drain paying my landlord’s mortgage. TFSA’s are for the rich, glad to see them go.
I don’t know why everyone is so against Trudeau. He’s a modern day Robin Hood.
____________________________________________
No kidding, I get a tax break, and my childcare benefits are also going up.
I already own my own house free and clear, and even though I already have hundreds of thousands stashed away in RRSP’s and TFSA’s, I am still grateful for this money Trudeau is handing me.
I will dutifully take this government handout and add it to my stash to further enrich myself, and my family.
Equality is great!!!
#72/169 Metaxa
Appreciate your observations. Intelligently presented. Thanks.
Example of mature, informed, passionate, ideological, debate. Angry yes, insulting no. Senate Banking VS Consumer Finance Regs. Riveting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=squ2SAhziPo
Also, Canadians are wracked with white liberal guilt as part of our watered down neutering education system. Endless atonement and self flagilation and slavish contempt toward Capitalism.
Ironically it’s new immigrants who get further ahead due to lacking this defeatist liberal programming.
Your political talking points are a complete joke.
Pablum to the low information crowd, but completely transparent to anyone with an ounce of critical thinking skills.
Good luck arguing against all those strawmen though, you create quite a few of them.
#185 just a dude
Quote of the year: “There’s a certain perverse comfort in feeling like a victim – it relieves you of responsibility for your own inadequacies”
Sadly this describes the psychology/behaviour of way too many.
“Affluence creates poverty.” Marshall McLuhan
Even my modest middle class affluence creates poverty to a very limited degree so yes, the more money you have the more you are depriving someone else of that money.
It’s simple math really because the size of the pie is fixed at any given moment and only increases in size in very small increments.
Being human does not entitle you someone else’s earned wealth. — Garth
Garth why can’t my comment regarding the Quebec back door to Vancouver be posted? – I thought this would be the missing link we couldn’t put our finger on.
Source it and I will reconsider. If not, it’s another anti-immigrant rant. — Garth
#219 Ole Doberman on 04.06.16 at 12:23 pm
Garth why can’t my comment regarding the Quebec back door to Vancouver be posted? – I thought this would be the missing link we couldn’t put our finger on.
Source it and I will reconsider. If not, it’s another anti-immigrant rant. — Garth
———————————————————
Not sure how you’re reading it as an anti-immigrant rant, and the facts are laid out.
I thought as a public service blog your readers should get the truth as this topic evokes much emotions from those living in Vancouver and having to be uprooted.
I expressed in a previous post sometime ago that political corruption must be at play here – all other arguments just don’t seem to add up.
#200, I’m an immigrant. Came over when I was very young. Parents could see the writing on the wall back home and knew it was time to leave.
Canada, when you compare the living standards here to the living standards back in the old place, is filthy rich. The vast majority live like Kings.
Do you have hot and cold running water in your house? Rich man.
Do you have indoor plumbing? Rich man.
Do you have a mechanical heating system? Rich man.
Can you go to the hospital and have your illness or injuries seen to and not be bankrupted? What, you see a doctor when nothing is wrong, for a ‘checkup’? Very rich man.
Do you own your own vehicle? More than one? Rich man.
Do your children each have their own shoes? Rich man.
Do your children have food for every meal? Praise God for your good fortune.
Why are you not content?
Right now you must be wondering what kind of hell hole was I born in. I’ll clue you in. Great Britain. England. Liverpool. My father grew up barefoot or wearing wellies. Shoes were a luxury that you didn’t throw out when they had holes in them (stuff newspaper and cardboard in them and they were good for years more to come).
So when my family immigrated to Canada, we couldn’t believe the luxury we’d fallen into. Grateful, oh Dear Christ, yes.
Some of the things we’ve done to stretch a nickle? Buy a car new and drive it into the ground (400,000 km mininum). Never buy new furniture (Salvation Army used to have great buys for furniture, but now they’ve become expensive) except for mattresses. Always buy your mattresses new. Second hand clothes. Never eat out (and if you do, ask for a plate and share one meal between two or three because the portion sizes here are ridiculously big). Consider credit cards and the credit card companies to be evils that rival Satan. Never was there a man who used a credit card who had a good ending.
