Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Life Getting Tough in Harperland

The consumer price index reveals that Canadians are paying higher prices today than a year ago, with significant increases in food (up 4.8%), shelter (up 1.5%) and gasoline (up 13.5%).

Yet wages have only increased .08%  We are not keeping pace.

The Harper government can't blame this on the global crisis because similar increases were reported in 2008, before the so-called crisis.

We were then in an election where the Harperites were promising that Canada would be safe from any economic distresses under their leadership.

We don't really need statistics to tell us that we are worse off today then we were five years ago.

Household debt is at a record high.  Income disparity is rising faster that many developed countries. 

Poverty is on the rise and when a report was presented to Stephen Harper that outlined ways to decrease poverty, he threw it in the trash.  Not his problem.

Compare those headlines with this one: Scotiabank, CIBC Top Bonus Increases After Record Bank Profits

Or this one: Big Oil Companies Post Huge Profits On High Gas Prices
 
Or this one as we remember the Attawapiskat crisis :  Record sales push De Beers’ profits up 55 percent

How do you like Neoconservatism so far?

4 comments:

  1. Household debt has to do with lack of individual responsibility, not the government. The government doesn't make you buy a big screen TV with a $100/month satellite package, a car you can't afford and live in a house that you can't afford. Sorry lefties, that's personal, not government.

    Big companies are supposed to post profits, that's what they do. When they don't post profits people get out of work, and then lefties complain that companies aren't hiring enough. Damned if they do, damned if they don't I guess.

    De Beers has nothing to do with Canada, they're South Africans. Attawapiskat had nice houses built for them but they tore them apart because they were too lazy to go cut firewood. Hard to work up a lot of sympathy.

    But in answer to your question, we don't have neoconservatism in Canada. We have a party that's marginally right of centre. Not the same thing, and you strengthen the position of neocons every time you equate anything in Canada with neoconservatism.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Again, excellent post Emily! Will share.

    ReplyDelete
  3. When Jim Flaherty bailed out our banks to the tune of $125 billion, he said it was to free up money so that the banks would have more to lend to consumers to keep the economy going. They also lowered interest rates.

    When De Beers wanted to mine diamonds on land owned by the Attawapiskat, they promised prosperity for all, but didn't deliver on those promises.

    Instead they sent old construction shacks, which they probably would have broken up for scrap, considering the expense of transporting them.

    The nature of neoconservatism is to increase profits for the corporate sector. They take a blood oath.

    ReplyDelete
  4. And now they want to tie public health care funding to economic performance. Of course, and it is one of the only things which is preventing the slide of more Canadians into poverty. Tough times indeed. The problem with neoconservatism is that it works on behalf of the corporate sector, but that is not the role of government. The role of government is to find balance among competing interests. But at the heart of the problems we're facing today is the notion that Canada, and other countries, are corporations, not communities.

    ReplyDelete