Government Affordability Rate of 33%
The Housing Affordability Crisis could be eradicated permanently if Canadians truly wanted to eliminate it!
Jasmine Moulton discussing the Housing Affordability Crisis
Jasmine points out the ways that all levels of government are the root cause of the Housing Affordability Crisis.
While her presentation was excellent, Jasmine omitted another major cause - the Ability To Pay after all payments to governments.
Tax Freedom Day arrives in mid June every year, but it calculates only the impact of direct taxes but not indirect taxes and government fees (licences, certificate, permits, etc). As such, underestimates the true cost of government for the average Canadian.
https://www.fraserinstitute.org/categories/tax-freedom-day
Ability To Pay is a key element in housing affordability
In the average Canadians household, 53% of annual earnings go to payments to all levels of government by means of taxes and fees. In 1961, it was 38%.
If today’s average GTA household, for example, earned $100,000, then $15,000 (53 -38 = 15%) would be saved if 38% was still the average cost of our governments. That $15,000 would go a long way towards helping the average household to cope in these expensive times.
A fixed Government Affordability Rate is the solution
What if all levels of government were reduced to meet an Government Affordability Rate (GAR) of 33%? Since government affordability is currently 53%, then shrinking the size, scope of authority and cost of the entire government sector to meet the 33% GAR will benefit every household in Canada.
The Housing Affordability Crisis would be eliminated if Canadians demanded from their politicians a Government Affordability Rate of 33%. This could be achieved by systematically repealing all legislation that enable the ongoing existence of every government department that contributes to this crisis as Jasmine identifies in her presentation.
Congratulations to Jasmine
In modern times when most young people hold idealistic views of the role that government should play to meet social justice causes, it was refreshing for me to watch a young lady identify the fact that Big Government is the cause of a national crisis. Jasmine correctly stated that “governments should get out of the way of builders’ efforts to meet housing demand”. The last thing home-buyers need is to have governments shackle investors and builders with more taxes and red tape which ultimately drive up home prices.
I hope Jasmine represents a new and growing class of young Canadians who are waking up to the evils of way too much government.
