Do Tax Cuts Give The Rich a Free Ride in Canada?

Nothing could be further from the truth as shown in this story I found.

Let's put tax cuts in terms everyone can understand.

Suppose that everyday 10 men go to their favorite diner for dinner, The bill for all ten comes to $100. If it was paid the way we pay our taxes, the first four men would pay nothing; the fifth would pay $1; the sixth would pay $3; the seventh $7; the eighth $12; the ninth $18. The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

The 10 men ate dinner in the restaurant every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement until the owner threw them a curve. Since you are all such good customers, he said, I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily meal by $20. Now dinner for the 10 only costs $80.

The first four are unaffected. They still eat for free. Can you figure out how to divvy up the $20 savings among the remaining six so that everyone gets his fair share? The men realize that $20 divided by 6 is $3.33, but if they subtract that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would end up being paid to eat their meal. The restaurant owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay. And so the fifth man paid nothing, the sixth pitched in $2, the seventh paid $5, the eighth paid $9, the ninth paid $12, leaving the tenth man with a bill of $52 instead of $59.

Outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings. "I only got a dollar out the $20," declared the sixth man pointing to the tenth, "and he got $7!" "Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got seven times more than me! "That's true," shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $7 back when I got only $2? The wealthy get all the breaks." "Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor."

The nine man surrounded the tenth and beat him up. The next night he didn't show up for dinner, so the nine sat down and ate without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They were $52 short! And that, boys and girls and college instructors, is how Canada's tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up at the table anymore. There are lots of good restaurants in Switzerland and the Caribbean.

Where Is The Urgency In The Aftermarket?

Ever noticed how things are changing so fast within the Aftermarket, especially with vehicle technology, shop internal technology systems and the OEM Dealer aggressiveness to take on the Aftermarket?

I have and I'm trying to figure out why no one seems to want to address these issues with any true sense of urgency?

Let me give you a simple example. Technical and Business training are an urgent matter right now in how the Aftermarket has to address the above mentioned issues yet I find every Aftermarket executive and most shop owners looking at "maybe the Fall we will look into that." What the heck..."maybe the Fall"??? Why not step out of the box and tell the industry two or three days during the summer is a definite now...plan it...as this is urgent.....with a follow-up in the Fall. We don't have the luxury any more of just sitting back with the usual Aftermarket routine.

When the industry looks at the Fall, it looks at one month, September, because October, November and first half of December are the busy silly season of the sector that no one wants to leave their business (they can't because they would not learn the math or key processes about how to change that format....they were too busy) which then leaves January and February for any other training as March is "March break" month. Oh and then January and February you will hear, "cash is too tight" so not a lot of shop owners attend in those months either. Now because of the procrastination, poor planning and lack of urgency to "get things done" you are talking one full more year before ANYTHING concrete just begins to happen which sets the Aftermarket another year to 1.5 years behind.

We are not getting it yet. The Aftermarket is a fast changing sector, however our "structure processes", our "habits" are out of the 1970"s.............we shut down all information development in the summer and most months of the year due to holidays, the shortage of staff, cash flow, coupled with "I'm too busy to address that" answers across the country.

Show me any other industry/profession that still thinks like this.

Our sector of the industry have such poor planning skills that we can't get the other months in the year to be proactive to true business development. Until we change this format and especially our attitude towards any development, technical and/or business, the Aftermarket will continue to fall behind the OEM.

When will we start to get it? Who out there will shake it up and put a sense of urgency to the messages?

Is the Aftermarket that complacent or so afraid of changing its format?

If that is the case, try to visualize what the true Aftermarket will look like five (5) years from now; please, really think about that in great detail......