Canadians are forever being informed, explicitly or implicitly, that the solution to the crisis of the day, or decade, is a freedom-sounding word called “privatization”. This, the free-marketeers tell us, will solve our problems.
The reality is invariably the opposite. “Privatization” – also known as bailed-out, highly subsidized corporatism – is in fact the problem, not the solution.
Furthermore, the crises being addressed are often manufactured for the express purpose of rolling out a parasitical regime of corporatization that profits from calamity, even as its “host”, the public, is fleeced.
Exploiting the commons
Canadian author and social activist Naomi Klein identifies the process as the “shock doctrine” and/or “disaster capitalism”; author, environmental activist, and economist Winona LaDuke calls it “predator economics”; writers call it neoliberalism, and corporate media pretends it doesn’t exist.
A tattered thread is woven into a seemingly endless series of crises, and it is the public sector, the commons, that is invariably being exploited.
Neo-conservative strategists disguise the real problem, and deflect attention from it, using a myriad of strategies, all of which serve to instil what insurance whistle-blower Wendel Potter calls FUD – Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt—in the collective mental landscape of the masses.
Instead of identifying the real problem – neoliberalism/predator capitalism/shock economy—neo-cons typically scapegoat other polities.
Canada’s emblematic instituions being undermined
According to neo-con politicians, union bosses and their minions, as well as public servants, and public institutions, are the causes of our economic woes, even as these are some of the few remaining polities that mitigate the damages caused by predator capitalism.
Two of Canada’s “emblematic” institutions, currently being undermined so that they can be replaced by inferior models, are “universal” health care, and Canada Post.
Canada’s public healthcare system is in distress. Community hospitals are closing, wait-times are long, and the public is dissatisfied. Corporate messaging proclaims that since the status quo of public universal healthcare is failing, then the answer must be privatization/corporatization. Consequently, the 2004 Health Accord has not been renewed, and the federal government will be cutting $36 Billion over ten years from its Canadian Health Transfers (CHT’s) to the provinces.
Manufactured health care crisis
The manufactured crisis in health care is chronic under-funding, and the solution is more comprehensive public funding, not corporatization. Since 1981 hospital funding has decreased significantly as a share of Canada’s health care budget.
Corporate health care is less efficient, and more expensive, than public health care. The more it is corporatized, the more expensive (and less accessible ) health care becomes.
A CUPE article entitled, “Public Health Care Costs Less, Delivers More”
clearly shows that the “private” components of health care far exceed its public counterparts in costs even as they deliver less. Listed below are some (of numerous) examples identified in the article:
- Ontario paid 75 per cent more to for-profit labs than it had to non-profit community labs over the previous 30 years, for the same tests.10
- Public-private partnerships are 83 per cent costlier to finance than public projects.11 * (Canadians) spend roughly half of what the private US system spends per person,16 and we get better coverage and outcomes.
- Studies comparing US and Canadian outcomes for heart attacks, cancer, surgical procedures and chronic conditions show that Canada does at least as well, often better.21
- A recent Canadian study found that expedited knee surgery in a for-profit clinic costs $3,222 compared to $959 in a public hospital (with worse return-to-work outcomes)24
Clearly, the false “solution” is making a bad situation (under-funding) worse.
What happened to Canada
Canada Post is also suffering from a manufactured crisis. Marianne Lenabut argues in “What Happened To Canada” that Canada post ran a profit for the last 16 of 17 years, and that it has yet to receive a tax-payer bailout. Yet the “solution” to the illusory crisis has been the creation of a real crisis, consistent with Shock Doctrine economics. Canada Post is being restructured so that service costs increase dramatically even as services are deteriorating: bulk stamps will cost .85 cents and a single first-class stamp will cost a dollar, door-to-door urban delivery is being ended, and 8,000 postal positions are slated to be eliminated.
The crisis is being engineered so that the public will become frustrated, blame the victim (Canada Post), and welcome a false “market-based solution” so that the private sector can roll in, and further erode the public domain.
