Alex's Blog Post

Why is Winnipeg Health Care Failing it’s People?

                Winnipeg health care system is failing us because we don’t have enough hospitals to support the 783, 700 people who live here. We only have six hospitals and probably one 3-4 doctors on call, depending on the ward. 280,000 people visited the hospital last year which calculates 23, 333 visits each month and 5833 people a week. Thus equally out to 972 people in each hospital. The average ambulance wait in 2013 was 78 minutes. According to the WRHA president and CEO Arlene Wilgosh, the WRHA wants to be able to treat and discharge 90% of emergency rooms patients. Myrightcare.cu is a website promoting other alternatives to patients to use, rather than rushing to emergency rooms for less severe incidents or concerns.  In my opinion, this won’t really help because when people are really sick they don’t want to go online.  They want to know what is wrong and the place to go is the hospital where doctors and nurses are to help. Also people will be a little hesitant to use to website because people don’t trust the internet for certain research and also people won’t be thinking clear because they are too busy panicking.

                My mom Sylvia Ptashnik, is the director of residence and services at Deer Lodge Centre,  one of the board of directors for the Fred Douglas committee, and has also been a nurse for 37 years. She worked in emergency rooms and the intensive care unit for 25 years. I asked her, “Why is the health care system failing us?” She answered, “When I worked in the emergency room, ambulance waiting times were a lot faster than they are now and we didn’t have the amount of people requiring hospital visits as much as we do now.” She also told me, “about 15-30 years ago people were saying we need more hospitals to cover the growing population of Winnipeg, but the government denied saying no we don’t need to build more hospitals. Now they are trying to make up for their mistakes, but it’s a little too late.”

                In my experience with hospital visits they need to improve the care they give the patients because when I had my appendix out the nurses didn’t give me good care. For example, when I wanted clean sheets they told my parents where to find them and my parents changed them. It is their job to do things like that.

                If our money goes into the health care system, why isn’t it changing or improving. We learned in class that it is the provincial government’s responsibility to provide us with health care. In the case study we did on health care on September 18, it states despite the massive funds put into the system, problems still exist. Waiting room times for operations, recruitment of new staff – especially doctors and specialists nursing staff. Arguments continue over where National Health Service funds would be most appropriately spent. This article is on the health care problems that are in the United Kingdom but they are similar to the problems that we have here in Canada. 

WRHA flatlineson ER targets  By: Larry Kusch Winnipeg Free Press

 http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/whra-flatlines-on-er-targets-24034051.html 

The Numbers don't lie: Ambulance wait times rising, not falling By: Tom Brodbeck Winnipeg Sun

http://www.winnipegsun.com/2013/10/15/the-numbers-dont-lie-ambulance-wait-times-rising-not-falling

Tax system

In a few years, we will have graduated from university or college and be working in the real world. We will be much more interested in taxes than we are right now because we will be paying taxes. Some of us will be paying high taxes, so the sooner we learn about tax systems, the better. There are a lot of categories of taxes but I’m going to discuss three taxes, each of which is based on a tax rate.

Progressive tax system

The progressive tax is based on a person’s income and expenditures. Progressive tax increases as an individual’s level of income increases. For example, if you earn $10,000 a year, under a progressive tax, your tax rate could be 10 percent, meaning you would pay $1,000. If you earn $50,000 a year, a progressive tax rate could be 20 percent, meaning you would pay $10,000. And if you earn $100,000 then taxed at 30 percent, you would pay $30,000. Many countries including Canada are using the progressive tax system for the following reasons:

Advantages of progressive taxation:

1.       Proper distribution of money: Since progressive taxation allows income-based taxes, a person with low income will pay much less than a person with a high income. This is an effective way for proper distribution of wealth.

2.       Protects the lower income group: Progressive taxation system allows the lower income group to pay less in taxes. Since most of the working population falls in this category, progressive taxation is favored by most.

3.       Protection during recession times: Progressive taxation system also protects people during recession times because if their income drops, they fall into lower income bracket.

4.       Stable income stream: Progressive taxation also allows the government to have a stable income stream even in times of depression.(http://www.credit-terms.com/tax/progressive-taxation.html)

Personally, I’m not sure about this system if I earn a lot of money. However, I think this system is fair because even though people earn a low income, they still need to buy the basic necessities for their families. If they paid the same percentage of their income as the rich, the poverty rate of our country would increase hugely. Many of the rich think this system is unfair because they are paying a higher percentage of their income than the poor; thus the tax system is discriminating against them. Other disadvantages include:

1.       Prevents taking high paying jobs: Progressive taxation system may also prevent individuals from taking a high paying job because most of their income would be taken away as taxes. It also discourages individuals to work harder to gain higher incomes.

2.       Encourages emigration: High progressive taxation system can encourage high earning workers to move overseas to escape the tax system.

3.       Encourages hiding of assets: High progressive taxation system can also encourage high income earners to opt for off-shore banking by which they can hide their assets and save taxes.

Regressive tax system

The second tax system that I looked at is the regressive tax system. It is opposite to the progressive tax system. People earning a high income pay a lower percentage of tax than people earning a low income. However, it does not mean that lower income people pay more taxes, they just pay a higher percentage of their income in taxes. For example, if someone earning $ 40,000 per year pays 10 percent of his income he pays $4000. However, if someone earning $ 10,000, pays 20 percent of his income, he pays $2000.       Therefore, the higher income person is paying more money but the lower income person is paying a higher proportion of tax on his lower income.

In my opinion, the regressive tax system is unfair to poor people. Even though they pay less money than the rich, the government is taking a larger proportion of their income. That means that the poor have less income than the rich to pay for basic necessities. That’s why affluent nations don’t use this as an income tax system.

