The Paikin Podcast recently hosted a conversation about taxing Canada’s wealthiest citizens more heavily. It’s not a new idea. It gets traction every time inflation hurts, housing gets expensive, or someone shares an income inequality stat on social media.
But I have a serious problem with the premise. And if you’re a business owner, you should too.
The math nobody wants to show you
Statistics Canada reported that total government spending at all levels in Canada reached $1.137 trillion in 2024. Subtract the deficit and the tax-funded portion is approximately $1.057 trillion.
Divide by 41.5 million Canadians. That’s $25,500 per person. Per year.
For the average household of 2.5 people, that’s $63,000 — representing 55% of the average pre-tax family income of $114,289 (Fraser Institute, 2024). But the average family actually pays about 42.3% of their income in total taxes.
The 13-point gap? Covered by corporate taxes. Covered by businesses. Covered by the companies that billionaires founded.
You’re not choosing between taxing billionaires and taxing everyone else. You’re doing both — and the billionaires are subsidizing your rate.
Myth 1: They got rich by taking from you
Almost every Canadian billionaire got there by creating something that millions of people voluntarily chose to use. Tobi Lutke built Shopify. 2 million businesses chose it because it made their lives easier. A billion-dollar valuation is a measure of value created — not value stolen.
The idea that wealth is a fixed pie — that if someone has more, you have less — is the scarcity fallacy. It’s intuitively compelling and factually wrong.
Myth 2: They don’t pay their taxes
High-profile wealthy Canadians face more scrutiny, not less. The same penalties apply to everyone. Wealthy people invest in sophisticated tax strategy because the tax code is enormous and a good advisor helps you avoid overpaying. That’s not a loophole — that’s literacy.
Myth 3: Their wealth is real money they’re hoarding
Elon Musk’s $300 billion is Tesla equity and SpaceX shares. If he liquidated it all at once, those companies would collapse. Billionaire “wealth” is a market valuation of value created — not a pile of cash sitting idle.
Myth 4: They don’t give back
Top earners in Canada consistently donate a higher proportion of their income to charity than any other income group. Many of the hospital wings, research chairs, and university buildings around you exist because government funding wasn’t enough — and wealthy people closed the gap, after paying all of their other taxes.
The cascade nobody sees
CPP and EI on every employee. More cost when the minimum wage goes up, with no corresponding revenue increase. A new statutory holiday costs a restaurant up to ten business days’ profit. Then corporate income tax. Personal income tax. Capital gains if you sell. And if your Ontario payroll crosses $1 million, the Employer Health Tax — a tax on a tax.
And some people want to add more.
What this is really about
Most anti-billionaire sentiment isn’t about policy. It’s about blame. When life is hard, the human mind looks for a culprit. “The billionaire did it” is a simpler story than “I don’t yet understand how wealth works.”
Neither is your fault. We weren’t taught this. But the map is learnable — and that’s what this show is for.
The deeper stakes
Free market economies and liberal democracies evolved together. Countries where wealth creation is capped tend toward authoritarianism over time. Independent wealth means independence from government — it funds opposition, journalism, and innovation that challenges power.
The platforms you use to criticize billionaires were built by billionaires. The infrastructure of your freedom of expression was financed by the people you’ve been told to resent.
We need billionaires. Not because they’re perfect — but because the alternative doesn’t lift anyone up. It just lowers the ceiling.
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