Mr. Speaker, I appreciate having the opportunity to continue to talk about the debate on tax reform.
Something that I believe concerns all members of the House of Commons today is the fact that the world monetary system does not seem to be functioning properly. In all the major financial institutions, the banks, are sections where they are dealing with derivative funds, working around the clock seven days a week. The flow of capital being perpetrated right now affects all countries, managed by a very few men and women in my judgment in an unaccountable way, is one of the major reasons why we have these major fluctuations in interest rates and in exchange rates.
When we look at all the activity around the derivatives, around all the speculation on the stock market, we discover that the amount of productivity related directly to the manufacturing of a product or service is very small in relation to the amount of speculative movement within those markets. Somebody writing
in the New York Times the other day said that for every $1,000 exchanged on the stock market only about $1 is related directly to productivity.
The more we get into this flow of capital, the more we come back to the fact that our basic tax act is in need of major reform. This is an area where all members of the House have to come together to address the problem in a comprehensive way.
This is not a partisan issue. This is an issue that affects every person who generates income in this country. As we all know the current tax system is a disincentive to productivity. The harder one works and the more one makes on the gross income, it seems that the less one has left in one's pocket.
What we see now, whether it be an individual or a corporation, is the flight of capital, the flight of talent out of our country. It is easy today to move capital around, move companies around by pushing buttons but we cannot move people around.
We are a nation. We have built one of the greatest infrastructures in the world in terms of promoting our quality of life, whether it be our health care system, our educational system or our social safety net. All of a sudden, these things are in jeopardy. They are in jeopardy not because of waste and not because people are abusing the system. We must eliminate the abuse of the system, waste and overlap. No one is debating that.
However, we face a more fundamental problem. Because we are now legislators who are on our knees to the capitalist markets, in my judgment we are becoming less liberal in the way we look after some of the disadvantaged people in our community. We are becoming less sensitive to the whole purpose of why we are here.
We come to this Chamber not to dot i 's and cross t 's, we come to debate ideas that will either maintain or improve the quality of life in the country. Right now we are not controlling the agenda. The people who are controlling capital flows outside of sovereign states are the ones who are having the most effect on the decisions we make.
Our whole thrust as the House of Commons for the last 10 or 12 years has been deficit and debt. A lot of the deficit and debt is exacerbated by a world monetary policy which is not working and ultimately by a tax system which is not working. That is why I feel it is very important, as I previously mentioned, that we change the basic tax act.
One of the things we must be aware of is the fact that our neighbours to the south are starting to look at comprehensive tax reform in a very serious way. In fact, just before question period today I was handed an article which was written in the New York Times by William Safire-