And if you want to save money, keep an eye on mother, and don’t mind ridiculous commutes, move back home and pay her rent. Bank any money you save.
I’ll admit to throwing away perfectly good shoes (no holes even) tho’.
“Capitalism operates within a system of laws and rules.” – You’reNutz
#OnTheOrigins&RegulationOfEarlyMarkets,Or… #SortOf… #Let’sGoMedieval…
…”At the opening of a medieval market, a proclamation was read by the steward of the lord of the manor, who was also the lord of the fair and market, and was acting, as the proclamation read, “on His Majesty’s behalf.”
The proclamation contained the code of conduct for all the participants and the penalties applied to those who did not comply with the code. It prohibited quarrels and fights, and asked every participant to buy or sell only in open fair or market, such that “none buy or sell in comers, back sides, or hidden places, upon pain of forfeiture of all such goods and merchandise so bought and sold, and their bodies to imprisonment.” …
http://www.medieval-spell.com/Medieval-Market.html
#KinglyFavors,Or… #CharterOfHenry I,1133
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/st-barts-records/vol1/pp55-75
[NoteToGT: Ever cognizant of the need to encourage attendance in furtherance of trade, early markets often featured popular, public amusements – e.g. executing rebellious Scotsmen was a guaranteed English crowd pleaser: http://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryMagazine/DestinationsUK/The-Elms-Smithfield/ ]
“Garth, I know you say that the outlook of the market right now is still good despite the recent volatility. And I know that you tell people to invest their money accordingly. However what I’m interested in knowing is what would be your strategy if the outlook on the market was exactly what the doomers on this site say it is our will be? …what would be the the plan of action if everything started going south? Would you be able to see soothing like that in advance? Or would it just happen without notice?
Personally I’m worried about a unicorn stampede. — Garth”
Its always the elephant in the room isn’t it, this is a great question, one that everyone is always trying to answer… and if you were to take a graph, of any and all the major indexes, and one of almost any industry, including housing, you find this. Over time, (20-40 yrs)
the average increase for all of these, is somewhere between 6%-and 10%…. not including dividends. And now that we have the internet, this information is extremely easy to aquire, and graph, so do it yourself and tell me what you find.
So what to do? Nothing… your balance should be approx
60/40 equity/cash… if not do something about it. And the 60% is best put into Dividend paying assets, and eather in RRSP, or TFSA.
Markets are at a high point, time to rebalance, thats all you need to know…
cheers
We were wrong about what would bust real-estate in Toronto… It’s SwipeBuster…
30% of Tinder users are in relationship. What happens when people start separating? They sell their condos.
https://www.swipebuster.com/
#205 Bottoms_Up
wow…the irrationality/manipulation/mental illness really came out in that comment!
doesn’t take much to see below the surface of the unhinged mind.
funny thing is…
liberals simply disregard and continue the attack.
they are empty soldiers.
they are not guided by moral principles.
they are not loyal.
they have no sense of self.
these are the most dangerous people.
Justice means minding one’s own business and not meddling with other men’s concerns. – Plato
Let every man mind his own business. – Miguel de Unanimo
Let every fox take care of his own tail. – Some Old Italian guy
Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands – 1 Thessalonians 4:11
How do I have productive days with minimum drama? Simple; I mind my own business. – Steve Maraboli
And:
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. – Philippians 4:8
Rich folks exist, they’re going to try and increase their wealth and avoid taxation. This also occurs with folks who are on social assistance – all the way up through to Billionaires – and all use both legal and illegal methods to those ends.
Rich guys avoid taxes by hiding money offshore, poor folks on disability work under the table. Rich foreigners come over and drive up housing prices, poor folks sneak in undocumented and work income tax free.
Everyone from top to bottom is looking to keep what they’ve got, not everyone has the same self imposed limits on what is acceptable, and what is not. They are all guilty – even folks at the bottom.
We all can go off the deep end like Linda does and insist that millionaire tax evaders be put down on their knees next to an excavation and be shot through the back of the head.
Or, we can worry about our own lives and let the CRA whom way all pay for do their job – peacefully understanding that they won’t always win.
Mind your own lives, you can’t control anyone except yourself. There are much better things to think about.