Private mail will raise cost to public
James Clancy of the National Union Of Public And General Employees argues in “President’s Commentary: Privatization is not the answer at Canada Post, modernization is” that “when the final play is made in this game, Canadians will see private companies selling mail service at a higher cost. There will be no accountability mechanism if this happens because the public will no longer own the service.”
These two important examples are, nonetheless, the tip of the iceberg. The list is long, but the strategies are consistent: create a crisis to undemocratically impose inefficient, expensive corporate models in domains best suited to public funding.
Internationally, the same strategies are being used, and the descriptors are the same: predator economics, shock doctrine economics, neoliberalism. But, when supranational polities such as the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund (IMF) impose these strategies on other countries, the process is called colonialism.
Totally agreed Susanne Shaw on all your commons. There’s lots of money. If everyone checked out their local government offices, on all levels of services, you’ll find a separate accounting book, unreported, called the CAFR, stands for “Comprehensive Annual Financial Report”. All our tax dollars goes into this account, most of which goes to the Rothschild, Vatican, Queen Lizzy, and the nice little pensions for those who are in positions to collect the taxes. All Satanic Jews. Try CAFR.com
Wow !
Renate spews forth THIS gem of informative wisdom.
“all levels of govt. have a seperate accounting book, unreported…..most of which goes to…..Let me see if I have this right……the Rothschilds( a family worth billions due to their 100+ years of savvy investment), the Vatican (the head of the catholic church which has been titheing its parishoners for over 1000+ years, The Queen of England( the figurehead of a monarchy stretching back over 1000+ years), and nice little pensions ( I’m assuming Renate means govt employees involved in this massive “cover-up”).
The last epithet isnt worth repeating.
The only thing that nauseates me more than this often repeated paranoid delusional drivel is…………..
The uninformed , rascist masses that actually believe it are allowed to vote….
Renate, you might also want to click on the name “Naomi Klein” at the beginning of the article. ( if you even read it).
She’s one of “those” people that you seem to blame for all the worlds’ problems………
Then link to this. It will explain everything to you
http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&sqi=2&ved=0CCIQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fencyclopedia%2F2008%2Fparanoid-delusion%2F&ei=_EGLU6iVNpHqoATp2YHQDw&usg=AFQjCNGtfbIXYw3Ol8MIdJ0ednmVnST9cg&bvm=bv.68191837,d.cGU
Renate.
Living proof that a ‘battle of wits” is impossible because he’s an unarmed man……………..
I believe that the deconstruction of Canada Post has been in the works for a long time. In fact Mulroney set the ground work for it back in the day. A few law changes made specifically to restrict dependent contractors working at Canada Post from making legal challenges to be considered employees to have the right to be unionized.
They followed up by appointing Conservative supporters to Canada Post Executive positions who then started the ground work to have an engineered deconstruction of the company. The only thing preventing it from happening sooner was the Conservative’s epic fall after Mulroney left. Canada Post management couldn’t proceed under a Liberal government so they had to bide their time. Enter Stephen Harper.
With the Neo-Conservatives winning in 2006, it gave the green light for the plan to move forward. Harper changed the financial reporting rules for crown corporations to allow expenses and revenue to be claimed up to 5 years from their actual date incurred. This allows for some “creative” accounting, all they needed was a way to complicate the financial situation at Canada Post. Enter the Postal Transformation project.
The Modern Postal Transformation Project is billed as updating the infrastructure to streamline the mail delivery process to gain cost saving (read: cut jobs). This project has cost billions, an estimated $4 billion as I recall, however a Crown Corporation like Canada Post cannot get a bank loan to fund it. So the Harper government authorized Canada Post to withdraw the money required from it’s own robust and very lucrative pension plan. Enter the 2008 financial collapse.
