Sunday, September 25, 2005

gun control in canada

gun control in canada

Captain Ed talks about the impending gun control program audit in Canada, and Greg (Aizlynne's hubby) at Exposed Agenda goes into the numbers that are known so far. Greg's money graf:

"Total lives saved by gun registry (over a 10 year period) - 4 *

Total tax money spent to save 4 lives (over a 10 year period) - $1.5 Billion (less $87 million collected in taxes from gun owners) *

...

* - Sources from Statistics Canada"


Suppose you get a job at age 18 and work there until age 68. Suppose further that such a job pays $100000 a year (on average over 50 years) in 2005 dollars. You will then make, over the course of your lifetime, five million dollars.

That's for a fairly high-paying job, say doctor or lawyer or Revenue Canada agent.

Now find 299 other people, each of whom has the same hundred-thousand-dollar-a-year job for 50 years. Pool all of your lifetime earnings together in a big pile. That's 1.5 billion dollars right there, assuming you all saved every penny you ever made, and never had to pay for things like rent, food, gasoline, cars, your childrens' education, entertainment, or taxes.

Now, divide that big pile of money up into quarters. Each of those four piles represents the lifetime earnings of yourself and 74 other people just like you.

And each one of those four piles of money is how much was spent to save the life of one person under the gun control program. The lifetime, before-taxes-and-other-expenses earnings of 75 well-paid people was sacrificed to pay to save one person.

Now, nobody saves every penny they earn. Canadians pay on average something like 53% of their earnings on the total of federal, provincial, and municipal taxes. Let's call it 50% for a nice round number. And let's say that a person making one hundred thousand dollars a year (and paying 50 grand in taxes) might save half of their after-tax income, after paying for rent or a mortgage, food, transportation and so on. This amounts to $25000 in savings per year (I know, this never happens, and savings are much lower than that for the average person. Bear with me.) for someone who is financially very well off.

Collect 1200 such people, who each save $25000 a year (2005 dollars) for fifty years. The lifetime savings of those 1200 people add up to 1.5 billion dollars. And those lifetime savings have been wiped out to save the lives of four people; the equivalent of wiping out the lifetime savings of 300 people to save the life of one.

I'm sorry, the "if it saves only one life, it will be worth it" argument just doesn't hold any water if it means the equivalent of wiping out the lifetime savings of 300 people, or the lifetime earnings of 75 people. If gun control (or indeed any policy) saves one life at the cost of the lifetime earnings of one person, then it is a break-even proposition. Sacrificing dozens or hundreds to save one is ridiculous.

Update: Debbye at Being American in T.O. has more.

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