#210 45north
It’s interesting how investors dodged a bullet with Fortress when they recently managed to purchase the failed project they were into- after initially not being able to close.
What a shitstorm that would have created should all these little, often non financially savy, investors lost their savings.
It will happen though.
“using life insurance to create a 100% tax-free pension income stream”
I’d be interested in hearing about that.
“I feel like you would defend Hitler himself if he was rich”…
Just for the record, Hitler WAS rich. He made millions of Reichsmarks in royalties from the sale of Mein Kampf, a staggering amount of money in those days. This became a problem for the post-war German government as it was deemed by many to be “blood money” that the government could confiscate but never actually spend.
Being human does not entitle you someone else’s earned wealth. — Garth
—————-
Sounds like an argument for inheritance taxes.
So, you’re a closet socialist, after all.
#207 saskatoon on 04.06.16 at 11:19 am
you are wrong yet again.
————————————
Not a particularly strong rebuttal to the points made in post #195. Explain to the rest of us why these comments are inaccurate in any way.
The only issue that I would disagree with is, that I have no doubt that individuals of all stripes (conservative, Conservative, Republican and liberal, Liberal, Democrat) are taking advantage of these offshore tax havens.
Greed and questionable ethics cross all political stripes.
#215 Noel on 04.06.16 at 11:55 am
Your political talking points are a complete joke.
Pablum to the low information crowd, but completely transparent to anyone with an ounce of critical thinking skills.
Good luck arguing against all those strawmen though, you create quite a few of them.
___________________________________________
Garth is bang on the money.
You’ll probably get better at understanding people as you get a little older.
Just for fun – why don’t you identify the “straw men” arguments Garth has fabricated?
For fun I mean :)
My whole extended circle has assets overseas not touched by CRA. Everyone openly gloats about it how one makes $24,000 a year rent etc. One makes $120,000 and won’t declare it because ‘no one else does’ and gloats about it because ‘CRA wouldn’t upset a huge voting block’.
Born in Canada sucks. You can’t open a bank account overseas in Asia and you can’t buy property to rent out. Refused cause you need to be born there. No wonder so many recent arrivals don’t give up their PR to get Canadian citizenship.
Sucks being a Canadian.
Being human does not entitle you someone else’s earned wealth. — Garth
——————————————————
No, but doing business in Canada entitles the Canadian government to a portion of your income as tax dollars, which then go on to pay for things that you and other Canadian citizens use like roads, hospitals, etc.
If you don’t want to pay Canadian tax, you shouldn’t have the privilege of doing business or earning income in Canada.
Irrelevant to your original, ideologically-driven comment. — Garth
really…what is the point?
reality holds no weight for the unhinged.
the liberal can only do two things:
1. lie/emotionally manipulate
2. ad hominem
you have been identified–and the empathetic can move on.
#209 bat on 04.06.16 at 11:36 am
To say rich people create all the jobs is utter BS. 78% of job creation is made by small to medium size business owners. Not the 1%.
____________________________________________
I have always worked for small privately businesses.
In every case, the owners were rich by even the most hardcore big C conservative you could muster.
Minimum income to join the 1% in Canada is about 195K per year.
How many small business owners in Canada do you think are NOT in the 1%?
How many small business owners in Canada do you think who are not in the 1% officially by income, still actually make more than 191K a year?
Chances are excellent that 99% of all small business owners in Canada are 1%ers
Care to re-think your assertion?
Love my Kia on 04.05.16 at 6:56 pm
If a corporation finds its business success in a particular country, that’s where taxes should be paid. If you don’t like the tax structure then go sell your product somewhere else. Take it or leave it.
========================================
so…you’er going to stop using google, oracle, fed-ex, and Apple???
Alright Garth fine you win, since I can’t strong arm you (or should I say Armstrong ;) , and we are both working for the same cause, this is my source. I had to buy the report for Canadian outlook.
Gives RE breakdown for each major city:
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/product/canadian-real-estate-report/
And whats worse is it sounds like more foreign money could be coming :(
Be careful about Armstrong. They swung and missed on Canadian banks. — Garth
It talks about the problem with domestic analysis and why it hasn’t applied to Vancouver and Toronto.
Sad sad stuff…..
