Thaddeus Hwong
School of Administrative Studies
School of Public Policy and Administration
Associate Professor
Office: McLaughlin College, 232
Email: thwong@yorku.ca
Primary website: http://x.com/policyquests
Media Requests Welcome
Accepting New Graduate Students
Life does not have to be just a nexus of compromises.
We live in a plutocracy in which the dominant class imposes the austerity of human decency on all of us. Leave-no-one-behind will enslave you, but everyone-for-oneself will set you free. Is that world the best of all possible worlds?
To fend off rent-seeking assaults against the common good, I argue for redistributing not only income and wealth but also economic power and political power from billionaires through progressive taxation.
Income inequality. Wealth inequality. Financial insecurity. Extreme poverty. Some say economic Darwinism epitomizes meritocracy, despite the fact that meritocracy was meant to be a dystopian satire.
Our current system makes the rich. The rich get richer, but the poor get .... What? You can fill in the blanks.
Systemic racism. Gender discrimination. Wilful blindness to the existence of structural problems in society. Anti-woke propaganda streaming from an ever-expanding web of misinformation and disinformation. Some say this "just" world is not a fallacy, oblivious to lessons that could have been learnt during the pandemic.
Our current system favours the privileged. The privileged thrive, but others .... Why? You know.
With trepidation and humility, I argue for more redistribution of not only income and wealth but also economic power and political power from billionaires through progressive taxation. If we don't want to be subservient to the dominant class, and if we want no one to be left behind, we will need to step up such redistribution.
Wait, really? Taking from the rich and then giving it to the poor is what Robin Hood does, and Robin Hood is not real. Thou shalt not commit to a fiscal policy revolution that will never come. Do not tax the rich. Forget inequality. Focus on poverty instead. With 90 seconds to midnight, doing what has been done in order not to rock the boat won't cut it. If a fiscal policy revolution is what is needed, why shouldn't we argue for one?
Our decision making should not be of the affluent, for the affluent and by the affluent. With more redistribution, genuine shared governance of our democracy could have a fighting chance, and a better tomorrow may be in sight.
Degrees
PhD, Osgoode Hall Law School, York UniversityLLB, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University
MS, Columbia Journalism School, Columbia University
BA, Economics, York University
Research Interests
Current Research Projects
-
Summary:
Quests to advance redistributive policies, one data point at a time.
Description:Explore cross-country data on tax ratio, income inequality and wealth inequality on one hand and economic and social policy outcomes on the other.
-
Summary:
Overshadowed by the techno-libertarian amorality of Silicon Valley tech bros, what would AI say about redistribution of not only income and wealth but also economic power and political power from billionaires to all?
Description:Query LLMs on redistribution and record the responses for offline analysis.
(2022). Tackling Poverty or Inequality? You Don’t Have to Choose. In Raju J. Das and Deepak K. Mishra (Eds.), Global Poverty: Rethinking Causality. Leiden|Boston: Brill.
With Brooks, Neil. (2017) Personal Tax Expenditures in the Canadian Income Tax Act – The First 100 Years. In Jinyan Li, J. Scott Wilkie, and Larry E. Chapman (Eds.), Income Tax at 100 Years. Toronto: Canadian Tax Foundation.
(2013) Tax Levels, Tax Mixes and Income Redistribution in Canada and Selected OECD Countries Since Carter. In Kim Brooks (Ed.) The Quest for Tax Reform Continues: The Royal Commission on Taxation Fifty Years Later. Toronto: Carswell.
(2011) The Distributional Effects of Making Personal Income Tax Credits Refundable. In Lisa Philipps, Neil Brooks, and Jinyan Li (Eds.), Tax Expenditures: State of the Art. Toronto: Canadian Tax Foundation.
With Haigh, Richard and Gillespie-Muzyk, Alyssa. (forthcoming). Before Hashtags and Memes: We Could’ve Made Peter Hogg the First ‘Influencer’. National Journal of Constitutional Law.
"Arrogance for Cruelty": What Builds Exclusion Into the Canada Disability Benefit. (2024) Osgoode Hall Law Journal, 61(2), 671-698.
With Haigh, Richard. (2022). Indexing Influences of Supreme Court of Canada Interveners: A Preliminary Examination, Annual Review of Civil Litigation, 63-99.
