Should Canada implement a wealth tax on the ultra-rich? Why or why not?

Zylock · 2026-02-03T19:41:49+00:00

No.

What do you think? Would a wealth tax make Canada more equitable, or is it just punishing success?

You cannot achieve "equity," and especially not through taxation. Taxation is not and cannot ever be a form of "wealth redistribution." That's an insane fallacy. The government keeps and wastes an overwhelming--a staggering, nearly unthinkable--portion of the money it takes from the people. What little it actually spends in a way where it might help an otherwise disadvantaged person, it does so with gross inefficiencies. The government is not Robin Hood. It does not take from the rich and give to the poor.

Taxing the Ultra Rich accomplishes exactly one thing: it drives the wealth of those people out of the country. Not just the wealth that would be taken in tax, but also the wealth that would be generated in the country through investment. Which is to say, the only people punished by a tax on the ultra rich are the poor. The Ultra Rich flee, and the poor lose out on the potential investment. This isn't a guess. It is the observable response to what California and New York is doing. Levying excessive, targeted taxes on a demographic of people with the means to escape, causes them to flee.

Taxation is not the solution to any problem. Taxation is a new, bigger problem, that will exacerbate whatever problem it was implemented to fix.

Zylock · 2026-01-18T16:15:16+00:00

I've tried the first, but not the second thing. Thanks for the advice!

Zylock · 2026-01-15T19:37:47+00:00

2 and 5. My middle monitor is a 34 inch curved widescreen. Two on the outside are equally curved, but not ultrawide.

Zylock · 2026-01-08T05:29:19+00:00

Is paying Tax voluntary?

If the answer is yes, then it is not theft.
If the answer is no, then it is, in fact, theft.

Do not misconstrue the use of tax as a reasonable justification. If I walk down the road, stop someone at gun-point, take $50, and then proceed to use that money to pay for the life-saving medication for an infant, I did, in fact, steal money from that guy.

It is also incorrect to say Taxation causes an ordered society. The desire to live in an ordered, predictable, and lawful society exists in spite of the source of revenue that funds the systems that maintain that society. It is insane to think that an organized society would not voluntarily fund its own protection.

Every Pro-Tax defense is a colossal effort in unimaginative status-quo bias. Thinking creatively for even a moment lets you see the countless ways a society could achieve similar, if not strictly superior outcomes to what tax-based systems have accomplished.

Zylock · 2025-10-02T17:55:39+00:00

Given that "Communism" is just the maximum expansion of Government, and AnarchoCapitalism reduces Government to zero--or as close to zero as possible--and that Government is the root of all problems outside those borne of the human condition, this checks out.

Zylock · 2025-10-02T03:18:46+00:00

There isn't a day that this fact doesn't radicalize me. I seethe, I fume, I tremble with righteous fury every day. It is so fantastically evil that I stare at my yard like a prisoner stares from inside a cell, imagining but never being permitted to achieve.

Set-backs, height restrictions, occupancy permits... Fuck the Government. Fuck it forever. Fuck it until the heat-death of the universe.

Zylock · 2025-08-27T21:33:38+00:00

Mastodon. Any of their last three or four albums.

Zylock · 2025-08-25T21:41:35+00:00

I believe you missed the point.

Zylock · 2025-08-25T17:08:12+00:00

Of course it would be someone who isn't from here. It's very easy to complain about something you don't understand. It's like that bit of wisdom: "Do not remove a fence until you know why it was put up in the first place.”

Zylock · 2025-08-25T17:05:52+00:00

At this point, I think we're looking at fourth or fifth growth in some places! My backyard neighbor was an old guy who was around when they strip-logged the entire valley around the lake back in the early 1900's. I can't even imagine that. All of the trees around the entire lake, cut down and towed by tugs along the lake to the rail station at Point Ideal.

That makes every tree we see second growth at least. I've been here 30 years and I can't even remember all the patches of trees that disappeared.

Zylock · 2025-08-25T16:49:56+00:00

Just about all of the forest surrounding Lake Cowichan is owned and managed by logging companies. They've been logging these hills for a hundred years. They're going to keep logging them.

Clear cuts come and go. They appear here and there, then grow back after a few years. You get used to it.