Be careful about Armstrong. They swung and missed on Canadian banks. — Garth
———————————————————
Well isn’t the Quebec back door atleast worth discussing. Can’t you check with your political connections if this could be true?
#211 VMB on 04.06.16 at 11:36 am
Garth’s not saying “Get over it” regarding people breaking the law, embezzlement, or theft. He’s saying to get over the fact that wealthy people are trying to minimize tax exposure.
———————————————————-
Actually I don’t think people could really give a crap about people minimizing tax exposure, if the vehicle to do so (offshore accounts) was transparent and met certain legal standards.
The biggest issues that have arisen, so far, from the leak of these documents, has to to with politicians holding offshore accounts to minimize taxes in secret, while they spout their own moral platitudes of how their own citizenry should not use tax dodges. In the case of David Cameron.
Or when it is exposed that the holdings in some accounts puts politicians in a direct conflict of interest.
Such is the case of the Iceland PM. (now Ex – PM)
The problem is that since there are no controls or laws of civilized countries to govern these offshore accounts, they are easily exploited for crime, tax evasion, money laundering, hiding spots for pilfered wealth of poorer nations.
You my be wealthy and just seeking to minimize tax through these holdings.
Or you may be drug cartel protecting your stash.
Because there is no transparency of these accounts, I guess we all just have to take your word for it.
Foolish us.
If you worry more about others (a relative handful of potentially evil people) rather than using this time to enhance your own life, absolutely. What a useless media-driven and irrational preoccupation. An offshore entity is subject to laws in that offshore jurisdiction. Why do you deserve transparency? — Garth
If you guys think one would spend millions to become a municipal councillor or MP and in the end garner a salary in the $60,000 per year range and NOT have offshore accounts in relatives names, then i got everything including a bridge to sell to you.
System is rotten to the core.
ONLY RESCUE IS DIRECT DEMOCRACY. Where citizens vote online on major issues.
MPs earn $164,000 and must, by law, declare all assets as well as those of all family members. Stop making idiotic, ill-informed, whiny comments. — Garth
Tkid I’d have thought you were from Yorkshire….
Monty python sketch. Luxury.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe1a1wHxTyo
Being human does not entitle you someone else’s earned wealth. — Garth
—
This is of course, a rule, created by humans at certain point of history, to serve very specific interests.
Because, naturally, none of us earned the wealth of this planet at the first place.
Not even a breath of air – provided and shared for free by the poorest and the wealthiest, every single one of us, even at this moment.
Everything else, beyond that is just the construct of human society – not carved in stone on any planet or object of this entire universe.
You can remember this easily – every time you take your next breath gives you the opportunity to know your true “earned” place while you are here.
Just refuse to take this free entitlement before you lecture others about “earned wealth”.
Kumbaya, baby. — Garth
#232 TRT on 04.06.16 at 1:41 pm
My whole extended circle has assets overseas not touched by CRA. Everyone openly gloats about it how one makes $24,000 a year rent etc. One makes $120,000 and won’t declare it because ‘no one else does’ and gloats about it because ‘CRA wouldn’t upset a huge voting block’.
Born in Canada sucks. You can’t open a bank account overseas in Asia and you can’t buy property to rent out. Refused cause you need to be born there. No wonder so many recent arrivals don’t give up their PR to get Canadian citizenship.
Sucks being a Canadian.
____________________________________________
Perseverance my friend, our collective governments are getting more broke by the month, and at some point, going after the off-shore holdouts is going to look better than just taxing whoever is still holding down a decent job even more than they already are.
Money is eventually going to win, and we’re not far off from some kind of reckoning with all the crap going on regarding off-shore money and immigrants. It’s going down all over the world.
In the meantime, don’t sweat it, worry about setting up your own household. Maybe make some rich buddies if you can – looks like you might know a few.
#231 IHCTD9
Just for fun – why don’t you identify the “straw men” arguments Garth has fabricated?
__________________________
Sure, only because I like you.
GT: “Damn, I should know better than to rise to the bait of the left-wingers who come here to be irritating (it works). ”
‘Left-wingers who come here to be irritating’ are strawmen. There is no evidence that ‘left-wingers sole purpose is to be irritating on this blog comment section. I see a lot of defending of points, rebuttles to comments… I would think Garth would delete the comments that are purely for irritation, no?
