I envision a world in which the private sector is more transparent in its pursuit of sustainability, businesses seek environmental responsibility, and the taxes and philanthropy from the wealthy is better regulated.
Values associated with this vision include the desire to pursue an equal world with integrity such that wealth is fairly distributed, everyone contributes to the economy more equitably depending on their income, and the institution of environmental laws that hold parties more rigorously accountable.
With money comes power and where these entities lie together, corruption ensues. The voice, influence, and power of the masses are too easily drowned by the wealthy 1%. Billionaires are not the way of the future. Interventions include reducing the fortune of these billionaires by eliminating philanthropic loopholes in tax, increasing CRA oversight, and taxing the rich at a fair margin such that their fortune will decrease over time from the ridiculous scales that it exists today. It is naive to believe that philanthropy coming from the very wealthy will save us or that all of their intentions are innately pure. It’s time a long overdue change in our system is made by exercising the right to vote and electing representatives with the goal to tax the wealthy and implement these changes I proposed so that injustices can no longer persist under a guise of philanthropy.
Moreover, further intervention would be to institute strong environmental laws with rigorous reinforcement and severe consequences for parties that fail to abide by them. It makes no sense that the average person bears the brunt of harmful environmental change and taxes while the rich find loopholes to hold onto their fortune through tax loopholes and philanthropy ruses to push the agenda of a few against that of an entire nation.
Hey Ravleen!
Loved the thought and detail you put into your post! I share the same visions you outlined: equitable wealth distribution, fairer taxation, and stronger environmental laws.
Focusing specifically on environmental laws, I was wondering how you would balance the need for stronger environmental laws with the need for sustainable economic growth? While I believe that stronger environmental laws will improve Canada's economy in the long-term, they may hamper the Canadian economy in the short-term. How would we maintain high investment in Canada if companies are incentivized to move production to areas with less stringent regulations?
The philanthropic tax loophole you identified is astounding to me. The rise of the idea of altruistic philanthropy is good in so far as it encourages those with too much money to give some away, but I'm always amazed how rarely the conversation circles back to how billionaires got so much money in the first place. Charities and non-profits are proliferating, but if the government were truly doing it's job–successfully closing tax loopholes and redistributing wealth through the provision of services–we would not need them at all!
Hi Ravleen, I completely agree with you especially on your last part about how the rich are able to use loopholes that many others don't have access too. I think that it shouldn't be considered philanthropy if it benefits them just as much as it benefits those they're suposedly 'helping'
I agree with you Ravleen. Capitalism and neoliberalism are systems that distributes wealth in an equal way, making the rich richer and the poor poorer. For sure taxing the rich fully (aka closing loopholes and stopping this tax free donation bs) and use that money for the public good. With strong environmental laws and competency of the government to enforce them, the environment destroyed by these rich people/companies can hopefully be restored.
Having such a miniscule fraction of society have so much power over how things are run is scary to think about. Philanthropy wont save us, I agree we need other ways.