A publich letter to the editors of Global & Mail.
RE:Child-care proposal gives least to poorest
I did not want to write to you. Because as most of the "not-so-poor" people, I am too busy at work and have no time spare.
However, reading the comments I realized, if all the "not-so-poor" people are keep to themselves, their voice will never be heard and they will become a group of forgotten people - by media, by the mass and by the government. This is not democracy, this is not equality - this is unfair.
The title of this article is technically not-wrong but is very misleading. Reading through it, it is actually saying "family with no income, do not get as much as family with income". And this issue is so interesting, that I have to talk about it.
The Canadian tax law so far does not recognize child as dependent (unless it is single parent household). But the CCTB is calculated in such a way that it is related to the parents income (note, not the child's but the parents). This effectively is a tax on the Child - this was never fair from the beginning. Any child is a Canadian and should be treated equally. Their parents has already paid income tax on a "higher-rate on higher income" basis, this has effectively bring their household to the even level with any other family.
The reduce Child benefit payment is on top of the parents' tax liability – if both a “low-income” and a “high-income” parents do not have kids, there will be no difference in their “after tax benefits”; however, when they both have kids, there will be a practical different “after-tax-income” from the government. And this different payment is “after tax” which means the “before-tax” income difference has already been “addressed” by higher tax rate for higher income – hence this difference is purely levied upon the child.
This type of “give-to-the-in-need” theory totally ignores the effort the “higher incomes” may put forward to earn the income and although loud in the voice of equality, totally ignores the equality of all Canadian. It serves only a small group of people with their special interest – the government keep tax dollars because THEY DEEM “high income” family do not need child benefit.
Understanding the background of the whole issue, we soon realize that this article actually fiercely attacked a policy that rectifies an anti-equality policy in a country that treasures equality more than anything else. In the name of “helping the poor” it actually attacked one of the fundamental value all Canadian believes in – equality. The new policy is NOT about giving less to the poorer, it is about giving to all kids, no mater what kind of family they are from. The new policy is NOT taking away anything from the poor, it is about giving equally to all. What went wrong was the CCTB – it is a flawed policy that benefits the government itself in the name of “giving to the poor”.
The biggest problem this article delivered is its “hatred against not-so-poor”. It is complaining so harshly for – not for reducing the benefit paid to the poor, but for also giving to the not-so-poor who has already paid their high income tax so become no-where-close-to-rich.
Equality is not about what you want or what you like. It is not about everyone is getting the same amount of money. Equality is the authority need to treat everyone the same way: provide equal opportunities to men and women, poor or rich, old or young, black or white.
Very same flaw shows in another argument this article brought up – the single income families benefit more then double income family. Our tax law is already heavily against single income families. One single 70000 CAD income family pays thousands dollar more than two 35000 CAD income family. Again this article attacked the fact that single income family may be able to keep more after tax dollar in this 1200$ payment as if it is a hellishly sin.
I just wonder where this “equality” vindicator was when single income family was unfairly taxed. When I work 15 hours a day try to make it possible that my wife can stay home with my kids, why is that justified I should pay more tax than a family both parents work 7.5 hours a day?
The shameless use the concept of “equality” to attack a policy trying to rectify un-equality is unbelievable misleading the readers. It is very irresponsible to publish an article like this as is without special description to describe the obvious flaws in the analysis.
Your implicit endorsement to this selfish and seriously flawed article is harmful to Canadian society and to the reputation of your media and Canadian media as a whole. From the comments we can read that this irresponsible article as spared more hatred among Canadian ourselves. While it may to the benefit of some politicians, I saw no reason why someone should be so angry for other people being treated less harsh.
We expect you to be more responsible in future editing and publicly withdraw (or clarify the non-existence of) your endorsement to this article.
