The last entry I made was to lambast the wrongheadedness of Jack Layton’s proposed trade war with the USA. Stephen Harper has come up with a much better campaign promise today. Basically, he proposes to increase the amount of pension funds that senior citizens can shelter from income taxes from $1000 to $2000.
It’s not a huge step, but it’s one in the right direction. Keeping money out of the hands of government and in the hands of private citizens is always a good idea. Private pension schemes, or more mixed schemes as used in Japan, are still a long way away for statist Canada, but at the very least slow progress is being made towards that goal. It is for certain that the money which senior citizens can save using this scheme will be allocated for their own welfare and far more efficiently than the government could do it for them. If we are charitable to Harper and assume this is not just a campaign promise led by polls and pundits, he may be realising what it took the people of the USSR almost 75 years to find: private citizens can allocate resources for their own well-being far more efficiently than bureaucrats in some distant government office.
Eugene Plawiuk wrote:
Thats why the Soviet Union became a basket case economy, with baba’s begging in the streets that they used to sweep for an assured income, benefits and housing…yep they sure did come a long way…..
Posted on 09-Dec-05 at 1:10 pm | Permalink
LE REVUE GAUCHE - Left Analysis And Comment: 2005-12-04 wrote:
[…] ThePolitic says that Harpers pension announcement is just what folks need. And then in fine old red baiting conservative tradition he uses Russia as an example of the success of free market pension reform. Yep I kid you not.”If we are charitable to Harper and assume this is not just a campaign promise led by polls and pundits, he may be realising what it took the people of the USSR almost 75 years to find: private citizens can allocate resources for their own well-being far more efficiently than bureaucrats in some distant government office.”So I had to leave him a reply; “Thats why the Soviet Union became a basket case economy, with baba’s begging in the streets that they used to sweep for an assured income, benefits and housing…yep they sure did come a long way…..” […]
Posted on 06-Nov-07 at 10:26 pm | Permalink