GT: “They see the world divided into two pieces. A little tiny hunk of folks who have too much wealth, probably stole it, and should be ashamed and taxed mercilessly. ”
Another made up group. No one actually thinks like that, its an invented point of view to attack as opposed to arguing against actual positions.
GT: “This, of course, is the world view of the T2 crowd, whose very first act was to take from the rich (creating a new tax bracket for high incomes) and give to the poor (lower middle class tax cut).”
No, it isn’t the view. Around 4/10 voters voted Liberal in the last election, its impossible that they all think the same way, and completely illogical to even think they could. Its a made up group that GT is railing against. aka, strawmen.
I won’t even get into the truthiness of the ‘stealing from the rich’ canard because marginal tax rates were increased a couple %. Don’t forget the breakeven income on that hike is 220k.
And that’s just from one paragraph – I’m sure you can identify more.
#240 AB Boxster on 04.06.16 at 2:18 pm
If you worry more about others (a relative handful of potentially evil people) rather than using this time to enhance your own life, absolutely. What a useless media-driven and irrational preoccupation. An offshore entity is subject to laws in that offshore jurisdiction. Why do you deserve transparency? — Garth
————————————————-
Fair comment.
But we can certainly enhance our own life, and still show comment and concern about issues.
I personally don’t require any transparency.
It’s none of my business, just like my finances are not the business of any others.
I would like governing bodies that enforce tax law and political ethics to have transparency.
Citizens of Iceland seem to think transparency is important. A PM has fallen due to lack of transparency.
Lets see how Cameron fares.
Irrelevant to your original, ideologically-driven comment. — Garth
————————————————
Irrelevant, perhaps, but also correct.
(For the record, I wasn’t comparing you or anyone who actually hides money offshore to a slave owner or saying the two things are morally equivalent in any way. I was merely trying to show the folly of deferring to “the law” for guidance on ethical matters.)
My position is as I said in #233, which means that businesses who hide money offshore are acting unethically, which is not necessarily the same thing as illegally (which WAS the point of my original, ideologically-driven comment).
Honestly meant no offence to you or anyone else by it.
#205 Bottoms_Up on 04.06.16 at 11:09 am
It is my gut instinct that Garth has strayed too far right on this….he is starting to alienate his readership.
What does he want….let’s tax the poor and give to the rich?
Instead of whining about how much the rich pay, why don’t we debate the merits of policy and discuss potential new policies that could make Canada a better place?
Not sure I can ‘get over’ Garth’s apparent stance on tax cuts to the lower middle class as being a bad thing…..
_____________________________________
Good grief, did you even read the blog?
FWIW, most of Garths readership are righties. Problem is, the nutty house prices in a couple Canadian markets have lured some social justice warriors into the fold.
That was just incidental in nature…
PANAMA PAPERS IS MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING…
#26 — If you want to get in a huff over 20 trillion dollars then you’re barking up the wrong bloody tree.
The most venally corrupt institution ever devised by man-(person) kind is the US government/legislative/legal structure. That’s what happens when countries become empires. Empires and corruption. They are the eternal bedpersons.
Corruption in the US abounds EVERYWHERE.
Even your favourite buddy Mr. Obama couldn’t, and therefore never did, a damn thing about it when he came to so-called power he “got the word.”
Check out this from James Howard Kunstler’s latest blog discussion:
‘…The less simple answer is that America has become a matrix of rackets based on fraud, swindling, and extortion that can only support itself on lies, which form the armature that enables all the racketeering.
That explains one of the central mysteries of Mr. Obama’s double term in the White House: why his Department of Justice never prosecuted…criminal misconduct in banking after the 2008 mortgage bond debacle.
The Holy Trinity of Bank Fraud: Rubin, Geithner, and Summers paid him a call after election day and said,
“Look here, fucker: one false move out of you in the direction of our friends doing ‘God’s work,’ and this whole house of cards comes fluttering down.’
Hence, Obama appointed the trio to positions of authority and counsel, and the racketeering resumed without hindrance — to the greater affliction upon the common weal…”
Mr. Kunstler is a leftie on the American political scene but one of the very few with a clear and prescient mind (By the way, the US is not alone in its corruption. Look to: China, Russia, EU, all of Africa and South America, the rest of Asia and so on. I leave out Canada on purpose. We’re not bad all told).
