The government knows about the huge black market, especially in the trades sector, but they haven’t really found a good solution to it, other than to collect a few more tax dollars from those who aren’t cheating.

Admittedly, un-taxed cash circulates more, but when employers start paying their employees under the table, those employees are actually losing government-backed employment protection which then becomes the easiest outlet for underpaid illegal workers, which is ridiculously common in the states. What’s more companies that pay mostly with cash will avoid legally hiring workers, so they actually start suppressing the pay of “honest” workers when the demand is low.

Things get worse when you gather 1000s of people who don’t have banks accounts and are all paid in cash. B/c then abundant cash reduces the threshold that holds back muggings and break-ins and no one has protection, they just have cash

We’re actually lucky in Canada that this isn’t a big problem, but this is a huge issue in the states. With even the mutter of “illegal alien” firing up huge debates. At it’s basis though are the millions and millions of illegal aliens being paid in cash that are not contributing to the tax system. They’re sending their kids to public schools and playing in public parks and using public transportation, but they’re not actually paying “public fees” (taxes), they’re just leeching.

I wish that we could repeal all of the consumer taxes and just incorporate them with income taxes (I just moved to AB, so I’m halfway there), however, this doesn’t remove the incentive for small companies to accept cash and not report. Or even to charge less for cash transactions as some contractors already do.

Of course, I don’t actually have a solution that isn’t terribly draconian so I’m kind of at a loss as to what the solution really is.:sad: