Quote:
Originally Posted by fusili
Market value property taxes aren't necessarily progressive. In fact, they are pretty regressive for some. Low income families spend a greater proportion of their income on housing than the average and retired seniors usually live in houses that are more expensive (as a virtue of being in the community longer). This is incredible regressive.
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Most if not all low income families don't pay property taxes at all in a city like Calgary. They can't conceivably even think of affording a mortgage. If anything, it's the rental system itself that is incredibly regressive. When they can, the old "3x your income" rule applies to them as much as it does anyone. Now, they typically spend a greater proportion of their *disposable* income, sure. But that applies to just about everything else in their lives, too.
I'm sure we can find a few millionaires to skew the mean here (which is why medians should always be used), but damn near everyone I know that's ever bought property has spent in proportion to their income.
Anyway, the point was that for almost every tax that exists, those who can pay more typically do. So it's not much of an argument to say "I pay more than I use in services" - yeah, welcome to the real world, friend.
