Complacent middle class here. I would gladly get taxed more if that meant improved health and education and welfare. Not super keen on keeping up the subsidies of oil and gas, and of spending 5% of GDP on American weapons. And yes, we need a wealth tax.
this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2026
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What we need is class solidarity. It isnt your fault rich jack asses are hoarding wealth, the middle class is the intermediary of power and they keep you happy for a reason.
I was being cheeky with the "complacent" bit. Of course we need class solidarity. The reason I went out the way to self identity is because I am finally one of those fucks that I've always been told the system works for, a respectable taxpayer. And as a respectable taxpayer I demand high taxes and a welfare state.
The problem is the velocity of money; by raising taxes on the wealthy and giving it to the poor they increase inflation and thereby interest rates; which interferes with the housing bubble, which they say is boomers nest eggs, and is thereby important to maintain and grow.
Its a problem with a bubble economy built on cheap debt and ever lower interest rates, you lose the ability to direct your own money supply. Look at owner-occupied housing's contribution to annual GDP growth, this bubble was fueling most of our economic growth.
Let's tax wealth to fund quality universal basic services first. Healthcare, childcare, education, transportation, social security, elder care. Social non-market housing, public utilities for electricity, water, telecommunications/Internet. None of these are increasing inflation, because they are not part of the market.
The idea of "nest egg" is only important as a privatised form of elder care. I couldn't care less about the value of my house if I had a publicly guaranteed quality of life as a pensioner. I wouldn't even care to own a house if I had strong renter protections in non-market housing (basically if renting was not equivalent to someone holding power over my life decisions).
And of course, of course, the capture of capital in unproductive real estate is beyond stupid. Instead of feeding a real estate bubble, it should be ingested in productive sectors of the economy, like building up renewables and the green transition.
A social democracy is just common sense.
Couldn't agree more, especially about the nest egg. I would love to see a better bedrock of care for all peoples.
A problem is investment is already very low in Canada, Carolyn Rogers already rang the alarm bells on productivity investment. So in some ways its not solved by high taxes, because productivity is what is causing the lack of growth according to the BoC.
My understanding (and I'm no economist) is that (a) some of the productivity metrics are weird, because they compare with the US which counts their idiotic for-profit healthcare sector in productivity, (b) part of the low investment is caused exactly because our capital is tied in real estate, and (c ) low investment is also a result of our god-damned oligopolies in so many key sectors of the economy. High taxes is not the only tool of course. What we need is a very aggressive policy against the wealthy. That can take the form of taxes, of improving social mobility via the welfare state, and of breaking up their cartels, i.e., their stranglehold on the economy.
They can't bring their money with them to hell
Their wealth needs to be seized and redistributed. They can still be obscenely wealthy, but they also need to forced in psychiatric programs since most of the uber wealthy families of the world have mental illness running through them.
I suggest reading up on the Mars family (the people who own Mars candy bars and other confectionery). The story of their OCD in doing anything at all for more money and market share was terrifying.
Hard agree. Hoarded wealth is a negative asset to the country and its economy.
According to the World Inequality Index, between 1999 and 2024, the top-1% in Canada grew their wealth from 26% to 29%.
In the same period in other countries, the top-1% changed their wealth:
- in Australia and New Zealand, more or less unchanged at around 23%
- in Europe, more or less unchanged around 25%
- in the USA, grew from 31% to 35%
- in China, grew from 19% to 30%
- in Russia, grew from 40% to 49%
- in Latin America, unchanged at around 36%
- Oceania, grew from 24% to 27%
- Sub-Saharan Africa, shrank from 38% to 34%
Worldwide, the top-1% share was stable at around 37%.
In the same period 1999-2024, the wealth of the bottom-50% in Canada slightly shrank from 15% to 14%. In other countries:
- in Australia and New Zealand, more or less unchanged at around 5%
- in Europe, more or less unchanged around 3%
- in the USA, grew from 0.6% to 1%
- in China, shrank from 14% to 6%
- in Russia, shrank from almost 7% to less than 3%
- in Latin America, unchanged at 2%
- Oceania, decreased from 3% to 2%
- Sub-Saharan Africa, slightly increased from below 2% to 2.1%
Worldwide, the bottom-50% grew their share of the total wealth slightly from 7% to 8%.
Source for the top 1%, here for the bottom 50%.
You can play around in the linked diagrams for other countries and regions.
Geez China. So much for lifting a billion out of poverty.
I mean, conditions have gotten better, but clearly there's gaps.
There is ample evidence that inequality is on the rise in China.
Yes, and you just posted it. Did you think I was arguing?
Lot of SIMPs for China around Lemmy even for a reasonable critique. Can be hard to tell sometimes
Yeah, that's definitely fair.
No, all fine. Sorry if my comment was misleading.
yah china lie about its numbers a lot, im beginning to wonder about its population count as well
They already did that, now capitalism evolves into its final form as fascism like it always does.
A nation of renters and landlords.
Canada's poor richest 1% nearly as poor as poorest 80% :((
No inheritance tax will do that.
The argument against inheritance tax seems to be that we don't want to screw the inheritors out of the ability to own a family property or something, but it seems like it's be REALLY easy to draw a line and make it such that the estate is taxable if more than $X value is going to a single recipient and/or if the estate is valued in excess of $XY that it's taxable and/or if the recipients assets exceed $Z that entitlements exceeding $X are taxable. I'm sure there'd be a few edge cases that would miss the mark, but it seems like it would be a lot better than the current system of generational wealth building up with the new generations literally not needing to work a day in their lives and still pass on wealth to their kids.
Can't believe a bunch of English expats would recreate feudalism.
To be fair, there arw many who could use some basic financial education around here.
That’s awful
Complacent middle class, or rapidly shrinking and struggling to not fall further middle class?
Land hoarding is the problem.
Yeah, the issue here isn't the middle class, it's as usual, the owner class that's the problem
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