Richard Anderson, formerly known as Publius, on government-encouraged duff-sitting:
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The argument that the welfare state in general, and the equalization in particular, are demonstrations of Canadians caring for other Canadians rings hollow. Refusing to recognize economy reality and sustaining people in economic nostalgia is not compassionate. It is a soft headed short-term view of the economic and social life of the nation. We’ll keep people happy today and not try to think about tomorrow. Heck, perhaps we’ll even given them some “job” training for jobs that will never return to this continent. All the while a near decade long labour shortage continues in Alberta and Saskatchewan.
Taking the long view, which in this case is only a few years ahead, the sensible thing would be to move low skilled unemployed or underemployed workers in Central Canada to the West and East where they are needed. This is what would happen naturally in a free market. Even if we had only a modest welfare state, one which was financed by each province’s own fiscal resources, we would still see far greater inter-regional mobility. A broke province cannot afford to keep people on the dole indefinitely, unless richer regions of the country subsidize that behaviour.
Rather than promoting national unity transfers payments, both equalization and the health and social transfer, undermine it…
“…the sensible thing would be to move low skilled unemployed or underemployed workers in Central Canada to the West and East where they are needed….A broke province cannot afford to keep people on the dole indefinitely, unless richer regions of the country subsidize that behaviour.”
And/Or
Remove the insurmountable pile of regulatory crap that contributed to the closures/emigration of our industrial and small business base in the first place.
Moving to where the work is, cuts into dope smoking time. I’m just saying…
A little of both perhaps – people relocating to where the work is and businesses relocating to where they can find employees – higher unemployment areas.
When you run out of other people’s money, the cuts will hit mostly those who produced their whole working lives.
Europe is done for, even if they don’t realise it yet. But the bottom half is going to fall off the map very soon. France will be part of that.
If it was not for AB and SK, we would be in dire straights as well.
Even the socialist party in Sweden now realise they must have a 0.25% budget surplus each year to keep the gravy train going.
But income tax, and tax on tax, is at obscene heights. Just the GST equivalent is now at 25%. The self employed (including physicians, lawyers, and similar professions)pay a 40% up front tax to atone for the crime of being self employed. Then you start on the income tax scale.
Lovely. Let’s vote endeepee so we can get to that nirwana asap!
The bigger problem is if Quebec ever gets its economic act together and becomes a net payer into the Federal Transfer system instead of sucking on Ottawa’s teat . . . a teat filled by Alberta and Saskatchewan.
If Quebecers ever get to subsidize Dulton’s Ontario the whining will be insufferable.
Lets make it real free trade. Stop the Equalization payments period. Open Canada up to full work employment with the USA. So not only goods but skilled people can work ac cross the borders.
If Canadians want to sit at home on Pogey, or Welfare. They can move to Europe.
We have 300,000 people we need for workers in Alberta. Why should we be importing Colonists from Alien cultures? Worse people whose very Religion tells them to destroy us in the least or kill us outright. Particularly when we have such a huge work force below us that mirrors our own values & culture, if not language. I,m not talking race here but a shared culture of many groups with one Goal. To have a family life ,not a political or social statement to bury us.
Hear hear! And I would suggest that spending equalization on public sector salaries amplifies corrosion while ensuring its continuity.
Surely, please don’t call me Shirly, the next round of setting up the Equalization Plan in 2014 will establish a schedule to combine the “little places” such as making P.E.I a Nova Brunswick municipality and the northern part of the former New Brunswick part of the National Government of New Quebec.
These changes will facilitate the separation of the New Quebec along an Ontario eastern border which follows Highway #17. Ottawa melding with Hull to form a N.C.R., (National Cash Register), for New Quebec and if they still desire to receive a dole, the new acclomeration of Nova Brunswick.
The Capital of Western & Upper Canada would logically be located in Winnipeg. The socialist atmosphere will be welcoming for the greedy types who accumulate around the people who have the authority to spend a lot of other people’s money. Cheers;
Remember when Ralph Klein’s welfare office was giving welfare bums a free ticket to BC?
We don’t have a few years to wait for the socialists idiots and Liberals and magic beans and fairy dust morons in Canada to wake up. Canada’s Total Sovereign Federal Debt is 4 Trillion. Canada’s total GDP per year is 1.4 Trillion. We are living far beyond our means, wide open borders and free health care etc for all. Big Sign On Canada’s Borders Dog F*cker Palace All Welcome Come On In. We will fix Granpa’s hemmorids and Great Granma’s Proplapsed Uterus. Taxes have risen in Canada 1700% since 1961. There is no more room to tax Canada’s 16M taxpayers to carry this burden of shit put on our backs by 40 years of socialism. The size of Government is now the problem. All three levels of Government are bankrupting the taxpayers. The Great Unravelling has began, no place is safe not even Canada. http://moneymorning.com/ob/economist-richard-duncan-civilization-may-not-survive-death-spiral/
When minimum wage pays on average about $10/hour how do you expect that segment of society attracted to public service choose anything else? I tryly believe that the intellectual equivalancy is not that different. Perhaps the survival instincts of a civil servant are better than a clerk in a clothing store. They are like dandelions, honest to god!
