| Author/Presenter |
Andrew Jackson (Canadian Labour Congress) |
| Title |
Taxation and Social Democracy |
| Abstract |
Social democrats believe in redistribution of resources between social classes through a progressive tax system which funds generous and high quality public services and social programs. What is less clear is the appropriate division of re-distributive labour between the tax and transfer (plus services) levers of equalization. Many social democratic countries have equalized mainly on the spending side, supporting relatively high social and public expenditures through a relatively flat personal tax system. It is indeed the case that the spending side is the most important, and that high levels of spending require some considerable reliance on non-progressive but effective sources of revenue generation such as payroll and consumption taxes. However, it is argued here that we need to pay more attention to income tax progressivity given the steep increase in top incomes, which is now a key driving force of rising inequality. |
|