With Li, Jinyan. (2020). GAAR in Action: An Empirical Study of Transaction Types and Judicial Attributes in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. Canadian Tax Journal, 68(2) 539-79.
With Li, Jinyan. (2013) . GAAR in Action: An Empirical Exploration of Tax Court of Canada Cases (1997-2009) and Judicial Decision Making. Canadian Tax Journal, 61(2), 321-366.
With Brooks, Neil. (2010) . Tax Ratios, Tax Mixes, and Tax Reforms: Convergence and Persistence.Theoretical Inquires in Law, 11(2), 791-821.
(2009) . A Quantitative Exploration of Judicial Decision Making in Supreme Court of Canada in Income Tax Cases in 1920-2003. Manitoba Law Journal, 33(1), 150-196.
With Hanlon, Dean. (2008) . The Effect of External Advisors on the GST Compliance Costs of Businesses in Australia.Asia-Pacific Journal of Taxation, 12(2), 93-108.
(2004) . A Review of Quantitative Studies of Decision Making in the Supreme Court of Canada. Manitoba Law Journal, 30(3), 353-382.
(Aug. 13, 2018) The Public’s Fickle Opinion About More Tax Cuts. Tax Notes, 975-981.
With Mellor, Peter, & Krever, Richard. (2012) . Tax Treaty Trends in Central Asian Former Soviet Nations. Bulletin for International Taxation, 66 (10), 541-552.
(March 2, 2009) . How Canada's Flat Tax Debate Played in the Press: A Case Study. Tax Notes International, 767-775.
With Brooks, Neil. (2006). The Social Benefits and Economic Costs of Taxation: A Comparison of High- and Low-tax Countries. Ottawa: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
Approach to Teaching
In this post-truth age of misinformation and disinformation, real is fake, true is false and right is wrong. The powers that be make it so. With the advent of AI, the platforms maximize the maxim in the medium is the message. Let's amuse ourselves to death?
Under the gaze of Big Tech, techno-libertarianism of Silicon Valley tech bros distorts shared reality. Digital mercantilism moves fast, and the Magnificent Seven breaks things. Disruptive enough for you?
Too big to fail. Too big to jail. Too big to regulate. Too big to tax. Economic freedom on the loose. Corporatocracy in the flesh. Fancy a love letter to big businesses that worships them as the anti-heroes?
Maybe I am not realistic, but I still believe education is supposed to enlighten, not to indoctrinate to conform. Questioning the status quo is the way that must be tried.
However, even just questioning the status quo could be construed as subversive in our publicly funded classrooms. Defiance we should forgo, desensitized we shall be.
In our society, everywhere you look there is mounting pressure on everyone to do whatever it takes for individual "success," often in terms of fame and fortune but rarely in terms of the well-being of all. See the recast of universities as vending machines of diplomas, not as incubators of lifelong learning? The commodification is a feature, not a bug.
Many say it is what it is so go with the flow. Somewhere in the current thoughts of university education there might be some inkings of more than just selling a piece of paper that can help get one a job or a promotion, but like in any business don't fight the market, right?
But university education does not have to be merely transactional.
Encouraging students to detect the myopia of complacency is a starting point to make the world better for all. Does it have to be this way? What do we want to do about it? What could we do about it given what we know?
Encouraging students to transcend self-interests sounds so quaint when a university is branded as a business that is meant to turn a profit. In our society we can't afford to do more, those who espouse the false necessity exclaim. Like how could we afford to house the unhoused, feed the unfed and comfort the unfortunate? In our world of abundance, the presentation of cognitive dissonance is pervasive.
Coping with the grim reality, I try to hang onto any glimmer of hope that education can change lives for the better for all. If students want, they can learn to become a part of the solutions rather than a part of the problems in our society. But even if students do not want to learn much from coursework, they can still learn to think not just about themselves but also about others.
With only 90 seconds to midnight, my teaching would continue to encourage students not to be content to be just clones of a walking, talking emoji of the Dunning-Kruger effect. Take on the malaise in the zeitgeist. Reckon with the alternative facts of the Orwellian whitewash. Search for the best obtainable version of the truth even in the worst of times.
