Tax boomers to death, suggests controversial columnist

They are doing it already. Have you ever gone to a casino these days. The majority of the patrons are well over their 60's. It would be political suicide to introduce this tax so the next best thing is to entice retirees to enjoy themselves while losing billions to gaming. If the government wants more money, they just need to rig the machines to ensure they pay out less winnings. There is no legislation on how much the payouts need to be from slots machines. Here is a perfect example. When they introduced the new Poker Lottery, many became addicted to this game. The biggest payout is $100 000 and it isn't awarded every night. You only have 1 chance in 2.599 million to win 100K. Now that is a rip off if you don't know your odds. Here are the other lottery and their respective chances of winning:
Lotto Max - 1 chance in 28 633528 million to usually win $ 10 miilion base to $50 million+
6-49 - 1 chance in 13 983 816 million to win usually $ 4 million
Lottario - 1 chance in 4 072530 to win $250 000
Ont 49 - 1 chance in 13 983 816 to win $1 million
Daily Keno - 8 picks - 1 chance in 74 941 to win 25k
- 9 picks - 1 chance in 387 197 to win 50 k
- 10 picks - 1 chance in 2 147181 million to win 250k
Simply go to www.olg.ca website to get your odds. I know that most knew the lottery was a longshot but probably not these longer odds. Buyer Beware on some of these lotteries. In the end, there is nothing wrong to play these larger-payout lotteries if you can afford it. But these litttle ones are a money grab for the government.

Oh great idea he snorts sarcastically! I am a boomer-divorced from a drunken wife, semi employed, companies i worked for went bankrupt-twice-I am now `tainted` by this sour employment background, no savings, no pension, apparently useless and discarded-I have been burdened for decades by all the politically correct insanity dumped on me by loonie-leftist free spending idiots. I do own a tiny little house-one bedroom and my hope is to inherit enough money to be able to add a second bedroom to my little house...so I can rent out the room and have some income after the Canada pension plan collapses.

Letting the government get its hands on the last bits of cash still in private hands will kill off whats left of the economy!When that money is passed on most of it will be used to pay debt. The people seen in casinos and on planes jetting to wonderful vacations in the sunny south are mostly civil servants and workers in `protected` industries-that means your cable company, hydro electric company, bank, insurance company, gas company etc...all companies that dont have real compatition and gouge whatever they feel they need from your hide-looting the pile of cahs available to be inherited will simply let the fat cats continue feeding on the cream.

The difference, of course, is that no one is making you buy lottery tickets or spend time in the casino. Esatate tax takes a big mandatory chunk of inherited wealth ---- a big difference.

I would think most people would make sure they had nothing left They would make sure there children or a charity would have a gift long before there death.

My parents are in their 80's they have long since exhausted any inheritance I might have once received and "good on them" they had fun in thier retirement thats what its about as far as I'm concerned. I personally am sick of being lumped into the badyboomer category, being in my early 50's puts me at the bottom end of the cycle and you know what runs down don't you!
The government taxes everything they can think of and if they cant' tax it they find other ways to tear the money out of our wallets. Taxing such things as heating oil, propane, food and other essentials is in my mind is an absolute crime. Problem is if you believe that one political party is anybetter than the other you are still living in a dream world. My vote goes to the person who stands up and says "I want this job not to line my own pockets with the big salary and expense budget and the pension once I quit . I want this job because everyday Canadians are losing ground and it has to be made easier and it has to happen now"

Tax his income, tax his food, tax his gas, one way or another any way it can the government will tax his ass.

There is something to be said by the author here, but it would have to be done in the right way to not harm those who have little (for instance, the first XXX dollars of net worth are exempt from being taxed). The boomers have lived with low tax, high spending circumstances for a very long time, benefiting a lot from increasing wages, increasing standard of living, and at the same time a ballooning government debt. Both in the US and Canada, the boomers should pay for this stuff at some time! There is currently a 5:1 ratio of workers to retirees, and in 40 years that will be a ratio of about 2:1. Who is going to pay the expenses then? Those two workers will, of course! That is going to be such a drain on the system, with those two workers getting taxed to death to support the retiree. By taking a portion of the retirees net worth after death as some kind of estate tax, it will help to fill the debt hole of things they were able to enjoy without paying for during the course of their life, and prevent a spending generation from passing on their huge debts to their children.

This of course applies mostly to the United States but since Canada is becoming more American it has some relevance to us. We have been under taxed for years. This in why public services are declining. This is no accident it is ideology. Remember the days when we believed that all we had to do was drop regulations and shrink government and all would be fine. Well we did that and it is not fine at all.

