Well, yesterday I was back at work after a two-month pandemic layoff. I was in the breakroom where the right-wing gossip, gab-fest and "news you can use" station CP24 was having an extensive interview with some dumbfuck from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
Essentially Finance Minister Bill Morneau has no idea what the deficit is going to be by the time the year is over. CTF asshole says this is unacceptable. The deficit is already the largest we've had since World War Two. What's Canada going to do? The news lady spends a lot of time relaying what lame-duck/embezzler Conservative leader Andrew Scheer is saying. (The usual bullshit.) CTF dude eventually says that spending cuts are inevitable. There's no other way.
News lady then says NDP leader Jagmeet Singh is calling for a wealth tax. CTF arrogant asswipe smirks and says; Sure, rich people are always a nice target, but there aren't very many of them. (No shit! Still and all, they own 1/4 of the country! It's called "inequality" you stupid shit!) And, besides, it would "only" bring in $5 billion annually.
Right. So, instead of taking $5 billion from the super-rich (who don't know what to do with it) let's slash $5 billion from federal spending programs that have been underfunded for years by Conservative and Liberal austerity.
As I said previously, the Liberals have tried to fight a health crisis (that would likely have killed tens of thousands more than it already has, if it hadn't been for the steps taken to temporarily shutdown the economy) as if it could be business as usual for the plutocracy. The government raised taxes big-time in WW2. It should have done so in this crisis (which was never going to last 5 years like the war did) and it should have borrowed from the Bank of Canada instead of the private banks. There should have been a moratorium on mortgages, rents and debts until the shutdown was over. And there should still be a wealth tax.
The system was already failing on its own terms before this crisis hit. Four decades of neoliberalism have failed. We cannot go back to "normal." We certainly aren't going to embrace an even deadlier austerity than what that shit-head from the CTF is calling for and which Liberal incompetence, laziness and cowardice are leading us to.
7 comments:
Hi, Thwap. I believe we have to implement confiscatory wealth taxes in Canada. We are already in the throes of what science maintains is a looming succession of emergencies - whether from climate change; other pandemics said to be already in the chamber, locked and loaded; or social and economic upheaval.
In these emergencies we should heed Churchill who said 'Sometimes it is not enough that we do our best. Sometimes we must do what is required.' For many reasons Canadians have not yet acknowledged the predicament we, and especially our children, are in. Our governments are no better, they're worse. How can a government proclaim a climate state of emergency on a recorded vote one day and then, less than 24 hours later, greenlight the massive expansion of a bitumen pipeline? The very same government that provides many billions in bailout funding to the fossil energy giants but a paltry few hundred million to the alternative energy industry.
MoS,
Thanks. We can build the political will to do that if we tell people what it's for and who will be affected.
Indeed. There is no reason to leave small businesses that benefit their communities out to hang, not to mention their workers, and less reason still to deprive senior citizens let out to hang with increases in grocery and other bills to have their one-time entilement to benefit slivered. This is all about the entitlement of the .0001% and their spokesbot PM.
Yes, of course, the Cons are worse, but that is no way to govern.
Dear thwap, so glad to hear from you. Perhaps you could contact me via rabble. Neither liberals nor cons, and not rightist dippers!
lagatta,
Ah, remember all the idealism in the formation of "EnMasse"? All lost.
Is babble still active at all? Do you write for rabble?
Indeed. Have you read my response to the latest thread?
I'll look for it.
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