Questioning the status quo is our responsibility, and asking ourselves whether we can do better for all is our obligation. Caring begins with understanding, and with that then not all is lost.
Life does not have to be just a nexus of compromises.
We live in a plutocracy in which the dominant class imposes the austerity of human decency on all of us. Leave-no-one-behind will enslave you, but everyone-for-oneself will set you free. Is that world the best of all possible worlds?
To fend off rent-seeking assaults against the common good, I argue for redistributing not only income and wealth but also economic power and political power from billionaires through progressive taxation.
Income inequality. Wealth inequality. Financial insecurity. Extreme poverty. Some say economic Darwinism epitomizes meritocracy, despite the fact that meritocracy was meant to be a dystopian satire.
Our current system makes the rich. The rich get richer, but the poor get .... What? You can fill in the blanks.
Systemic racism. Gender discrimination. Wilful blindness to the existence of structural problems in society. Anti-woke propaganda streaming from an ever-expanding web of misinformation and disinformation. Some say this "just" world is not a fallacy, oblivious to lessons that could have been learnt during the pandemic.
Our current system favours the privileged. The privileged thrive, but others .... Why? You know.
With trepidation and humility, I argue for more redistribution of not only income and wealth but also economic power and political power from billionaires through progressive taxation. If we don't want to be subservient to the dominant class, and if we want no one to be left behind, we will need to step up such redistribution.
Wait, really? Taking from the rich and then giving it to the poor is what Robin Hood does, and Robin Hood is not real. Thou shalt not commit to a fiscal policy revolution that will never come. Do not tax the rich. Forget inequality. Focus on poverty instead. With 90 seconds to midnight, doing what has been done in order not to rock the boat won't cut it. If a fiscal policy revolution is what is needed, why shouldn't we argue for one?
Our decision making should not be of the affluent, for the affluent and by the affluent. With more redistribution, genuine shared governance of our democracy could have a fighting chance, and a better tomorrow may be in sight.
Degrees
PhD, Osgoode Hall Law School, York UniversityLLB, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University
MS, Columbia Journalism School, Columbia University
BA, Economics, York University
Research Interests
Current Research Projects
-
Summary:
Quests to advance redistributive policies, one data point at a time.
Description:Explore cross-country data on tax ratio, income inequality and wealth inequality on one hand and economic and social policy outcomes on the other.
Role: Principal investigator-
Summary:
Overshadowed by the techno-libertarian amorality of Silicon Valley tech bros, what would AI say about redistribution of not only income and wealth but also economic power and political power from billionaires to all?
Description:Query LLMs on redistribution and record the responses for offline analysis.
Project Type: FundedRole: Principle Investigator
All Publications
(2022). Tackling Poverty or Inequality? You Don’t Have to Choose. In Raju J. Das and Deepak K. Mishra (Eds.), Global Poverty: Rethinking Causality. Leiden|Boston: Brill.
With Brooks, Neil. (2017) Personal Tax Expenditures in the Canadian Income Tax Act – The First 100 Years. In Jinyan Li, J. Scott Wilkie, and Larry E. Chapman (Eds.), Income Tax at 100 Years. Toronto: Canadian Tax Foundation.
(2013) Tax Levels, Tax Mixes and Income Redistribution in Canada and Selected OECD Countries Since Carter. In Kim Brooks (Ed.) The Quest for Tax Reform Continues: The Royal Commission on Taxation Fifty Years Later. Toronto: Carswell.
(2011) The Distributional Effects of Making Personal Income Tax Credits Refundable. In Lisa Philipps, Neil Brooks, and Jinyan Li (Eds.), Tax Expenditures: State of the Art. Toronto: Canadian Tax Foundation.
With Haigh, Richard and Gillespie-Muzyk, Alyssa. (forthcoming). Before Hashtags and Memes: We Could’ve Made Peter Hogg the First ‘Influencer’. National Journal of Constitutional Law.
"Arrogance for Cruelty": What Builds Exclusion Into the Canada Disability Benefit. (2024) Osgoode Hall Law Journal, 61(2), 671-698.
With Haigh, Richard. (2022). Indexing Influences of Supreme Court of Canada Interveners: A Preliminary Examination, Annual Review of Civil Litigation, 63-99.