So the answer is grow government, re-regulate and tax progressively - which means if you have forgotten the higher your income the higher your tax rate. In the interest of fairness to the growing legions of low income citizens we should reduce regressive taxation such as the HST as we gradually increase income taxes.

We should close tax loopholes and repatriate our tax dollars from tax havens. It will take two decades to clean up the mess that the Free Market gang has created but we have no choice.

By focusing on a fair tax system and progressive taxes the Boomer issue will be taken care of in a fair way. I can tell you that not all boomers are rich. I am a 62 year old boomer who is prepared to pay higher taxes for the betterment of my country and its citizens. I spend several thousand dollars supporting NGO's that are doing what government used to do but not nearly as efficiently. I would be happy to pay more taxes.

I think Michael Kinsley needs a refresher course in recent contemporary history. This idea about taxing inherited assets, not to mention just about everything else, has been tried already. It's called communism, Michael. Ever hear about it? Obviously not. Well Michael, news flash. It didn't work. In fact Michael it was a complete disaster, especially for those victims unfortunate enough to have had to live under that system.

hello from last remaining son of no 5 in ww1.ww2 RCAF-these ww2 veterans returned to this country to rebuild-many of sons,daughters built the corporations that are the main stream revenvenue base of this very successfull nation-we never got involved in frug trade,we were presentable @business meetings-we had good sized families that recieved high education-we were not ""instant gratification""citizens-afghanistan-main contingent is from edmonton,ontario,manitoba,maritimes-these military people have given up all their tomorrows-so that we are safe-now we have influx of persians-they must integrate into society-the chinese,filipinos,east indians are-and they have great work ethic-we also have a stabilized federal govt under P.M.harper-the liberals are in disarray-the NDP are clioning to socialism-and want to tax family estates-these are war veteran families-ever heard of the term traitor????????????jdhuggard,west vancouver,bc,canada

it is these spoiled all so enttitled lttle creatures who think that everything should be given to them and anybody over the age of 40 is obligated to give everything you ever worked for, to them because they are special....someone needs to go to their room...a time out with the temper tantrum skippy

Who is thid idiot, Michael Kingsley anyway, and why would anyone or anything allow it to write such trash.
First, these people have worked hard for what they have and if they have anything left to pass on its because they saved it to pass on. They could have just as well spent it taking holidays elsewhere- say- Europe with no net benefit to North America at all.
Reality is that the governments are in dire straits because they allowed the banking crooks to foul things up. If they need to shore up the kitty they should go and empty their wallets, estates and hidden cash and jewels.
And while you're at it why are the big corporations paying so little tax and making immense profits. Because they'll threaten to take their business off shore-- well then maybe they shouldn't be allowed to rape our resources and strip the land so easily- tax them Mr. Kingsley

Governments need to find a way to cut back spending across the board including Healthcare. Surely, we all know we can find 8-10% savings across the board without affecting salaries. If you look at your own town, you hear about all these grants given for various projects that seem a little over the top or not essential. If our current government knew they would not be voted out for slashing expenses (excluding salaries - freeze to 2% increase), and we allowed this for the next 6 years, I truly feel we can become accustomed to less services and cut back our National Deficit. The Ontario Government just figured out they have an extra $1 Billion in tax revenue so they are passing this on to reduce Hydro bills. But we still have a fiscal deficit of $10 Billion. This is to help with re-election but I don't get it. They too have to live within their means.

This is easy to comment about. You are either joking to get a reaction, and make a little cash also, or you're in severe need or mental health counsel.

Daniel and John are spot on.

Baby boomers brought greed with them and destroyed our economies. They have pushed income taxes far too low for the middle and upper social classes and used debt to pay for everything. On top of that, they spend money without accountability and sensibility because they use debt to fund their projects.

Baby boomers were able to buy houses for cheap in the 80s and still ok in the 90s relative to their salaries. Today, because of banks lending out higher mortgages to individuals, greed from investors and people having higher disposable income from too low taxation; we've caused housing costs and rent to be pushed to very high limits during this last economic boom and resulted in bailouts and stimulus programs from gov't to avoid the occurrence of another great depression.

What if debt didn't exist? People would have to pay for what they spent through taxation but because of debt gov't keeps borrowing and borrowing and boomers are pushing THEIR debt to other generations to deal with. Boomers will leave my generation and others to pay their debt, pensions and everything else.