I was watching CBC yesterday and they were have orgasms, paroxysms even, about this interesting, though quite feckless Panama Papers non-event.
Fresh out of a new budget increase for the Mother Corp(se) I got the impression that the commentators were shouting out to the T2 crowd: “Lookie here. Give us a few more bucks and we’ll get to the bottom of this one and capitalism will be finally dead! Whoopee! Tax ’em till they die!”
Meanwhile the Royal Bank has struck a “team” to look into its “role” in this mucky business. This holding action will go on then be forgotten as will the Papers issue in its totality, eventually.
The issue here is that corruption is a forever part of the human condition.
That is one reason why there is such an active cohort of the “good” trying to balance against the “bad.” Mixed results are the usual outcomes.
That’s why you must keep reading the Effective Works of St. Garth of the God’s Honest Truth. Protect thyself with knowledge which eventually becomes YOUR power. And then go ahead and fight back.
#69 CGC
>The first $40,000 earned by the richest guy in Canada is
> still taxed the same as the guy who only earns $40,000
Ah, CGC, that’s where you’re wrong.
The rich guy is probably getting his dough from capital
gains or dividends. He’ll pay less tax than if he got it
working at the parts desk at Canadian Tire. Warren Buffett
famously pointed out he paid a lower tax rate than his
secretary.
I think it would be a more fair tax system if each dollar
of income was treated the same as every other dollar.
But that’s what you get when the dividend guys design
the tax system.
I’m surprised the NDP hasn’t been all over this.
It’s a winning platform.
Being human does not entitle you someone else’s earned wealth. — Garth
——————————————————
You mean like the wealth of David Cameron’s wife, the descendent of British aristocracy and a former governor of the Bahamas, Mauritius and Trinidad and Tobago? Did the aristocracy “earn” their wealth when they set up the slave trade? Are landholdings and accrued wealth dating back to a pre-democractic era “earned”?
The players in the game of capitalism did not start from equal positions. Those who took more prior to the enactment of the current rules of the game have in many cases kept it. Now the rest of us would like it back.
#220 tkid on 04.06.16 at 12:46 pm
#200, I’m an immigrant. Came over when I was very young. Parents could see the writing on the wall back home and knew it was time to leave…
________________________________________
Good post, and you are right. Natural resources have Canada punching way above its weight on the quality of life scale. Deep down inside, I think all Canadians know this to be true.
It pains me to see the government and citizen debt being piled high these days. But on the other hand, I am prepared, and I have a plan already put into action to limit my exposure.
In the meantime, I’ll be on the quad enjoying the great Canadian outdoors exploring the rural back roads of small town Ontario :).
Garth has hit the nail on the head: the Left sees the economy as a zero-sum game.
In fact that’s how they view all of society.
#224 saskatoon on 04.06.16 at 1:15 pm
#205 Bottoms_Up
“liberals simply disregard and continue the attack.
they are empty soldiers.
they are not guided by moral principles.
they are not loyal.
they have no sense of self.
these are the most dangerous people.”
—————————————————–
Expressing one’s political opinions through abstract haiku in a blog comments section is generally regarded as a symptom an unhinged mind as well….
Also, feel free to explain how those characteristics are not present in non-liberals… If you can stop reading the unabomber’s manifesto for long enough to type another response… Thaks.
Good god Garth, you’ve turned this place into the National Post. The polarized thinking and the jamming of people into broad and over-simplified categories is ridiculous. I guess you can kick the Harpercon out of the cabinet but you can’t fix the ingrained mentality whereby anyone not dying for some Randian paradise is a socialist leech.
Actually this does make me a little randy, not that you mention it. — Garth
“PS – you should set up a like and dislike so your viewers can essentially sensor the comments by sending the crap to the bottom.”
I like this idea a lot but Garth would never go for it. He’d lose control of his blog.
In the meantime let’s bow down to the corporate elite. They make all the jobs with their huge capital risks right? Forget about the fact that if they had to pay for the ACTUAL cost of their labour force (health, education, etc) there would never be any wealth for them to create.
