While many struggle, others are taking more
By Letter to the Editor on April 9, 2020.
Frustration is the word for the current situation as many watch helplessly as their lives change forever. The business community dies. Service industry workers are without a cheque when former employers go bankrupt. We hear about essential workers like truck drivers being denied access to rest areas and restrooms as they work long hours delivering essentials to the stores that supply us during these trying times.
Amid the confusion, turmoil and tragedies of the tens of thousands going bankrupt are brazen organizations, politicians, the all mighty, the powerful, the unanswerable with a hand fully extended for more, more, more – money, that is. In this regard I was appalled to read in this newspaper March 31, given the current situation putting surreal pressure on public finances, that three members of the Japanese Garden Society had the shameless gall to appear at the Community Issues meeting asking that $2.9 million of public monies be released for a “new” community facility.
Federally, on the same day, the clown act running this country padded their wallets, while thousands they purport to represent self-isolate in the homes they fear losing and worry how to feed themselves and their families with no paycheque – zero. The life many of us once enjoyed in this “greatest country on Earth” is in permanent ruin – tens of thousands will never recover. Not so MPs whose salaries start at $178,900, not including crazy money self-issued for travel, meals, committee meeting attendance, housing allowances and on and on. Who voted for this? Is Canada a democracy?
Add to the above, on April 1 the tax supposedly helping prevent the world from collapsing under human-caused CO2 was to increase from $20 to $30. This country was broke before the coronavirus hit us in the gut. But politicians and the like, with seemingly little financial morality, shamelessly plug along asking, demanding, expecting business as usual – while demanding their self-isolating subjects hunker down and weather the storm. I predict it’s a storm that will never blow over for untold numbers of those going bankrupt daily.
Alvin W. Shier
Lethbridge
8-7
Excellent letter Mr. Shier. his is a test run for all government levels to see how difficult it was to control the sheep. Was easy. Two weeks, economy shut down, Massive job losses in the private sector and everyone hiding in the basement, the parasites have eaten the host. What will they have for us next?
And in the meantime
https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2020/04/06/world/europe/06reuters-health-coronavirus-denmark.html
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-06/denmark-joins-austria-in-easing-virus-curbs-as-europe-cases-slow
You hit it on the nail stating “members of the Japanese Garden Society had the shameless gall to appear at the Community Issues meeting asking that $2.9 million of public monies be released for a “new” community facility”. Yes the gall of it and of Council for approving such waste. Counting the days to the next election to turf them all.
Agreed! We have many small businesses stating they will not be reopening after this pandemic is over, yet we have this garden society asking and getting 2.9 million dollars for a new building, unconscionable! what kind of little bubble do they live in. Ultimately, the city will be on the hook for maintenance and care of that building as well. What I have not seen in the news is the additional request by the society for an increase from 180thousand dollars to over 400 thousand dollars per year for what they state as additional costs to run the garden. Disgusting!
the writer tends to the extreme, for the most part. but there is no arguing that mps/mlas, and our city mgrs – especially the head honcho of that cartel (about 400K/year!) – are too well paid. it is rather disgusting. and when one considers how redundant are mlas/mps, well, we need far fewer and at half the price.
thanks for the links, buck. food for thought.
i wonder if we made 24 hour news out of the flu, and reported the growth of those ill, and the subsequent deaths, and shut down businesses due to the flu, if the numbers would be more severe than covid19. anyone have any feedback?
meanwhile, there are those that are left to wonder what is more scary: covid19, or how easily the masses can be herded and corralled. govts have long learned that the biggest checks on freedom are related to how much insecurity among the villagers so-called leaders can foment and sow. strike fear in the masses, and govts can mould society pretty much how it chooses.
also curious is how easily govts can conjure up money, money that has no basis. mind you, this is a reality that has existed since economy moved off the gold standard. the uppermost of the top 1% have benefited from this scam through the subsequent decades, but perhaps we can all come to realise how false our economy truly is. the basis of money now is quite apparent: the value of any currency depends on how it is being manipulated by big money; and, the value of any currency depends on how much the people using it believe in it. there are further subtle pressures, such as the effects of marketing/advertising affecting the price of goods, and scarcity, real or imagined/conjured.
however, what is also becoming apparent now is that if every major economy agrees to print up a whack of plastic notes in unison, we can avoid devaluing currencies and stave off hyperinflation. a best outcome is we are witnessing how easily we can move into the realm of the universal basic income; this would improve the health of societies and stabilise their economies.
of course, we will need to also consider at this time that the money being printed from thin air is, effectively, being borrowed: so, the usual cast of the over-privileged uppermost of the top 1% will not only be pocketing more than fair share, they will also further be padding their equivalent of welfare: loan interest that amounts to untold billions, from money they do not actually have to lend – but are allowed to lend because somehow they have been given the privileged right to be lenders. indeed, imagine each of us being allowed to lend in the same manner: if you have 10K, you can lend 100k (no, you do not actually have 100k, but you have the basis for having that amount printed from thin air). and when you lend that 100k, you then increase the your assets such that you can lend another 10x your paper (plastic/digital) empire worth of “holdings”…all the while earning compounded interest. seems like a push-me-pull-you fallacy of sorts.
just a thought. the kabal wishes to take over control of the economy with climate change crisis. too slow and ineffective, new try, covid-19, result more effective.