Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak on the motion before the House today. I would like to begin by talking about the role of government in a free society.
The cornerstone of freedom and justice requires acknowledgement of at least one fundamental principle: each person owns him or herself. We in Canada accept this principle and indeed embrace it because the antithesis of self-ownership is of course slavery which western democracies have condemned. I do not believe anyone in this country would ever knowingly endorse slavery.
An operational definition of slavery is that a person toils while having no ownership rights to the fruits of his toil. They are owned and/or controlled by someone else. Therefore, private or collective theft is an attack on the principle of self-ownership; a person works hard to produce tangible benefits, for example a car or a television, a house or money, and the theft of this violates the principle of self-ownership. Murder, kidnapping, assault and other acts of violence are also an attack on the principle of self-ownership and therefore must be prohibited.
Self-ownership also implies that two or more individuals should be free to engage in peaceable voluntary exchange without interference by third parties.
The protection of these rights, called natural law by philosopher John Locke and others, constitutes the proper role of a moral government. In other words, the role of government is to protect people from domestic aggression, protect the nation from foreign attack and, through a judiciary system, resolve disputes arising among its citizens.
Contrast this ideal with what has happened in Canada over the past three decades. There has been a concerted attack on the principle of self-ownership through the tax system. The federal government has gradually increased taxation levels to a point at which today the average Canadian has to work for more than half a year just to pay his or her tax bill.
We like to consider Canada a free country, but just how free are we when we are forced to give up half of everything we produce? In my view we have all become, to a large extent, slaves to Revenue Canada.
I ask the House if this is not in fact the case. Furthermore I ask just because our tax system has the force of law behind it, does that make it morally right?
South Africa had a system of apartheid for many years. That was also backed by the force of law, enforced by the state. Did the fact that apartheid was state sanctioned make it morally right? What about slavery in the United States in the last century? Was slavery morally right just because the government decreed it was law?-of course not.
In fact, apartheid and slavery represent the ultimate abuse of the principle of self-ownership. With the rise of the welfare state or state socialism all governments, including Canada, have in varying degrees made significant departures from moral government functions. The welfare state is immoral because it violates one of the basic foundations of self-ownership, the right to own what one produces.
State socialism is a political process whereby property that rightfully belongs to one person is confiscated and given to another to whom it does not belong.
The primary justification for this attack on self-ownership, at least that led by otherwise decent people, can be found in people's desire to do good things like help the poor, care for the elderly, help the sick, or create a fair income distribution.
While these may be commendable objectives, the fact of the matter is that government does not have any resources of its very own. Acknowledgement that government does not have any resources of its own forces us to recognize that the only way governments can give one citizen a dollar is to first, through intimidation, threats and coercion, confiscate that dollar from some other citizen.
If you do not believe that Revenue Canada uses intimidation, threats and coercion, just try not paying your taxes and see what happens.
In a moral society voluntary exchange should be maximized and involuntary exchange minimized. A society which maximizes voluntary exchange can be described as embracing free enterprise or a market driven economy. The opposite of a market economy is, of course, a command economy. There is ample empirical evidence as we approach the end of the 20th century that command economies do not work. The former Soviet Union is a graphic example of this.
It is no coincidence that individual freedom and liberty are virtually non-existent in a command economy because governments which maximize involuntary exchange must rely on the force of law and the force of a police state to achieve their aims.
Command economies by their very nature are immoral and in fact evil. The elite political apparatus uses the power of the state to coerce citizens to accept their economic dictates.
What I find disconcerting is the extent to which Canada, which prides itself on being a free country, has moved toward involuntary exchange.
Consider that the average Canadian must work until sometime in July to become free of his tax burden. The first six months of each year are spent producing wealth which is confiscated against his will through taxation. This money is then spent on a variety of government initiatives and programs that the taxpayer in many cases would not support on a voluntary basis.
Walter Williams, the renowned professor of economics at George Mason University, characterizes this as economic rape. In a free market business cannot get a dollar from me unless I voluntarily give it first. If a special interest group wants my money it will have to come to me first and convince me that it truly does represent my interest before I choose to give it the money.
Consider Canada today. Canadian businesses and special interest groups can get my money from me whether I choose to give it to them or not. They only have to come to Ottawa to get permission.
For example, when the directors of Massey-Ferguson, International Harvester or Bombardier want my money, when representatives of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women or the arts community needs some dough they could come knocking on my door and ask me but they know that I would probably tell them to get lost. They know that and so they come to Ottawa to secure the assistance of the government to force me to give them my money.
Thomas Paine warned that government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.
We are all aware that government needs money to operate, to perform its legitimate role. This money has to be obtained through taxes which of course constitutes coercion. However, if government limits itself to its moral functions coercion is minimized.
The federal government has strayed from this ideal, far from this ideal. When we see billions of dollars shovelled out to Canadian business and industry, to special interest groups, to subsidize money losing crown corporations and in direct transfers to Canadian families that already have incomes of over $100,000 a year we know the taxpayer has been had.
There is no justification for which this is acceptable. This is a perversion of government, a direct assault on the individual liberty of our citizens and a serious violation of the principle of self-ownership. I would argue that since we work more than half of the year to pay our taxes we are more than one-half slaves to the dictates of this federal government.
The most disturbing news is that with our massive debt and ongoing $40 billion deficit Canadians are destined to continue as slaves to a greater and greater degree.
Until government reduces spending in a meaningful way this will not change. Therefore, while changes to income tax could surely make the system fairer and more user friendly the government must couple this with serious spending reductions, with the idea that Canadians have a right to self-ownership and will make better economic decisions on a voluntary basis than this government ever will through its top down, command management.
People in countries with larger amounts of economic freedom are far richer and have greater human rights protections than people who live in countries where state socialism prevails.
The free market with its supporting institutions of private ownership of property and voluntary exchange not only advances the human condition but promotes a more moral relationship among people. The most important case for free markets is its consistency with and promotion of fundamental moral principles and respect for human rights.
Our tax system, more particularly the level of taxation in Canada, stands in dark contrast to the ideals of freedom, liberty and self-ownership.