Canada Post was expecting the pension plan to grow back the money on it’s own, however the 2008 financial collapse weakened the funds adding $2 billion to it’s solvency. Despite all this Canada Post’s pension is still in a strong position as long as the company keeps operating. It would only be a liability if the company were to close it’s doors tomorrow. Enter Deepak Chopra.
This is where the Conservative endgame starts to show it’s ugly head. Deepak Chopra’s previous position was as President and at Pitney Bowes Asia Pacific and Middle East. There he oversaw several postal administration projects to privatize several public post offices for Australia Post, Royal Mail, State Post Bureau of China, The Emirates Post, India Post and Japan Post. Enter Union negotiations.
Union negotiations with Canada Post’s biggest union CUPW was going nowhere in 2011 in large part to Canada Post’s outrageous demands at the bargaining table. The union was in a position to strike, however they realized that after 2008 they could not push the country into a postal strike so they decided to initiate rolling strikes across the country. They would only strike for one day at a time in no more than 2 locations across the country and this went on for a few weeks until Canada Post decided to lock them out. This of course created an uproar which Canada Post blamed on the union despite it being their own fault. At this point Harper could have just called up Deepak Chopra and told him to reopen the doors, but a lock out that both CPC and Canada Post labelled as a strike by the “evil” union fat cats served the overall plans better.
The lock out combined with the new financial reporting rules allowed Canada Post to post what I believe is their first fictional loss ever for 2011and now 2013. So in conclusion, I am a firm believer that this is a planned deconstruction of Canada Post. Soon they will try to sell off the company to a private interest with strong ties to the Conservative Party of Canada. They will turn around and miraculously make billions per year on what was apparently a “dying” industry.
I guess I have to wonder why 1st world govts. the world over ( England, US, Japan, etc.) are all trying to privitize and or radically change their postal services. Less delivery times, creating banks, and (ironically) email,
If the postal services are so profitable in their current design (in your words). Why would other countries govts want to so radically change them? Why would they do that? Spite?
Physical “Mail” is dropping. People dont send or recieve as much personal mail anymore.
Thats all. No Neo con conspiracy. No hidden agenda.
Canada Post is costing the govt money because people use email.
It will only get worse now that the cost of stamps have jumped AGAIN.
Canada may be profitable as you say however. …. How many times has the price of a stamp risen in the last 25 years????
Seriously. What did it cost to mail a letter in 1985? 15 cents ? And now its 85 cents? Thats quite a cost of living increase. Or did it ensure their profitability?
Either way this arguement is moot.
Email is the 800lb gorilla in the room that you have ignored.
I would heartily back Canada post if they would stop filling my mailbox with endless, unwanted junkmail…… But THAT will never happen, will it…..
Good luck, ignore the inevitable.
At your own peril.
Mail is still necessary, especially now that people are ordering online and we don’t have any Canadian manufacturing anymore, thanks to the stupidity of Mulroney, Paulie Sweatship Martin and –super-yech Harper et and the braindead people who voted for these wretches and “free” trade deals. In the ’50s and ’60s, it took only one wage earner to support a family. Now look at how it is! Moms are working 3-4 McJobs just to pay the rent, never mind food, heat and lights. Fathers are working long hours in Ft Mac and their kids never see them. Macdonalds gets in even cheaper foreign labour, while people who work for them have to have welfare to help feed their kids. People are turning on their taps and getting combustible gas coming out because some idiot is fracking under their property! Everywhere, we have oil contamination but we get BS in our corporate-Big Oil-owned newspapers and TV! Email is not as good as you think, unless you live in the urbs. Internet in the sticks still sucks, so we still need Canada post.
apparently you’ve never heard of couriers like Greyhound, Loomis, Fed Ex, etc.etc.etc.
And before you whine that they are too expensive please note that they are FORCED by the Canadian govt to charge 3 times what Canada Post charges …………….
And for a further dose of reality lets look at the richest public/private pension plan in Canada.
The venerable Ontarion Teachers Pension plan.
One of the first pension plans ever started in Canada.