Exploitation exists, and it is how the rich get rich.
Garth said:
Tax avoidance is a cornerstone of financial planning. If your advisor isn’t aggressive about it, get a new one.
=========================
But in the list of things you can do he forgot to include property tax deferral, like the lucky ones in B.C. can do.
Cheers, R
I just want to make sure that the “eat the rich” mentality we have developed in Canada differentiates between:
1) the super-wealthy who use foreign tax havens
and
2) the relatively-wealthy like doctors, entrepreneurs, etc. that live within our borders, contribute to our societies through years of education, health services, taking risks and starting businesses.
I do not know enough about #1 to have an opinion on whether it is ethical or fair or legal. But placing a bulls-eye on the #2’s in Canada is just plain dumb and the Liberals have done just that. I don’t think these groups should be lumped together.
Beware when a mob is forming.
#245 Noel on 04.06.16 at 2:52 pm
#231 IHCTD9
Just for fun – why don’t you identify the “straw men” arguments Garth has fabricated?
__________________________
Sure, only because I like you.
GT: “Damn, I should know better than to rise to the bait of the left-wingers who come here to be irritating (it works). ”
‘Left-wingers who come here to be irritating’ are strawmen. There is no evidence that ‘left-wingers sole purpose is to be irritating on this blog comment section. I see a lot of defending of points, rebuttles to comments… I would think Garth would delete the comments that are purely for irritation, no?
GT: “They see the world divided into two pieces. A little tiny hunk of folks who have too much wealth, probably stole it, and should be ashamed and taxed mercilessly. ”
Another made up group. No one actually thinks like that, its an invented point of view to attack as opposed to arguing against actual positions.
GT: “This, of course, is the world view of the T2 crowd, whose very first act was to take from the rich (creating a new tax bracket for high incomes) and give to the poor (lower middle class tax cut).”
No, it isn’t the view. Around 4/10 voters voted Liberal in the last election, its impossible that they all think the same way, and completely illogical to even think they could. Its a made up group that GT is railing against. aka, strawmen.
I won’t even get into the truthiness of the ‘stealing from the rich’ canard because marginal tax rates were increased a couple %. Don’t forget the breakeven income on that hike is 220k.
And that’s just from one paragraph – I’m sure you can identify more.
____________________________________________
Garth’s writing style is great isn’t it?:
“They see the world divided into two pieces. A little tiny hunk of folks who have too much wealth, probably stole it, and should be ashamed and taxed mercilessly. ”
Look at it: Humour, exaggeration, and truth. A masterpiece of literary execution. Righties applaud, lefties gnash their teeth, Garth, hopefully – laughs.
First: you can bet your life there are indeed folks out there that think like this. Go over and read rabble.ca.
Here on GF “Linda” wants tax evaders executed – do people really think like that? Well evidently they do, and more.
Garth writes an entertaining and informative blog, he is not engaged in a serious debate with a formal opponent. Us righties love his style, nowhere else on the web is finance (and some politics) so damn entertaining to read. Evidently it is good enough to bring some lefties on over as well isn’t it? :)
I would think the entertainment value takes great priority over avoiding the occasional informal fallacy – and in this case they really aren’t really strawmen anyway, no more than asserting rich guys like Garth support Hitler.
Garth does this for free, it’s got to fun for him too.
When you look at the world around you, on a personal level, do you see problems? or opportunity?
If you are hindered because all you see is problems, then you treat yourself like a victim.
It’s another way of paraphrasing Garth, as those who see opportunity, will go out and spend their time and energy to reap it.
#243 know your true “earned” place
Being human does not entitle you someone else’s earned wealth. — Garth
—
This is of course, a rule, created by humans at certain point of history, to serve very specific interests.
Because, naturally, none of us earned the wealth of this planet at the first place.
Not even a breath of air – provided and shared for free by the poorest and the wealthiest, every single one of us, even at this moment.
Everything else, beyond that is just the construct of human society – not carved in stone on any planet or object of this entire universe.
You can remember this easily – every time you take your next breath gives you the opportunity to know your true “earned” place while you are here.
Just refuse to take this free entitlement before you lecture others about “earned wealth”.
