Nicholas Gafuik Online

Cuts and increases

ncgafuik — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 21:09:46 +0000

This morning Prime Minister Harper has announced the Family Tax Cut. It’s not full-on income splitting, but it is a degree of income sharing that will mean that households with similar income levels will have a similar tax burden.

Count me a big fan of the proposal. Family members share the burden of running a household. Tax and public policy should recognize this fact. Let me recommend this paper on family taxation from Jack Mintz for more.

Meanwhile (this care of Paul Wells) John McCallum says of the Liberal plan to increase the corporate tax rate: “That is an increase.”

Tagged: Canadian conservatism, Conservative Party of Canada, Family Tax Cut, Jack Mintz, John McCallum, Stephen Harper

Free to Choose

ncgafuik — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 20:06:16 +0000

Check out Milton Friedman’s excellent 1980 TV series ‘Free to Choose’: http://www.freetochoose.tv/

Tagged: Free to Choose, Milton Friedman

Daniel Hannan on Uncommon Knowledge

ncgafuik — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 23:13:16 +0000

Tagged: Daniel Hannan, Uncommon Knowledge

Tony Blair on consensus

ncgafuik — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 20:28:06 +0000

“Consensus is great, but in modern politics, where debate unfortunately works through disagreement, it is like the philosopher stone sought by alchemists: if it sounds too good to be true that you can turn base metal into gold, that’s probably because it is. So consensus is wonderful, but not if it is part of a delusion that making real change with real impact is going to please everyone. It isn’t. And in these circumstances the “consensus” can be a sign that the reform isn’t really biting, in which case it probably isn’t going to fulfill its purpose.”

- Former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair in his autobiography “A Journey: My Political Life” (p. 578)

Tagged: consensus, political debate, Tony Blair

Tony Blair on health care

ncgafuik — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 23:10:52 +0000

“Health care systems in which there was a mixed public/private provision, or which at least demanded some individual commitment and gave some individual choice, did best. Monolithic systems either were in the process of being changed or were failing.”

- Former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair in his autobiography “A Journey: My Political Life” (p. 319)

Tagged: healthcare, Tony Blair

A clear conscience – Yes, Prime Minister

ncgafuik — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 17:02:37 +0000

Tagged: bureaucracy, minutes, Yes Minister

Tom Flanagan

ncgafuik — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 18:13:24 +0000

“Parties are not investment clubs. Give them more money, and they will spend it trying to win elections. Give them less money, and they won’t be able to campaign as often. Maybe they’ll even start to co-operate with each other in Parliament to avoid elections and pass some essential legislation.”

- Tom Flanagan, Abolishing political subsidies is an incomplete resolution

Tagged: political campaigns, political donations, Tom Flanagan

Tyler Cowen

ncgafuik — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 17:19:48 +0000

“For years, many cultural critics in and of the United States have been telling us that Americans should behave more like threshold earners. We should be less harried, more interested in nurturing friendships, and more interested in the non-commercial sphere of life. That may well be good advice. Many studies suggest that above a certain level more money brings only marginal increments of happiness. What isn’t so widely advertised is that those same critics have basically been telling us, without realizing it, that we should be acting in such a manner as to increase measured income inequality. Not only is high inequality an inevitable concomitant of human diversity, but growing income inequality may be, too, if lots of us take the kind of advice that will make us happier.”

- Tyler Cowen, The Inequality that Matters

Tagged: Happiness, income inequality, Tyler Cowen

Friedrich von Hayek

ncgafuik — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 20:07:23 +0000

“The recognition of the insuperable limits to his knowledge ought indeed to teach the student of society a lesson of humility which should guard him against becoming an accomplice in men’s fatal striving to control society – a striving which makes him not only a tyrant over his fellows, but which may well make him the destroyer of a civilization which no brain has designed but which has grown from the free efforts of millions of individuals.”

- Friedrich von Hayek

Tagged: Friedrich von Hayek, spontaneous order

Happiness of Canadians

ncgafuik — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 23:15:54 +0000

Cross Post: Manning Networking Conference 2011 Blog

Yesterday, David Akin highlighted a statement from Conservative MP Dean Del Mastro and a report on the happiness of Canadians from the Centre for the Study of Living Standards.

Right in the abstract of the report the researchers argue, “household income is a relatively weak determinant of individual happiness.” Furthermore, the report comments on unemployment:

We found that being unemployed has a negative impact on people’s happiness. Relative to household income, moving from unemployment to employment has the same impact on happiness as a 151 per cent increase in income for the average person.

While this report doesn’t seem to specifically address Arthur Brooks’ argument that opportunity to earn success is the most important determinant in happiness, the results seem consistent with Brooks’ thesis. Clearly there is more to happiness than money.

In fact, according to the CSLS study sense of belonging to local community was an important determinant of individual happiness. The families, communities, local organizations, non-profits, charities, interest groups, unions, churches, and non-governmental organizations on which we depend are important to our happiness. On this, conservatives should have something to say.

Tagged: Arthur Brooks, David Akin, Happiness, social justice conservatives