In 1970 there were 10 teachers contributing for every 1 retired teacher. (10:1 ratio)
In 1990 that ratio fell to 4 teachers contributing for every 1 retired(4:1 ratio)
It is expected to drop to 1 to 1 in the next 15 years.
Canadian teachers and professors are the highest paid in the world with final salaries averaging $95,000.00 per year. The pension pays 70% of that final salary
When the pension was created teachers worked an average 27 years and retired for 20.
Now teachers work the same 27 years and live for 32 more years ……
Ask one of you math teachers if this is unsustainable….
Dont believe me?
Please read the link
http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CC4QFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbusiness.financialpost.com%2F2012%2F05%2F07%2Fteachers-pension-plan-ceo-offers-dose-of-reality%2F&ei=ylpmU8a-DYbooATVloKoBg&usg=AFQjCNHLKzoNhLp62KMgk_7PF3x3BANXNg
As I have said before and will say again.
The current public employee pension system is bankrupting itself and every level of govt.
it touches.
Dont shoot the messenger.
Prepare for the future because NOTHING is garanteed.
and the Teacher’s Plan posted a 5.5 billion dollar surplus this past year and is remains fully funded, actually operating with a surplus. Shows what can happen when you pay the contributions as agreed to on time, don’t steal the surplus like the federal government did when it took the 30 billion dollar surplus out of the public service plan, and manage the fund professionally. Amazing, how with some research, incompetent management is the source of the problems and the people are expected to bail them out by being sold out.
The thing that is guaranteed is that the filthy rich are getting richer, whilest we are getting poorer by the second.
A fool and his money is soon parted…………..
Mark, about Medicare. Watch the important constitutional challenge to Medicare this year from Brian Day. http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Legal+challenge+threatens+medicare/9797988/story.html
Dr. Day owns the for-profit Cambie Surgery Centre in Vancouver. He was the 2007-8 president of the Canadian Medical Association ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Day ).
Canadian Doctors for Medicare ( http://www.canadiandoctorsformedicare.ca ) offer a 2-page brief on it, with action suggestions. Pdf file: http://bit.ly/RfDNxs .
Calling out Mr. Harper’s de-funding of health care support to provinces was a leading sally in the Ontario election campaign just started.
Thanks for the information, Tim.
Dr. B. Day is the biggest traitor, outside of Mulroney and Harper and whoever owns the governments of BC and Alaberta (spelling intentional). Oh–that would be the Koch Bros.
Well , i dont know about you but if I’m diagnosed with cancer and the waiting line is 6 months.
And I can afford to go to a private clinic. I’m there.
We already have privatized medicine…….
We send our pets to Vets and pay thousands to cure muffy-wuffy.
We spend hard earned cash for our teeth.
Optometrists ( thats an eye doctor Suzanne) work for money not peanuts.
Psychiatrists, physiotherapists, massage therapists, on and on and on it goes. They all work in clinics.
Tell ya what.
Next time you have a pounding toothache, go to emergency and sit in the overflowing waiting room for a doctor.
I’ll bring you a glass of iced water…………
Please note the predicted deficits for CPP, OAS and Medicare.
http://beaconnews.ca/calgary/2014/04/canadian-government-debt-hits-4-1-trillion/
I was at a pub last night and a guy said if he won $40 million he would be more than pleased to donate to charities, providing the donation went to people who were worth the money given.
This, to me, points out the faulty mindset of people who wish to privatize anything, namely healthcare. The only reason healthcare exists is to help people get well. Privatizing only serves to make a profit from disease and injured people.
This is the main point of friction in today’s world … everybody wants more. Couple that with decreasing a corporation’s profit margin being illegal and the problem can only exacerbate.
Hell.Yeah… our country is Semi-Capitalist according the economic book . i learnt in college back in 80’s
Our government should boost $$$ any public service sector. therefore our future’s always to be the best living standard. as we learnt from our neihgibour country as USA. mostly run by private corporation that cost them over price..at the end very poor living standard.
The poor can’t live as decent citizen. that it would turn out more crime.
