Two Different Worlds
On one page, we have the amusing spectacle of an egghead asking for more taxes. Only a fully tenured academic could ask the federal government to raise the GST and HST. Must be nice. What an idiot.
On an earlier page, we have the hard truth of the Canadian economy and the lack of political will that embraces it: ONE IN TEN CHILDREN IN CANADA LIVE IN POVERTY.
This should not be a news item featured on page three on a Monday morning.
In one of the richest and most peaceful sovereign states in the world this disgrace should be front and centre until we do something real to change those numbers.
Twenty years ago, Parliament voted unanimously to eliminate this scourge within a decade. So much for the vote.
National Child Care has been on the agenda for at least the last ten years and we are no closer to it than ever.
Times have changed.
Mommy and Dada are both working.
They have to. This is not a "life style" choice. This is a bare necessity.
A 70-year old falling down wood frame bungalow on the treeless east side of Vancouver costs just under a million dollars.
The minimum wage in B.C. should have been $10 ten years ago.
So let the politicians and their Econ whores tell you that the HST is good for you.
Let the academic elite ask for more taxes.
Then let them take a starving kid to lunch.
4 comments:
David, it's funny that you'd bring up minimum wage because just last night I was chatting with someone that moved from Vancouver to Toronto around the same time as I did. We were commenting on the minimum wage in Ontario now at $9.50 per hour and that it's going up to $10.25 in just 4 months from now. We both shook our head when I said that B'C's min wage is still at $8.00. How in the hell people live on that in Vancouver is way beyond my thinking. A year and a half ago when I was still living in Vanc, I heard Billy G commenting on how nobody in B.C is actually paid $8.00 / hr. Yes, Billy, you're right, many are paid $8.50 & $9.00 per hour. Idiot.
The main reason I finally had to leave Vancouver was that the cost of living was just getting way out of hand. I was making more than minimum wages but even I could barley make ends meet some months.
Shameful what has and is happening in B.C.
How many terms has Gordo had now ? How many times has he raised the wage ?
well I agree with the egghead. A higher harmonized value added tax would go a long way to addressing problems such as homelessness, child poverty, national day care programs, transit, hospitals; everyone contributes, rich and poor.
Lowering income and sales taxes has contributed to soaring real estate prices as people have more money in their pockets to bid up the price of homes.
It is the real estate sharks and developers who benefit the most from lower taxes, and no coincidence, they are the ones whining the most against the HST.
Speaking of hungry kids, I once contacted the Vancouver School Board because I heard them asking for money for their schools' breakfast program. I phoned them up told them I wanted to donate money and where would they like me to send the money. They asked me if I were an individual or an organization. "Individual," I replied. "We only take money from organizations," she said. And that was that. So much for caring. I would have gladly fed at least one child breakfast every day for as long as I am working, but was turned away.
When will people understand that this HST is NOT bringing in "new" money to fund our services?! This is a revenue neutral tax! It's a tax "shift"...taxes that corporations who pretty much do as they damn well please now, will no longer have to pay...now shifted to the taxpayer. There is no new money here people! This is another gift to big business - see it for what it is.
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