The general issue of wealth taxes and whether they should be introduced in Canada

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The paper should address the general issue of wealth taxes and whether they should be introduced in Canada. In the United States, Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren (a very serious but somewhat left-wing Democrat running for her party’s presidential nomination) has proposed the introduction of such a tax as a way to address increasing wealth inequality in the U.S. and you can read up about her proposal on the web: a good place to start would be John Cassidy’s column in the New Yorker entitled “Why Elizabeth Warren’s Wealth Page 5 of 5Tax Would Work” https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/elizabeth-warrens-wealth-tax-is-an-old-idea-and-its-time-has-comeand an article in The Economist entitled “Rich People’s Problems”https://www.economist.com/the-world-if/2019/07/06/rich-peoples-problemsA useful paper about the practicalities of introducing a wealth tax has been written by Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman (“How would a progressive wealth tax work? …”) and it can be found on the internet.In Canada, the New Democratic Party has proposed a 1% wealth tax on those with net worth over $20 million.Once you have a good idea of what a wealth tax would entail, you should read a paper about introducing such a tax into Canada by Robin Boadway and Pierre Pestieau entitled “Over the Top: Why an Annual Wealth Tax for Canada is Unnecessary”, published by the C.C. Howe Institute and downloadable at https://www.cdhowe.org/sites/default/files/attachments/research_papers/mixed/Commentary%20546.pdfYou should keep in mind as you read this paper (and all the other papers) that it represents a point of view, and is not the “last word” on the issue. That is, you should be reading all the papers critically.Your paper should use what you have learned in this course to address the general issue of whether a wealth tax should be introduced in Canada. Would such a tax increase vertical equity in Canada? Would it affect horizontal equity? Is such a tax consistent with the Haig-Simons definition of taxable income? Is such a tax practical? Overall, would you favour or oppose such a tax and why? Whichever side you support, your paper should make sure to express respectfully the views of those on the other side of the debate