Just look as an example: GFL take over the garbage
so far public very disappointed their service. They can’t handle it. their employees just like revolving door. come and go as their treatment not as good as city employees.
they always late…due to over work.
None of them they get fine by City of Toronto. it supposed every over 10 minutes such $ 1500 per truck.
Then the City of Toronto try to fail their service. They don’t buy no more newer truck. they don’t hire more peoples. but they will eliminate their own employees to get them self bonus at the end of year. so they will let the private take over their business.
I called them Mismanagement by our Mayor Rob Ford.
Just wonder how sad of the City employee as permanent F/t got hurt then they got lay off.
That is not to save tax money. Do you agree?
Its a shame that English composition wasnt compulsary at your College………..
Despite the harpercons sporadic attacks on certain individuals and certain institutions, coupled with their spectacular failures in these devious endeavours, their relentless assaults are having a cumulatively debilitating affect on the mindset of the public at large.
We no longer gasp in disbelief at their smears and indiscretions, and we seem unable to not only zero in on one specific outrages because our heads are spinning in circles unable to fix on just one of their Quixotic assaults.
We shrug at the coming loss to privatization of Canada Post, we have allowed P3 Ponzi of our infrastructures without protest, we allow our natural resources to be raped and pillaged with virtually no benefit to our own, we accepted without protest the corporate influence over most media, the loss of HNIC and eventually CBC entirely and oh so many more including our health care, perhaps OAS and CPP will be gone as well before they are through.
By the time we wake from our lethargy there may not be much we can say or do about anything we don’t like or want and we will have no one to blame but ourselves because we stood idly by, said little and did nothing as our country was absorbed by the corporate machine.
Perhaps then we will have an inkling of what First Nations have endured for so long.
I agree that the evidence shows that jurisdictions with publicly funded health care systems have better health care outcomes for their peoples, and more cost-effective service delivery. But when the cost of health care, as a percentage of provincial budgets, continues to rise sharply, it’s not correct to conclude that the solution to current woes is to simply increase funding to health care. For example, why is reduced funding to hospitals necessarily a bad thing? If it’s a result of fewer people being referred for unnecessary, and expensive, hospital-based diagnostic tests, that’s good. If it’s the result of more people getting effective, lower cost community/home-based care, that’s also good. There are significant cost drivers to our publicly funded health care system – hospital costs, drugs, physician remuneration, etc. – that need to be addressed if we are going to have a hope of sustaining our wonderful, publicly-funded health care system while also having enough in the coffer to pay for other public policy priorities.
Good points Mel. But be careful, you may be accused of being a Neocon troll as opposed to someone actually speaking the real fiscal reality
Health Care and Education are eating up almost 80% of the provincial budget.( and the majority of THAT goes to wages).
This leaves 20% for highways, parks, forestry, etc.etc.etc.
No matter which way you slice the pie, its unsustainable.
Especially when the health care workers and teachers are never satisfied with any offer they are given……
This fiscal situation is only going to get worse.
More baby boomers costing the system more money in several ways.
Retirees have more health care issues.
Retirees dont work hence zero payroll taxes to top up govt coffers.
Retirees dont shop/spend as much as working folk.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news but, private healthcare is already here.
Its called your dentist….
This is only the beginning of a long ,painful slide towards 2 tiered healthcare.
And one can only guess which line a former healthcare worker pensioner will choose if they are in pain and the public system has a 12 month waiting period…..
“I’ve got Cancer? Sure I’ll wait 12 months for a consultation with a doctor! No problemmo”
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.
The Canada Post Act requires that all private mail services must charge 3 times more than Canada Post.
And yet the private sector still makes a profit because they deliver faster with fewer problems.( I loved the time I recieved some pewter mugs in the mail. The box was marked “fragile” and both metal mugs were dented, the glass bottoms smashed, and the box showed signs of tampering. The postal worker’s reaction? Benign indifference….untouchable unionized sloths dont foster a great deal of public sympathy irregardless of which job they’re in.)