We need to increase income tax on the higher social classes, from upper middle class and upwards and tax estates on the richer people too. Estate tax for those that have lots of money, ie: over $1 Million. Boomers have been given a free ride from low income taxation for many years and should pay for it somehow.

I'd like to see how wealthy the author of this article is, chances are he does not need an inharatence so the tax wouldn't affect him.

I do NOT think every boomer comes from rich wealthy families. Why not just TAX those whose inheritances hit over 3 million dollars? We all know that even younger people from the X generation or Y generation inherit millions and millions of dollars. Don't assume just because a person is a "boomer" or from the "boomer" generation that he or she is loaded with cash. Lots of these people do come from working class families when the minimum wage was still low (I used to work for $2.37 an hour). So whatever money they have invested whether it is in real estate like buying their own home or investing in gold and Canada Savings Bonds (when houses were still cheap and the price of gold was still $300 per ounce) was made through hard work and time invested with compounding interest. With the cost of living going up now and taxes are as high as it is already, taxing the boomers will only send these people into the funeral homes. And those family run businesses like Funeral homes are the ones that are going to be making lots of money (millions and millions in profits).

NOT EVERY "BOOMER" IS RICH. A LOT OF BOOMERS ARE POOR TOO OR JUST BARELY MAKING IT TO SURVIVE. WHY NOT JUST TAX THE RICH REGARDLESS OF WHAT GENERATION THEY BELONG TO. THERE ARE THOSE PEOPLE FROM THE X-GENERATION OR Y-GENERATION THAT SO FILTHY RICH. HELL, 50 CENT RAPPER IS A X-GENERATIONER AND HIS ASSETS ARE OVER $100 MILLION DOLLARS. TAX HIS ASS TO DEATH. THAT GUY GOT RICH SELLING DRUGS AND RAPPING ABOUT DRUG GANGS AND KILLING WHILE "BOOMER" GENERATION PEOPLE MADE THEIR MONEY THE HONEST WAY BY WORKING THEIR ASSES OFF WHEN PEOPLE USED TO WORK AT LEAST 44 HOURS A WEEK BEFORE THEY CAN EVEN GET OVERTIME PAY. DURING THOSE DAYS, MINIMUM WAGE WAS SO LOW, YOU CAN'T EVEN BUY A BURGER KING COMBO TODAY WITH AN HOURS PAY. JUST TAX ANYONE MAKING OVER $250k A YEAR OR TAX THOSE WHO INHERITANCES ARE VALUED OVER $3 MILLION DOLLARS (INCLUDING HOUSES AND COTTAGES). THAT'S THE WAY TO BE FAIR. DON'T ASSUME TODAY'S PROBLEMS ARE CREATED BY "BOOMERS". MOST OF TODAY'S PROBLEMS ARE FROM DRUG GANGS (MOSTLY X-GENERATIONERS AND Y-GENERATIONERS) AND THOSE WHO SWINDLE THE COMPANIES IN WALL STREET (AGAIN A FEW OF THEM ARE X-GENERATIONERS OF THE INTERNET AGE BECAUSE THEY WERE BORN AFTER 1958).

To Jack & John
You both need your heads checked. The top 20% of earners currently pay 80% of the tax. You want us to pay more? Taxes like GST/HST are excellent in that they tax consumption and not income. Shouldn't true wealth be considered how much you consume and not how much you make? That system of taxation ensures that everybody pays fairly on what they consume and it promotes saving which are system currently does not promote.
User taxes are also good in this way. There should be a flat charge for walking into a hospital, pay tolls on roads etc. Charge people for the services they use.
I would even consider a head tax a reasonable idea (every person in Canada starts by owing say $2,000 in tax for the PRIVILEGE of being a Canadian).
As these are implmented slash income tax rates back to almost nothing.

With taxes like those people would be inspired to work harder because they would get to keep the extra they earned. Right now I personally could work and earn more but when I consider I would only get 55 cents on the dollar due to tax I don't. Think my system sounds crazy well check out the Cayman Islands, they are doing well, are totally stable and have excellent personal wealth and a 0% income tax rate.

TLDR:
A consumption tax allocates tax to those that consume resources. Taxes individuals that consume resources is a fair allocation of tax (more fair than income tax in many instances). Who else than the person using resources should pay for those resources?

So what happened to the great let's get it done leftie messiah that promised millions and millions of jobs if elected?

The lefties policies are total failures as usual, but it's the fault of the middle class now.