What an incredibly stupid example and equally arrogant horrible attitude. A $100,000 car is the definition of an excessive luxury purchase. It doesn't matter if you have $100,000 in the bank or $1,000,000, the effect of the purchase does not change the fact that no one "needs" a $100,000 car and there are options to gain the same utilitarian value of that $100,000 car in other, more reasonably priced options.I can afford a $50,000 tax on my model S. Does that mean it's responsible for government to levy that tax...just because I can?
What a horrible attitude.
You can buy a $1000 watch or a $1 watch - they both do the same thing, tell the time. Applying a tax to the $1000 watch does not change the utility of the watch, it is still a watch that tells the time. As such, an excessive spend on something that does not offer additional utility at that higher price can easily be taxed because you have options to get the same utility at a lower price. Moreover, there are tons of research done on luxury taxes to show they have little to no impact on buying a product - this is because the utility of the luxury good does NOT decrease because of the tax, it's actually born proven that luxury taxes make very little difference because of the social impacts and status derived from owning a luxury item outweigh the tax for the buyer.
Luxury taxes accomplish a very simple thing - they quickly reduce deficits without any adverse effects to the utility gained by the product. Canada has a massive deficit. That is why a tax is being levied. It really is as simple as that, you have to be a moron to not understand why a new tax is being applied. It's why Bulgaria has a luxury tax. It's why Norway taxes oil-powered cars. It's why the US applied a luxury tax in the 90s on boats over $100,000, cars over $30,000, aircraft over $250,000, and furs and jewelry over $10,000 - it's because they were in the middle of a federal deficit crisis and needed to bring it down quickly.
Again - I REPEAT - If you can afford a $125,000 car, you can afford the tax. If the tax offends you and makes you not buy something, good, that meant you were not buying within your means.