Canada Post moved 5 billion pieces of mail in 2006. In 2012 that amount dropped to 4 billion pieces of mail. ( One wonders how many of those pieces were junk mail because if I recieve one more pizza menu/ real estate flier I’m gonna build a raft out of recycled paper and canoe to Ottawa to protest the unrelenting plethora of unwanted crap Canada Post stuffs in my mail box….Rant over).
The postal system is an anachronism that, like a horse and buggy, will soon be irrelevant….
The CBC is painful to watch. The french language channels in any other province other than Quebec suck fiscal life out of the rest of the “Corpse”. But it does help keep bilingual francophones employed in Canada. ( I was amazed to hear french and ONLY french spoken in the halls of CBC Vancouver one morning. I asked one of the people why there were so many francophones in town and she said,” Oh no! They cant get a job in Quebec so they apply for any other CBC location to get hired. Eventually they all bid for job openings back in La Belle Province”……
Tell ya what. Lets kill CBC TV and give all the employees a $1million severance package.
They’d be happy and , in the long run.
We’d ALL be better off.
I completely disagree with you. I love CBC–and it would be even better if Harper and Mulroney and even Paulie Sweatship Martin hadn’t suffocated it. I don’t watch so-called reality shows which are on non-stop on the private networks, along with the corporate-bought McNews (oil maggot David Black owns most of it). My email is full of crap email, and the same with our phone, which Telus should do something about, but won’t because it gets a cut, I’m sure. We used to have our own phone company in BC and it used to be GREAT until the idiot rightwing government du jour sold it out from under us. God forbid that the -yech- people actually own anything.
Ignore the previously posted stats if you wish
but they bare repeating.
5 billion pieces of mail per year has dropped to 4 billion pieces of mail in 6 years(2006 to 2012).
at that rate Canada Post should send its last piece of mail in 2036……………unless they keep raising their rates.
I do not consider myself to be a “neo-con”.
Far from it.
People that espouse ideologies somewhere to the right of Ayn Rand make my blood run cold. Ann Coulter comes to mind. I digress.
The disassembly and or, privitization of entities such as Canada Post , CBC, Health Care are inevitable.
It all comes down to affordability and politicians lack of spinal fluid.
Govt employee pensions are crushing the life from ALL govt. employee budgets. At all levels of govt be they Federal(CBC, Canada Post,etc.), Provincial( Nurses, Teachers,etc.) or municipal( Police,fire, road crews,etc.). ALL these people have gold plated pensions that are simple unaffordable BUT the Canadian taxpayers is still on the hook.
The baby boomer cohort is just now swinging into the full retirement faze. The money to pay for garanteed, public employee pensions will be paid by private sector employee taxpayers that either dont have any pension or a pension that comes with zero garantees.
Nice.
The fact that most of their unionized work force will receive taxpayer supported pensions has everything to do with it.
The Govt simply cannot afford to run things as the status quo.
Politicians dont have the spine to clawback previously awarded unaffordable pension benefits from govt employees.
So here we are.
Agencies being closed, or cut to the bone until their relevance is moot.
The days of a “garanteed job for life” with the civil “service” is going the way of the Dodo.
The CBC is a sad mockery of its former self. ( reruns of “The Fresh Prince of BelAir” 3 times a day doesnt foster a lot of Canadian content in my mind). Stick a fork in CBC tv. They’re done. CBC radio is still worth saving.
Canada Post is like all postal services worldwide. Staggering from unbelievable mail shortfalls over the past decade. Ask a 16 year old when they last mailed a letter. My co worker had to show her daughter where to place the stamp on a letter……….
