Modernize the tax code

Re: Someone will eventually have to clean up the Conservatives’ tax code (March 23, 2013)

Dear Editor,

Jeffrey Simpson's arguments of the superiority of income taxes over sales taxes are thin if not academic. Both taxes are complex, expensive to administer, relatively easy to evade, and both damage the economy.

Alternatively, there is a revenue source that does not damage the economy, that is both fair and easy to administer, and difficult to avoid.

Economists like Adam Smith, David Ricardo, John Stewart Mill on down to Milton Friedman, Joseph Stieglitz, and Herman Daly, all hold that the optimal way to finance government is to collect the rental value of land and resources. There is sufficient economic rent (revenue without a corresponding cost of production) in the economy to replace most dead weight taxes on incomes and sales.

--
Frank de Jong, President
Earthsharing Canada