RFB @ 6:44 Well said!
So Lucky Lori ya figure businesses in Alberta should move away from the engine that creates the business. All that will happen, is another business WILL fill the void.
We humans have always moved to new locations that offered better prospects of economic and personal well-being. Not a single person reading this has ancestors that didnt move for somewhere else to where the reader is now.
Equalization and EI rules and regional development orgs like ACOA stifle and stunt the urge to move to better locations of millions of people. Thus they and their children and their children’s children lead less productive, less useful lives. These government programs while, like so many other government programs may have been initiated with the best of intentions (though in the case of EI and Acoa and supply management it can be quite concretely argued then intentions were of a very callous sort), are actually crimes against the humanity of their supposed beneficiaries.
While it is correct to say that in the abscence of these programs some would sufferers than they would under them the vast majority of the supposed beneficiaries do less well than otherwise would be the case and the millions of canadians who donate tax dollars and lose economic opportunity to the programs suffer as well.
They need to be ended and the CPC is working hard to end them while surviving politcally long enough to make sure they stay ended.
We humans have always moved to new locations that offered better prospects of economic and personal well-being. Not a single person reading this has ancestors that didnt move for somewhere else to where the reader is now.
Equalization and EI rules and regional development orgs like ACOA stifle and stunt the urge to move to better locations of millions of people. Thus they and their children and their children’s children lead less productive, less useful lives. These government programs while, like so many other government programs may have been initiated with the best of intentions (though in the case of EI and Acoa and supply management it can be quite concretely argued then intentions were of a very callous sort), are actually crimes against the humanity of their supposed beneficiaries.
While it is correct to say that in the abscence of these programs some would sufferers than they would under them the vast majority of the supposed beneficiaries do less well than otherwise would be the case and the millions of canadians who donate tax dollars and lose economic opportunity to the programs suffer as well.
They need to be ended and the CPC is working hard to end them while surviving politcally long enough to make sure they stay ended.
“Note the political rhetoric coming from the Left around the oil sands. Alberta is simply the unwitting beneficiary of a geological lottery. But the oil sands has only been a significant economic phenomenon over the last decade. It took more than three decades of expensive trial and error before boom times came to the industry. The entrepreneurs and engineers of the oil patch are not modern day Jed Clampett who acquired their fortunes by happenstance, they are high-tech pioneers on the cutting edge of innovation. These facts get ignored because they are politically inconvenient….”
The same holds true for “tight” oil & “shale” gas horizontal operations, which are also demonize by the left.
I’m not sure you really want eastern bums moving to the west.
The best way to get welfare bums to go to work is to cut off their cheques. Trust me they’ll find a job.
@ RFB at August 8, 2012 6:44 PM
Excellent.
@ Revnant Dream at August 8, 2012 5:40 PM
I like your idea too, primarily because we have so much in common with our southern neighbors. Problem I see is we only need 300,000 workers and their unemployment number runs around 23 million. If only 10% took us up on the offer we would be in big trouble. I certainly agree that our immigration policies should be directed at the US and all other countries take a back seat. Of course importing that “horrible” gun culture would drive the Libs and NDP nuts. Even better reason to open up the border. Except to California. We already have more nuts than we can handle in southern BC.
http://www.usdebtclock.org/index.html
James, that is my thought exactly. We get too many of these socialists from Ontario and that will be enough to keep Red Ali in power. As others have said, let’s target the western US as they have more common values with western Canada. Then there’s no need for immigration from the middle east.
Seems like a fair assesment of our mismanaged welfare state. A further note to the politicalaspect of the situation: we all know that the needed reforms will never materialize because politicians know that keeping people where they are on the dole buys votes.
Nothing will ever reform the system if we wait for politicians to do it. They’ve no will nor incentive.
RFB brings it!
Bear: There are many mid-sized cities that are putting together very attractive packages to encourage businesses to relocate to their areas. All I’m saying, is if a business can save money by relocating one or more of their offices, have a steady supply of dedicated workers, why not?
Not everyone can move to another province for work. Particularly older workers who are caring for elderly parents or those who have children with disabilities.
BP482@ 10:43;
My great Uncle was involved in the western Canadian oil industry back at the beginning. He was the quintesential, big and loud, Texas oil man. The only difference was he was born and raised in Carmangay, Alberta. He laid lots of pipe thru the west and in the States.
He had absolutely no use for eastern politicans or bankers who always wanted something for nothing. The risk money for oil development even before the oil sands was from Texas not eastern Canada.
If geography is the basis for economic success then why doesn’t the fish industry which is so closely monitored by government still exist? Why doesn’t Ontario that has metal mines lead the world on steel production?