Ontario's Large Public Debt

The liberal government in ontario for almost two decades has spent heavily on providing social programs like health care, education, and putting money into protecting the environment. They’ve paid for these programs through increased taxes. The collection of these taxes has been disproportionately distributed to the wealthier sectors of the province. Their spending has outpaced the collection of taxes and as a result the deficit has almost doubled during their time forming government.

Government has increased taxes and regulations on industry, stifling reinvestment in the economy. The key to reducing public debt and stimulating economic growth is not by increasing taxes and government regulatory burden. It’s by removing those barriers that allow industry to thrive and reinvest, thereby creating jobs and new businesses. People generally by instinct serve their own self interests, and in doing so acquire wealth. In acquiring wealth they would not only benefit themselves but they would benefit other competitors and society as a whole. Under this theory government regulation has no use to the betterment of the economy, there is competition between producers, if one raises their prices to high it would result in them losing customers.

Therefore the forces of market competition will serve as an invisible hand, and ultimately benefit consumers by driving prices lower and giving the power to the producers to choose where they are investing their money. This is most often being put towards areas that generate revenue down the road, such as new technologies to grow efficiency and effectiveness and eventually increases their competitiveness in the marketplace. This results in companies expanding and diversifying, often increasing their labour forces, all in turn strengthening and increasing the tax base upon which government relies. The benefits that economic freedom provide is it helps strengthen and diversify the economy, building a broader tax base for government to use towards providing their social programs while repaying debt without causing further damages, i. e. a balanced budget. In turn, it’s generally in human nature to have a desire to benefit others or help society. Thus, a stronger more independant industry will more than likely invest in society through acts of charity or increased employment benefits.