Teachers and Nurses are never satisfied. Even when their wages and pensions go up. I have zero sympathy for them. Go work in the United States where a 12 month maternity leave is something no one would even comprehend. ( cue outraged teachers and nurses…3…2…1 )
Gold plated pensions? Pfft. You sir or madame, are a troll. Public sector employees willingly sacrifice take home pay, in order to contribute throughout their working lives to fund their pensions. Don’t pout because you in the private sector don’t have the discipline to limit your spending and invest for your retirement on your own accord. You’re dreaming if you actually think things would be better if all public sector employees charged their worth in the private market. Collectively we can and do, accomplish more for less. Take your fear mongering propaganda and stuff it.
Actually, I am well prepared for retirement, but thank you for your concern. 🙂
I merely state the obvious.
ALL public employee pensions are grossly underfunded.
ALL public employee pensions are garanteed by the govt.( hence the term “gold plated”.)
ALL public employee pension shortfalls are “topped up” by taxpayers
ALL taxpayers(including YOU) have reached the breaking point.
ALL public employee pensions have become an onerous fiscal millstone around the necks of all govts.
Do I like the privitization of Health care? Not really.
Do I like the privitization of Schools? Maybe.
Do I wish ICBC was a smoking ruin? Absolutely.
Do I think unions have done it to themselves with their greed? Yup.
I think I’ll troll here for a little longer. If thats ok with the moderator.
Important as the money issue is, also at issue is the credibility of the government to negotiate a contract or deal. If the government isn’t good for its debts, then what?
Breaking point, really? Bit o’ hyperbole here and there I guess. Taxes are only onerous if you think you can go around with no society and still come off well. Wait till you have to hire your own water consulting service, bodyguard, doctor, food taster and teachers. Then you’ll wish taxes were much higher.
You assume that public servants’ work has no value, kind of an odd assumption to make.
Also, who cares if you’re well prepared for retirement, isn’t it our duty to care for other Canadians? Taxes, good wages and pensions do that in spades.
You just sound jealous. If a billionaire has a good go of it many people whoop for joy but in my experience those further right are the first people with their hands out whenever the taxpayer is mentioned.
John ,John,John.
The original “arguement” was the Predator Economics.
Not what our “duty” is for “other” Canadians.
Everyone moans, wails and tears their shirts because our “untouchable institutions” such as the CBC, Canada Post, Health Care, etc are being marginalized at best or privitized at worst.
As for my “share” of Taxes. I believe since I’m in the upper middle class of wage scale I pay more than the average “Joe”. I also refuse to “shop in the USA” like so many THOUSANDS of Canadians that do every weekend . I realize that sales taxes go towards such things as Health care.
Obviously I’m not the only one that feels they pay enough taxes already if these shoppers are any indication….(wonder what the percentage of Health care workers shop in the US).
If Health Care and Education in the province of BC currently amount for 78% of the entire budget. What? In your opinion would fair?
85%?
90%?
Because in your world that is exactly what it will come to.
So, when your tire explodes in a massive pothole due to lack of funds to fill it( Google “Detroit Bankruptcy” for a future indication of what happens when civil service pension funds bankrupt a city) think back to this conversation.
Dont shoot the messenger, Im just telling you.
Public employee pension funds are completely unsustainable as they currently stand.
Hence the govts knee jerk “solutions” such as privitization.
Perhaps a 40% reduction in your pension plan sometime in the next decade will remind you of when ” I told you so”.
Dont belive it can happen here? Check Detroit Police pension fund. Detroit Firemans pension fund.
Oh right, this is BC.
It’ll NEVER happen here……..
Think of Detroit as the canary in the coal mine.
Our population is on the cusp of the greatest retirement tsunami the hisorty of the world has ever seen.
Please view this link and all you unionized pensioner please pay particular attention to items 11. and 12….
http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CDgQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.usatoday.com%2Fstory%2Fmoney%2Fpersonalfinance%2F2013%2F12%2F02%2F19-facts-about-detroit-bankruptcy%2F3823355%2F&ei=lodlU9bxNI7aoATA_YLwDg&usg=AFQjCNHTWMI4OShmhq5LiMz4Hg1IC2F4dg
This weeks Economist Magazine cover is titled ” A Billion Shades of Grey” and refers to the 1 BILLION people who will be over 65 in the next 20 years………
1 in 7 people worldwide will be of retirement age.