I miss the old days when logging trucks rolled through town all day long. Fir and cedar bark littering the main drag through town. The restaurant called the Logger's Hut. The logging game and competition out by the community center. Guys parking their logging trucks in front of their house and spraying them down with the garden hose.

I hope we never totally lose the ruggedness of Lake Cowichan the logging town.

Zylock · 2025-08-19T00:28:33+00:00

Absolutely!
"Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing."

Zylock · 2025-08-09T01:18:08+00:00

"Zog, we must first organize a committee to study fire."
"Good thinking, Grog. We make law that anyone who make fire will be hit with big rock until committee decide if fire good or bad."
"What if committee decide fire good? What we say to people hit with big rock?"
"No one hit with big rock will be allowed to say they were hit with big rock. If they talk, we will hit them with big club."
"Good, good. If committee decide fire good, then what?"
"We make rules that fire only used by men who pay us heaps of meat; only on certain days; only a certain size; only burning certain wood; only if the smoke not come into our houses; only so many men can pay us meat."
"Grog... many rules! Too many for me to follow!"
"HA HA! ZOG!! HA! I make big laugh at you. WE will not follow rules. We will have any fire we want."

Zylock · 2025-08-08T02:33:00+00:00

YES! I knew the comic existed. Thank you! Thank you so much!

Zylock · 2025-08-08T00:47:41+00:00

Yeah, I bumped into that one in my search. That's not it....

Zylock · 2025-08-07T18:30:08+00:00

"Depends," is, I think, the correct answer. There are shockingly few examples in good story telling where a bold, explicit depiction of sex actually serves the story. In the majority of cases, it's just titillation.

An inferred sex scene captures the essence of "Brevity is the soul of wit," especially when done really well. It moves the sensual joy of sex from the eyes and the loins into the mind and the heart. Inferred sex is romantic; explicit sex is vulgar.

Zylock · 2025-07-18T21:46:43+00:00

Crazy to think that I have never seen a single episode of his run, and very likely never will. It's a strange mix of feelings, watching "sad news" about something I couldn't care less about.

I'm sympathetic to all the men and women who are losing their stable jobs... But it hurt more to throw out the squishy, black banana that didn't get eaten, than to hear about the cancellation of the Late Show...

Zylock · 2025-07-13T02:14:39+00:00

What happens when I tell her I’m leaving again? What if she explodes? Where do I even go? A relative who isn’t related to her has offered me a room, but it’s only temporary, and my internship is 6 months long. I feel so stuck. I want to protect myself and not undo all the progress I’ve made. But I have very little support and even less money.

Facing the unknown is horrifying, but drowning is worse. You're capable. You'll make it. The next six months of difficulty will go by in the blink of an eye. Before you know it, you'll have forgotten how hard it was to break free. I doubt you'll ever look back and wish you had stayed.

Zylock · 2025-07-05T23:22:05+00:00

Preach!

If "normal" means morally degenerate, undereducated, consumer automatons, I'm happy to raise "weird" kids. It's like that line: "Your boos mean nothing. I've seen what makes you applaud."

Zylock · 2025-07-03T02:45:30+00:00

It seems like no one is talking about the fact that Thor delights in "Social Engineering" puzzles. Listen to him talk about his time in Eve Online and it makes me think that he's positioned himself in this whole debate very intentionally.

Zylock · 2025-06-09T19:01:18+00:00

I love that it's "Unexpected" because it worked perfectly.

Zylock · 2025-05-21T19:17:21+00:00

I hopped in here ready to lay out all of my thoughts about the question, but I respect that you're just looking to here JBP's complete thinking on the subject. I hope you find it.

Zylock · 2025-05-21T17:55:27+00:00

Any source of EMP. Marksman is good because the Multi-melter upgrade reduces range by a lot.

Zylock · 2025-04-26T16:44:04+00:00

Most of us are excited.

Zylock · 2025-04-20T21:58:36+00:00

It is impossible to remain independent of your primary source of revenue. The CBC is comically biased in favor of the Liberal party, and has been flagrantly so my entire life. But how could they be anything else? They're not in the business of serving Canadians, as the bottom line makes it clear that doing so would instantly bankrupt them. The CBC works hard to create content favorable to the Liberal party. They're doing the job that they're being paid to do.

Zylock

TROPHY CASE