With Li, Jinyan. (2020). GAAR in Action: An Empirical Study of Transaction Types and Judicial Attributes in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. Canadian Tax Journal, 68(2) 539-79.
With Li, Jinyan. (2013) . GAAR in Action: An Empirical Exploration of Tax Court of Canada Cases (1997-2009) and Judicial Decision Making. Canadian Tax Journal, 61(2), 321-366.
With Brooks, Neil. (2010) . Tax Ratios, Tax Mixes, and Tax Reforms: Convergence and Persistence.Theoretical Inquires in Law, 11(2), 791-821.
(2009) . A Quantitative Exploration of Judicial Decision Making in Supreme Court of Canada in Income Tax Cases in 1920-2003. Manitoba Law Journal, 33(1), 150-196.
With Hanlon, Dean. (2008) . The Effect of External Advisors on the GST Compliance Costs of Businesses in Australia.Asia-Pacific Journal of Taxation, 12(2), 93-108.
(2004) . A Review of Quantitative Studies of Decision Making in the Supreme Court of Canada. Manitoba Law Journal, 30(3), 353-382.
(Aug. 13, 2018) The Public’s Fickle Opinion About More Tax Cuts. Tax Notes, 975-981.
With Mellor, Peter, & Krever, Richard. (2012) . Tax Treaty Trends in Central Asian Former Soviet Nations. Bulletin for International Taxation, 66 (10), 541-552.
(March 2, 2009) . How Canada's Flat Tax Debate Played in the Press: A Case Study. Tax Notes International, 767-775.
With Brooks, Neil. (2006). The Social Benefits and Economic Costs of Taxation: A Comparison of High- and Low-tax Countries. Ottawa: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
Approach to Teaching
In this post-truth age of misinformation and disinformation, real is fake, true is false and right is wrong. The powers that be make it so. With the advent of AI, the platforms maximize the maxim in the medium is the message. Let's amuse ourselves to death?
Under the gaze of Big Tech, techno-libertarianism of Silicon Valley tech bros distorts shared reality. Digital mercantilism moves fast, and the Magnificent Seven breaks things. Disruptive enough for you?
Too big to fail. Too big to jail. Too big to regulate. Too big to tax. Economic freedom on the loose. Corporatocracy in the flesh. Fancy a love letter to big businesses that worships them as the anti-heroes?
Maybe I am not realistic, but I still believe education is supposed to enlighten, not to indoctrinate to conform. Questioning the status quo is the way that must be tried.
However, even just questioning the status quo could be construed as subversive in our publicly funded classrooms. Defiance we should forgo, desensitized we shall be.
In our society, everywhere you look there is mounting pressure on everyone to do whatever it takes for individual "success," often in terms of fame and fortune but rarely in terms of the well-being of all. See the recast of universities as vending machines of diplomas, not as incubators of lifelong learning? The commodification is a feature, not a bug.
Many say it is what it is so go with the flow. Somewhere in the current thoughts of university education there might be some inkings of more than just selling a piece of paper that can help get one a job or a promotion, but like in any business don't fight the market, right?
But university education does not have to be merely transactional.
Encouraging students to detect the myopia of complacency is a starting point to make the world better for all. Does it have to be this way? What do we want to do about it? What could we do about it given what we know?
Encouraging students to transcend self-interests sounds so quaint when a university is branded as a business that is meant to turn a profit. In our society we can't afford to do more, those who espouse the false necessity exclaim. Like how could we afford to house the unhoused, feed the unfed and comfort the unfortunate? In our world of abundance, the presentation of cognitive dissonance is pervasive.
Coping with the grim reality, I try to hang onto any glimmer of hope that education can change lives for the better for all. If students want, they can learn to become a part of the solutions rather than a part of the problems in our society. But even if students do not want to learn much from coursework, they can still learn to think not just about themselves but also about others.
With only 90 seconds to midnight, my teaching would continue to encourage students not to be content to be just clones of a walking, talking emoji of the Dunning-Kruger effect. Take on the malaise in the zeitgeist. Reckon with the alternative facts of the Orwellian whitewash. Search for the best obtainable version of the truth even in the worst of times.
Questioning the status quo is our responsibility, and asking ourselves whether we can do better for all is our obligation. Caring begins with understanding, and with that then not all is lost.
