I was listening to the radio on my way into work today when the host of the program brought up a topic about tax cuts. Normally I would switch the station and listen to something else, but before I could the host brought up a quote uttered by Thomas Velk, McGill University's Economist.
The discussion, and I won't bore you with it, was around statements made by Ed Clark, the Chief Executive of TD Bank, who had made a speech in Montreal last week about urging tax cuts for poor Canadians.
Velk meanwhile, doesn't agree with Clark's approach and had this to say to the Financial Post on November 26th - "I would really dispute Mr. Clark's notion that we need to give money to the beer drinkers." He continued, "We can't afford it. We've got to build future productivity and we have to do that in the private sector. And the only way to do that is to give funding to the productive citizens who privately invest."
Now, I don't want to delve into this any further than needed, but what is he saying here about beer drinkers? He's making a pretty general statement that beer drinkers are poor and that they are not productive citizens. So, are all wine drinkers rich? Are all scotch drinkers productive citizens? What an absurd comment to make.
Years ago a Liberal MP made comments similar to this and it caught the attention of Rick Mercer who launched the "Beers Not Kids" petition in response. He didn't know why everyone was beating up on beer!
Yet once again, beer drinkers get thrown under the bus. But being low class, unproductive citizens and all, we might welcome it.
1 comment:
That is also bad economics as private investors put money into other markets other than the Canadian or local one you want to trigger. One of the best and most effective ways of triggering spending and economic growth is to include a significant broad based consumer rebate. That is why conservatives like George Bush and Alberta's government have chosen to use them so effectively.
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