Kumbaya, baby. — Garth
========
As long as your very existence depends on a gift you did not earn, yet you rely upon every few seconds, everything about “earned wealth” is up for discussion, no matter what tune you sing.
For the justice warriors, lefties, T2 lovers and the like :
THERE’S MORE TO LIFE THAN BUYING A HOUSE!
And, technically, the said house is not yours until you’ve paid back every last cent that you borrowed, with interest!
Syllogism: You’re still a renter. You rent money instead of space.
#258 IHCTD9
Look at it: Humour, exaggeration, and truth. A masterpiece of literary execution. Righties applaud, lefties gnash their teeth, Garth, hopefully – laughs.
_______________________
I hope so! GT deserves to get some fun out of his labour of love, god only knows how many hours he puts in.
I don’t like to associate myself with any political party – I believe each have a lot of good points, platforms, and dedicated people, but unfortunately the loudest and dumbest supporters and members of any group are the ones usually heard. eg Rona Ambrose and the war on drugs crowd on the right and BLM and Islam-apologists on the left – they both suck.
Garth, of course the entitled, victimized lefties attack you on your blog, that you worked to create, rather than start their own blogs. It makes perfect sense!
There’s always folk on the extreme side of things that have problems thinking about finances logically, instead of by partisan rote. You have the left, moist 20-somethings who don’t really understand how investment works, and on the right, hungry men and women who think bootstraps are all you need because anecdotally, they’re fine, so why can’t you be?
This leak shows a lot of shady money, and a lot of illegal funds as well. It’s not a crazy leap to assume a chunk of tax burden was shifted due to this. It’s not a crazy leap to assume policy was influenced by people taking advantage. Time will tell, but I’ll remain irked at a bunch of richer then sin fat cats who would rather see an extra digit on their inflated bank statement then pay their dues.
Having tax havens for the rich does nothing but hurt the little guy. Is it fair? Is it legal? Is it ethical? Meh.
Paying back that deficit will come from somewhere, and when gst goes back up .5%, it won’t be the people with money in Panama deciding to eat or fill their car with gas.
Who cares? Anybody with a minimum sense of justice.
Anybody who knows anything knows that laws have always favored power and the moneyed.
Worst post ever.
Question politicians, by all means. And I trust that in the interest of fairness you will also question entrepreneurs and CEOs. One group is no more deserving of scrutiny than another.
I am also very disappointed with T2’s direction with our country. He is enabling generations to believe in this sense of entitlement.
It’s funny how rolling back tax cuts to levels that were in place for a generation of growth and restoring services back to those same levels is being derided as giving a sense of entitlement. If you would reflect upon that, you’d realize that people are in fact being conditioned to expect less and less – the very opposite of ‘entitlement’.
Been to many socialist countries now, all but 1 in fact, there are still the rich and nobody lives any better. Just inefficiency via government.
I just wanted to comment on the last paragraph of this post, superbly written! Also thank you! I will continue to read your blog when I’m done spending my house down payment on memories and return to Canada. I’ve turned the negative of being Canada’s youngest laid off fire chief, oil patch gig, into something much more priceless than a condo. Can’t take it with you after all…
Still haven’t touched the TFSA or investments though. Despite the live for today attitude of my generation, I fully expect to grow old.
Rich people just have more money. That is only difference. Just art survives. Nothing else.
Garth, don’t let the short-minded people get under your skin.
The last phrase of your post says it all : “nobody can be built up by tearing someone else down”.
Great post. Please don’t pay too much attention to the noise these lefties make. The left has always (always!) failed. It doesn’t go well with truly human nature. I would send all these guys to so called socialist/commies countries (just for 6 months), they would come back begging for mercy.
Ignore those comments. Take a ride in the Harley (relax). It’s not worth the anger. Get over it !
You can ignore Donald Trump, but if something is not one, there will be someone worse than Donald Trump in strore for you.
I dont own. I like renting because I like to travel to different places. You people think that you are being so “progressive” for letting people promote foreign nationalism within Canada, but let me tell you that you cant do that in most countries. Most places expect you to comform.
Now that is not “racist” because one one is born with a certain ideology. It however would be “racist” to suggest that because someone looks a certain way, that they are supposed to satisfy your need to have a cultural petting zoo !