But you’re probably not going to get any.
Know why? Because of income inequality.
But before you go back to Twitter, there are a couple of things you should know.
Like what income inequality is — because I guarantee it’s affecting you.
Income inequality just means an unequal distribution of income across participants in an economy.
The causes can vary significantly by region, gender, level of education, and social status.
And it’s the reason that 3.8% of Canadian households control 67% of the total wealth.
Let that sink in.
That’s $1.78 trillion dollars.
Controlled by 3.8% of all the households in Canada.
Not depressed enough yet?
Canadians have set a new record! We now owe $1.71 for every dollar of disposable income.
And by lunch on January 3, 2018, the highest-paid CEOs in Canada earned as much as average Canadians will make in an entire year.
Sounds terrible, right? But before you pack your bags for Mars, there are some things you should know.
Income inequality is not inevitable.
You remember Occupy Wall Street? Yeah, they were protesting this b@$%&.
And decades before OWS was around, unions were fighting the good fight.
And now you can help too!
Ever heard of the Robin Hood Tax?
It’s exactly what it sounds like — a tax on the super wealthy to aid the masses.
The proposed amount is 0.05% tax on transactions carried out by banks and financial traders. Meaning it wouldn’t impact 99% of the population, like you or me.
But it will generate millions of dollars that could be used to fund public services like hospitals, child care, and infrastructure projects.
Progressive tax rates have been PROVEN to reduce post-tax inequality, but they also diminish pre-tax inequality. Why? — Because the 1% has less incentive to swallow up wealth when they know it’s just going to be taken back in taxes.
But tighter tax laws are only half the battle. We also need to crack down on offshore accounts and tax evasion.
More than 3,000 Canadian companies, trusts, foundations, and individuals were listed in the Paradise Papers, a leak of millions of records from an offshore law firm and from corporate registries of 19 tax havens.
And that’s on top of the 625 Canadians named in the 2016 leak of the Panama Papers.
Visit UnionsYeah.ca to see how you can help level the playing field for all Canadians.
Talk about it! Tweet it, snap it, text it — make enough noise that the politicians can’t ignore it anymore.
Because we’ve seen first-hand what happens when we let the super-rich control the government.
Unions like NUPGE are advocates for change. We want fairer tax laws and want those engaging in tax evasion to pay their fair share.
And it’s been proven time and time again that countries with higher rates of unionization have less income inequality AND less of a gender pay gap.
So stand up Canada! Tell ‘em who’s boss.
Because we all deserve a little extra $.
Sources
- http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/debt-income-ratio-1.4291294
- http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2017/12/14/canadian-household-debt-hits-rec...
- http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/paradise-papers-canada-connection-1.4386126
- http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/panama-leak-offshore-records-putin-messi-mo...
- https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/08/union-inequality-wa...
- https://robinhoodtax.ca/
- NUPGE: Robin Hood Was Right