                    

Proportional tax

Proportional tax is a tax with a fixed rate like 10%. There is no change in the tax rate if incomes increase or decrease. It is also called a flat tax. It does not consider an individual’s circumstances. For example, if someone is earning $100, they have to pay 10 percent of their income which is $10 and if someone is earning $10,000, they also pay 10 percent of their income which is $1000. People like this tax because it treats everyone equally. It is easy to understand and it’s easy to calculate the amount of taxes owed. In this system, there would be no exemptions, deductions, or tax credits .Therefore, it prevents people from cheating and encourages people to earn the highest income possible which is a benefit for the government and the society.

However, in my personal opinion, I don’t think it is fair tax system because it takes more of a poor person’s income pay 10 percent than it does of a rich person’s income. Poor people may feel more burdened by this tax. They will have less disposable income after paying it than will affluent people.

My opinion

Before I studied these tax systems I had no knowledge of how governments levy taxes. Now I know there is no perfect tax system but some systems are fairer than others. Since all citizens pay taxes, the government should help them understand the tax systems. Also the government should understand that inequalities exist in citizens’ ability to pay taxes and consider those inequalities when levying taxes. In my opinion, the progressive tax system is morally the fairest system of the three. That doesn’t mean that I will enjoy paying high taxes when I’m earning lots of money in the future. However, it reflects the best way of achieving equality and fairness in the tax system.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DuFDXoJhEs – progressive tax

Tax Free Holiday

Tax Free-Holiday 

If you have lots of money, 2012, had one of the best tax days since the early 1930s: Top tax rates on ordinary income, dividends, estates, and gifts remain at or near historically low levels. That’s thanks, in part, to legislation passed in December 2010 by the 111th Congress and signed by President Barack Obama. Starting January, rates may be headed higher in both Canada and the U.S but the rich are not worried, they are able to afford their way out of paying taxes.

 For the 400 U.S. taxpayers with the highest adjusted gross income, the effective federal income tax rate—what they actually pay—fell from almost 30 percent in 1995 to just over 18 percent in 2008, according to the Internal Revenue Service. And for the approximately 1.4 million people who make up the top 1 percent of taxpayers, the effective federal income tax rate dropped from 29 percent to 23 percent in 2008. It may seem too fantastic to be true, but the top 400 end up paying a lower rate than the next 1,399,600 or so.

That’s not just good luck. It’s often the result of hard work.. Much of the income among the top 400 derives from dividends and capital gains, generated by everything from appreciated real estate—yes, there is some left—to stocks and the sale of family businesses. 

As Warren Buffet likes to point out, since most of his income is from dividends, his tax rate is less than that of the people who clean his office.

Warren Buffet Net Worth: $ 58.5 Billion

What is a tax haven?  

A tax haven is a country that exempts foreign investors who hold bank accounts or set up companies in its territory from taxes. 

While citizens and corporations residing in the country are required to pay their taxes like elsewhere in the world, foreign investors enjoy, in most cases, total exemption, or at least a substantial reduction of taxes to be paid. Provided they do not carry on business within the tax haven itself. States that apply this kind of tax policies do so with the intention of attracting foreign deposits to strengthen their economy. Most of them are tiny nations with few natural or industrial resources. Their whole existence would be threatened were it not for the booming financial industry growing in the shadow of foreign capital.

Why is this problem?

Tax havens, also called offshore jurisdictions, have attracted an increasing number of foreign investors, especially in recent decades. Usually they are people and businesses fleeing their own country’s tax collecting voracity in search of a more favorable business environment. This is not surprising, since in some countries with high taxes, especially in Europe, the taxes paid by a person or business account for up to 50% of their profit.

This capital flight, of course, is not viewed favorably by tax officials of the countries that suffer from it, as in the end an important part of their tax revenue gets away. Therefore, they have tried to react with different measures to hinder the transfer of assets to tax havens or to make it unattractive.

But the new world order that emerged with the globalization of the economy makes it difficult to exert effective control over the movement of money. Trying to hinder the free flow of capital clashes with the claims of global trade liberalization, which is defended by, besides most companies and governments, also by such important institutions as the World Bank, the WTO (World Trade Organization) and the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development).

On the other hand, the legal measures taken with the intention of hindering the outflow of capital, and which usually consist of an unfavorable tax treatment of investments in tax havens, have not yielded the expected results either.

This is because it is relatively easy to hide the ownership of offshore corporations or offshore bank accounts; so many people have simply opted to conduct their operations in secret.

What makes up a Tax Haven?

• ·         Personal data of owners and shareholders of companies are not listed in public records, or the use of formal representatives (called nominees) is allowed.
• ·         There are strict rules on bank secrecy. Data about account holders are only available to the authorities if there is evidence of serious crimes such as terrorism or drug trafficking.
• ·         Signing treaties with other countries involving exchanges of banking or tax information is avoided. Although this situation is changing in recent years.
• ·         Stability and monetary policy are promoted. Who would invest in a place with continuous coups d'état, wars or rampant inflation?
• ·         They have an excellent range of legal, accounting and tax advice services.
• ·         They often have good tourist and transportation infrastructure.

What can be done then against tax havens?

The main actions have been aimed at putting pressure on the governments of tax havens seeking to limit their confidentiality laws and bank secrecy. This is currently being done through various international organizations, usually under the banner of combating terrorism, drug trafficking and money laundering networks.

Check out these interesting videos to learn more: 

Tax free Vacation

Google's Tax Evasion Holiday

Starbucks, Amazon & Google UK Tax Avoidance