In Canada the average will be 1 in 3.5
You are wrong again. You obviously have no concept of how big Canada is and how unpopulated most of it is. Get out of the damn urbs and go see if private “enterprise” is up for mailing to places like Port Alice or Mile 101. We need everything publicly owned–really, really! A lost cheaper than with the stupid and evil superrich ripping us all off. And everyone should have a pension–everyone. But private enterprise steals from their employees’ pensions all the time. Conrad Black and Ricky Doman and the bankruptcy buccaneers Lapointe Partners ripped off their employees…ripped $50,000 off me. So many of the evil rich bought companies just to steal pensions and benefits. Private enterprise is owned and operated by Satan.
Ummmmm, actually I have driven across Canada (Vancouver to Halifax in less than 4 days was my fastest trip) numerous times. I have driven to the Arctic Ocean from Vancouver via the Dempster Highway. I’ve worked in Haida Gwaii, Calgary, Edmonton, Quebec, Halifax, PEI……. Is that enough “travelling ” across Canada for you you illiterate boob.?
So , once again Suzanne, your spewing venom about issues you know nothing about.
Apparently you missed “reading and comprehension” when those skills were being taught in school.
FACT: Canada Post mail participation is dropping like a rock while rates continue to price it out of existance ($0.85 to mail a letter! How much of THAT goes into the postal employees pension fund?)
FACT: CBC continues its race to mediocrity now that it is losing Hockey Night in Canuckda. and the money spent on CBC french tv in BC is such a great expenditure of desperately needed cash.
FACT. Canadaian teachers are the highest paid, on average, in the world……and they still want more money But its all about the kids…..riiiiiiiight.
FACT: Canada has one of the highest tax rates in the world…..hmmm coincidence?
FACT: Most Canadians are fed up with their tax dollars being flushed down the drain.
I’m right. And time will PROVE me right.
Just because YOU want your cherished CBC( tv BORING), Canada Post (junk mail ANNOYING), and Health care ( waiting times CLIMBING =12 months for a hip replacement and climbing ).
Good luck with your “blame game”.
Politicians of all stripes have given away far far too much with no consideration as to who would eventually have to pay for it all.
Well, payment is due baby and it aint gonna be pretty.
So what does this article accomplish, then? Are you trying to scare us, while offering zero solutions? This article is PART of the problem, then, isn’t it?
How is exposing a fraudulent ideology wrong, Vince? Your comment implies that the predator economics described within are somehow a solution – when instead they are actually THE problem. I don’t understand your question.
Let’s fix public health care and Canada Post – not throw the baby out with the bath water.
The fact is that we will eventually have to live with much less.
We live in a finite world .
Be you left wing or right wing ( i dislike the ideology) you need growth to finance your future.
We cannot grow forever.
Get used to living with less; you will stil be ok.
Yup! There’s no such thing as economic growth forever on a finite planet. You can’t create wealth. All the wealth that ever there was or ever would be was here long before the first human idiot capitalist fell out of the trees to stalk the land. A profit comes at a cost to others, to other species and/or to the environment we all have to share. The thing is, we are allowing the super rich to take more than the planet can stand. Greed needs to be considered a crime and the Rothschild family (the governing adults, of course), the Koch Bros., the Walmart family, etc., need to be jailed for life–or locked up for life in the psyche ward for the criminally insane.
ahhhhhh yes, its alllllll the rich people’s fault.
You realize that every one of those families started with nothing and built their wealth through hard work and sacrifice. I’m sure that greed, corruption , etc. played its ugly part as well but for the most part i dare say that the majority of these families started out trying to have a better life for them and there’s.
Sounds like yer a tad jealous.
I’m sure if you had $100,000,000.00 you’d give it all to charity.
Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahaa
Envy is a beautiful thing. Dont you think?